GUIDE TO

RECORD
AND MIX
VOCALS
PRESENTED BY VORDABEATZZ

MY PERSONAL COLLECTION OF TIPS TO

RECORD AND MIX BY YOURSELF!
 RECORDING TIPS FOR ARTISTS

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................2
WHAT YOU THINK YOU NEED VS. WHAT YOU REALLY NEED ........................................3
THE PREPARATION .......................................................................................................5
WHERE TO RECORD? ....................................................................................................6
BUILDING YOUR VOCALS ..............................................................................................8
BONUS SET OF TIPS ......................................................................................................9
SPECIAL EFFECTS IN THE MIX .....................................................................................11
VOCAL CHAIN .............................................................................................................13
CONTACT ...................................................................................................................14

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 RECORDING TIPS FOR ARTISTS

INTRODUCTION
First of all, thank you for getting my Premium Artist Bundle. My name is Davor
Vinkešević or simply Vordabeatzz as my producer name goes. I'm coming from Croatia,
mid-Europe country. I've been playing with sound since 2005, but I've taken it more
seriously last 6 years.
This book is a collection of experiences,
problems, and resolutions I've come across during
my musical explorations. Most of the things I
mention here are tested „on the field“ by me.
The main point I'll be talking about in this book
is recording in your home studio. If you're paying for
studio time and mixing, then this book might help
you get information (and courage) to do it yourself in
your own house if you wanted to do so, but don't
know what you need. If you already record home, this book will hopefully help you
improve your sound, and if you already have all this, you might still want to read it
because you might pick something you didn't know.
Let's be real. Studio time can cost from $20 to $150 per hour, and when this adds
up to 10 and more hours... This could be especially hard if you don't have a large budget
for your music or you can't fund yourself with music yet.
You can equip yourself with affordable equipment and have decent sound. Some
of the stuff needed you probably already have. Of course, you can't expect laptop
integrated mic to do you super quality vocals. Although I've tried this in the past and
depending on the model, you could get „not so bad“ vocal quality. If this is your only
resource at the moment, you gotta use it! But as soon as you're able, grab yourself a
quality mic.

Being resourceful is the key when you're starting up or having a

limited budget!

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 RECORDING TIPS FOR ARTISTS

WHAT YOU THINK YOU NEED VS. WHAT

YOU NEED
Maybe you think you need to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on
equipment to get that decent sound. While in reality you only need a mic and peaceful
room that doesn't have much echo and reverb, along with some other factors. And
yeah, a laptop, PC, Mac, or whatever you use with some recording software installed.
Having anything else is just a bonus, especially when you're starting up, don't have a
budget for the studio, fancy equipment, etc. If you got this, then great! If not, read on...

As an artist, what you need is to record a lot of songs.

Not having access or money for the studio, not having your equipment or any
other reason shouldn't stop you from recording and practicing. Recording from home
can sound good as well, you only need to play smart. With all the tools we got right
now at our hands, there is little room for excuses! As you know, practice makes perfect
so you should be able to record when you want, and with this book, I want to help you
achieve that and show you it's actually possible!
I recorded in my bedroom for a long time, and I could get pretty decent sound
even on the average mic. I've also heard other people recording in their living room or
bedroom and it sounded good, so yeah, it can be done.
Sound largely depends on the stuff you got in your room. I would call this
accidental acoustic treatment because in most cases we don't plan our room to be a
studio and we didn't place every piece there with this idea on our mind. But it can
sound good. And you can do some things to improve it by using the stuff you have in
your room.
Pick a room that you hear the best when recording, if possible. Wooden furniture
can help scatter and absorb some sounds (depending on the wood structure) while lots
of flat walls can reflect the sound a lot. Recording in the bathroom for example would
be a bad idea since there are mostly ceramic tiles around and sound will reflect a lot.
Unless you're chasing some specific effect, this wouldn't sound too good in the end. It
can't be fixed or at least totally removed without distortion during mixing.
And again, you should ask yourself do you really need that super good perfect
sound coming from Telefunken U-47 in a studio while you can get decent sound for
some reasonable price in your own home when you want and how much you want.

