De-Essing

I am about to place a $100 bill in your pocket.

Well, that is, if you are doing any recording anytime soon. I tried something exciting today and I thought I'd pass it on.

If you've ever done any mixing, regardless of whether it's in a gazillion dollar studio or on a pawn shop 4-track recorder, you've most likely had to deal with sibilance issues at some point. Sibilance is that "ess" sound that is made with, well, "ess" sounds. Normally, it's not an issue in regular conversation or simple recording. However, once a little EQ and compression is applied to a mix buss, or even just to the vocal track itself, you can bet that sibilance will rear it's head.

I fought the sibilance issue on the MG4 EP on "Another Day in Paradise." What an obvious song to have sibilance issues on. The "Par-a-diSSSSe" was a real doozy. Brent Lambert (a great mastering engineer in Carrboro, NC who everyone should use) tried to fix it in mastering by pulling some upper high frequencies. It killed some of the cymbal brilliance, so we split the difference. He turned to me and said, "Next time, just pull the Ess's down about -6dB when you are mixing."

I hadn't had much of a sibilance issue since the EP recording until this week. I have been setting some Psalms to music this summer. One of them, Psalm 89 reads "Forever I will sing the good ness of the Lord." "Sing" and "--ness" were hard to reign in, especially with 9 to 10 vocal layers. So, I tried the trick that Brent mentioned.

I can't tell you how good of a De-Esser the simple 6-dB method is. If you use a digital format like Pro Tools or Cubase, it's very easy to just program the automation volume over the wave form. You'll want to judge it on a case by case basis. Sometimes 6 is too much. Sometimes, not enough. If you're at home on a simple 4 track, I'd go conservatively in your manual mixdown. Just pull a little when the esses are coming. If you are in a mega-studio, chances are you probably wont' be reading this. But, you never know. I get the darnedest emails these days.

Oh, and that $100 I was talking about...well, that's the price you won't be paying for a mastering engineer to go in and pull your esses. Just do it before you master. If you aren't going to master, just pull it in the mix. This is one of those "ounce of prevention" issues that is really worth every second on the front end.

Happy recording.

Recording Vocals

Lately, I have been producing a great band from Kentucky called aMare. In order to save some time (and gas money...Lexington isn't exactly down the street from Greensboro), we decided to try some self-guided vocal recording at the singer's apartment. What follows are my recommendations for recording a great vocal performance.

Step #1: Tame Your Environment

The first step to recording a good vocal is to tame, or deaden, the area in which you'll be tracking your vocal. This area should be free of ambient noise, street noise, reflection, and computer noise. The best way I've found to do this is to use a hallway as an "iso" booth. I recommend hanging three to four blankets to cover as much of the reflective space as possible. The walls reflect sound. And, the louder you sing, the more sound gets reflected. In a controlled setting, this can be cool, but I find it's best to save that for the mix. You are married to the sound you put to tape so try to take all the noise out that you can.

Step #2: Use a good microphone

A condenser works best for most people, but some singers work great with just a plain old 57. Find what works for you. I like to use a TLM-103, but honestly, it's the only Class A microphone I could afford. I've sung into microphones that cost as much as my house; I heard a difference, but not that much of a difference. If you can find a studio that will let you do a mic shoot out, you're a lucky duck.

Step #3: Warm it up

Because most of us are digital these days, make sure you warm up your signal with a good mic pre amp. If you are using a condenser mic, you'll need the phantom power anyway. Mic pre's will color your sound, but virtually any analog color is preferable to digital purity. Most pre's have a high pass filter that will help take some of the rumbling out of your vocal take. Since there's no vocal information below 100 Hz, it's a good idea to slice the EQ there.

Step #4: Limit

I've only met a few people who really understand compression and limiting. I don't fully understand it, but I recognize that it's essential when you want to sing with some intensity, but also don't want your vocal to redline all over the place. You know those little red rectangles that appear at the top of your tracks sometimes? You don't want those. Never. That's digital clipping; the true sign of an amateur. Limiting is a good way to prevent this. Set a compressor/limiter to 4:1 (to start), set the attack and release time to as fast as possible (vocals should be punchy), and set the threshold to a reasonable dB (-5dB is a good place to start--louder singing will require more threshold adjustment; if it's getting out of hand (like to -30dB)try upping the ratio to 6:1 or even 10:1) . Also, the pre-amp gain will affect the need to compress. Try backing that off if you've inadvertently sucked all the life out of your voice; that is, because you've over compressed.

Step #5: EQ

I add EQ at the end of the chain before hitting disk. Also, I like to alter the EQ in the mix, so I simply add a little sheen to the vocal sound by lifting 32kHz in a shelf EQ set to +6dB. It's easier this way than to add it in the digital domain.

Steps 3 - 5 can be controlled in an all-in one box like an Avalon 737 or a Manley Vox Box. In the Avalon manual, things are basically set up the way I've described above. The only alterations I would make are setting the pre amp gain to 0 to start, adjusting the compression ratio as needed (start with Threshold: -5dB and Ratio: 4:1 and watch the needle) You'll want the vu meter to move to no more than -5 when it kicks in. If it's going all the way to -20, reduce the threshold. If it's not moving at all, increase the threshold. The higher the ratio, the more sensitive the threshold, so just make sure you're hitting in the -5 range when the vu meter moves. I like a faster attack and release for a punchy sound, but if you're sound is a little too punchy and you feel like you want to slap the guy that's singing, slow down the attack and release a bit.

Step #6: Sing

Use your talent here. If you need to warm up, warm up. Remember you're singing at home and NOT paying a dollar a minute for studio time. I took a whole week for one song on the MG4 ep, just because I could.

I find that 4 takes is a decent amount from which to composite. 6 is a bit much, but some singers have that much variation in their voice that it's desirable. 20 is too much.

Step #7: Comp

Find the best lines in each take and make one composite take.