If you are planning to record your vocals at home, using your own equipment then this article is for you!
"What is a good/ proper recording level? or Why does my vocal sound so quiet? (Especially when compared to the beat I am using)"
By now, you must have already noticed that there is a huge difference between the vocals you are recording and the beat you are using. Don’t worry you are not doing anything wrong (as long as your recordings are not clipping). Your vocal recordings and the beat you are using simply can’t be compared because they are not the same type of thing.
Let me explain.
When you compare your vocals to the beat you are using then you must notice that no matter how loud you turn your recordings they still can not be compared to the beat. This is because they differ not just in terms of loudness but also in terms of fullness.
If you are not using the stems of a beat then most likely you are using the .MP3 or .WAV format of the beat which is a MASTERED version of the beat.
A mastered beat (or song) is a beat (or song) which has been through all the necessary phases and processes required to prepare the beat (or song) to be played through any kind of playback system and sound good.
Also, a mastered beat (or song) is a beat (or song) which has been prepared to be released on any music platform and sound good.
If the mastered version of the beat (or song) doesn’t sound good it should be concerning in regards to the quality of beat, as it could create problems down the road.
Comparing your raw, unprocessed, un-produced vocals to the processed, finished, prepared, mastered beat is like comparing a finished baked cake to one of the raw ingredients required to make the said cake... They can't be compared as they are NOT THE SAME THING!
So, in order to be able to record properly and most importantly, to be able to hear what you are recording you need to do a little process called GAIN STAGING.
Essentially, GAIN STAGING is the process of making sure the audio is set to an optimal level for recording. Optimal level in terms of drowning the noise floor, so the noise in the room will not interfere in the recording. Optimal level in terms of providing enough headroom to allow the vocals to avoid clipping. You should have enough headroom to go from a very low voice (whispering) to shouting in the same recording, without clipping.
Vocal recording tip:
SET THE GAIN SO THE SIGNAL IS BETWEEN -18 and-6 dB FSSetting the preamp gain on you audio interface such that the signal level lies between -18 and -6 DbFS ensures that your recording is neither too quiet nor too loud.
If your recording is too loud you may face the issue of distortion and if it is too quiet, you may face the issue of the room noise being exaggerated when you try to push the levels up later. So keeping your signal between -18 and -6 DbFS is a pretty solid approach to getting a great recording.
It all comes down to this:
BEFORE THINGS GO UP, THEY NEED TO GO DOWN!
Before you begin recording your vocals a common practise should be to reduce the level of the beat.
Bring up a gain plugin and put the gain at -18 dB or -12 dB. This should provide a good enough level to hear the beat but also a good enough level to listen to your vocals while recording with enough headroom to avoid distorting/clipping the audio signal when setting the gain during gain staging.
On a side note:
A mastered .MP3 or .WAV of a beat is not supposed to be used for creating a new song during the mixing and mastering phase especially.
This is because it is already mastered.
When preparing your new song, you will need to master you music but mastering an already mastered song is only going to cause issues to the final outcome.
That is why stems exist! They are the un-mastered instruments that make up the beat (or song) so that proper audio files can be used for the mixing and mastering process when creating your new song.
If you want to learn more about STEMS then click the button below to be redirected to my article which talks about STEMS
"Why Does My Vocal sound distorted (or different from what I recorded)?"
First of all, let’s clarify what I mean by “distorted” or generally “different” vocal sound.
In case your recorded vocals do not sound clear or as clear as they should be then they kind of sound like they are coming out of a megaphone or generally they sound like a guitar with distortion (if you know what i mean)😉
That kind of sound is what distorted vocals sound like.
Another way to say that an audio recoding is getting distorted is to say that audio clipping occurs.
If you are still unsure on how distorted vocals sound like then go to youtube and make a quick search on “Clipping examples” to listen to how clipping sounds.
In figure 3 you can see what you can expect of a clipped audio signal to look like and in Figure 4 you can see what you can expect of a normal audio signal to look like.
In Figure 5, you can see what clipping does to an audio signal.
Essentially, the audio signal is being limited to a certain level so instead of capturing an accurate representation of the audio we are recording, we end up with a poor replica that is limited to a certain level and most probably it even sounds different than the original.
The effects of clipping/distortion are irreversible so you need to be extra careful when recording.
Figure 6 shows in more detail what happens to an original signal when it is clipped and how we end up with the distorted outcome.
In Figure 7, you can see what an example of how to identify if your recording is clipping.
BECAREFULL !
If your audio channel’s dBFS indication has a red colour with a positive number then your recording is clipping.
You definitely DO NOT want to have recordings that are clipping!
You need to make the appropriate adjustments to record on a proper recording level.
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