Bring 'Em Back Alive

Jan 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Rusty Cutchin

Vocal Ease

Usually the most critical assignment is recording live lead vocals. As Lerman notes, cutting vocals live doesn't have to be a tedious series of full-band retakes. “You wouldn't want to put a female singer by a drummer's cymbals, but it's not so bad if you put a singer by an acoustic piano, because the spillover won't be as loud or as likely to produce unwanted [sounds]. With a rock band, you want to point the singer's mic away from the band” to avoid instrumental sounds bleeding into the vocal mic.

In many live situations, vocalists will be using handheld dynamic mics and won't want to lug a large-diaphragm condenser around the stage. Handheld condenser mics may lend a subtle richness to certain vocalists onstage, and standard studio condensers may work perfectly well for mellower bands and performances. Many engineers have no problem with standard high-quality dynamic mics like the Shure SM58, especially on rock gigs, because the somewhat contained sound usually works pretty well on hot vocal sources.

For some live recordings, a standard procedure is to record the band first and later overdub the vocals. You can record a temporary scratch track during an early take to serve as a guide vocal for the other musicians to accompany if there are subsequent takes. When you've finished recording the instrument tracks, the vocalist can focus on singing while the other musicians wait for the next song.

Chaos in Control

Accurately controlling the dynamic range of live performers, whether metal or mellow, often requires using compression on drums, vocals, and bass. Recording in a club or other performance space without at least minimal compression may make it harder to control levels and makes it essential that the band has full command of its own balance onstage.

For individual instruments, most engineers agree that in the studio, a high-quality mic preamp or channel strip can work wonders. A single mono or stereo unit won't help much on, say, a multiple-mic setup for drums, but it can sure help a focused track like a lead vocal shine.

As a band grows louder during the course of a performance, carefully monitoring individual instrument tracks becomes more important. In a best-case scenario, the recordist has separate feeds from each instrument mic to a multitrack recorder, which allows controlling levels independently of the band's soundperson or front-of-house (FOH) mixer.

Nonetheless, taking a board feed from the FOH console is one of the simplest ways to record a live performance. When the house sound company has all the proper gear in place, that method is probably the most direct route to take. The recording engineer will lose the ability to construct a more controlled mix later on, however, and is stuck with whatever combination of music and ambience the live sound crew provides. Alternatively, an experienced engineer can also capture a band's sound with a simple stereo mic setup.

For the Record

In most cases, the traditional method of routing microphones and direct signals to a mixing console and assigning channels to a multitrack recorder is the most efficient strategy. But many engineers agree that the type of recorder you use is less critical than it once was. Because digital recording has leveled the playing field, live-music recordists are using all manner of machines, from stereo CD-R and DVD-R recorders to mobile Digidesign Pro Tools rigs, to capture live performances. The engineers I interviewed agreed that the choices a recordist makes with microphones and their placement, the use of mic preamps and audio interfaces, and the handling of room sound have a greater impact on the final product than the type of recording device you use.

Beyond specifications such as 24-bit resolution and selectable sampling rates, the recorder you use is either a matter of personal preference or already installed in the studio or venue where the band will be playing. As you're well aware, recording gear continues to shrink in size while expanding in power. Recordists can use a top-shelf laptop computer with a multitrack audio application or a well-configured personal digital studio to capture the same quality of sound that once required a truckload of multitrack analog recording gear. The most important consideration is how you handle the signals being recorded.

Dead or Alive

To fully capture and enhance the sound of a well-prepared live ensemble, you'll achieve the best results in a recording studio with an expertly treated room that's big enough to allow multiple setup and isolation options. A well-equipped studio should have a full range of mics, from dynamics to condensers to ribbons. With experience, you'll learn to select the best mic to place on each instrument and vocalist. And everyone in the room will know exactly what it means to avoid garbage in, garbage out.

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Rusty Cutchin is a former associate editor of EM and a producer, engineer, and music journalist in the New York City area.

FOR FURTHER READING

Making Tracks: Good Audio Housekeeping, March 2005 issue of EM

Ribbon Mic Summit, August 2006 issue of EM

Successful Techniques for Recording Vocals