Everything you Need to Know about recording your own vocals, easy tricks and Basics to enhance your vocal performance for your recording session.
So there’s a lot of,  well, let me just get into the, into the nuts and balls of this. So there’s a lot of preparation and involved, there’s things to consider before recording this. It’s, it’s a broad subject. are you ready to record your vocals? there’s, I’m gonna talk about a couple vocal techniques. I’m going to show you a couple, couple of examples as well.
then we are gonna get into backing vocals a little bit. EQ-ing, preamp. and then there’s actually, there’s no assignment in this one, but there’s gonna be a q and a afterwards. so yeah, a lot of, a lot of fun stuff. and I’m just gonna get going. So preparation, do I have all the tools to record my own demo vocals? or even a lot of demo vocals end up actually being real vocals. So,  you know, and this is actually a really great question because  everyone’s different, but for me, recording vocals, I try to set everything up as good as I can when I record my demo vocals, just because most of the time I end up using them  because later on it’s never better.
talking about we are gonna get to that later. But talking about  just,  you know, being in that moment when you wrote the song or when it’s really fresh and you’re really excited about it and there’s something really unique about that moment that sometimes it’s hard to capture later on.
And there’s certain people who are great at it. I’m not, so I know myself quite well. So for me, whenever I write a song and I have like  some kind of a semi, you know, production done on the track, even if it’s just like very rudimental, I wanna make sure that my demo vocals might also be my real vocals that I go with later on. So this is a big thing for you to consider. And everyone’s different.
Again. Some people are really great at just recording later on and get it totally perfect. but for me, perfect, because I’m a singer and that’s what I study, I get like caught up in my head a lot of the time  when I try to retrack it later on because by then I’ve heard the song many times. I did the whole production. So I’ve lost a lot of the times, I’ve lost a little bit of that feeling. So  just something to consider once you record your vocals. They might be the final ones.  So preparation. So you need a, a, your digital audio workstation.
You need a computer. Most people these days that do music, work with a Mac, but I’m sure you, I know that you can do it on any computer that works for you. I probably couldn’t help out with any different computer than a Mac, but all these, all the systems, everything, all the programs you get for everything. So that’s all you need to have.  And then  you obviously need microphones, you need cables. you do need a mic stand and you definitely wanna have a pop filter.
actually there’s one right here in the back if you can see it. ’cause I did just track some vocals before the session. which is a happy coincidence. There’s also a mic behind that. I’m gonna talk about that later. but you do wanna, have these things. Â I know that there’s recordings out there that actually have been recorded just into in MacBook, because, again, it was in the moment and the vocal sound are really good. so I, I do know people that end up using like a voice memo recording or something like that.
And for certain things it, it really works. but if you are making music and if you’re writing songs, Â you do wanna have a mic. and I’m gonna show you a couple options later on. And then recording room, you don’t necessarily need, like a, Â a dedicated vocal booth. some people have that. but these days there’s like, you know, there’s like kind of these half vocal booths that you can just buy. I don’t know if you’ve seen it before, but they kind of just, you kind of sing into like a half circle.
that’s a really nice one. I  honestly like to use, blankets. I just kind of put them around me or like  try to make the the room sound a little more muffled. I also, because this is a studio, I also do have some absorption. actually all, all the way here on this side of the wall. and also behind me a little bit. you do wanna have, you do wanna make sure that you have a quiet room  and that you have no reflections unless that’s something that you’re looking for.
Obviously if you record your vocals in a church, there will be a lot of natural reverb. And if that’s what you’re going for, then that’s what you might wanna try. But be aware that you cannot change that later on. You cannot add, you can add a different reverb, but you cannot take the reverb off once you record it with it. which obviously makes sense. But, it’s just nice to remember. Â and, yeah, so basically find a, find a quiet space.
Find a quiet room, Â and, see if you can, you know, if you feel, if you hear any reflection, you might wanna go into a corner where you can just like, put two blankets on either side of the wall or like, at least have a little bit of absorption. That’d be really, really helpful. and then next thing, plugins. Do you wanna use plugins or do you have a good vocal preamp? a lot of interfaces these days have, just preempts in them.
so you might not need it. And plugins, everyone’s using plugins these days. So, you know, it’s, if you have that, that totally works. if you still go to like a traditional studio, you will see a lot of good vocal preempts. maybe API preempts. There’s millions channel. There’s so many really, really wonderful preempts, but they’re really expensive. and if you start, you wanna consider if, Â if that’s what you wanna go for, how much money you wanna invest, it’s basically how much money you have.
and also I always say like, if you want, if you’re getting, if you’re getting a really, really fancy mic and you really spend a lot of money on a good mic,  it might not be the worst to get a really good vocal preamp as well. ’cause then you just have that unit and it’s just great for recording vocals. it really makes no sense to get like a really, really great preamp. If you have like a mic for 50 bucks. Like  it’s just, you know, like, you kind of just have to pick what you wanna go for.
If you wanna get like a semi okay mic and just use plugins, I think that’s a great start. If you want to, you know, do a high end vocal recording and, that’s like really important to you, it might be worth investing. And then you have that, you know, for the rest of your life. So just something to consider. another quick thing to consider is, am I happy with the song arrangement and form? And, Â you know, people always ask me, why do you put that in? I’m putting it in because I’ve done, I’ve recorded numerous takes and songs where, I was so excited in the beginning and then I tracked it and then I was like, Â but this one lyric line I just don’t like anymore.
How do I, why did I do that? or I actually wanted to have a double hook. And you can, you know, you can get, you can get away with a lot of these things, but if you have like a really, really great vocal take already recorded, and  then you do wanna change some lyrics, good luck with getting into the same feeling.
Good luck getting the same setup with your, with your mic and maybe your preem or with, you know, like it’s just a can of worms that you’re opening up. So you really wanna be sure that you’re happy with the song arrangement and the form and that you’re happy with the lyrics and the melody. Â Because if you’ve take, if you recorded a great vocal track and you, and there’s something that bothers you, but not in the performance, but in the actual arrangement and in the lyrics, Â it’s just, it just you.
You’re gonna be, you’re gonna be p****d. I, I’ve been there really many, many times and I was like, ah, why did I get so excited? I Â just wanted to do it. Â Patience might not be, might be a good reminder for that. and then things to consider before recording your demo vocals. so, Â and this is a really, really big thing ’cause everyone’s different and everyone writes differently. Everyone has a different idea of what they wanna sound like and what the song should sound like.
so  consider what, what kind of actually maybe do some research. What kind of singers and productions and songs and recordings do you like, and why do you like the singing on these tracks? so here are some examples. What do I like my vocals? Who sound like, do you like a rather warm sound? Maybe a ribbon mic would be something interesting for you. Do you want a rather crisp sound? Which is like a lot of the pop recordings these days, you know, crisp and clean. if that’s something that you’re going for, you know, you might wanna get like a really nice noman or like, you know, something that gives you like a very, very natural tone.
 Again, listen to some references, do research. And I cannot stretch this enough because I think a lot of people when they start, or I at least never did when I was young, I just started recording, but I never thought about what I want my vocals to sound like. So do your work,  do some research. also what vocal sound is fitting for the song arrangement.
So if you have like a super mellow moody track, Â having super crisp vocals might not be the right choice, but also maybe they stick out even more if they’re super crispy and clean. You know, maybe you just want the song to sound like a really nice warm blanket, then maybe, you know, it would be great if your vocals would sound really warm as well, but maybe everything is warm, the whole production is warm, but just your vocals are peeking out and are super shiny could also be great.
You know, again, there’s no right or wrong to this.
