Entry - Recording At Large - "In The Wilderness"

It's been a while since my last entry on this blog but now I have had a request to make a few comments about the techniqu of recording in the wilderness.

By the wilderness I will presume to be outside in the open air with many different enviroments to contend with.

I will alway revert to the basic requirement for good recording and that will be the quality and

Echo -

Spring Reverb - Is It Restritive - backing Tracks At Soundback.

To follow on from the Echo/Delay we move to the Reverb and in this case the Spring Reverb a pre- cursor to the Digital Reverb. From my experiences the Spring Reverb is not a tool I would use on a Vocal Recording unless I was using it as an extravagant effect, lets say an effect such as wanting to sound as if I was recording in a tunnel although I can't imagine why I would want to do that. With the invention of the Digital Reverb with it's many more capabilities and settings I would suggest the Spring Reverb being used on Vocals be laid to rest. We shall examine the Digital Reverb in my next post on this subject.

Echo And It's Multiple of Use's - The Soundback Way

You must have heard at some point the effect of the use of Echo on a sound recording, probably in many cases you would not have recognised it. Where it does stand out and in many different time delays is in Dub music this mainly being contributed to Reggae. Simple delays/echo's are used in most modern recordings mainly to fatten up the sound of the vocal and as we are concentrating only on the vocal and it's recording needs we will only make comments in that area. Next blog post I will deal with the difference between Digital Delay/Echo and Tape Delay/Echo. > http://www.soundback.co.uk/

Effects - How To Use Them - The Soundbcak Way.

Following on from the microphone techniques advice given by the Backing Track Vocal Recording Guru courtesy of www.soundback.co.uk we now go on to examine the way to use effects such as echo,reverberation,compression and transposition amongst others.
To start the discussion/advice as normal we welcome your input as to what you think is important when using any of the named effects.
Please make your requests and questions on a blog post.

Listen To - A - "Quality Recorded Vocal"

Recorded at a studio in Essex I believe this particular recording is of the highest quality you would find at a budget level. It's a song called Autumn Years and vocal'ed by Alton Ellis to which a sample the song can be heard on line at http://www.reggae.me.uk/listen.html

www.reggae.me.uk

Have a listen and make a comment I will reveal all such as which Mic,Reverb,Compressor and Mixing Desk was used to create it.

Continuation Of "The Backing Track Vocal Recording Guru" - "How To Choose The Right Track To Sing"

O'k so after much consideration of those important decisions as to which Backing track to select and purchase with regards to key,tempo,style and feel the next step in the Vocal Recording Guru's opinion is who do I take into the studio to advise and motivate me in giving my best performace.

I will leave you with these thoughts for a while and maybe we can discuss this once you have put forward your thoughts on the matter.

http://www.soundback.co.uk/

Continuation Of "The Backing Track Vocal Recording Guru" - "How To Choose The Right Track To Sing"

I left the question open on my last entrance to this blog of "how to find the right song to sing". I am going to suggest three important features that you should consider when choosing your songs.

1st, and in my opinion most important is that you select the right key and to do this you will need to know what is your best key to sing in, we shall go into that on my next entry to this blog.

2nd, and this may take a little experimentation to find the right genre, a song that you feel will allow you to let your emotions in.

3rd, Although you will want to test yourself stamina and energy play a bit part of achieving a good recording so consider the lenth of your song.

From the right key point of view http://www.soundback.co.uk/ supply samples of their tracks before you purchase so you might want to keep this in mind.

Importance Of Backing Track Selection - From - "www.soundback.co.uk"

OK the Guru has given you advice on  techniques with microphones along with how to and what to use when choosing them to get the best recording possible, of course this can only be achieved if the right song is selected, we need to progress on so I will ask this question, what would you say would be a priority when choosing a backing track to record your vocal onto.
I will leave this question open for a while so as to get you thoughts on the matter. You may leave your thoughts in the comments area.
You can of course look through the www.soundback.co.uk catalogue for you question's ideas.

Backing Track Selection for Recording - "From www.soundback.co.uk"

OK so the Guru has taken you through several techniques on microphones both with how to use and what to use to get a quality recording. Of course this can only be achieved if the right song is selected to record your vocal onto. What might you think is important when you make your selection.....?
I will leave this question open for a while so that I can get some of your ideas in the comments area as to what you think is important.

Continuation of Microphone education by "The Backing Track Vocal Recording Guru"

Well after many pieces of advice over the months I hope that it has all been worthwhile and that the advice has been of a benefit. The advice has been sponsored by www.soundback.co.uk and will be updated regularly. With technology changing and supposedly improving with time it is very important that you can use modern Mic Tech to try to re-create an older sound I as the Vocal Recording Guru have never found up to this point a successful way of doing this and use my experience of where possible to use the original Microphone that was used on the original recording to find out how to do that find out in the next blog by the "The backing Track Vocal Recording Guru" sponsored by www,soundback.co.uk.

