5 Important Things To Do To Achieve A Pro Vocal Take

5 Important Things To Do To Achieve A Pro Vocal Take*

Today we’re going to talking about the five important things that you need to get a good vocal.  

Hi.  My name’s Steve Collom for The Secrets To Music Success dot-com, and today we’re going to talk about the five most important things that you can do or prepare yourself before you go to do a vocal take.  

Vocals are so important.  Every song that you hear, the main thing that your ears are drawn to are those vocals.  It’s so important to have such a good vocal.  And, even more than that, sometimes you’ll find that, if your vocal is not good but you’ve got a phenomenal song and great production, sometimes it can distract the listener.  

They’re listening to the vocal, and it’s like maybe the performance or maybe the tuning, you know, something’s kind of out and they’re just distracted by the whole wonderful – they’re distracted by maybe a couple of those little things in the lead vocals and they miss the beauty of the rest of the song just because of their distraction.  It’s kind of like someone waving Over here!  while all the good stuff is here but they’re missing it.  And so it’s very, very, very important to make sure that vocal is really, really, really great.

1.      You’ve got to practise your part. 

Now, that’s like you’re thinking Oh duh, of course.  But it’s amazing that, if you don’t practise, you’re going to find out that the take, the sound, it kind of sounds a little bit maybe – kind of like phoning it in.  It doesn’t feel like you’re just delivering this performance.  It feels like you’re thinking about it – and you are.  You’re thinking about What’s the next part that’s coming up?

You know, if you’re ever doing a take and you’re thinking to yourself What am I supposed to sing? – guess what:  You’re in your head.  You’re not in that moment.  It’s not going to deliver.  And if you ever think Is there a bridge after this?  Or if you’re thinking to yourself I don’t know if I should sing this line here or should I change this line?  You’re in your head (laughs) and that’s going to come through the take.  So it’s very, very, very important to practise.

And, of course, everyone’s like Oh yeah, of course you’ve got to practise, but I’m telling you it’s black and white, the difference that it makes if you practise the song and then you come into the studio, you push Record and you just go for it.  Give me two or three takes, you nail it and you just go for it.   

And so you’ve got three takes to kind of comp from or something like that, and that’s a free thing that doesn’t cost you anything.  It just takes a little bit of extra time to go and practise your part.  Practise those little runs.  Practise those little noises – just those little things that just add that special magic to it.  

So number 1 is you’ve got to practise.  

2.     Be reminded or be aware of the proximity of your microphone.  

So if you’re singing, if you sing really, really, really close to the microphone, you’re going to have a different sound than if you sing way back here.  Now, you know, Billie Eilish, her style is very close.  It feels like she’s actually whispering in your ear.  It’s really, really, really close and she does a lot of breathing.  It’s a very light kind of sound, but it’s very in your – very right there.  It’s an intimate sound.  And so know how she gets that.  She’s really, really close to the microphone.  

Now, also know that the further you go away from the microphone the thinner your voice is going to sound.  So if you know these things, you can use it and go with the sound that you want and make that creative choice.  

Now, the further you go away, as I said, you’re going to get a little bit thinner, so the perfect spot – or it’s not really perfect because it’s a choice that you get to make when you’re recording your song, based off the production that you want.  Do you want it really close or you want it a little bit further and not so close?  I usually say around – anywhere between one to two inches from the microphone is really good.  You know, you’ve got a pop filter there.  You’ve got to have a pop filter for vocals!  

So, anyway, so that’s what you’ve got to do for the proximity of the microphone.    

3.      Record the main lead vocal on the best microphone you possibly can.  

And when I say best microphone, I say, if you want to get into the pro world, you’re kind of getting over that $500 mark.  It’s kind of around there, you know.  One of the microphones I have – you get what you pay for;  it’s an instrument, you know – a classic microphone is the U87, but they’re like a couple of grand, three grand or so.  The Neumann TLM103 is great.  These are professional microphones.  

