(00:02) Steve, Chris, we're back. It's like we never left. I know. It's almost like we did these two back to back. It's like It's like I'm wearing the same clothes. Me, too. But for the rest of the world, it's been a week. It's been a week. And I hope it's been a good week. I still have the same omelette in me from last week.
(00:21) So, now we're following up on the recording vocals podcast we did last week. So, last week. Last week. So confused. so bad with time. Last week we ended up kind of on singer maintenance is where we land. So which is an important ingredient. It's yeah very important. And we touched on tech and then I think you were just saying it kind of cool to go back to capturing the wellmaintenanced singer now. Okay. Sorry man. I zoomed out man.
(00:52) Man I was like I was so not listening to you man. I zoomed out completely. You just crashed. Like if you were a Mac, it would have been that little round rainbow wheel pin wheel thing. I would have had to force quit you. I would have just held the power button until until you disappeared. And then you're going to reboot.
(01:18) It's going to be like Chris Chris was quit. Chris was forced quit. Do you want to submit a report? I'm going to submit a crash report. to Chris headquarters. All right. So, before you before you before you crashed, I think we were reviewing last week, which was singer maintenance. Yes, exactly. And before we get into this week's topic. Yes.
(01:41) Which is going to be a good one. Which is going to be a great one. It's a great follow-up. I I I I think you wanted to talk to our friends. Yeah. Before moving on, like if you want to support this podcast, leave a review. If you're listening uh uh using Apple podcast or Spotify or even YouTube, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel, leave a comment, say hi, ask your questions.
(02:03) You got to go on YouTube just to see Chris Crash. That's worth go YouTube, subscribe, but also watch his watch his eyes. So, back back on topic. Back on topic. We need to get back on topic, whatever that might be. Okay. Last week we talked about the relationship between the engineer, which was in our case us, and the singer Yeah.
(02:25) in the the vocal booth. But reality is most people listening to our podcast are probably home studio musicians, home studio producers. Yes. Maybe most of them are recording themselves. Yeah. Singing. Yeah. You know, so what about them? Me included. You included. Yeah. Let's like revisit what we talked about last week, but in the perspective of producing yourself alone in your bedroom. Yeah.
(02:52) What about that? I mean, I one of the one of the first things that's really fun about that, I would submit, is the whole microphone selection piece is is different. It's probably the one you have. It's the one you have or the one you got because you sound good on it. Yes. That happens a lot, right? like like I'm looking for a mic that works for me.
(03:15) And so you you have that mic and that's the one other people have to use, but it's the one that is like going home when you use it, right? And so that's a cool thing. And then and then if you're fortunate enough to have a couple mics, you know what flavor what it's going to do to your voice. So I'm doing a more rocky thing. I know I want this.
(03:30) This one's a ballad and I want this. And so the microphone selection thing is fun. It's fun to record yourself and then and then take the headphones off and then turn on the speakers and then listen and choose. It's just a different kind of fun, right? Cuz you know so well what you're going for more than you would even producing another artist, right? Like you just you know the heart of what you're doing.
(03:50) So it's a different journey right from the beginning. It is. Um and then same with do do you compress on the way in? We've talked or EQ on the way in. Again, you know what you're trying to do. Yes. So, if I'm recording myself, I will more often commit uh hardware or plugins or whatever on the way in because I know where I'm going way more than I would otherwise. Yeah.
(04:10) I I think when it comes to record with uh with compression or EQ and stuff, you need to know what you're doing. Yes. You know, and that takes a bit of experience, some failing also. And a good way to do it, I think, is to be able to do both at the same time with maybe an XLR splitter or something, you know, so you always have like a dry version of your take on top of the compressed signal.
(04:32) If you want to experiment and try to know your gear and stuff like that, you know, at the same time, you can do so, I think, with even UAD uh Apollo uh interfaces where you can record both signals at the same time. So, this is the safest way to do it if you're not comfortable with it. Yeah. Record dry. Yeah.
(04:50) And if you don't have any gear, who cares? It doesn't matter. Record dry, you know, it's Yeah. monitor with all the stuff on it. That's it. And then you It's the same. It's the same. Yeah. Yeah. And like we always say here at Studio Stuff, safety first. Safety first. It's all about safety. Hi, Joe. We haven't said hi to Gilder in a while.
