Recording Vocals with GarageBand

[ifingers]

<a href="http://www.macidol.com/tips/garageband/2006/03/recording-vocals.html"><img src="http://www.macidol.com/assets/images/recording-vocals.jpg" alt="Recording Vocals" title="Recording Vocals" /></a>
<a href="http://www.macidol.com/tips/garageband/2006/03/recording-vocals.html">Recording Vocals with GarageBand</a>

Some tips and tricks gleamed from a Sound on Sound seminar on recording vocals.

[rcandrews]

nice

so i reckon the snowball got no love

gonna have to step up my game to prove it works just fine dang it

[Fosco]

Great info Rich! I need all the help I can get

[Arturo Jiménez]

Oooooh!!!... Fabuloso!!!... Genial!!!... Thank´s Richard!!!...

Saludos
Arturo Jiménez

[rcandrews]

Great info Rich! I need all the help I can get

y'all need mo then help. y'all need somethin prescriptions can't handle oh AND i see dat vapor risin

hola arturo good to see ya!



ok back on topic, very helpful article fo us slackers

[cStu]

Good article, Rich. I might be able to budget a walk-in Airing cupboard (and a G5 convection unit)

[ifingers]

so i reckon the snowball got no love

gonna have to step up my game to prove it works just fine dang it

I think the Snowball is pretty dam good - I only have to hear your music Rob, to know that.

What I learnt from the seminar is that it's not what mic you have, it's what you do with it that really matters. The duvet vocal booth idea is <em>essential</em>. You don't have to use duvets, thick blankets or thick waisted drummers could be utilised as an alternative.

[kilroydegeek]

Here's a trick I've seen done to dampen but not deaden a room to get a natural vocal - hold open a large umbrella (like the ones golfers use, almost as big as a beach umbrella but still hand-held) about half a metre or so above the singer's head. Only really works in a larger room, where the atmosphere of the room is worth recording. Tends to diffuse the ceiling reflections while leaving the wall reflections alone, creating the illusion of a high ceiling.

[Sista Mac]

That was a great article and very informative! Thanks for sharing that info!!!

SM

[finer]

SE Electronics have just brought out something which will act in a similar way to the duvet/blanket method called The Reflexion Filter. It can be attached to your mic stand.

I know it retails at around £200 here in the UK so its not cheap, but it looks good!

SE also do a Pop Screen for a cleaner sounding vocal.

[illimitiblyi]

Hi, I'm Andy! I'm a 19 year old vocal music education student in MN. I've spent time on somewhat extreme ends of recording - expensive hours in a studio with my old rock band and long trial-and-error sessions with an analog 4 track. I got my PowerBook last summer for college, and fell in love with GB as soon as I started using it. The pinhole mic built into my laptop is not quite ideal for recording. I've seen the $80ish dollar USB mics online, and I'm not sure I want to spend that much. Is there a cable that connects to a mic on one end and a USB port on the other? Thanks!

[kilroydegeek]

Don't laugh (and don't get caught by friends doing it ) buy a Sony Playstation 2 Singstar game and mics.

It's compact, has a great pre-amp, requires no drivers, you can recoup some of the costs by selling the game disk on eBay, and using a pair 1/8 inch mono jack to XL female adapter cables you're not just stuck with the Sony mics provided (The Sennheiser MD-441 I borrowed from work over the weekend sounds FANTASTIC through it!)

It's the cheapest and best value for money audio adapter on the market. The only downside is difficulty finding in shops the analogue adapter cable to use other mics, and the fact that the inputs are unballanced (gotta watch for noise and interference sometimes.)

[slumbering]

Does a pop filter have to be a bigger diameter than the microphone? Or can it be the same diameter as the mic?

[finer]

Not sure about the answer to that one Slumbering but I'd imagine it would just need to be big enough to shield the microphone part from the pops.

On a separate note, I took the plunge and got myself one of the Reflexion Filters I mentioned above. I've tested it and it really does do what it says it does and almost completely reduces room noise to make vocals sound like they were recorded in a vocal booth. I was a bit aprehensive about spending the money but I'm very pleased with it!

[kilroydegeek]

bigger allows for a bit of movement around the mic (which can happen when you get into a song)