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 RECORDING TIPS FOR ARTISTS

Here is a quick list of tools that are „essential“ for home recording:
• Computer
• DAW (like FL Studio, Cubase, Pro Tools, etc)
• Audio Interface (if you have USB mic you can do without Audio Interface)
• Microphone (of course)
• Headphones (so you can hear music much better)
• Mic stand and a pop filter (highly suggested, especially pop filter)
• Studio monitors (if you have space in the budget for them)

Optional things are:

• Mic shield (easy make one yourself – watch on youtube)
• Pre-amp (better sound quality, lower noise, more gain, special sound
character, but if you're just starting up, don't buy this, audio interfaces
have good enough pre-amps and you need to get decent pre-amp to
outperform audio interface)

There are few mic types – condenser, dynamic, and ribbon. For independent
artists, it's most likely we'll invest in good condenser mic.
If you're using a condenser mic, it will be most likely that you're going to use XLR
cable. This is a „balanced“ setup, which prevents electromagnetic interference from
corrupting an audio signal, such as one going between a microphone and an audio
interface for example. Here is an interesting article if you want to learn more about
this.
Condenser mics for example require an additional power supply, which should be
included with Audio Interface or Pre-Amp. This is called Phantom Power and it's used
to power it's electronic circuitry.

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 RECORDING TIPS FOR ARTISTS

THE PREPARATION
Before the actual recording, it would be good to prepare for the session. The first
thing is knowing your song or at least most of it without looking at your device or paper
for lyrics. If you're looking at it all the time you're distracted and in most cases not
giving your 120% because you must look in advance what's coming next and constantly
keep up with it. So it's good practice to do this in advance before recording.
Another good thing is to do a quick reference recording just to get familiar with
the song. After you're finished, you can export it and listen for a couple days. This way
you can also get plenty of ideas on what to add, what sounds odd, what can be done
better etc. And also, you will learn your song while listening, so when you record „for
real“ it will be much smoother.

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 RECORDING TIPS FOR ARTISTS

WHERE TO RECORD?
Like I mentioned before, the room you record in will play a huge role in how your
vocals are going to sound. I mean, it won’t change the sound of your voice, but it might
sound dull or boomy because of low frequencies reflecting around. That is because low
frequencies are pretty hard to control. One of the main characteristics of low frequency
is that it can travel long distances without much attenuation (which means a reduction
in level or volume). That means it can bounce for a long time and create that boxy
boomy sound you can hear when you record.
I still remember recording in a friend’s basement. There was a small room within
a room that we used as a “recording booth”. Sound in that small room was so bad and
we thought we could drop some soundproof foam on all walls and we expected the
sound to improve. BUT… The sound was all but good. No matter what we did inside, it
was like you’re recording in a wooden box that is placed in the bathroom. The problem
was that we acoustically treated a smaller room, but lower frequencies went through
the wall and reflected back from the main room. We didn’t know that we had to treat
a big room as well… but even if we did, we didn’t have that kind of money to get this
task done. We could just try another room which had a much better sound.
Another problem that might arise is noise from inside and outside. Outside noise
can be something like:
• Cars passing by
• Street ambient
• Weather conditions (rain, wind)
• People yelling, talking
• Machinery
• Sound from other rooms
Noise coming from inside can also be a problem:
• Laptop / PC fans
• Mobile phone notifications
• Various equipment that can create sounds
• Ventilation
• Headphone bleeding
Make sure you got everything on mute when recording, because that sounds
can’t be removed, at least not without some losses, and you will need to record again
for better performance. Do not lose great takes because of some unimportant
Facebook notification.

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 RECORDING TIPS FOR ARTISTS

For outside noise, you can’t do much except close windows or pick a room that’s
on the other side of the street. Another solution is recording during quiet hours, in the
morning or evening/night, when things slow down. If it’s raining, pick another time.
There is one more thing you can do and that is recording closer to the
microphone so that he picks direct sound more than the noise. If there is some
constant noise present, avoid recording at low volume, because, when you amplify
the vocal, you will also amplify the noise. Most audio editors have a noise removal
tool, but most of the time it doesn’t come without sacrifice and that can further reduce
the quality of the vocal. In the picture below, you can see an example of what I mean.
When you amplify the second signal, the noise will also greatly increase with it. On first
signal noise most probably won’t even be heard when you mix the song in the end.
This is something you would want your signal to look like in your audio editor. Just try
not to go over to the top because you will hear cracking and distortion since everything
over 0dB is lost data. You can keep it at 50-60% just to be sure. If noise is too loud, try
to look for the source and remove/reduce it.