But just know that you kind of get what you pay for with a microphone and if you want something that just sounds really rich and really clear then you’ve got to record with the best microphone you can – and especially that lead vocal.  That’s very, very important.  

Now, a little tip or a little trick that I do is – well, I’ve done in the past, and recommend it – is practise maybe five songs, get them down, know exactly what you’re going to sing, know exactly what you’re going to do – just the lead vocal part – and find a local studio with some really good microphones and hire them for an hour, if you possibly can.  Let’s say is 60 bucks and hour or maybe it’s 80 bucks and hour and you can go into that studio.  If you’re able to do three takes of a song, you’ve nailed it.  

You know what you’re singing, you do three takes of a song – let’s just say that’s 10 minutes, let’s just round it up to 15 minutes – you can do, like, four to five songs an hour.  And so you could have – and this is the lead vocal, this is the most important thing – so this is what I would recommend, if you don’t have access to a really good microphone.  You could spend 80 bucks – 70, 80 bucks, whatever that studio charges in your area, and you can knock it out of the park.  You’ve got some great, great vocals, and yeah, that’s a really, really cool tip to kind of use.  

Because, you know, the backing vocals or a lot of the other stuff, you can kind of get away with a little bit more.  You can kind of pull them down in the mix a little bit, and I actually have a really cool story.  I just finished doing a great song with some friends of mine and we do collaboration, and it was really cool.  She actually sent me – she’s in Australia and she sent me some back-up tracks, like, just a (sings) Oh, oh, oh – she sent me like a real kind of cool line – and I could hear the dog barking in the back, I could hear noise, I think I could hear some cars, but it just sounded so good and it was pulled down pretty far in the mix but it added so much to the mix and I’m so glad that she did that little line.  It just sounded so go – but there was noise there.  That, as a lead vocal for the main lead, it wouldn’t have cut it; but for the backing vocals it was perfect.  It was fine.  It actually created a little bit of atmosphere.  I liked it. 

So just remember that when you’re recording your lead vocals – just so important, but you can get away with so much with that backing vocal.  

4.      Be aware of the room that you’re in.  

Now, remember that, if you sing a kind of a quiet song, then once thing:  you don’t have to worry about the reflections in the walls or, you know, you don’t have to worry about any reflections in the room, because it’s a really soft, quiet part.  But you really, really have to watch out for any fan noises or any noises – sirens or birds, neighbours, whatever it is, lawnmowers, whatever – you do have to watch out for that.  

And so one of the things I recommend:  if you’ve got a really quiet, soft part and maybe you live on a busy street or a busy area where it’s, like, nearly impossible to get it quiet, then you can record those parts in the middle of the night or early in the morning, before traffic, before whatever, anyone is up, because it’s nice and quiet.  So those are ones that are easy to do.  Watch out for the fan noises on your computer or the AC or any fridges you might have in your studio or anything like that.  They all have noises, so just get really quiet and just listen:  What noises am I hearing?  

Sometimes my speakers have a little bit of a noise, you know.  It’s probably the noisiest thing that I have.  It’s like the tiniest – it’s not a hiss, but the actual power in the back of it – you can actually hear it.  But it’s not enough to worry about.  

But, now, on the other side, if you’re doing a loud vocal, if you’re doing something that’s really more dynamic, then the room does come into effect.  Now, the little noises that you hear are not going to matter as much, but the room comes into effect.  So if you’re singing something really loud, you’re almost shouting but you’re belting out or whatever you would want to call it, you’re singing these really loud parts – loud in decibels – it’s going to hit the walls and it’s going to bounce back.  So if you’ve got extra frequencies in the room, and especially the reverb, the reverb is just going to fill right into your microphone and it’s going to be capturing all the reverb, and that’s going to be very hard to tune up or use.  And so be very mindful of the room.

And now here are a couple of points.  Don’t record in the corners of the rooms.  Try and keep away from the walls.  Now, ideally, if you really want to do this and you want to start your journey to be professional, start looking at sound treatment.  Start looking at, you know, rockwall, mineral fibre – you know, find a way to kind of – you can see mine in the back here.  Find a way to build a frame or put them up on the wall, or start looking into that.  

