3 Ways to Improve your Recordings
I’m recording a song with my band, Silverseed in the studio right now. We’re going to be part of a compilation CD for an international guitar company. It’s the first time in a long while the recording is actually paid for and we’re trying to impress someone other than ourselves. We’re having a great time! But we want this recording to be the best it can be because it will be heard by more people than probably any other recording we’ve ever done. So here are some techniques I’m using to beef up this record:
Doubling Vocals
John Lennon loved this technique. Often it is used only in the chorus of a song so when the chorus hits, the song becomes bigger. In the song we’re recording now, I’m going to double the vocal throughout the whole song. I will turn one vocal down a little bit in the mix, so that the second one gives the performance more body. I might even try a different tone in my voice in each take. I can make one of the takes a little bit more gravelly than the other. I may lay down a third take on some parts of the chorus.
My engineer is going to experiment with the equalization and panning of the vocals. He will play with turning up the low end on one take and the high end on the other. We may slightly pan the vocals left and right. This technique really thickens up your vocals. When you double vocals you need to match each take as precisely as you can. You really shouldn’t be able to hear the two vocals, instead it should sound like one seamless take.
Doubling Guitars
As I’ve acquired more guitars recently, I love using this technique too. (Yes, I suffer from G.A.S – gear acquisition syndrome). The other day, I doubled the distorted part of the song with a Telecaster and a Les Paul. Using two different guitars really thickens up the guitar lines. You can set your amps differently, use different mixing techniques for each take or use different pickup settings. Experiment in the studio. Use your creativity, but just like the vocals, keep it tight, so it sounds like one big thick take. On a side note: playing to a click track is a must for doubling guitars.
Modern Vocal Effects
If you listen to modern pop songs you might think that singers sound less like humans and more like robots these days. Some of the effects used on these pop songs are pitch correction effects. I don’t advocate for or against pitch correction, but one of the effects I do really like is compression. Sometimes I over-compress the vocal on a recording until it sounds a little distorted. This can be cool in heavy music, and it also sounds good in a pop song. This effect actually works like a pitch correction technique because it distorts the sound a little bit, and it can make the vocal sit in the mix in a way that covers up slight pitch problems. Listen to songs by Jack White, Bono and Maynard from Tool to hear what I’m talking about.
Modern vocalists like to drench themselves in reverb and delay. It sounds great if you know what you’re doing. It sounds very amateurish if you don’t. There’s a fine line between good mixing technique and over-production. That’s why I like it when I hear creativity in vocal mixing technique. Think about compression, phasing, or even flanging to give your vocal a modern sound that sits well in the mix.
There are hundreds of innovative things you can do in the studio so have a go at adding something creative to your arsenal next time you record a song.