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 RECORDING TIPS FOR ARTISTS

BUILDING YOUR VOCALS

Since we understand what we’re dealing with, it’s time to record some actual
vocals. BUT… while having single lead vocal can sound natural and “real”, you should
also consider recording doubles and backing vocals and ad-libs, something to fill the
gaps.
Backing vocals mostly help some parts to stand out more. In hip hop, you can
hear it mostly on the last few words on each bar. Doubles can be thrown over the
whole verse/chorus part so they bring unique feeling and make your vocal stand out
more from the instrumental.
I would strongly advise recording doubles because they will improve vocal sound
so much and bring more energy out!
But there is a catch! I often heard double vocals out of sync in so many places.
This way, you gotta either record them again or cut them and re-arrange before mixing
so they stay in line with the lead vocal. If they’re not in line with the lead, it will sound
odd and not so great. It will actually be pretty annoying. The same goes for backing
vocals. They gotta be in line as much possible. While some slight difference is advised,
if it’s too much, you will hear it as something is “not in place”. For ad-libs, you can play
around and improvise.
There is also a harmony, which goes above or below lead vocal, looking at the
pitch. This also creates an interesting effect which you can make through the whole
vocal part, or add only to some places to make it stand out. This might take some time
to learn, but nothing goes without practice.
In my opinion, a key difference between regular double and harmony double is
that in harmony you mostly play with the pitch, for example, 3 or 5 semitones up or
down. If you’re not singing, you should not worry about this tho, focus only on doubling
your vocal. If you never tried to record double, try it and I believe you will be blown
away with the sound.
When recording, I strongly suggest working with headphones. If you do it with
speakers, the mic will pick up music from the background, yet you can’t record with
speakers on low volume because you won’t hear anything and you will struggle to
follow the beat. Still, with headphones, you must watch out not to go too wild with
volume because that’s what mic is going to pick up as well. I suggest using closed-back
headphones to prevent “bleeding” as much as possible.

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 RECORDING TIPS FOR ARTISTS

BONUS SET OF TIPS

Use high pass filter directly on your microphone, if it has one. This way you will remove
unnecessary low end right on the mic.

Record in mono. Mostly because recording in stereo will create huge files and fill out
your hard drive faster. And the second thing, there is no point recording in stereo if
you’re recording only with a single mic.

Record in 44.1kHz or 48kHz sample rate. Increasing this will use more CPU power and
take more disk space as well.

Again, when recording, I suggest doing it with headphones, but keep an eye on
headphones “bleeding”. This means when you’re playing music on high volume, the
mic will pick up the sound coming from the headphones. If it’s too loud, it will degrade
the quality of the vocal when mixing.

If your mic has polar patterns, you can use a Cardioid pattern, which picks up sounds
in front and sides and rejects from the rear. This will further reduce the sound bouncing
from the walls. You can also turn back of your mic towards noise source, so you
minimize its sound input.

Use a pop filter in front of the mic so you avoid breathing into the mic when saying P
or B. And keep some space between pop filter and mic. Otherwise, it won’t do its work.
If you don’t have one, you can try facing your mouth in small-angle so you’re not facing
mic directly. This way your breaths will pass near the mic.

Test out the distance between you and the mic. Closer you are to the mic there will be
more low end in your vocal. Keep in mind that if you have some noise going around,
going too far will also mean you will be quieter and noise will make your problems later
on. Test this out so you know what’s the best.

Record without effects on your vocal so you get dry, raw audio. Most important is that
if you record with effect on, you can’t remove it later, or make any changes to it. When
this is done, it can’t be undone.

