Blue: Updated

[ptalbot]

sibilance is a [major] problem. i've read the discussion already about mike choice for the vocal....another sad day. i wish there was a law against using sm57/58's for tracking vocals - they are totally dangerous weapons (in 99.9 percent of cases). did i mention the mike used on the Speak Softly Like Horses vox? ......an sm57!! no surprise. the mike is causing other issues too, one is the proximity which then makes it difficult to place in the mix depth-wise, the other is the tonal variations and balance, again because of proximity variance during performance. it doesn't need much of a change in distance/side axis for the vocal to drop right off and change tone along with it - many dynamic mikes are problematic in this regard. this song is all about the vocal.....but the wrong mike choice makes this technically unmixable which i think is a real shame. i like Patrick's vocal character, it deserves a far better mike Personally, from a Producer's perspective, i'd like to have some double-tracking to work with, i think this would add some synergy to the song. i don't know if Patrick used headphones during tracking, but i'd recommend a review of strategy, because it might be contributing to his challenge remaining in key - it's a problem for many vocalists, even the pros! if cans have to be employed (some will use a monitor instead to good effect), try experimenting with the reverb return...often helps. so does a few lessons...and a good vocal warm up session first. a vocal can tire very quickly (eg Loud and Clear multi'), so the best take will happen in the first 3 attempts depending on the song's demands and it's length. i thought this song was too long, by the way. i'd try and edit it down to 3:45 max.

Thanks for the tips The_Mettalurgist!

I did track with headphones. And the sm57 seemed to give me a warmer voice than my usual ADK Hamburg (LDC).
But I recognize easily that in the end it was a very bad decision.

I've read lately about tracking facing your monitors, then recording another take without vocals and using polarity flip to cancel some of the monitor's bleed.
I need to experiment with that another time, because yeah, I do hate headphones, but honestly I'm not a singer either, so...

The way I'm usually tracking with headphones to avoid feeling too isolated and freaked out by my voice is to set the level of the pre-recorded track I sing on to a rather low level, enough for me to hear more of my voice in the room than in the cans... I don't know if this is a good strategy but I feel a bit more comfortable like this. I need to try adding some reverb to my vocal return and see if that helps. Thanks for the tip!

I avoided doubling the vocals on this one, because each time I did it (on other songs) it gave a cool effect but a bit unnatural (which can work) which is not what I wanted for this one.

And I agree about the length. As I said this one came vocal first, which is very unusual for me, and I worked from there. I didn't even included a solo section (which I usually do) because I thought it was rather long already.

BTW I like your posts, they are always very detailed and informative.