I’ve always disliked tracking anything with headphones, especially vocals. Some vocalists have pitch problems on headphones. Some are just uninspired. If you’re recording yourself, it can be a pain in the head to keep switching your set-up.
The simple solution is to record without using headphones and instead monitor with speakers. There are a few ways to do this. I’ll go over all of them briefly, then show you a way to do it that works amazingly well.
First things first: remember that most of the leakage a directional microphone picks up is reflected sound coming in the FRONT of the mic. Remember that the back, or sides, of a directional mic are designed to reject sound and overall that works pretty well. I’m assuming you’re not cutting a vocal with a omnidirectional, especially if your goal is to cut down on leakage.
A moving coil mic is generally going to pick up less of the stuff you don’t want, which is the room reflections coming over the shoulder of the person singing. Why? Because moving coil mics are less sensitive overall—a big heavy diaphragm attached to a big heavy coil of wire has more inertia. Condenser mics will generally pick up more of everything, but I’ve cut tons of vocals with speakers for monitoring using condensers and it usually works out fine.
Just Record and the Hell with Leakage
You can set up a mic in front of the speakers and cut the vocals and just ignore the leakage. Depending on your room and the volume you’re working at, leakage might not be an issue. Obviously, use a directional mic with a cardioid or hypercardioid pattern, experiment with where you place it—you might get less leakage if you put it right in front of one speaker rather than in between the two (the polar pattern will affect this a lot).
In the mix, you’ll have to gate things or edit out the leakage. However, there can be problems because the leakage on the vocal track, when the gate is open or when the vocal is playing, can mix with the music on your tracks and you might hear a change to the snare or the low end whenever the vocal comes in and out of the mix. This is evident on the Chris Isaak song Wicked Game. My quick fix is to ride (automated) the vocal level rather than gate or edit it, so I can control how much of the overall sound of the track changes.
Using a moving coil rather than a condenser is recommended if you’re doing things this way.
If you’re sitting down, think about throwing a piece of acoustic foam over the keyboard/work surface and on the monitor. Close reflections suck for a vocal.
If the leakage is a problem, then you’ll probably have to start playing around with phase.
Put the Speakers Out of Phase
I think this is an awful solution to a problem, but I’ll explain it anyway, provided you promise not to use it. I tried it once and it was a waste of my time.
Set up the vocal mic so that it is in the exact sweet spot of the speakers, then reverse the phase of one of the speakers and THEORETICALLY the resulting phase cancellation will result in far less leakage, and because the singer is not exactly in the sweet spot — the spot of maximum cancellation — they’ll still be able to hear the music well enough. Engineers also have done things like putting out-of-phase speakers to either side of the singer, equidistant, pointing at the mic.
Why this sucks #1: It sounds awful
This sounds awful. Out-of-phase speakers sound awful. Mostly you’ll kill a ton of bass, so the music won’t be exciting—there's nothing quite like an unenergized and uninspired singer, and the net sound will be phasey and plain old weird. If the singer shifts or moves, they’ll hear all sorts of swooshing and if the phase issue is bad enough, they might get nauseated. Did you know huge weird phase shifts plays ear games and causes something akin to motion sickness? Ever cut tracks with a singer who wants to vomit?
Why this sucks #1: It works like ass
Because most of the leakage that comes in a mic is coming in the front, and is predominantly indirect sound, chances are the speakers out of phase trick isn’t going to buy you much. The out-of-phase sound that goes bouncing around the room comes back as in-phase leakage.
If you want to cancel using phase, you have to flip the phase AT THE MIC, not in the air.
Use Two Mics
Get two identical mics. Flip the phase on one of them. Put them very close together, displaced vertically rather than horizontally (one over the other rather than side by side). Have the singer sing into the in-phase mic, combine them into one track or do it in the mix.
This basically sucks too. In a live situation, this might be workable, but in a studio situation, unless the singer is working really close to the in-phase mic, this is going to be all over the place. Little movements will change the frequency response; the out-of-phase mic is picking up the singer's chest so things could wind up overly warm or thinned out, depending on how the phase cancellation affects frequency response. The singer has to put a lot of effort into staying still and in one place, and that usually results in a stiff, bad vocal.
Here’s the best way to do it.
Record an Out-of-Phase Leakage Track
The first time I tried this was tracking a jazz choir and I didn’t have enough headphones. I put them out into a room and set up a pair of big, loud monitors, and put two Crown PZMs mic out, each taped to a music stand. The speakers blasted into the choir, the mics were spread about 8’ roughly 6’ from the first rank of the choir. We cut a good take. I had the choir shuffle their positions around and recorded another take. I played back the four tracks and it was a big leaky mess until I reversed the phase of the second take. Leakage GONE. Vocals untouched.
This technique works jaw-droppingly well. Here’s how you do it:
First of all, set up the mic so the singer is really comfortable and loves how the speaker monitor mix sounds. I usually did this right in the control room in front of the console dead center, but it can be anywhere. Once you get the singer happy, tape the mic stand down, tape the mic to the stand — whatever you have to do to make sure that microphone doesn’t move at all.
