Thread [Getting started] The comfort of the performer - Part 3

Hi Nantho, lovely article on recording vocals. We had some of those exact situations appear during my tenure at Ocean Sound Studios in Vancouver thru the 70's and 80's. I remember on a couple of occasions giving the rock vocalist an SM58 to hold and then putting the U47 back a few feet in OMNI onto another track. The difference in vocal performance holding the 58 was much more energetic than the one singing "Frank Sinatra" style into the U47.

I can remember giving another singer a SM58 or 57 and playing the tracks back through speakers so it sounded like he was performing live in the room. This also corrected his pitch as he was going sharp in the headphones.

Yes, there was leakage but less than a live concert and the vocal performance was so much better and in tune.

OMNI is a really good option for recording vocals when the vocalist is moving around but you need to have a properly treated room or put screens around the artist. There is no proximity effect in OMMI.

OMNI also works well when you have 3 vocalists singing BG parts at once.

When Roy Orbison and KD Lang recorded CRYING at Ocean Sound the U47 was in OMNI so it picked up both KD and Roy singing at the same time. KD told me it was so inspiring to have Roy singing into her ear and the vocals would not have the same impact if overdubbed one at a time. The U47 only has Cardiod and OMNI while the U48 was Cardiod and FIG 8. Studio "A" at Ocean was a large room with panels on the wall that could be flipped to provide a live room for strings or a more controlled room for rock bands and vocals.

Figure 8 can be useful if the vocalist is not comfortable without holding a acoustic guitar and you can aim the side of the microphone (maximum rejection) at the acoustic and the front of the mic at the vocalist. You can put a reflection screen or Gobo on they rear side of the mic in Fig 8 to reduce the room sound.

These are some of the reasons we build microphones with multi-patterns and don't always rely on Cardiod.

Sometimes you can try giving the artist and electric guitar that isn't plugged into an amp.

I have also experienced problems with some "World Class" mics in certain rooms that are not treated properly.

For example, the U87 when placed in CARDIOD in an untreated room can produce a "honk" or "nasally" sound, if the room sends a lot of untreated reflections back at the rear of the U87, then this sound can be prominent.

The rejection of rear sound in a U87 is down 20db from 200hz to 10khz but 400hz and 800hz are only down 10db. This means any reflection coming back into the rear of the microphone will be quite audible at 400hz and 800hz.

A rear reflection shield can cure this problem but just throwing up a U87 will not always be the best solution.

This is not a promo shot but actually a picture of John Oates singing into our CM47 microphone during a studio session in Nashville last year. I am very proud of this picture of John using our microphone.

However, I posted it to show another tip that can make some performers more comfortable. Notice he is holding 1/2 of the headphones to his ear while his other ear is hearing his voice in the room. This can really help in some cases with pitch and performance. Just pan the headphone mix to one side to reduce leakage from the side of the headphones open to the room.

Cheers, Dave Thomas
aamicrophones.com

Hi Dave,

Thank you very much for this comment full of wisdom

I've never had the chance to record with one of your mic, maybe one day