aMare Pre Mix Session

I've been getting a lot of posts regarding the studio process, so I thought I would post some thoughts on what I'm currently doing.

In case you didn't know, my "day job" (if you can call it that) is a studio engineer. I love recording other people and I have a respectable home project studio. Over the past summer, I've recorded an EP for John Gillespie (Nikki Meets The Hibatchi) and done some basic songwriting sessions with Kyler England and Jenna Vi. Recently, I've been working with the Kentucky based band aMare.

I'm moving into the final couple of weeks with the aMare project. It's been going well. Last weekend Chip Roop, the lead singer, came down to my studio to cut lead vocals.

The vocal recording process I use is fairly standard, in as far as I can tell. What I like to do is have the vocalist warm up with a few passes of the song. During this time, I adjust the levels (eq, limiting, and pre amp) to get the best sounding signal. As with anything, you should never "compress" in the first stage of vocal recording. A lot of people do this and ruin the dynamics of their performances. "Compression" is usually the result of setting a compressor in the 2:1 - 8:1 ranges. "Limiting" is commonly the result of 10:1 or greater. If you don't know what those numbers mean, don't worry about it. Once the vocalist is prepared, I usually request just three or four takes of the song. From there, I take an ear break for a few days (if possible) and then return to "comp" the vocal lines.

"Comp" is a term for composite take. With digital technology, one can get as picky as one chooses. From four takes, I can usually find the best pitched and best delivered lines in such a way that I don't need to apply pitch correction plug-in's. I only use pitch correction in a graphical mode where I can go in an surgically make a tone up to a semi-tone sharper or flatter. If you are wondering what pitch correction is, it was taken to it's extreme with Cher's "Life After Love" song where she sounded like a robot. A lot of singers who lack talent rely on this technology. Most people use it in some capacity; even me. Chip really impressed me with his capacity for pitch. He had quite a deal of training with choirs over the years. Practice is a good thing.

As I write this, I'm bouncing aMare's "Vox Comps" for Chip to hear. "Bouncing" is the process of reducing many tracks to one or two tracks. Usually, two tracks is normal for stereo listening. That is, unless you're doing the mono thing. Hey, don't knock it. No one's recorded a better album than Pet Sounds yet. That was in mono. Anyway, Chip's going to finish his background vocals in Kentucky and mail them to me. Oh, yeah. People don't really have to even ever be in the same room with each other to make an album these days. That kind of stinks on some levels, but on others, it's great. Maybe that's why I'm so attracted to jazz lately. Those guys would go in and cut records in 45 minutes.

The next phase is the mixing session, which is, by all measures, my absolute favorite phase of the recording process.