5 Tips for Recording Better Vocals at Home

Рет қаралды 12,644

6 ай бұрын

In this video, Australian producer and songwriter Chelsea Warner tell us her five top tips for recording better vocals in a home studio, from sound proofing your space to adding effects and processing to your tracks.
00:33 - Choosing a microphone
01:24 - Preparing the space
02:20 - Microphone technique
03:54 - Basic processing techniques
06:44 - Adding Effects
Filmed at Offbeat Collective in Sydney, Australia: offbeatcollective.com.au
Follow Chelsea Warner on Instagram: / chelseawarnermusic
Check out the NT1 Signature Series: rode.com/microphones/studio-c...
Check out the AI-1: rode.com/interfaces-and-mixer...

Пікірлер: 45

@DJSamerChidiac 6 ай бұрын

Thank you! I'd love to see RODE doing more of these types of videos 🙌

@rodemic 5 ай бұрын

Thanks @DJSamerChidiac, we're a company of creators so making content for the community is something we're always passionate about!

@SomethingMobile 4 ай бұрын

What's cool is this setup can be added to, like she said, a bedroom, garage or when traveling. It might be important to bring a good mic, pop filter, cloud lifter, and some sort of sound deadening. For example, in a hotel room between both beds on the floor with the carpet underneath you. The two beds on either side of you, and the carpet underneath would act as sound deadening material. That's just an example. If you have two fairly large suitcases you could record between those. Just examples of course. Thanks for the video! I'm definitely nowhere near a pro at recording sound, but I do hope my ideas help

@rodemic 4 ай бұрын

Absolutely, @SomethingMobile. A lot of those acoustic elements can be added or taken away as you'd like and they can be portable as well. Good luck with all your recordings!

@SomethingMobile 4 ай бұрын

@@rodemic, thank you. All the best to you

@sovka8394 Ай бұрын

superb! more videos with NT1 and vocal recording tips please

@Boannski 6 ай бұрын

Sometimes stripping down to basics helps me to reset my sonic pallet, good on ya girl!

@rodemic 5 ай бұрын

Absolutely, @Boannski! 2024 is the year to reset your pallet. 🙌

@bruceheid1647 5 ай бұрын

Thanks. Do these guidelines apply to voice overs? Would you pls make a video on VO for travel videos.

@rodemic 5 ай бұрын

Hey there Bruce! Generally, these guidelines would apply the same to recording voicovers. In both cases, you're recording the human voice so, in essence, you can use the same tools and techniques for both. Differences between musical vocals and voiceovers usually are in the performance style. Voiceovers are usually recorded at speaking volume, but musical vocals can be louder, so that can change the gain you might set on the interface you're using. Ultimately, these are all just guidelines - the most important thing is to listen closely to your recordings, experiment with different techniques to improve your recordings.

@Clbb-ce3lf 3 ай бұрын

Hi Rhode great stuff the NT-1 needs a headphone port in the mic to eliminate all latency. I have it via directly to laptop via usb-c it still lag which for a artist that messes you up recording. Even though I have a preamp using usb-c on the go is a must for most people these days though this mic is game changing and in its own league compared to others. The nt1 model 2 needs a headphone port on the mic

@rodemic 3 ай бұрын

Hey there @Clbb-ce3lf, sorry to hear that you're still experiencing high levels of latency when using the NT1 5th Generation. You can check out Julian's guide for reducing latency here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nX3Cn51mjciXldE However, if you're still experiencing high levels of latency, you can get in contact with our support team here for more help: rode.com/en/support/contact

@BroncosoftGames 6 ай бұрын

Thanks for the explanation. But I recommend that with so much technology you use, please buy an external mouse, it seems incredible to do all that work with the laptop's touch mouse 😵‍💫🤪

@literaturcafe 5 ай бұрын

I also only use a touchpad. Even with my desktop computer. Using a mouse is so 1995 for me 😂

@BroncosoftGames 5 ай бұрын

@@literaturcafe The problem is, with the touchpad mouse you need 2 hands to use it. With a normal mouse, you have your left hand free to combine functions, you have the mouse wheel, for the zoom function, up and down, etc. Rather you stayed in 2015 😅. That is, my comment was to make you take off your sunglasses inside the house (metaphorically 😅)

@AAKRITIBAHUGUNA-dy2hx Ай бұрын

Hello, Thanks for this information. Please could you let me know which Mic Stand are you using with Rode mic.

@rodemic Ай бұрын

We'd recommend the DS2 or PSA1+ stands, find our whole range of stands here: rode.com/accessories/stands-bars

@thehumblebardmusic 4 ай бұрын

Recently picked one up with the Rode headphones, I get its a condenser microphone but it seems to always pick up instruments. As an acoustic soloist, singing and playing separately is just too alien. Any tips for getting the mic more dialled in for just the vocals?

@rodemic 4 ай бұрын

What's up @thehumblebardmusic? Good question! If you've got two sounds you're trying to capture separately, think of the position of the mic as a ratio that lets you control how much "bleed" there is between those two sources. If you position the mic perfectly inbetween them, and they're the same volume, they will come through equally. To isolate one sound as much as possible, make the mic as close as possible to your mouth, and turn the gain down on your interface. When singing and playing an instrument at the same time, you may always have some amount of bleed, but how much depends on how far those sources are away from eachother, where they're pointed, how loud they are, how reflective your acoustic environment is, and where your mics are positioned.