Record more than you need. It’s better to have more takes and be able to pick the best
instead of doing a single take and leave it as it is. Even if it sounds good, do more takes
so you can pick them later. You never know what might come up later.

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 RECORDING TIPS FOR ARTISTS

In case you have a budget for your music, invest some in-room acoustical treatment
instead of non-essential equipment. This is worth every cent. But educate yourself
before going into this investment, since there is also a good way and a bad way to do
this.

If you have a problem with hearing yourself with a delay during recording, that means
you’re monitoring your voice in DAW, which in most cases has a slight delay. What you
should do is use your interface “direct sound” to monitor mic input and mute yourself
in DAW.

If you have some questions or wanna talk about something, feel free to follow up on
my contacts on the last page. I will gladly help you with problems and doubts. If you
think there is something that could be added or improved don’t hesitate and drop me
a message.

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 RECORDING TIPS FOR ARTISTS

SPECIAL EFFECTS IN THE MIX

Equalizer, Compressor, Reverb, and Delay. Those are core effects I use in vocal
chains. They all have their specific functions during mixing.

Equalizer

An equalizer is a tool you use when you want to remove or boost certain “pieces”
in sound. That piece is actually frequency. You can imagine it “divided” by low, mid,
and high end. If I can generalize my use of EQ on vocals, I would say that I do this:
• Cut everything below 100-150Hz (depending on the voice) so we get rid of
any low end that passed the mic. This is mostly a booming sound which
goes in the way with the kick, 808s and generally any bass sound
• Reduce few dB between 200Hz and 500Hz to reduce muddy sound
• Increase a few dB around 3-5kHz to make vocal stand out, if necessary.
This will also help with clarity
• Depending on the situation, I would increase between 7-11kHz to add
some air. I do this mainly on lead vocal, so it stands out from the rest.
Although this move depends on how vocal actually sounds. If it’s already
high in this part, I would do some reduction. Also, keep in mind boosting
this range might also boost hi-hats, snares, and other percussions behind
vocal that mic possibly picked up, so it might create some problems on the
whole mix. Do this carefully.

* Everything mentioned here is pure advice. For best sound follow your ears. Play with these settings
until you notice differences.

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 RECORDING TIPS FOR ARTISTS

Compressor

A compressor is actually a pretty simple, yet powerful tool. It can push down loud
parts and make the overall volume louder. It's basically automated volume control.
When the volume exceeds a threshold, it gets reduced by a defined ratio. It has several
core settings as follows:
• Threshold – the point after which compression kicks in – you want to set this
so it only affects loud parts
• Ratio – the amount of compression applied to signal after it passes the
threshold – for example, ratio 4:1 would turn 8dB above threshold down to
2dB - you can try between 3:1 and 5:1 on your vocals
• Attack – how quickly compressor applies compression after sound passed
threshold – try 10ms
• Release – how quickly compressor reduces compression back to 1:1 after
sound goes below threshold – try 50ms
• Makeup gain – volume increase after compression – you can try 2 or 3dB
increase for a start
Keep in mind, over-compressing (low threshold, high ratio) can bring up the noise on
quiet parts. Finding a balance between these two is in my opinion first step when
compressing.

* Everything mentioned here is pure advice. For best sound follow your ears. Play with these settings
until you notice differences.

Delay and reverb

These two can be used to enhance and add space in your vocals. As for lead
vocals, I tend to use them very subtle but on backing vocals and ad-libs I often
experiment and go all-in if it suits the track. If not, I play with a 20-50% reverb and
delay.
Long reverb can muddy up the whole mix if not controlled. If you're not sure, I
would advise using the subtle, just enough so you can hear the effects.

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 RECORDING TIPS FOR ARTISTS

VOCAL CHAIN
This is a basic vocal chain that I use on almost every song. Normally, I would add
other effects before or after these, but here we focus on those core effects mentioned
above. You can go with these for a start if you haven't mixed before.

Equalizer

Compressor

Delay

Reverb

I put them exactly in this order. EQ first to clean up sound before compression.
A compressor comes before delay and reverb. Delay is before reverb because the
other way around it would everything extra muddy. You can, of course, play with
effect order to hear what would

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