(05:09) I know. To say hi to Joe. Hey, Joe. I miss Joe. I miss Joe. So, so the the the the microphone selection committing on Oh, I was going to say when when uh committing effects to a recording for yourself, there's for me a different boldness because I know where I'm going. If I commit these things for another singer, they may come back in a month when they hear the mix and go, "Hey, this feels this and I'm committed.
(05:39) " Right? But I can't do that as much to myself because I know where I was going. Right? So, so there's definitely a different boldness there. And it's a fun time to experiment. It's the best time to fail cuz you know where the singer is at all times. Yeah. Like I shower with the guy. Like I always know where he is. I hope you do.
(05:55) Be weird if I didn't or else you need to talk after your little glitch. I'm not sure you always shower with the guy. Okay. You mark a good point. Thank you. Thank you. So forgot to take my pills. So that's a that's a really fun that's actually a good point. It's a fun time to experiment. It is cuz the thing is my greatest learning came from recording me. Yeah.
(06:19) Because you know you only have your time to waste. That's right. You know you know if you enjoy it in my case, right? It's like like true story like four days ago the weekend I I we you know the pipes freeze because we're in joyous toasty warm Alberta, Canada. And so we have this like outdoor little like shower thing to wash the dog because he likes to play in the mud.
(06:40) And so it got all disconnected at the end of the year as the the the kind of renovation guys were leaving. They disconnected it on the way out. They're gone now. And now it's just like us alone in this house. And I'm like, I got to get this going cuz it's dirty dog season. And so I'm out there. You should have seen me trying to hook up plumbing.
(06:56) Like it was it was like tragic. It was like the guy. If the guy came, it would have been minute and a half. Of course, hour and a half. True story. I'm out there with the thing. I'm learning how I'm learning how the the the the the thing and the thing and I'm taking everything apart. I'm watching YouTube videos.
(07:14) I'm freezing YouTube videos and zooming in. Like it was amazing. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed that hour and a half. Right. Like at the end of it, I was like, "Yeah, you did it. I know how this plumbing I know how plumbing works forever now." Right? And so there's a bit of that that that ties into recording yourself. Yes, that you have to enjoy the the journey.
(07:32) You have to enjoy fixing the plumbing sometimes, right? And experimenting. If I do this and if I do that and so yeah, I think aiming for the result is one thing. You obviously want a good product, but enjoy that time. Like it's really really fun to just this mic versus that mic when I get loud. Put up both mics.
(07:49) Put them both up and sing into both and then later go, "Oh, I always chose this one." Exactly. Right. All the stuff that's embarrassing in front of other people, you can do it. For sure. For sure. And the good thing, it doesn't cost you anything. It's your time. You don't have to pay a studio. You don't have to pay an engineer. It's your own time.
(08:05) Enjoy that time. It's fun. Some people love to work on their cars cuz it's fun. Exactly. You could hire a guy or just get under there, right? So, yeah, that's my unsolicited advice. There's Yeah, there's some challenges though when it comes to home recording, especially for vocals. Now, we're talking about the room. Yeah.
(08:22) Talking about the equipment, like especially the computer, your freaking kids upstairs. The kids upstairs. fan of the computer running like crazy. You know the Yeah. The HVAC system is always in the same basement you are. The furnace laundry. Yeah. People drop things upstairs when you're in a basement and like you're like, "Babe, that was my take." I know.
(08:40) And she's like, "Hey, dummy. You're down there working on your plumbing car thing." You remember when we filmed this um channel one video? We're like in the middle of the the tape and then Jesse like she dropped like a cup or something. dropped the whole kitchen. It sounded like and they were stopped and like what what just happened? What is this happening? And I'm not used to that.
(09:05) You know, my older studio was like fully soundproof. You could jump, run, whatever. You know, I had like little kids at the time and that that's why we soundproof the whole thing. And now I'm like in the regular house. Jesse's up there throwing dishes around. I know. For good times. She's a good lady, though.
