Vocal Production Tips and Tricks with Alina Smith

Being able to create professional vocal recordings is an essential skill when it comes to becoming a skilled music producer. Having the right vocal production tips and tricks up your sleeve can help you make the most out of every vocal recording, be it a lead vocal, background vocal or even rap vocal. Here are some useful vocal production tips and tricks that you should know to help you get the best out of every vocal track.

1. Use the Right Microphone
Having the right microphone is essential for producing great sounding vocal recordings. It’s important to select a microphone that is sensitive enough to capture the nuances of the performance and also one that offers a degree of noise rejection to reduce environmental noise from entering the recording.

2. Position the Microphone Correctly
Positioning the microphone is key to capturing a great vocal recording. Try to place the microphone as close to the vocalist’s mouth as possible without it touching their lips. This will help to reduce any room ambience and other external noise.

3. Use a Shock Mount
Using a shock mount is essential to reduce mechanical vibration noise that can be caused by movement, such as when the singer moves around or taps their foot.

4. Add Effects Sparingly
Adding effects such as compression and EQ can help to shape and enhance a vocal recording, but it’s important to use these effects sparingly as excessive use can reduce the quality of the recording.

5. Use a Pop Filter
Using a pop filter is essential to reduce plosives, which are sound bursts of air caused by words such as ‘p’, ‘b’ and ‘t’, from entering your vocal recording.

6. Record Multiple Takes
Recording multiple takes of the same passage can help to capture a really good performance. Listen back to each take, identify the one that best suits your needs and then use the best parts of each take to create a killer vocal recording.

Producing great vocal recordings is not an impossible task, but it can be difficult to achieve. Following these useful vocal production tips and tricks will certainly help you to produce better sounding vocal recordings that you can be proud of.