How To Set Up Microphone For Singing

Seems like it should exist a given, right? You put a microphone on a stand up, plug it in, and offset singing…

Unfortunately, it'due south not that straightforward if yous're looking for studio-quality, mix-ready vocals.

For many engineers, the vocal microphone setup procedure has been repeated so many times that they're able to practice it with their optics closed. They know exactly the society everything goes up in, the perfect placement and positioning of everything, and they tin tear information technology downwardly just equally quickly.

But for those that oasis't had as much experience in the studio, there are some subtleties of the song recording procedure that are essential if you desire your singer to sound their best .

Today, we're going to talk near some of the gear you need, how it all works together, and most importantly – how you set a microphone for singing.

Microphone Placement

As with just about whatsoever instrument you lot tape, the placement of your microphone is going to thing more than annihilation else on this list. How close your microphone is to your vocaliser and where information technology's positioned in the room are both contributing factors to how your recording is going to audio. By getting the placement right, you tin actually account for virtually of the biggest problems plaguing vocal recording sessions today.

For starters, yous'll want to make sure you've got enough of space around your microphone so y'all're not picking up reflections of the vocalist bouncing off of the walls and back into the microphone. The worst thing you can peradventure practise is put your singer in a corner or facing a difficult wall without audio-visual treatment.

Across that, it's all almost isolating the microphone from the space around it. Shock mounts (also called "baskets") come up with many condenser microphones as a manner to decouple the microphone from the flooring. Doing so eliminates low-finish rumble and environment noise from travelling up the microphone stand and into the capsule.

Y'all should too be wary of the other sources of racket in your room. Sounds similar the fizz of a light, the fan on your figurer, or fifty-fifty fundamental heating or air conditioning ofttimes make their way into recordings and they're a nightmare to remove in a mix . Try to keep your microphone pointed abroad for these sources as much as possible to ensure you lot're only getting your singer'due south vox in the recording.

Adjust For Height

A common role of placing the microphone that many new engineers don't consider is how high a microphone is placed in relation to their singer. Often, they think straight in front of the vocalizer'southward mouth is the perfect placement, but but a few inches in either management tin requite y'all dramatically different results .

You may have seen some studio pictures of microphones hanging down from the ceiling or being placed upside down on big microphone nail stands. This technique is a lot more common than yous might think – and information technology has its reasons.

By placing a microphone slightly higher than a vocaliser's oral fissure, you lot're able to subtly nudge them to open up their airways by tilting their head dorsum equally they sing. This position tends to result in some of the clearest sounding vocals but volition besides capture more of their nose, which can make them audio nasally in some situations.

Inversely, placing a microphone slightly below a singer's mouth tin bring out more than of their chest voice, especially in baritones where they're "reaching" downwards to hit their lowest notes.

In either instance, the placement of your microphone can really change the sound of your vocals. Experiment with your singer to observe the position best suited for their vocalisation and exist consistent with information technology throughout their sessions!

Stop the Pop!

Pop filters are some other essential and sometimes misunderstood part of the vocal recording setup . Unlike windscreens, which are designed to eliminate wind dissonance from your recordings, pop filters eliminate plosives – bursts of air from a vocalist'south mouth. These plosives are usually a result of hard consonants where strong, transient sounds are fabricated.

The attack of these sounds tin can often hit the microphone of the capsule and so hard that they clip the preamp and distort your signal – not something you want in a professional person recording.

By placing a popular filter between your singer and the microphone , yous can both space the ii out and create a clearer, more consistent sounding song performance in the procedure!

How Are Your Song Production Chops?

Recording an astonishing vocalist correctly is a slap-up start, but have you given much thought to how their vocals are being produced.

Vocal producers are a highly sought subsequently group of music industry professionals for their ability to pair vocalists with the right harmonies and backgrounds. They're the ones responsible for crafting the voices that surround the lead. Accept a look inside their process to see what it is that makes them approach vocals differently in our eBook, The Ultimate Vocal Producers' Handbook .

Download your re-create here.

Source: https://joeysturgistones.com/blogs/learn/how-to-set-up-a-microphone-for-singing

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