I spend a lot of time working on how to record my vocals and mix and master music. It’s difficult getting started doing this and sifting through all the information on the internet. When I started I thought it would be easy. I would record a vocal to a karaoke track to see what my voice sounded like and use it to work on my vocals and expression. It turned out it wasn’t as easy as I thought. I started recording on my iPhone and then graduated to Pro Tools lite with a Focusrite 2i2 interface. After a host of difficulty using this setup to track vocals with plugins enabled including, having delay, popping, and clicking and others, I ended upgraded my equipment.
Right now, I am using the Apollo X4 interface with a Townsend Labs Sphere L22 microphone. These two pieces of equipment allowed my to track with plugins enabled like reverb and compression without printing that information to the track. In the mixing stage I can then change the microphone used using the Townsend Labs Sphere plugin and get the sound I really want. I only have a few go to plugins right now that are mainly UAD and FabFilter based. I’m lucky enough to get a student discount which really helped on the cost of plugins. Without that I would be using the stock ProTools plugins which are great, they just aren’t as easy or straightforward to use.
This isn’t a professional opinion. I’m a newbie at recording. This is my current setup for the songs I’ve released and at this point it’s the best I can do. Hopefully, this article will help someone getting started select equipment and have success recording their first song.
Abby
Universal Audio Apollo Console (Tracking)
This is the Apollo UAD tracking console I used when recording When We Were Young. It’s pretty simple. The key is I have the UAD MON setting on. This allows you to do anything you want in console to get a great headphone mix but still track the vocal dry in your DAW. I’m using Pro Tools as my DAW and it works really well for what I am doing.
On the main input I have channel 1-2 linked together as a stereo pair for the Townsend Labs Sphere L22 microphone. Then I’m using a Neve 1184 preamp in unison to add a little color to the microphone input. Keep in mind Unison mic preamps do get recorded even in UAD Mon so you don’t want to do very much with the Neve 1184 because it will be printed in the track.
Outside of that, I have the sphere plugin on the main vocal channel with a LD-22 microphone selected and an LA2A compressor, so I don’t have to worry about singing soft or loud when i am tracking. This helps me feel what I am singing a little better while not blowing out the loud parts. The main inputs are mixed to Aux 1 where I am running the Real Verb Pro plugin with a standard room to get some extra spice in my headphone mix. Outside of that, the DAW is sending the main track to the console on Virtual 1-2. That way, I can increase or decrease the volume in the headphones with the slider and not have to change the DAW.
Townsend Labs Sphere L22 -> UAD Console is being tracked in one stereo track in the Pro Tools session.
Main Pro Tools Session
This is the main Pro Tools window. Not a lot going on here. The top track is the Instrumental stem and the tracks below it is the post tracking mix. Once tracking is done I start adding plugins in pro tools, create a comp of the vocal takes from playlists and create any busses needed.
The main vocal comp chorus was copied to a double track with some slight pitch and delay adjustments to add some effect to the chorus. The main vocal comp is also sent to an Aux bus for reverb and the vocal tracks are summed and compressed in the VOC_SUM Aux track and then sent to the master.
I tried to get a wide view of the entire song so you can see how everything looks. It’s pretty straightforward though.
Mix Window
Here is a good view of the mix bus with plugins. I’m using the Sphere L22 from Townsend on the main vocal comp as well as the double. Pro-DS from Fabfilter on the vocal channels for deessing , Pro-Q3 as an EQ and a LA-2A from Universal Audio for some compression.
On the VOC_SUM aux channel I am summing the vocal tracks and applying more EQ, Fabfilter Pro-C2 as a bus compressor, Pro-MB to provide some glue in the mid and tame the mid’s a little and a StruderA800 to add a little tape magic!
Other than that, the master bus is pretty clean. Using the Fabfilter Pro-L2 to bring the LUFS up to an acceptable level and provide dithering for the master when mixing is complete.
This setup was used to mix, make adjustments after listening on other devices including the car and eventually send a Master to be released.
TownSend Labs Sphere L22
Here is a shot of the Townsend Labs Sphere L22 plugin. I really like this. I am able to hear myself in the Apollo using any mic I want while tracking but still record it dry. Then after tracking I can do a mic shootout to decide which mic or combination of microphones I think sounds best in the mix. For this song I choose to blend the LD-12 microphone and LD-017 microphone models together. It made an interesting sound and I felt it filled in some on the high-end brilliance while keeping the mid range tone I wanted. It’s a great feature for newbies like me.
Other than that, I am only using the filter and polar patters to change the sound of the mics slightly based on the pickup pattern and high pass they offer. I’ve also played around with ISOSPHERE but my recording was pretty clean, so I didn’t think I needed it.
Fabfilter Pro-DS
Pro-DS settings for the mix. Fabfilter makes great tools for people like me that are new to recording because I can see where the plugin is working and make adjustments as I am mixing.
Fabfilter Pro Q3
This is the EQ I ended up with after mixing this song. I’ve had some crazy EQ’s on other tracks as I was learning trying to get the right tone. But the Sphere microphone modeling system allows me to dial it in on the mic and I ended up not needing to EQ the vocal take as much which was great.
LA-2A Compressor
This plugin from UAD is like magic to me. I usually set it up to pull off about 1-3 dB without over driving the compressor. The main compression is done on the VOC_SUM bus with the Fabfilter plugin but the LA-2A add so much sparkle that you just must have it!
EMT 140 Reverb
Reverbs have been a struggle for me as a beginner. I’ve tried several of them and I can never get the sound I am looking for. After watching a number of videos and reading an article about how an Adele’s song was mixed, I decided to use the EMT-140 from Universal Audio. I really like how this plugin sounds and it allowed me to dial in the exact sound I was looking for on this track. My settings are pretty straightforward with a little bit of EQ on the higher frequencies in the reverb. Once this is dialed in, I set the levels on the Aux bus before sending to the sum track.
Fabfilter Pro C2
This is as basic as Fabfilters Pro-C2 plugin gets. I change the type to vocal and set in the desired compression. It really glues together the main vocal and reverb bus and knocks off the edges and is super easy to use.
Delay (Vocal Double)
I need to grab another picture here. The only effect I have on the double is a slight delay between the left and right channels. It was 10ms left and 25ms right. The stereo view shows each side but for some reason when I took the screenshot it wasn’t there.
Fabfilter Pro MB
Quick screenshot of the Fabfilter Pro-MB on the VOC_SUM bus. I really just used it to broad brush tune the EQ after compression and mixing and felt I needed a slight dip around 2K and a bump in the 10K range. Mileage may vary but this ended up sounding pretty good to me and having it there allows me to pick out frequencies in the final mix and hear what all the plugins are doing post processing.
Studer A800 Saturation
This was really my first-time using tape saturation from Universal Audio. I put the Studer A800 UAD plugin on the VOC_SUM bus and used these settings. I liked the additional fuzz it added, and it seemed to provide a little more glue.
Fabfilter Pro L2 Master Bus
Last but not least, is my only mastering plugin Fabfilters Pro-L2. If you are worried about bringing your levels up after mixing and how to hit the right LUFS for Spotify, iTunes, YouTube etc. then this is the plugin for you. It allowed me to see exactly what was going on and adjust the settings to get the mix at the right level. Without this you are shooting in the dark trying to get your levels correct. Love it!
Abby Love – When We Were Young
This is the final released track! Enjoy. Please follow me if you like the song or article on Spotify and provide feedback. Hopefully, this helps someone out that is getting started like me. Enjoy!
