AA2 - Week 2 - Vocal Recording

After I 'performed' for John's vocal recording, I figured while the microphone stands and patchbay were all set up I may as well do my own. The script was written on the spot, and is no longer as funny as it was when I first recorded it. A slight logistical problem was recording in the Space or Deadroom when I have to press the record button, so I threw a baffle into Studio 1 and created a mini deadroom- unsuccessfully. When listening back to the recordings in the studio I could not tell how much the liveness of the room was making it onto the tracks, that is until I mixed them down and listened to them on headphones. Despite the roomverb, I managed to keep most of the sound pretty clean. And I didn't do any pitch shifting or anything to my voice, it really is that manly.

Script:
Are you having trouble with masculinity? Then join the army! You get a gun. You get bullets. You get sent somewhere... and then you go back home. Maybe alive. What are you, chicken? Buk buk buk.

1st Recording MP3 290KB
Microphone: Neumann U87
Mic Position: 25cm from source
Vocal Style: Plain, spoken word
Comment: The first recording was simple enough. Some compression was needed, but due to the lack of animation in my voice it was not very heavy.

2nd Recording MP3 422KB
Microphone: AKG C414-BULS, Neumann U87
Mic Position: 15cm for both
Vocal Style: Deep, masculine, spoken
Comment: My voice can only go so loud when it is this deep, so a close mic position was needed. The recording was originally bass-heavy, which somewhat suited the vocal style, but I still cut off some of the low end for a more natural sound. Both mic recordings were panned slightly to the left and right respectively, but only by about 15 degrees. Before compression, the end was louder than the beginning, but a moderately heavy threshold evened it out.

2rd Recording (Take2) MP3 483KB
Microphone: Neumann KM85 x2
Mic Position: 15cm, perpendicular to source (see pic)
Vocal Style: Deep, masculine, spoken
Comment: This is part two of the deep voice recording, in which I experimented with setting up the KM85s in atypical positions until I found a nice sound. The final position was not what I expected to work, but it had a nice presence when panned. Both mics needed identical compression and gain, as customising the settings individually created weird stereo phasing. I did not EQ this recording, as it achieved the sound I was aiming for originally with the AKG and U87.


3rd Recording MP3 374KB
Microphone: AKG C414-BULS
Mic Position: 25cm from source
Vocal Style: Loud, yokel, spoken
Comment: After some serious clipping and gain fixing, I found the levels which allowed almost any vocal volume to be recorded without distortion. The extreme variation in amplitude required heavy compression, and I also used a light Gate to lessen the presence of the roomverb.

4th Recording MP3 459KB
Microphone: Neumann U87
Mic Position: 5cm from source
Vocal Style: Very quiet, spoken
Comment: For this recording I wanted the opposite of the yokel. The gain needed to be increased considerably, thanks to the last recording being so loud and this being so soft. I had to make a conscious effort to minimise unintentional mouth noise, however some has still slipped through, mainly due to mouth movement imperative in forming sounds. While the compression was kept light, quite a bit of low frequency EQing was needed to minimise the proximity effect of the mic.

5th Recording MP3 365KB
Microphone: AKG C414-BULS
Mic Position: 25cm from source
Vocal Style: Loud singing, some spoken
Comment: While I was 'singing' for John's recording, I did my own recording of sung voice. Unfortunately, by this point in time I couldn't get out a whole line of Ubi Caritas without laughing. Fortunately, this resulted in a nice array of dynamics with both sung and spoken voice, much like an opera. Uhh, a bad opera. Quite severe compression was needed to bring out the quieter spoken parts, as I wasn't even facing the microphone properly.