The good thing is, if you’re really trying to do this and you want to do this for the rest of your life, you’ve got a lot of years to [get there].  It’s okay.  Just make progress every day and you will get there and your sound will get better, and just using these tips – like, obviously, watching this video – so use these tips.  Start your journey to be aware of your room, because if you can’t hear because, you know, something’s in the way of your ears, that’s a big part because what we’re talking about is musical, which all the ears.  So awesome, so that’s number 4. 

5.      Learn to tune your own vocals.

Now, this is something, in this day and age, where you have to.  That’s the easiest way to kind of sound amateur, if your vocals aren’t in tune.  And who is better going to know your vocals than you, the singer?  So I highly encourage you – if you’re recording vocals yourself, or even if you’re recording someone else’s vocals, whatever, if it’s your song or you’re putting out this song – you’ve got to learn to tune those vocals.  You’ve got to learn to do that.  

Now, for me, personally, I was, like, I’ve got to learn to tune my vocals because I know how many mistakes I make (laughs) and I’ve got to get my vocals out there as best as I possibly can.  I want to use every tool I possibly can to get the best vocals I can.  

So, you know, I dived into Melodyne, and Melodyne is probably the most – I would say it’s the most authentic or most natural-sounding tuning program.  So I highly recommend Melodyne, and I actually have a course that I think you’d love.  You’ve got to head over to The Secrets To Music Success dot-com, and I walk through everything, like, on Melodyne – everything that you need to get going, from, you know, importing the track, and actually a bunch of vocal tips as well, like how to record it properly.  And I walk through on videos.  I think I have over eight hours of videos, you know, just on Melodyne.  So if you want to get the full course and you want to really dive into Melodyne, get that course.  It’s over at The Secrets To Music Success dot-com and check that out.  Go to the store and you’ll see the Melodyne there.  

And it’s just so amazing, and it’s so important to get your vocals tuned, you know.  Gone are the days where you can just send a demi and somebody can, like, get it, you know.  It’s like, Oh yeah, let’s record that song!  You’ve got to send them the best thing you possibly can.  There is no reason why you wouldn’t do that.  And so technology is right there.  Anybody can do it with a laptop.  Anybody can do it with any computer these days.  

So Melodyne, it’s not a heavy resource, like it doesn’t take up heaps of CPU.  It’s just – you’ve got to learn to do it.  

So those are the five tips that will kind of help you, you know, take your vocals to the next level.  So, just in recapping again, you’ve got:

1. Practise the part.
2. Proximity to the microphone – just know what you’re trying to accomplish. 
3. Record the main lead vocal on the best microphone you possibly can, which might mean going to a studio or, you know, if you can borrow your friend’s, or just go to the studio, spend 60, 80 bucks, 100 bucks, whatever your local studio charges – might even be less than that – and be prepared and go through, bring in your MP3s and just be, like, Great – I’m going to do three takes on each one.  Let’s go!
4. Be aware of the room. 
5. Learn to tune up your vocals yourself.  Learn to tune up the melody.  

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So awesome!  So I know that you guys have got so much out of this, so again, if you haven’t subscribed to my channel, please go ahead and subscribe.  But even more, give me the thumbs up because it bumps the videos higher on the search engine.  

So if this has been really helpful to you, go over to my website at The Secrets To Music Success dot-com and download my free PDF on pop songwriting tips, mixing tips – there’s a bunch of info there.  So head over there and check that out, and have fun.  Have fun with using some of these tips in your next vocal song.  

So awesome!  See ya!   

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*Source:  5 Important Things To Do in Order to Achieve a Pro Vocal Take YouTube by Steve Collom, uploaded 6 Apr 2021.

Transcribed with care and weird ☺ Australian spellings by Kate Battersby on behalf of Steve Collom and The Secrets To Music Success.