Vocal Recording 101: The Process

Setting the Stage

You’re ready to self-produce. After countless hours, likely years of manifesting your creative vision, it’s finally time to reflect it out to the world.

You have the song ideas ready and your basic equipment is fully set up in an environment cohesive to recording vocals. Maybe you have your backing tracks already, or are planning on recording and synthesizing this yourself.

As you sit down to get to work, let this be your guide in building healthy habits for your vocals and recording them efficiently. The overall goal here is to be as prepared as possible and know where time can be saved in each recording session.

Managing Time & Media in Recording

It may sound silly, even business-like to think about time management alongside your art. But with finite time at your disposal, the truth is that every minute of admin and extra click of the mouse is time lost when you could be expressing yourself.

Any producer will tell you that media management and templatization is crucial to a smooth-running recording session. There’s nothing worse than losing your creative flow to a missing file or needing to set up a new track with those three plugins you vaguely remember sounding good on a track two years back. So if you want to free up time for the fun stuff, take some time to:

• Decide on the right Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) for yourself, and create a template version for different sessions. In the case of this article, we’ll explain how to set up a session optimized for vocal recording.

• Research and learn keyboard shortcuts for your DAW. These programs are made to do the heavy lifting for you – so long as you learn the commands. Oftentimes, you can find keyboard covers or other products which can expedite the learning.

• Set up your files in a clear way that makes sense to you. If you use samples, where are they stored? What does your folder structure and naming convention for each session look like? We recommend naming every session consistently however it works for you, for example:

  • MONTH’YEAR_Key_Song title/nickname_Version-# which could look like June’24_Amin_Beams-V1 with each new version increasing the last digit or the word FINAL.

• Make a plan for file backups, whether via cloud software, an external hard drive, or both!

Prepare (and Templatize) Your DAW Session

There are a ton of lessons out there promising the perfect vocal session, but there are bound to be fine-tuned details specific to your music as well as how your brain works.

Begin by opening up a new project in your DAW. You actually don’t need to name this anything unless you plan to record immediately, as you’ll be saving a project template rather than a session file. That template will be available to you to load into any future session, or set as the default when you open your DAW.

There are a number of more advanced settings which you may want to later set as an expanded vocal template, but as a start you’ll just want to set up your tracks and effects plugins. This writer, for example, often records with synthesizers and possibly a guitar alongside any vocal takes, so the default template includes a number of plugins on multiple tracks. Here’s the most recent session’s plugins to get started:

You might only add one or two to a template, but use the favorites feature like this in Ableton Live:

Basically, set your template up so it allows you to get started easily, without running too much CPU, and quickly access what you need once you get into it. That could be as simple as one vocal track with a compressor and EQ, and another audio track for your samples, beat, or some basic chords.

Vocal Plugins To Add to Your Template

But above all, you’ll want to set up at least one vocal channel with the plugins you’ll want to access during the recording. These could be:

• Equalizer (or EQ) tools to adjust low, mid, and high frequencies.

• Compressor to better control the dynamic range of your vocal.

• De-Essers to…You guessed it! Help reduce the harshness which can come from a sharp consonant sound like “s” or “ch”.

• Light reverb or delay to add atmosphere and presence to put your vocal more in the “space” of the final track.

• & much more!

There are so, so many free plugins out there for vocals specifically. This provides a chance for you to learn what you’re looking for before deciding if there’s a particular plugin which you’d like to invest in.

Take advantage of this, as some producers swear by working only with native (i.e. they come with your DAW) or free plugin downloads. 

Vocal Warmups

Though before a session, don’t forget to maintain your vocal health through a solid routine of warmups. No matter your singing style, warmups are incredibly important to protect your voice from injury and help you continue to sing longer into your life.

A little known secret for the newest music producers reading: it’s very unlikely that your first take is the one you keep. More than likely, it’s the 37th, or a new version made up of components of multiple takes (more on that later). That said, many singers also record their warmups, just in case that perfect take comes up unexpectedly.

There are plenty of ways to build up the perfect warmup routine for your range and singing style, whether that’s inspired by a star or custom to you. But advice for all: don’t forget to control your breath and keep the body loose!

Strategies for Backing Vocals and Harmonies

Last would be capturing vocal takes outside of a main melody. Excluding a case where you’re sick or are feeling signs of vocal fatigue, it’s valuable to try and capture a wide range of vocal takes on the same day. Think of this as a snapshot of your voice in a specific window of time, creating consistency in timbre that’s also affected by the environment you’re recording in.

The first example of this would be a concept most average music fans are aware of: backing vocals and specifically, harmonies. A good rule of thumb as a producer is to capture as much as possible. Of course there’s a chance you won’t use everything, but if there’s even the slightest chance that this particular chorus or bridge would be dressed up with a few harmonies, record them. Record some ad-lib vocal runs and improvisations. Have fun with it and give yourself or the future producer some toys to play with.

Comping, Doubling and Other Tricks

Let’s remind ourselves that there is no one blanket approach to producing vocals. And some argue that you never really master it, but rather stumble through and constantly learn. This is certainly true when it comes to these more advanced recording techniques.

Firstly you have comping, which refers to the patching together of smaller parts of vocal takes to create one new, improved performance. Prior to the ease that digital tools provide us with, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd was notorious for doing this in his solos such as that in "Comfortably Numb."

Though even with the help of an intuitive DAW, this process can be very frustrating even for experts. It all comes down to what sounds natural together. You’ll find in trying this out for a while that just because you like the particular expressiveness of one word, doesn’t mean it will sound right inserted into another take. Sometimes the dynamics, consonant, timing of breath or proximity to the microphone pose a challenge. But if you just can’t decide on one take as the best, learning to comp is a valuable skill.

Then you have doubling, which is when a vocalist records multiple additional takes while attempting to match the inflection and delivery of an original, chosen take. With one or two quality additional layers, the producer can create more depth for the listener. It can help the vocal come even more to life, especially when panning is used. Try either panning two takes left and right or doing so with a third take, the original or ‘main’ take, in the center.

You can try out and see what happens when creating a literal copy of the original file to use for doubling. It most likely will introduce phasing issues unpleasant to the listener, or provide no noticeable difference. This showcases the importance of the very small changes to a uniquely doubled take which serves the intended effect.

Quality Capture Unlocks Powerful Productions

And that’s that! With these tools alongside those shared here, you are all ready to begin your journey as a self-recording artist. Whether you take these skills and also embrace the role of producer or mixing engineer in the further steps of the process is up to you.

At the very least, these tools will enable you to present a producer with all of the tools they’ll need to order, shape, and polish your voice in a future single, EP, or album. And once that’s done, you can master them in seconds with Kits AI.