Vocal Artist Production Project
Following a short brief of working with a client to record vocals over backing tracks for a performance showreel - a studio recording session was arranged through liaison with the studio owner and client. In preparation for this recording session, the recording setup was familiarised along with the choice of backing tracks for contextual consideration when recording. With prior communication with the artist, it was established that the vocal’s would be a dynamic mix of head / chest voice requiring a mid level gain structure to provide headroom for loud sections.
With the approach to ensuring clients are comfortable and in a relaxed creative environment curated by the studio, and with the client being a friendly individual the recording process went very smoothly. Encouragements and reassurances on the performances were needed, due to the apparent artist’s nerves this was both supportive to the session and positively received by the client. In recording scenarios, it is important to consider that an artist may feel self-conscious and doubtful about their abilities - it is crucial to be able to identify this and provide gentle support when approporately necessary. As especially with vocal recording, the aspect of capturing emotively charged performances can inherently come with these factors to consider. To ensure a successful session, it is recommended to guide the artist into a state whereby they can fully articulate their expression - through being friendly, patient, supportive and encouraging.
With the session being a success in this way, the clients value from time was not only maximised as they recorded more tracks then initially planned - but they walked out of the studio feeling more confident in their long-anticipated first steps into vocal performance recording. It was also a gratifying experience for myself as an engineer & producer to be a part of that process.
Going into the post-production for this session, the mixing stages were relatively simplistic - utilising only the recorded vocal tracks and single stereo backing tracks. For the mix, vocals took focus with some soft compression to balance levels throughout the tracks. A small degree of reverb was applied to sit these layers better into the backing track. The backing vocal layers were also planned and arranged to wrap around the stereo field as requested by the client.
Upon completion of the mixing post production stage, the client was sent a digital test pressing containing the 4-track suite. Following a meeting with the client to reflect on the project and determine if there was any adjustments required - the client requested some mastering to add extra enhancement to the mixdowns : requesting a lift in presence, level and reverb.
Going into this mastering stage with the brief in mind, I utilised a researched mastering technique I have recently been using to achieve this sound. Adding a fuller mid-range and shine to top-end signal, an emulation of the Dolby A trick brought an added enhancement to the mixdowns - balancing the level with a lift which brought in a crisper presence and emphasis on lower-level sound. The processing utilised culminates in a multi-band expander, with emphasis on top-end air - results are similar to the enhanced FM sound of post-processing, however maintains original signal peaks without any heavy downwards compression.
