RECORDING TIPS AND ADVICE
HOW TO BE HEARD
1. Mic Distance
First off, lets talk about mic distance we can talk "mic-talk" later but, right now were gonna go through artist mechanics and distance. When somebody approaches you, you wouldn't want them to scream in your ear would you? Of corse not. Therefore, you should be a minimum 6 inches to 1ft. from the mic with general consideration for the genre that you are going for or just the track that your working on. Being too close to the mic will definitely create distortion that is unrecoverable when mixing. Please be mindful of what distance you are from the mic, unless you're looking for distortion then now you know how to get it right?!?!
2. Pop Filter
That said, you should also get a POP FILTER they are screens that keeps the P's and B's under control at the same time S's are tamed a bit so they don't sound like nails on a chalkboard. Pop filters also help with mic placement, a filter should be about 3-4 inches from the mic and you should be about 2-5 inches from the filter so there you have it instant distance!!!
3. Mic Location
Got all that mastered?, Great its time to move on. The third most crucial part of mic distance is location. Set your mic up in a location that keeps the noise away, if you have a closet use it! I mean where else are you gonna get away from babies crying, cars driving, your girlfriend or when ma complains about what your saying in your music. I have my mic setup in another room but since most of you probably record in the same room as your computer or recorder; Put it against the strongest wall in the room away from the speakers or just turn the speakers off and use your headphones. All this planning is to keep sound away and help bring your vocal closer to the mic. There's nothing worse than distortion other than odd noises in the background of your perfect take. at the same time if your recording a skit or interlude of some sort some times ambience helps bring the performance to life. Keep that in mind when you do your next skit or commercial drop when you need that "over the top" element.
4. Mic Input
This one is simple, not too much here. On your audio interface is a knob used to turn up the mic, it's called the mic input or as we call it "gain pre" (preamplifier - input to the board be for the volume fader). There is a level that is a good margin between silent, quite, stupid and retard. Somewhere between quite and stupid is a great place where your vocal recordings should be. This Level is safe, prevents distortion and helps you relate better when you're keeping proper distance from the mic in a space free of outer noise. A final step at the Input stage is metering, close observation of your input level or recording meter will prevent clipping. Clipping is the technical term for unwanted distortion, it happens when your meter reads red. A good way to think of this is if your in the yellow or green then your in the ball park if your in the red you struck out.
5. You
Yelling is not really the way to get your point across and 99% of the time it produces clipped results. I don't think most of you are after those type of results so save the yelling for your next performance in front of 50,000 fans!!!. See the thing about yelling is you feel like you're not being heard and thats not really true if you yell, now is it? If you find your self yelling unnecessarily you should refer to the earlier sections of this article, you can make an adjustment in any of those steps to be heard much better. The other thing about yelling is words don't come across clearly nor do they have as much meaning. I'd hate to spend hours or days writing a song and none of the words ever reached the audience because they couldn't hear what I was saying or just didn't understand the lyrics.