(09:20) She's actually out today because we're recording this podcast. That's right. Because her mom is in town. Oh, it's perfect. My daughter's not working today. I sprinted right over here. Yeah, most guys are like, "Hey, they're gone. Let's party." Steve, today the day podcast time. Today's the day. We're so lame. We got the house to ourselves.
(09:37) What are we going to do, dude? Podcast. Talk about vocals. So, experimenting is fun. Yes. Uh, microphones are fun. Um, for me, a big part of of self-engineering singing, and I know it is when when we're talking about drumming for you, is is how do you ergonomically do it? How do you create a place where you can do 30 or 40 stops and starts where you're like, "Ah, it's the bad. No, good. Do it again.
(10:04) " And like for me, that was always a challenge cuz I'm similar. I have my stuff here, but my mic is somewhere. Yes. And somehow, to your point, I'm in this space that has to kind of sound good. So, how do I find a good spot in the room and control the thing and see the thing and make playlists and do edits and do comps and so yeah, that's a that's that's worth some time and experimenting and everybody comes to their own conclusion on that.
(10:27) Everyone will will have his own workflow. Running back and forth. Anything that prevents you from feeling inspired, you got to fix, right? In the advent of wireless, everything helps. Yeah. Like you can pull a table back to here and still and still see the make the screen real big. Yeah, there's also the tools you have in your DAW.
(10:45) You know, it's the punch in and punch outs features you can just adjust from your phone and do it from your phone. Yeah, for sure. On any of these dolls from the iPad. So, that that's a big one for me is take take a few minutes and just really set that up so you can just be creative and know your tools are where they should be because you're playing an instrument in a way, right? And you want to just flow.
(11:04) So, once you're all set up, you have your workflow, you know exactly how to start your dah while you're singing, all that stuff. Now, uh, we need to take care of all the other challenges like outside noise. Yeah. You know, depending on if you're in the basement or on the first floor, there's the the traffic or the kids or all that stuff.
(11:24) You know, it's always the day dude decides to cut down a tree, of course, or or or do the really big lawn mower like the day like this is his day. This is his day to work on his motorcycle. It's always that like to the minute. Yeah. To the minute. It's the day of the construction. What do you do? It's all about You're by yourself.
(11:49) You're not working with anyone. You can't. You can't. You can't. You can't. You There are barriers. You can't. Yeah. You have to pick your time. You know, even with your family schedule. Yeah. You know, the kids are coming back to school at 400 p.m. Then there's dinner time and then all that stuff.
(12:04) How fast you can go. It's 3:51. Oh, yeah. Like it's amazing how many recordings I've made. You know, sometimes late at night is the way to go. Late at night is the way to go. You know, sometimes the morning depends on if you you live like by a boulevard where there's lots of traffic at 8 a.m., you know. So, don't pick that time to record your vocals, you know. Do some editing at that point.
(12:25) Yeah. For this this time, you know. So, um yeah, pick your the right time where you have less surrounding noise, you know. Yep. And and if I'm pushing hard and trying to get stuff done, back background vocals is a great thing to do on lawnmower day. I can get great background vocals done. Like it's amazing when you're just got some stuff and tucked in there and a little izotope and away you go, right? So yeah, there's no there's no shame in there's difference between the dump truck.
(12:50) But yeah, if you're doing a the soft ballad Yeah. Exactly. and that stupid school bus goes by like you got to do it again. Exactly. Again. Enjoy the pain. Yeah. Enjoy the It's Enjoy the process. Okay. Now, what about the room? You're in your bedroom. You're recording. Find a wall. Find a corner. Find a Just find a wall.
(13:09) Sing Sing to a wall, man. Use the closets. Yeah. Sing full of clothes. Yep. Sing. Honestly, the only downside is you got to control your thing. Yeah, that's your problem. That's the problem. Yeah. I can run to the closet and do part of a take and mess up the third word and now I'm out of breath cuz I'm Maybe that's going to add some feeling. I don't know.
(13:29) That's a different feeling. You know that's aggression. That that's aggression. My metal my metal tracks. Also, you know, computer noise, the fan. I have like a very nice laptop getting better every year. I don't hear a computer, you know. But my other computer I had like way more noise coming out of the fans.
