Tips for World Class Vocal Takes

Put your wallet away. The secret to great vocal takes isn't something you buy. I've seen friends and clients shell out hundreds even thousands of dollars for top shelf mics, better pre-amps, and still walk away with less than stellar vocal performances. And it's not because they didn't spend enough or they still haven't found the right vocal chain. The secret to the best vocal takes you can get out of a performer is going to cost you, the engineer something more...effort! I've seen engineers just sit there and say nothing and just hit record at the end of each take. Reading a newspaper or checking social media while the singer is bearing their soul on the other side of the glass. Now, if that doesn't describe you...then good...you're one of the good ones. If it does...we can fix that!

Let's get this out of the way, because some of you go into every session with a skewed mindset. I'm not going to teach you how to make average singers sound like world class singers. You can't squeeze blood out of a turnip and you can't make an average vocalist Whitney Houston. But...you can get the best that they're capable of and that might be easier than you think.

The secret to great vocal takes is; a singer who understands their limits, positive reinforcement, and staying in the zone.

Understanding the Limits

An average singer who knows how to work their voice for a given song is a powerful thing. Sometimes part of the key is just lowering the key of the song or if it's a female...raising it...finding where the singer can sing comfortably. Sometimes it's knowing that they can't do that particular run they're going for and as the producer advising toward a less tricky one. Knowing your limits is key and the first step to capturing a great vocal take.

Ear Warmup #3: Sting "Ten Summoner's Tales"

Song: If I Ever Lose My Faith in You

A good tight low end but without being over compressed can be hard to get. This song is a great example of good pop low end a bright overall record, but with a smooth top.

Nominated for six Grammy awards and winning in 4 categories; Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, and Best Long Form Music Video.

Recorded at the Lake House and mixed by David Tickle at The Townhouse. Mastered by Bob Ludwig.

What Else to Listen For:The tambourine that drives the verses. Covered in reverb of course, after all the 80's just ended a few years ago at this point. All jokes aside, the tambourine acts as a bed for the other instruments, giving the song a dimensional quality not heard in today's hits very often. 

Ear Warmup #2: Soundgarden "Down On the Upside"

Ear Warmups #2: Soundgarden "Down On the Upside"

On this album, Soundgarden opted to not work with a producer, sticking strictly to the creativity and ideas of the band. Engineer Adam Kasper became an unofficial producer and did most of the engineering duties on the album. 

The band kept things simple and moved fast, leaving in ambient sounds and guitar noises.

Mixed by the band themselves with the help of Adam Kasper, this is a great example of a project with the artist's vision intact from start to finish though a bit long, this is a fully realized project by Soundgarden. Mastered by Dave Collins at A&M. The mastering shows respect towards the dynamics of the performances and honestly who could do better on a project like this? 

Listen and comment if you like.

Ear Warmup #1: John Patitucci "Mistura Fina"

I wanted to start off right because maybe some stuff is going to click for many of you. 

The point of Ear Warmups other than to condition my ears to what good is in the morning is to ease into having to use them but without the pressure of the client's work. 

So, today's track is from bassist, John Patitucci's "Mistura Fina". His style leans toward Brazilian grooves as do most his productions. The first thing that's most important is this is expertly composed music by the best musicians in this field; Alex Acuña, John Beasley, Peter Erskine (my favorite drummer), João Bosco, Dave Weckl, Steve Tavaglione, Michael Shapiro and John himself. 

My point is...great musicians with great minds for composing do great albums make. 

Listen especially for the tight center bass/percussion relationship and the trade off between the guitar that's panned as "ear candy". They trade the attention effortlessly. 

Making the work much easier for Bernie Kirsh who engineered this album. Look up his other credits while you're at it.

How to Make Your Own Cooper Time Cube

This is a Cooper Time Cube.

This is John and at Blackbird Studio...he has a few of them lying around.

This is the current price for one Cooper Time Cube.

What does it do? In 1971 the original Cooper Time Cube was designed by Duane H. Cooper and Bill Putnam, who would later start Universal Recording and become synonymous with recording. It was an early attempt at a delay effect.

It has a great musical sound and sits in a mix effortlessly.

Today I'm going to teach you how to make one with just one trip to the hardware store.

What You'll Need:

• Duct Tape
• A Funnel
• Shure SM57
• A Speaker or Guitar Amp
• Garden Hose
• Razor Blade 

I drew a quick diagram of how to make this device. Ignore my bad art skills, but it should give you a good idea. 

The trick here is to get a funnel that fits securely over the speaker you have.

Keep in mind the original Time Cubes were capable of either; 14, 16 or 30 ms delays. You can aim for those or you can do your own thing. That's entirely up to you.

Good luck!

How to Make Mixing Revisions Easier

So, you have your mix...it's done...you sent it off and thought you were done, but now your client has a bunch of revisions that they'd like you to make...

This is what separates the men from the boys and the women from the girls...

How easily and quickly you can make these changes without breaking a sweat while still being precise and not ruining what's good about your mix is a crucial step to being a good mix engineer.

And the answer is...Mix Groups or VCA's!!!

As far as I know, Logic Pro X and Pro Tools 12 all have VCA's as a standard option now, but if you don't have VCA's or Mix Groups in your DAW of choice you can do the same thing with auxes, but it will be a bit more cumbersome.

For my auxes I send all my vocal tracks to a single stereo aux channel and that dumps out to my mix bus. All my drums and percussion go to a stereo aux track which also dumps out to my mix bus. And then all my music (guitars, keys, synths, bass) go to their own stereo aux channel which also dumps out to the mix bus.

I struggled with doing quick revisions for a long while and after a lot of failed revisions, disappointed clients and lost time...I came up with a strategy.

Let's say the revision note is, "bring the kick down". If you only bring the kick down you're going to ruin the flow of your mix balance. So, I have my bass and kick routed to the same VCA, so if I need to pull the kick down I don't lose the blend of my bass and kick.

"Turn up the vocal a half dB"

I have my hi-hat, snare and lead vocal channels routed to the same VCA. After you setup a solid blend for your hi-hat, snares and lead vocals, you don't want to lose them because of a simple revision. Route them the same so your hard work isn't gone because of one note.

Effects are another blend you don't want to easily ruin. Any instrument channel or vocal that has an effect channel it's being sent to I'll always route those with the VCA or Mix Group. Any delays or reverbs being used on the vocal are routed to that vocal, snare, hi-hat VCA I was telling you about. If the snare has a plate reverb those channels get routed as well.

You get the idea.

You can take this idea and adopt it and mold it for your your workflow and to fit your purposes.

Good luck and as always...

be kind+make good music.

How to Make Shareable Video Content

It's no secret that videos are the leader for content online. Videos are the future and if you create good ones, it can do well for your music.

Here are a few short tips to creating not only viewable, but shareable videos.

1. Have a strategy. If you don't know where you're heading, you'll never get there. Have a plan for what kind of videos you want to release. Do you want to release tour diaries? How to play the song? Song meanings? Creating the song?
Have a game plan and stay consistent.

2. To be continued. It's as effective as it was years ago. Strategically placed cliff hangers bring people back. Don't say it in ten minutes when you could say it in 5 videos that are 2 minutes each. The population is more ADD with every passing year so keep it short.

3. Be consistent. Keep to a schedule. Find a good time and frequency for you to post and keep to it. The consistency will make your fans trust you. Not keeping to a schedule will result in dropped viewers and less subscribers.

4. Promote yourself. If you have other social media platforms, tell your viewers. They won't know unless you tell them.

be kind+make good music.