You also can’t move the speakers, and you have to do all the recordings using the same speakers. And you should tape down the monitor level: it has to be the same for every take. Ideally, you do all the vocal tracks in one day.
So, set up your vocal chain (mine was usually a Quad Eight mic pre followed by a Summit TLA-100 and then an Aphex 551). Get it to sound dandy good. Put the vocalist in position, then have them sing. As many takes as you need. Punch in, etc. Don’t do any comping yet!
Once you get a good take, have the singer stand there in front of the mic silently and record just the leakage — exactly what the singer was hearing when they did their vocals, but no vocals. Now the magic: play back the vocal track, reverse the phase of the silent track, and bring it up in the mix until the leakage disappears. And disappear it will. This works like magic. Comp the vocal til the cows come home this will still work. You can even bounce the vocal track and the leakage track together — just make sure the leakage track is phase reversed.
In the old days before unlimited tracks, if I was going to double the vocal, I would cut the double and reverse the phase of that — I have yet to have a singer cut a double so close that any of the vocals canceled, but I suppose it’s possible. I also don’t see the point of cutting a double so tight that you can’t tell it’s a double — just bring up the original track by 3dB and get it over with.
This technique works amazingly well. It’s how Chris Cornell cut a lot of his vocals. I’ve used it on hundreds of sessions. This method will also work with an omnidirectional or a bidirectional mic, and it works like a charm with condensers as well.
Happy Monday -
While I was writing this, producer Shel Talmy died. You might not know his name, but you surely know 'My Generation', 'Friday on My Mind', and this little ditty from The Kinks.
This was a groundbreaking recording. There’s fuzz guitar on it!
Now, the story is, to get that guitar sound, Dave Davies slashed his speaker with a razor blade. At the very beginning, before the band kicks in, you can clearly hear a buzzing that might or might not be the two edges of a paper speaker cone against each other, but also, by 1964 people knew that if you turned up an amp a lot you’d get distortion. Heck, people knew this since... forever? So, I think it’s a combination of a turned-up amp and a damaged speaker, but I wasn’t there. I was only a year old and still wetting myself.
Another thing to hear: the bassist not muting his bass. Listen for an out-of-tune resonance that can be heard in the gap in the iconic riff. Even as a kid this used to drive me nuts. What does it take to wrap a sock around the neck at the nut?
By the way, Jimmy Page is on this session, because The Kinks’ lead singer, Ray Davies, wasn’t playing his usual rhythm guitar. Producer Shel Talmy wanted him to concentrate on vocals and brought in Jimmy Page to do Ray’s parts. Because it was live in the studio with no overdubs. Now, both Jimmy Page and Dave Davies claim to be playing the rhythm part, which is unusual because usually guitarists claim playing the solo.
Talmy also produced a few very early David Bowie records, when Bowie was still Davy Jones. You’ve Got a Habit of Leaving is not one of Bowie’s best compositions, but even on this one we can hear hints of his latent songwriting ability. Check out the “rave up” sections that are verging on pure noise.
Talmy wasn’t all noise and rock, though. He recorded some gorgeous acoustic folk stuff. Let No Man Steal Your Thyme by Pentangle is a lovely recording. Check out the cello glide from left to right at the start, and the precision and clarity of the various parts.
Shel Talmy, off to that analog tape studio in the sky at 87.
Pumpkin Spice Latte
Shameless plug-in plug: go buy a Pumpkin Spice Latte. $14.99 - that’s less than what an actual Venti Pumpkin Spice Latte would cost you at a Starbucks in New York, and our plug-in, with its combination of saturation, ambiance, and echo is far more useful and less fattening, unless we’re talking about your tracks, because then it’s more fattening.
Microphone Stuff
I love microphones. I love having a lot of them to choose from, I love moving them around, I love buying them, I love trying different microphones and going, “meh... that sucks, try the XXXXXXX (insert your go-to mic here)”.
In no particular order: mic stuff.
What the 3:1 Rule really is
“When recording with multiple microphones, the 3:1 rule states that the second microphone should be placed three times as far away from the sound source as the first microphone.” Definition courtesy of the internet.
How to explain this... It’s not about phase. Phase doesn’t magically fix itself if things get three times farther away from each other. It’s about the LOUDNESS of LEAKAGE. What causes phase issues is the unintended stuff that gets into the second mic, and if it’s loud enough, plays phase havoc with the intended stuff in the first mic.
We have this:
It’s the leakage from the acoustic guitar, if it’s loud enough in the vocal mic, that will cause phase issues when it’s heard with the direct sound picked up by acoustic guitar’s mic. The guitar leakage (indirect sound) on the vocal mic will phase interfere with the guitar (direct sound) on the guitar mic. Following the 3:1 rule means hopefully the direct sound is a lot louder than the indirect sound. It’s controlling level, not phase. If you’re in a small, reflective room with tons of leakage everywhere, all of it loud, you’ll have phase issues regardless of distance.
Instead of the 3:1 rule, do this: Use one microphone. If you can’t do that, the closer the mics get to each other, the closer they have to get to their individual sound sources.