(13:48) Not the last one, but the one before, you know. So, I had it actually in my older studio. Yeah. My computers were like outside the main room. I was out in the yard, you know. Yeah. Exactly. talking with your kids in the shed. Yeah, the kids and the computer all in the yard just waiting at the glass. Daddy's almost done.
(14:08) Yeah, computer fans can be like especially with towers, you know, way less nowadays and way easier to remove nowadays because it's constant. You're right. So, it's Yeah, you're right. That's an easy one to snag and remove. So, yeah, that one's not holding us up anymore as much as that dump truck does that run. That's worse. You're right. Yeah. Okay.
(14:25) Something cool also I think is uh a good tip when it comes to recording vocals is mic selection, but ideally to have like I would say at least two mics. And the reason is recording lead vocals and recording back vocals with a different mic. Yeah, that is something I like to do. Yeah, something different. Especially if you're recording your own back vocals.
(14:47) If there's another singer recording the back vocal, doesn't matter. But if you're recording your own back vocals, I would say try to use another mic. Can even be like a dynamic mic and an SM57 or something, you know, doesn't move the mic. Move the mic around. Mic is a big one.
(15:02) I'll do background vocals with a mic pointed at my forehead, right? And it's just a different sounds like a different mic. Yeah, it's not fair. Your forehead sounds pretty good, though. It sounds amazing. The I'm actually jealous. At least you have that. At least I have that good sounding forehead. It is. So you would use the same microphone at different distance or it turns it into into a different mic.
(15:21) It does. Just take it off access a little bit. It does cuz the sound is going to be different from what are we going for? Is your background vocal soft and warm and close? Is it closer to lead vocal? Is it a yi lead vocal? So you're getting farther away? Is it do you put it more into the room? Right.
(15:35) So again, it's an intention based idea. But would you prefer doing that with the same mic or using a second mic? Second mic. There you go. But that costs more money. But again, the second mic could be an SM57. That's right. An SM58. That's true. Okay. Uh, when it comes to tone, Yeah. Okay.
(15:55) Distance, like we were just talking about, is going to play a huge, huge role. Yes. The closer, this is the basics. You get back to the basics of recording uh vocals with a microphone. The closer you get to the mic, the more the more fat, the more kind of um dark. Yeah. But again, if you take that bright voice close and then you back it up, Yep.
(16:17) that same voice, whether it was bright or dark is going to sound thinner. Yep. It Yeah. turns into more of a drill bit. Yes. Yeah. Or or more nose if you go for the nose or more Yeah. Like it's more chest to chest like it's Yeah, there is. So, you can play around with the type of tone you want. And Yeah. is I I worked with a a guy actually in town, a a a guru, and he would spend time with singers watching them sing to determine which was the dominant side of their mouth. Mhm.
(16:41) And then he would have them sing slightly off because we all sing, our mouth moves. Yes. Dominantly, and so that was really important to him. I like that. I tried it. I didn't notice, but he's a way better engineer than me. Okay. So, this is when you noticed it was better than you. Yeah.
(16:55) Yeah. I mean, as soon as he walked in, I knew, but Yeah. Hey, you have the forehead. Let's say I do have a good sounding forehead. It's very warm. Very warm. Uh so and and dark. Has a much darker tone than yours. Oh, I love it. Oh, so silly. So silly. So yeah, there's there's all those little things that matter to people, right? Um S's Yeah, mics that pick up too much siblance.
(17:26) Playing with proximity there. This is when I'm going to angle the mic a bit more. You know, angles if you're getting S's is a thing. Up towards down or the opposite or a bit more on the side. Have you tried the pencil trick with the elastic? I I've No, I've never tried it. Okay. I've tried it many times. I've tried it a few times.
(17:42) Yeah, it works. Does it work? It does. Do you feel silly? I do. Having a pen strapped to the mic. Yeah. But the idea is that pen is kind of going to diffuse and the S is the civilian is going to kind of uh so proximity distance um and monitoring we talked about back to our kind of singer maintenance thing. Yes.
(18:05) You know being kind to yourself in the same way is relevant to this discussion, right? And there's a bit of like you know I'm I'm me and I'm here and I'm getting getting her done. Be kind to yourself there too. Like take the time get your mix the way you like it. It takes an extra minute and it's going to change what you do.
