Best way to record Vocals and what volume do you capture sound at?

Hi there, so I’ve been getting back into recording my band and I want some professional guidance when it comes to recording. I’m having a bit of trouble knowing at what volume I should capture our vocalist at. Also, I notice that when he sings some times it’s loud and other times it very low. How should I go about making the sound wave the same in loudness?

Also, when it comes to other instruments like guitar, bass and drums. How loud should I record? Should it be below the green in pro tools?

I would like to get your feedback and expertise!

In my oppinion you should always try to capture vocals or other instruments for that matter as close to zero as possible. Why? Well you don’t want to loose to much bit rate on the way in to the computer. If you are having a hard time controlling volume add a compressor while recording but not compress to hard just to regulate the volume a bit better. If you are still having problem with the volume its time for some singing lessons with the singer. Find a way to have the singer regulate the volume by moving away from the mic when singing at loud volumes and near to the mic when singing quiet.

As for your other question the same goes for all instruments. Try record as near Zero as possible without overdriving the audio. But almost worse than overdrive is recording to low volume. You will get to much noise and the body of the sound will almost definitely be ruined.

I agree with what Tiam says. I personally record everything near -5.0 to -3.0 db from zero. That gives the compressor some dynamics to work with and some space to boost the eq where necessary. Just my personal opinion and what works for me.

I think your recording bit depth might help answer these questions more accurately. If for example you are using 24-bit recording, your dynamic range calculates to 144dB. Essentially, my understanding of this, means that you can record at a much lower volume and then raise gain in mixing without raising the noise floor to unbearable levels.

As to the vocals, the compressor is your best friend. There is no magic bullet, as each voice/material is different. You should ask the singer to not back off from the mic on the loud parts (which is the natural tendency) because that might introduce a more ambient sound to the recording you might not want. So ideally the singer will be the same distance form the mic throughout. One technique would be to get your recording level from the loudest material first, so you can make sure there is no clipping on the input.

I typically record with my (hardware) audio interface meter entering the yellow. I find that gives me enough volume to feel powerful, but also enough headroom to compress, etc. without clipping in the mix.

You might want to read:

The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook by Bobby Owsinski

And, I’m sure there tons of other books on these topics, but I found this one helpful.

-Blake

Oh wow! This is really great stuff. More research!

I just purchased a video from the producer of Mandy Moore & Marci’s Playground on mixing. I have a tough time recording vocals and knowing how loud I should be recording the instruments.

And I’m recording at 24bit with a Digi 003 Rack and sometimes I use my Elevenrack to record vocals.

I wanna hear what others have to say!

During recording you want as close to 0 as possible, but not over! No peaking, then mix down to a level that works with your track, and after the vocals are mixed with the track, mix the entire song down to -3/-4DB, that’s the industry standard level for most mixes I’ve seen at the bigger labels. Most engineers mix down around -3DB once it is all said and done. Mastering is another thing, but for mixing the track this is what I have found.

JStephens said
During recording you want as close to 0 as possible, but not over! No peaking, then mix down to a level that works with your track, and after the vocals are mixed with the track, mix the entire song down to -3/-4DB, that’s the industry standard level for most mixes I’ve seen at the bigger labels. Most engineers mix down around -3DB once it is all said and done. Mastering is another thing, but for mixing the track this is what I have found.

So the master track input / slider should not go over -3DB?

The master track once the whole track is mixed should be fluxing between -4DB and a Peak of around -2DB. If you are peaking at all on your master mix you gotta mix down.

I had this problem when I first started working with some other producers at a studio in LA I kept mixing my drums past peak and it drove them nutts. (I Still do it quite often to be honest) but the goal is to keep the whole track around an average of -3dB, that’s the industry standard used before sending it off to a mastering engineer who finishes up the whole albums mix.

*This is from what I’ve seen in the HipHop and Pop Genres, for any other genres I can’t say but from the people I’ve been with in the HipHop/Pop industry this is their rule of thumb.

JStephens said
The master track once the whole track is mixed should be fluxing between -4DB and a Peak of around -2DB. If you are peaking at all on your master mix you gotta mix down.

I had this problem when I first started working with some other producers at a studio in LA I kept mixing my drums past peak and it drove them nutts. (I Still do it quite often to be honest) but the goal is to keep the whole track around an average of -3dB, that’s the industry standard used before sending it off to a mastering engineer who finishes up the whole albums mix.

*This is from what I’ve seen in the HipHop and Pop Genres, for any other genres I can’t say but from the people I’ve been with in the HipHop/Pop industry this is their rule of thumb.

I’m having an issue with drums as well. I’m using Toontracks Superior Drummer Steve Slate plugins resampling the drums, but the way they have the drums setup is that they are almost peaking. So should I bring down the entire plugin track or within Superior Drummer mix down?

xstortionist said

JStephens said
The master track once the whole track is mixed should be fluxing between -4DB and a Peak of around -2DB. If you are peaking at all on your master mix you gotta mix down.

I had this problem when I first started working with some other producers at a studio in LA I kept mixing my drums past peak and it drove them nutts. (I Still do it quite often to be honest) but the goal is to keep the whole track around an average of -3dB, that’s the industry standard used before sending it off to a mastering engineer who finishes up the whole albums mix.

*This is from what I’ve seen in the HipHop and Pop Genres, for any other genres I can’t say but from the people I’ve been with in the HipHop/Pop industry this is their rule of thumb.

I’m having an issue with drums as well. I’m using Toontracks Superior Drummer Steve Slate plugins resampling the drums, but the way they have the drums setup is that they are almost peaking. So should I bring down the entire plugin track or within Superior Drummer mix down?

Try mixing down the drums and eqing/compressing each drum layer individually. Usually what is peaking is your bass drum not the snares or hats so if you can pinpoint the bass EQ and turn it down then compress etc. you’ll come out with a finely tuned bass sound that still has that Thud or Boom sound to it while not peaking.