Soundback Mic workshop - Continued

"In my next blog on the subject I will delve deeper in microphone identification" Those were the words that were written in my last entry to this blog.

O,k so identify the right microphone for the job is a matter more for the experienced that the novice as I would suggest 85% of the decision would have been made by trial and error.
How do you get it right first time? well I can only give my suggestion to you and that is to read, magazines,articles and blogs such as this one.

So lets hear some opinions from you producer/engineers out there how many of you would suggest a microphone for recording in an environment lets say Deep Rain Forest that is also being filmed.

How To Identify Settings Cont.

To Identify microphone settings the best anenue to take would be to check with the makers supplied info sheets this will advice you how to get the best from the Microphones frequency responces. remember Cardioid, Hyper-Cardioid and Omni I will explain the difference in my next blog entry.

Identifying microphone settings

O'k we have in our hand all of the equipment needed to make a decent recording out in the open air of lets say for arguments sake a specific Frog that is croaking away with many other Frog of a different species. How do we go about making sure that the croaking of the Frog were are wanting to priorities is at the forefront of the recording and not lost in the background.

For the answer to this follow this blog.Cardoid

Free Advice - Continuation of Wilderness Recording

To follow on from the advice given yesterday by the Backing Track Vocal Recording Guru on microphones and their settings for outside wilderness recordings.

We established in the last blog that the setting on microphones are very important for capturing a quality recording on all formats so how do you know what the right settings are.

This is where the Guru comes in, let him know your recording enviroment what equipment you have available and a time scale if there is one and the Guru will give an opinion on the best way to achieve the best result.

Wilderness Recording - "Info@The Backing Track Vocal Recording Guru"

It's been a while since my last entry on this blog but now I have had a request to make a few comments about the technique of recording in the wilderness.

By the wilderness I will presume to be outside in the open air with many different environments to contend with.

I will always revert to the basic requirement for good recording and that will be that the quality and type of microphone needed to capture the true sound at a volume that can be stored on a medium so that playback will be as close to the original as possible.

Multiple settings on microphones would be advisable in most instantses so that all around sound plus hyper directional can be achieved at the flick of a switch.

In my next plog on the subject I will delve deeper in microphone identification.

Small Vocal Range - "Sound Forge" - "Backing Tracks At Soundback"

For those that only have a small vocal singing range and find it difficult to get backing tracks to suit beware of the short and simple answer. My experiences that the short and simple answer most singers go for is the transposing of backing tracks, obviously it is less expensive than getting tracks made in your natural key but can be quite disappointing when it comes to sound quality. There are some very good programmes on the market that will do a decent job the one I use is Sound Forge but with even the best facility available the things such as distance from the original key,tempo and particularly the sound quality of the original track that is being transposed are very important when it comes to the finish article. At www.soundback.co.uk we make tracks at a very reasonable cost that will enhance your performance and show that you have a high standard to offer your customers in both the backing track quality and performance which in my opinion give confidence and go hand in hand. If you wish advice in this are I will be happy to help just leave a message on my post.

The Guru Writes" - "Find Him At Soundback"

How to over come the thin voice syndrome. The thin voice syndrome is when a singer male or female can hit the pitch of a note but it sounds weak but it is still the best that can be achieved. The Guru suggests that the singer leans the technique of double tracking this will certainly give the vocal the extra power and also boost the harmonics within the voice.
The Guru will take questions on double tracking on comments.

Who-Do-You-Put-Your-Trust-In - Soundback.co.uk

When it comes to getting an opinion on what is a good sounding vocal who can you trust to give to the right advice. Obviously if you have a large budget and know someone you can afford an experienced and high profile producer that will in my opinion be able to reference your vocal against the quality of previous artists he has worked with and give a respected opinion that you can trust. What if you cannot afford that or maybe have never had contact with anyone at that level where do you go for help. I have a suggestion,listen to your self,CAREFULLY WITH FOCUS and with the object of improving the quality of your vocal also feel if it is right when you are singing,if when you sing there is a note or phrase that does not come out as you want it to work with it until you can feel good about it when you are performing it. I will be leaving this blog as ongoing so ask a question or make a comment for me to respond to.

How-to-get-a-good-recording-of-your-vocal"

Before I move on to give my opinion of "how to get a good recording of your vocal" I would like to invite opinions from the floor,(readers of the blog).

http://www.soundback.co.uk/mp3/INTERMISSION/All-Together-Now/5723-mp3-backing-tracks.php