(18:21) Same all the same rules apply. Make it sound the way you want it to sound. If you want more bass, stop and get more bass. Don't just keep singing. Stop and get more bass. Right. So that that all those things apply. Be kind to yourself like you would totally that kid in the booth. Right.
(18:37) So when you get into a part of the song where you know your singing needs to be needs to have lots of energy, you know, so meaning you're going to sing way louder than the verse. You're getting into the chorus. The chorus is like an octave higher. You're going to shut it out. Yeah. Do you back off the mic or you go sideways? I will typically go back. Okay. Yeah.
(18:58) For me, uh, to me, it's it's just you're still direct. You're just farther. But tone is going to be different, though. But tone is going to be different. There's a trade-off. Yeah. Side tone is going to be different. And you're not direct. So, yeah. I guess I think the the important is like when you're hitting those high notes. Yeah.
(19:14) Where there's lots of energy going on, more power. Yeah. Do something with the position you're in. Or not. Or not. Like some to me, the best vocals in the world are people that don't move. Just turn the gain down a little bit. Just agree with me. That's what I do. That's why I'm still here. Like, stop trying to stop bringing your thoughts. Okay.
(19:37) You have a good sounding for it, but that's it. Dude, you crashed at the beginning of this episode. you so so many of your legs to stand on went away when you fully just had a full shutdown in real time. Okay. Yes. So, this one comes from Manila, Philippines. That's cool. That's cool. Lyndon Aguilar, have you used closeback headphones for mixing without using any any of the AI sound ID reference? Yeah.
(20:10) M trickery. So close back as they come from the store have you would you? Like for me I don't think it's a matter of being closed back or open backs. Okay. I do EQ my headphones. Okay. Okay. So, um, but for mixing, I rarely touch a, uh, closed back headphone unless I'm mixing out of the studio, like in a coffee shop or in an environment where there's lots of noise in the surroundings.
(20:44) Now, yeah, I'm going to use maybe a pair of uh I have a pair of hoties here, close back headphones that I that I can use in that case. And if you did that, you would as well EQ them. Oh, yeah, for sure. Do you ever do any of the I'm at Ocean Way now. I'm in a BMW. Those emulations like the room stuff. I don't I you know, they're good though.
(21:04) Some of those are freaking good. Do you find them distracting like I do? I think it's it's just matter of it's a habit, I guess. It's a matter of getting I used to to to work a lot with these tools. Yeah. And I kind of like them. I was using the Waves CLA one and that one is pretty cool. It's actually works pretty well.
(21:27) Uh I would use these types of um AI softwares or plugins. U if I was in a situation where I not even have access to a pair of studio monitors, if I'm outside for on vacation or you know I'm outside of the studio for like a couple of weeks and I need to mix that song. Interesting. Um, yeah, this is in a situation where for maybe part of the song, I would use that.
(21:53) Uh, yeah, that system. Maybe I haven't done it long enough. I find them distracting because they sound so neat. Okay. You know what I mean? I'm like, that is so cool. It's like the head tracking stuff. I I'm just so interested. I'm so interested in it that I'm distracted by it. Or emulation. I'm like, whoa, it really sounds like I'm in the thing.
(22:08) And and and I forget I'm mixing. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? But for me, the head tracking stuff is so so distracting. I can't hang with it. I have one to watch movie or something with the AirPods or even the fake Dolby thing. You know, it's funny. It doesn't sound as It doesn't sound natural. It's correct. It doesn't even sound like it does here when I'm listening to speakers. Yes.
(22:28) Yes. Like my whole room is not moving with me. Weird, you know. But this does for somehow, you know. I don't know. Yeah. It's neat tech though. It Yeah, it is. It's going to be fun in the future like gaming and all that. Like that's it's going to get when I use these uh these plugins, I deactivate that option.
(22:44) I don't want to have any head tracking going unless you love it. That's a personal thing. If you like it, use it. Getting back to the question um on using closedback headphones for mixing. Again, that depends on the environment I'm mixing in, you know. So, but my preference open back headphones. Yes. Yep. Definitely. Yeah. I think we're done.
(23:05) We got to go before you crash.
