In this article we share several examples of bad habits that could be ruining the results of your vocal productions. We all pick up one or two throughout the audio production journey that we are often unaware of until we learn the error of our ways. The trick to developing one's skills in audio production isn't always in learning new and exciting techniques but instead addressing ones that have room for improvement.

Vocalist Too Close To The Mic

You might try to reduce the level of unwanted ambience by setting up your microphone close to the vocalist if you record vocals in rooms with poor acoustics. While this approach can help achieve dryer sounding vocals, negative side effects often occur that you need to be aware of. A good rule of thumb when setting up a microphone for recording vocals is to position the vocalist’s mouth the distance of an extended hand from the mic's capsule. The distance from the tip of your thumb to the tip of your little finger is a good starting point.

The bad habit that many new to recording fall into is recording vocalists too close to the mic. This often results in a fatiguing with too much top end and overly weighted in the lows. Addressing the top end issues you'll typically face if your vocalists are too close to the mic. You will become aware early on that sibilance will be over pronounced, especially if your vocalist already has a natural sibilance in the quality of their voice.

In a mix, excessive sibilance can be challenging to work with, especially when you need to add a top-end sparkle with EQ later in the mix. EQ boosts in the top end often make the effects of sibilance even worse. The best way to avoid this is to try to address sibilance at the microphone. By backing vocalists away from a mic and setting the mic slightly off-axis, you'll find that sibilance can be greatly reduced, saving you the time and effort reducing it with DeEssers or Dynamic EQ tools.

Another side effect of tracking too close to a microphone is the proximity effect. The results make voice recordings sound muddy and boomy in the low end. In other applications such as guitar amp recording, proximity effect can be useful for adding a sense of weight. In dialog recording it can be handy if you want a large and upfront sound from a voice-over artist, but in everyday recording of vocals you may find proximity effect harms the natural quality of your takes. It’s worth bearing in mind that omnidirectional mics don’t suffer from proximity effect.

The take away here is to ensure a decent amount of space is between source and mic. If you choose to record vocals too close to the mic because of poor room acoustics we suggest you look into addressing this. You don't need to spend a lot of money getting a room to sound more balanced a dry for tracking.

Too Much Or Too Little Recording Focus

Some vocalists prefer recording a couple of takes, others like spending hours dropping in on lines they feel could have been better. While there's no right or wrong way you should be totally aware if your vocal recording session is either focusing too little on the process of production or overindulging it.

There will be times when a vocalist nails their takes in one or two passes. While this is great, not every vocalist can achieve this. Practise takes often prove too valuable as pressures of recording that some vocalists struggle with fade away, which can help build confidence before hitting record.

If your vocalist requests to record their lines in sections, the key to getting great results is to ensure continuity across the takes. Aim for recording verses in their entirety, then chorus sections and so on. If you or your vocalists feel certain lines in a recording need replacing then don't be afraid to punch in on those sections but be aware that over correcting, as already stated, can break continuity throughout the journey of the vocal. Little differences in tone, dynamic, style and even distance from the mic can stand out when listening through the entire mix. As a rule of thumb, if the number of lines that need to be redone exceeds the number of sections in your song, then it may be worth biting the bullet to re-recording sections. Not only will vocals sound more unified throughout the journey of the mix but you will save yourself a fair amount of editing and mixing time later on.

Smash And Grab Foldback Mixes

Poorly set up headphone mixes can kill vibe and energy fast in tracking sessions. If your artist can't either hear themselves or the music bed accurately in their foldback mix their performance will suffer. Some vocalists don't understand or appreciate the value of a well-balanced foldback mix which could result in you, the engineer, not knowing if they have a useable mix in their ears to perform with. It's good to practise spending time getting the balance right for your talent. You only need 2 or 3 passes of the song to get this set right. By doing so you know you've played your part in setting the stage for the vocalist to have the best possible chance of getting great sounding takes that will sit nicely in a production. Often pressures and anxieties caused by recording can result in this step being rushed. Take the time to get this right, along with some of the suggestions in the next point, and your vocalists will feel at ease, ready to perform at their best.

Not Considering How Comfortable Your Vocalist Feels

There are more ways than one to ensure your vocalists feel comfortable to record. It's essential to make sure your vocalist has a clear line of sight for reading lyrics from paper or devices, such as their phone, otherwise they could lose focus quickly during a take. You also need to ensure your vocalist has enough space around them in their tracking area. This isn't so much to give them room to dance around in, instead, it's about making them feel that they have an adequate level of personal space to feel comfortable in. Lighting can also make a big difference for some vocalists, especially if they lack confidence in the studio.

You will want to find out if your vocalists are happy facing you if your studio has a live room with a large window partition in the wall. You may find they feel uncomfortable with you, the engineer, and whoever else is in the control room eyeballing them while they're in their performance zone. There are lots of little things to consider in regards to making your vocal talent feel comfortable in a tracking session. If you put the effort in your vocalist will appreciate the consideration and effort which hopefully will translate to confident and natural sounding takes.

Not Considering Feedback From Vocalists

It's easy to assume a dominant role in a production setting, especially if you are the one sitting in the producer or engineer's chair. While these roles are vital for steering the ship in busy tracking sessions, try to always listen and take on board feedback from vocalists regarding their takes or you run the risk of alienating your talent or worse still, stalling the session. Success in collaborating with others in recording projects is as much about promoting excellent communication as it is about the music. What you think maybe a below-par take could very well be what your vocalist intended to portray. You wouldn't know this to be the case if you didn't communicate.

In Summary

If you recognise some of these points as personal bad habits in the studio it’s not too late to make some changes. Often it’s the skills we already have that we choose to develop can make the most significant improvements in our audio engineering skills.