Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1. Work on the vocal as soon as possible. Make sure it has the sound you
want before you move on to the other tracks in order to make sure there’s
space for it in the mix.
3. Make sure the vocal isn’t masked by another track. See above.
4. The proper mix level is different for different genres of music. For
example, pop music has the vocal very forward in the mix while rock has it
behind the rest of the band to help the mix sound more powerful.
• Make sure the lighting is correct. Most vocalists prefer the lights lower
in the studio and the control room when they are singing.
• If you need to have the vocalist sing softer or more intimately, turn his
or her track up in the phones or turn down the backing tracks.
• Keep talking with the artist between takes. Leave the talkback on if possible.
Long periods of silence from the control room can be a mood killer.
• Try lowering the lights in the control room so the vocalist can’t see you.
Some people think that you’re in there judging them, when you might
be talking about something completely different.
• If the take wasn’t good for whatever reason, explain what was wrong in
a kind and gentle way. Something like “That was really good, but I
think you can do it even better. The pitch was a little sharp.” This
advice goes for just about any overdub, since players generally like to
know what was wrong with a take rather than receiving a “Do it again”
blanket statement.
• Always keep smiling. It’s easier to get the best performance from a singer
when the mood is light and they feel confident and encouraged. A smile
can do more to set the mood than almost anything else you can do.
• Pitch
• Passion
• Pocket
You’ve got to have all three to have a dynamite vocal. And while pitch and
pocket problems can be fixed by studio trickery, if you don’t have passion,
you don’t have a vocal.