Most “popular” types of music feature vocals and the credibility of vocal performances is therefore of the highest importance. In fact, it can be said that it’s the vocal that will be the most responsible for the success or failure of any given song in your target market.
Notice that I said “credibility”. Not necessarily “greatness” – whatever that means.
In this context, vocal credibility is “how well it fits within the targeted niche.” So, if you’re doing pop, the voice must be well-trained, clean, powerful, etc. In rock, it must also have a kind of an edgy aggression that its audiences most identify with. In some types of music “gruff” voices or even slightly “careless” ones are “credible” and “appropriate”. Others still are deliberately “off” – and yet they appear to work.
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When producing your recordings, you need to take extra special care in the way you approach the vocal.
Whatever you do – keep your corrections and fixes consistent with “your market’s sound.” And then push the envelope as much as you can get away with.
When working with singers, you’ll basically have two kinds of approaches: singers who are experienced and well-suited (sound-wise) for their niche, and inexperienced singers who still don’t quite know how to get the most out of their performances.
Whether you’re the singer yourself or you’re just producing your act, all the points I’ll bring up now will still apply. The more objective you can be – the better. You want the product to the right – so don’t make it about ego.
Work on songs you really believe in. There’s a LOT of work that has to go into a song, and much of that work will be on the vocal side – no matter how great you are as a singer – so knowing you’re working on a “worthwhile” song will make all your efforts that much more justified and you won’t begrudge the time it takes. It’s not a bakery.- Rehearse the song thoroughly. You want the singer to be completely familiar with the song, not have to read the lyrics off a sheet while recording, and be aware of how he/she sounds. Record the rehearsals and play them back. Suggest changes and tweaks to try out. Only once you’re totally happy, should you progress to the studio recording phase.
- Record multiple takes. Even the best singers do things unevenly at times. When committing a song to tape (erm… to a digital recorder), you need to realize that fans will listen more than once ONLY if everything is just right for them. And the FIRST thing most fans hear is the vocal. So, if there’s something not quite right in it, they’ll just switch off and won’t want to hear the song again – not even knowing why. So make sure you record multiple takes which you can afterwards compile (“comp”) into one seamless master take. Most people who supposedly “don’t have an ear” for music actually hear off-pitch vocals, but interpret them as simply “boring” or “annoying”. And they switch off.
- Try different take styles. This method is particularly valuable when working with less experienced signers, but it can also be tremendously effective with more experienced singers – especially those who’ve had time to develop “mannerisms” in their performances. Essentially, the idea is to have them try different moods while singing. In an extreme example you can record, say, three “straight” takes, then a couple of “weeping” takes, then a couple of “manic” takes, then “sad”, then “happy”, “pretentious”, “crazy” – and so on. The idea here is that you’re looking for particular WORDS or phrases which jump out in an especially pleasing, hooky or unusual way, and which can then be “comped” into the main performance without jarring the ear. This kind of a multi-take super-comp can wind up being “the best performance the singer never sang.”
- Sing it again. Once you have your super-comp and you think it’s really WOW, ask the singer to re-sing the whole thing “just like that” a few more times. And then you do your final “super-duper-comp”. The above method requires that your sequencer program allows you to compile multiple takes in a simple and easy manner. Almost all the sequencers I know allow you to do that, though the one I still love the best for this type of work is the old Cubase VST32/v.5 (“ancient” by most standards but really great for this kind of a job).
- Be prepared to do it all again. Once you got your song recorded and appropriately comped, give it some time to cool off. Play it to unsuspecting strangers, wait a week and listen to it again by yourself. Is it still as awe-inspiring as you thought? In that case it’s probably ready for the final production and mastering. If not… Don’t begrudge it a few more production days!
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| Book 2 – Chapter 4 Session Players |
Course Overview | Book 2 – Chapter 6 Production Tricks |
Book 2: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 14b, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, Overview