@jesustrias8437 6 ай бұрын

👏👏🌷

@DBCasia 4 ай бұрын

What Mac app do you use for editing the sound? What is the app?

@ace2279 4 ай бұрын

It looks like it's Ableton Live

@rodemic 4 ай бұрын

That's correct- it's Ableton Live.

@InaktiverUser 3 ай бұрын

hey rode, one improvement for the future, pls make it possible to buy the popshield from the sm6 by its own, like 20€ for the popshield only cause when you use it often at a certain point the popshield gets very dirty and/or gets broken sometimes, thanks

@rodemic 3 ай бұрын

Thanks - we'll pass that feedback onto the team.

@sarmyparty 4 ай бұрын

many thanks ...what soft is there ?

@rodemic 4 ай бұрын

Hey there @sarmyparty, in the video Chelsea was using Ableton Live. Good luck with your recordings 🙌

@lyneicehaynes4922 3 ай бұрын

I like your singing.

@sabiqzamank 4 ай бұрын

Hello Why is there no silver 4th generation microphone on the website?

@rodemic 4 ай бұрын

Hey there, that's because we haven't ever made a silver colored NT1 4th Generation.

@photronic 4 ай бұрын

I tried emailing Rode about this, but they didn't reply, so here goes: Not to be awkward, or a pedent, but I have to deal with these sorts of confusions with clients quite a bit. Please help! This video is cool enough, and is trying to help, except it makes some erroneous statements: for example that the advantage of LDCs is that they "capture richer lower frequencies" than SDCs, yet it's not frequency response, but rather self noise which is one reason why we want LDCs. Some SDCs, even in Rode's lineup, are far more bassy than some LDCs. It is a common misunderstanding (possibly because bigger speakers potentially have more low than smaller speakers?), but I would hope you would be helping to set this straight, not keeping the misunderstanding going? Then, ironically, we later see her rolling off from 300 Hz, and she says she doesn't need "any" low end because the "human voice doesn't make those frequencies anyway". While it might be a reasonable thing to do for a mix presentation, I can see why people get confused about this stuff when videos like this, especially from a manufacturer, might be far more murky than clear. While compression does make signal levels more consistent it does not "turn up" soft sounds, it only reduces louder parts above a set threshold, resulting in a reduced dynamic range, which may result in the quieter parts being relatively more present than they were before processing. Actual raising of the quieter passages can be done by manually riding the levels (or automating them manually), or using the different, yet related, upward compressor. Everything I am writing here can be cross-referenced, as long as the sources are legit, of course.

@rodemic 4 ай бұрын

Hey Photronic, thanks for the keen interest - we appreciate thoughtful feedback like this, always. We didn't mention SDCs in the video, the intended comparison was between LDCs and dynamic mics. While there are lots of dynamic mics out there with fantastic performance at lower frequencies, so that statement is more of a general observation. So nothing said in the video was intended to be a statement on LDCs, which, as you accurately point out, are certainly misunderstood by some out there in the community. On your point about EQing vocals, we hear what you're saying. Of course, Chelsea didn't mean to say that the human voice bottoms out at 300 Hz, but it was just a case of that statement being matched with footage of her EQing her voice as she sees fit. To your last point, yes, compression doesn't turn up any sounds inherently, however, adjusting the gain to accomodate for any loss of loudless is common practice as part of the compression process for a lot of creators. That's our perspective, but what do you think? Again, the feedback is very helpful.

@AbdulWahid-tv4mr 5 ай бұрын

I just purchased rode podmic a month ago but when I record mic is too quiet, I repeat mic is too quiet, please give me a solution.

@AndrewSmith-ir1ui 5 ай бұрын

Depends on what you have plugged it into. It may well need a boost at the pre-amp stage. If you have a RØDECaster Pro (highly recommended) it should have its own preset that you can select in addition to very clean pre-amps.

@shawnchenco 5 ай бұрын

Klark Teknik MIC BOOSTER is what I use for my Podmics. Clean gain on the cheap. You need to have phantom power to enable the extra gain so you will need an interface/recorder that does this. Cloudlifter or Fethead are other alternatives but I found they are just too expensive. Hope this helps.

@rodemic 5 ай бұрын

Hey there! Sorry to hear your mic is too quiet with your setup - we'd recommend getting in touch with our support team about this here: rode.com/en/support/contact

@Al-Ghaeb 4 ай бұрын

I have the podmic, did multiple podcast recordings, first it needs phantom power, and found out that a good gain is between 50% to 65%, not more not less, if youre amp or interface is not capable of giving enough gain you can use what they call a pre-preamp such as cloud lifter, also be aware that the more gain you push, the more ground noise you will get with the take, so if you get a signal that is hitting between -18 and -12 and you feel its not that loud, thats actually good, since the ground noise is not captured, and you can lift up the level in post productoon without taking the ground noise with you, compressors can be tweeked in a way that raises the voice to a certain level while keeping the quite sound untouched(aka ground noise)

@heinz-ulrichbardelmeier1777 4 ай бұрын

Schade, eigentlich ist Rode doch eine international tätige Firma, die hervorragende Produkte herstellt - auch für den deutschen Markt. Warum gibt es diese Werbung nicht in einer Sprache, die von deutschen Kunden ohne Hilfestellung durch ein Übersetzungsprogramm - und damit auch von älteren Nutzern - problemfrei genutzt werden kann.?

@rodemic 4 ай бұрын

Hey there Heinz - we're sorry that our videos aren't translated into more languages. We'll pass that suggestion onto our team, we appreciate feedback like this, always.