Many artists assume that recording professional vocals is all about having the best gear or expensive plugins.
Whilst those elements can definitely play a role, they are rarely the biggest difference between an amateur vocal and a professional one.
The biggest difference is usually the performance.
A great vocal starts before you even hit record. It comes from understanding the song, creating the right environment and capturing the right emotion.
Some artists do this instinctively but it always helps to have some external perspective and guidance.
As a producer of independent artists, a major part of my role is to help the vocalist deliver the most authentic and compelling performance of their own song.
So, if you want to know how to record professional vocals, the first place to start isn’t with microphones or plugins. It’s with the singer.
Recording Great Vocals Is About More Than Singing The Right Notes
One of the biggest mistakes I see artists make when recording vocals is overly focusing on technical perfection. Is every note perfectly in tune? Is every phrase exactly in time?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a stickler for tuning and timing but a technically perfect vocal can still feel flat if the emotion isn’t there. Aside from that, the best vocal performances come when the vocalist is relaxed and worrying about technical perfection will most likely lead to feeling stressed.
A great vocal has intention and dynamics and it feels like the singer means every word. That’s why Adele is popular recording artists of recent times. When she sings about loss the listener really feels her pain and relates to it.
A slightly imperfect vocal brimming with emotion will always connect more than a perfectly recorded vocal with no emotion.
Lola Young had a cold when she recorded Messy and the fragile and raspy vocal that they captured that day made it onto the record.
Preparation Starts Before Recording
Before recording, I want the artist to understand what the song is trying to say. What were they feeling when they wrote it and what do they want the listener to feel?
Where does the vocal need to be more vulnerable, more powerful or more restrained?
Learn the Lyrics
Ideally I want a singer to know the lyrics without relying on a lyric sheet. This might not seem like a big deal, but it’s very difficult to fully focus on performance when part of your brain is trying to remember what comes next.
The more freedom the singer has with the song, the more they can focus on delivering a killer performance.
Warm Up Your Voice
A vocal warm-up should be non-negotiable. Get warmed up before recording so that you can hit the ground running.
You might argue that singing the song through a few times will warm up your voice and that’s true. However, most warm-ups involve singing across a wider range, including higher and lower registers than you’ll use in the song. This gives your voice a much more comprehensive warm-up and helps prepare it for the session.
Practice Makes… Endurance
If you’re going into the studio to record vocals, chances are you’ll be singing a lot more, and for longer, than you might otherwise. The quality and number of takes you’re able to record in a day will partly depend on how quickly your voice tires.
If you can work on your vocal endurance ahead of the session, you’ll be able to record for longer without your voice becoming fatigued. Remember, a typical vocal session isn’t just lead vocal takes. You’ll likely also be recording doubles, harmonies and BVs, so there can be a lot of singing involved.
Be Vulnerable
Writing songs about deeply personal matters requires vulnerability, and engaging with that emotion in front of other people can be difficult – especially for us Brits.
If a singer is too self conscious to let go and feel the emotional intent behind their song or lyrics, it will be harder to get a great performance.
I was recording a singer yesterday who had written a song about a difficult relationship. When I asked, she opened up about the relationship in question. I then suggested that she tap into the emotion behind the words and sing the song as if singing to the person in question. The results were incredible to the point that it gave me goose bumps.
In Part 2 I’ll talk more about the actual recording process.
Jim Hustwit is an award winning songwriter, music producer and composer