Need advice/tips on getting quality sound recordings

Bowedup · #1 12-02-2015, 05:43 AM

Hello, I have been playing around with recording at home and need advice/tips/suggestions. The recordings of my guitar sound really good on playback (nice clean acoustic sound) but no matter what I try my vocal recordings sound awful. I am recording on a Mac using Garageband with a Scarlet 2i2 and an AKG Percussion 420 mic.

I have recorded my guitar with the mic and plugged into the Scarlet box and both ways I get good quality sound. When I try to record vocals on playback it sounds very nasaly and nothing like live. I fully admit I'm not a great singer but I've tried recording my wife who can sing pretty good as well as another female singer who sings in church and every recording has the same nasally poor sound on playback. I've played with all of the toggle switch settings on the mic with no luck as well as tried varying how close we were singing to it from less than a foot to several feet and observed minimal change in the playback.

Any suggestions? My goal is to record myself singing the song my wife and I danced to at our weddimg to give to her as a christmas present, but the way its going now it would sound better as an instrumental!

Thanks

Scott

paulp1960 · #2 12-02-2015, 06:56 AM

Would that be an AKG Perception 420, not Percussion 420?

If so it should do well enough for vocals.

If you have never recorded vocals before or even auditioned recordings of your own voice you may be experiencing the shock that most people get when they first hear their recorded voice.

It could also be that your recording space is not helping the sound.

Bowedup · #3 12-02-2015, 08:00 AM

My apologies you are correct, it is a Perception 420, iphone auto correct got me.

thanks

Scott

Dan Lampton · #4 12-02-2015, 08:23 AM

The sound of your room can make a huge difference. Try hanging some blankets behind you so the mic doesn't pick up reflections from the room.

MikeBmusic · #5 12-02-2015, 08:24 AM

You can have the low-cut on the mic, that won't change how your vocal sounds, but will cut out any low noise. If you put the pad on, then you would hear a dramatic reduction in volume in the recording.
Make sure you are singing into the correct side of the mic - the side that has the switches. If you are singing into the end or the wrong side, you'd be picking up more room sound.

At what level are you recording? You should be hitting the -18DBFS to -12DBFS range on the DAW meters.

Bowedup · #6 12-02-2015, 11:05 PM

Thank you all for your replies, checked the mic after work and I was singing into the wrong side of it, spun it around and it helped some. Not sure what you mean by recording levels? If you mean the gain setting on the Scarlett box I have it set about 1/2 way up and make sure the led's stay in the green while recording to avoid clipping.

Pardon my ignorance on these topics! Lots to learn.

Thanks!

Scott

MikeBmusic · #7 12-03-2015, 09:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bowedup

Thank you all for your replies, checked the mic after work and I was singing into the wrong side of it, spun it around and it helped some. Not sure what you mean by recording levels? If you mean the gain setting on the Scarlett box I have it set about 1/2 way up and make sure the led's stay in the green while recording to avoid clipping.

Pardon my ignorance on these topics! Lots to learn.

Thanks!

Scott

Recording levels - how far the little color bars are moving in your DAW (I assume Garageband has something like this!). You adjust the recording levels with the gain knobs on the Scarlett.

clintj · #8 12-03-2015, 09:43 AM

Focusrite's Mixcontrol software also has channel dB readouts you can use to help set gain.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

KevWind · #9 12-03-2015, 11:25 AM

Couple more thoughts

There are multiple issues and variables involved as people have pointed out, specific room acoustics, specific mic , pre amp, combinations of mic and pres, playback system, and how all these fit with specific voices etc etc.
Some general thoughts.
The recorded vocal sound is usually not going to sound like what the vocal sounds like, live. They are two different animals.
One big difference is that the sound that reaches the singer or the audience in a live performance is awash in the room reflections specific to that particular space, as well as the above mentions variables.
As previously said , the up close and personal sound from an LCD recorded is going to much much more revealing than a live situation and particularly if it's a dry signal being played back.

Bowedup · #10 12-07-2015, 11:46 AM

Good morning all, just wanted to say thanks for the input. Over the past few days i've experimented greatly with mic gain, mic placement in the room, proximity of the mic to the singer/guitar, as well as the equalizer settings in the recorded tracks and have seen a big improvement in recorded sound quality. Not perfect by any means, but plenty good for my use as a tool to practice and improve my playing.

And thru repeatedly recording tracks trying out settings I've also seen some improvement in my own singing ability. I think with continued practice I'll get the results I'm looking for.

Thanks again for your input on my question.

Scott