I learned something called acoustic separation. This was like, if you didn’t want the leakage to cause an issue, make sure it’s 26dB quieter than the direct sound. In practice, this is pretty hard to hit, so even if you’re getting 10 or 15dB of difference on the meters you’re doing well. Of course, 26dB is better.
And for God’s sake, don’t get a ruler out and measure this stuff.
Mic Position as EQ
If you’re using a mic with a directional polar pattern, there are a TON of placement options that can drastically change the frequency response of what you’re recording. And I’m not talking about where on the sound source you’re placing the mic. I’m talking about proximity effect and off-axis coloration.
Distance for Low End
Think moving closer or farther for low-end effects.
Most directional mics exhibit proximity effect—the closer you get to a sound source, the more the mic will enhance the low end. Some patterns and mics have more of this than others. Figure-eights (bi-directional) have the most. Rather than boosting the lows, move that mic closer, or swap in a mic like a figure-eight. A fig-eight on a bass cabinet or a kick is a fun thing. A 414 switched into fig-eight is a great thing on a guitar cabinet, also on toms (provided there’s not a cymbal over the tom).
Of course, if you’re trying to get rid of low mud, proximity effect will not be your friend. Proximity effect is often the cause of muddy vocals. Back the singer up a foot.
Fun phase trick. Mic something with a fig-eight, then put a board of wood behind it so the direct sound bounces off the board of wood into the back of the mic for instant phase strangeness. Have someone move the board closer and farther for a flange effect.
Added benefit of bidirectional polar patterns: they have the most side rejection of any mic, which makes them very useful when you really need to isolate a source from something on either side of it and there isn’t a bunch of stuff leaking into the back. Very useful on congas and such, also pianos.
Also, while most omni-directional mics don’t have proximity effect, some, usually multipattern condensers, do have it, so use those ears.
Axis for High End
The reality of directional patterns is that they’re a mess. You see them in books and mic spec sheets and they look like this:
Seems nice and uniform, doesn’t it?
Nope. The response changes depending on the frequency. In fact, the only place a mic is reliably flat, or somewhat like its frequency response diagram, is dead on from the front. From any other angle, the response is different.
The basic rules: the lower the frequency, the more the polar pattern tends to be omni; the tighter the polar pattern, the stranger the frequency response. The most consistent patterns are on bi-directional mics, the wonkiest are on supercardioids and shotgun mics. Here’s a more realistic response graph for a supercardioid mic.
A total mess above 1kHz. Or... think of it as a bunch of little EQ curves to play with.
Point the mic straight at something, get one frequency response. Position the mic off-axis to the sound source and the high-frequency response changes. It’s like a built-in low-pass filter.
There’s a lot of control here. Put a mic slightly above a singer’s mouth, point it down towards their chest and you can smooth out a spittie high end. Still sibilant? Move the mic right or left a bit. Come in from the side of their head, pointing towards their opposite shoulder. Adjust bass by coming in closer or further away. Adjust sibilance and highs by changing the mic’s axis.
A quick tip: if you’re going to be doing really weird mic angles on a singer, be aware that there’s a “turn towards the mic gravity” going on. Put a dummy mic in front of them so they sing towards it, and then let the weirdly placed mic do its job unnoticed.
This also works for any acoustic instruments, from cabinets to pianos to drums to horns—whatever.
Mics as Limiters
Mics are mechanical, mechanical stuff has inertia, the diaphragm of a mic has inertia. “Slow” heavy mics, like most moving coils, round off transients. I’ve written about this before. Here’s a diagram I stole.
This can make a huge difference between something sitting nicely in the mix and something that sounds like a little click unless you turn it up a lot, and then it’s way too loud.
Use Pop Filters Always
If you’re sticking a mic in front of a person, put a pop filter on it. Doesn’t matter if they’re popping the mic or not. They’re spitting crap and bits of chapped lip and dead taste buds and chia seeds and whatever else is in that mouth into the mic and all over the diaphragm. Kissing is fun, but cleaning chunks of spaghetti carbonara off your eardrum isn’t. Ever pay to get a diaphragm cleaned by some mic tech? Do you want to? Put a pop filter on it. It won’t affect your high-end.
Setting Up and Breaking Down
Most of you no longer deal with this, but it’s a good lesson.
When you’re doing a big session with lots of mics, set up the stands first, the cables second and put the mics on last. Route cables so there is always a footpath for people to walk that doesn’t have microphone cables on it. Route your drum mics all around one side of the kit so there’s a clear way for the drummer to get in and out without stepping over cables.
If you drop a cheap mic, it bounces. If an expensive mic hits the floor, chances are it’s toast.
Breaking down: before you let a single musician into the studio to put away their gear, unplug EVERY SINGLE MIC and put them AWAY in the MIC CABINET and LOCK IT perhaps. Every time a mic was ever stolen or broken, in all the years I was in studios, it was during the breakdown. Get them out of there first and fast.
This was shorter until I heard about the passing of Shel Talmy. Y’all have a great week.
Warm regards,
Luke