The lead vocal is the most important element of a track, and for the engineer, getting a great vocal sound is imperative. The lead vocal acts as the face and personality of a song. It must stand out in the mix and have punch, as well as being personable, intimate, and larger than life. If you want a vocal sound that stands out above the rest, you’ve got to have the right tools and definitely know how to use them.

The Tools: The ideal vocal signal chain should include a killer vocal mic that can capture the nuances of the complex waveform of the voice while being capable of handling the high sound pressure created by singing up close. It must have a quality microphone preamp with size and clarity that packs plenty of peak factor and a compressor that will raise the apparent level of the voice while adding warmth and size to the sound. Finally, it needs an EQ to complete the sound and add presence, size, and clarity to sit in the mix properly.

When considering a vocal mic, large diaphragm tube condensers are typically the best way to go. The large condenser diaphragms have great clarity and a wide frequency range, and the tubes and output transformer of the mic’s amp add size and life that you can’t really get from a standard condenser mic. In my opinion, the all-around best vocal mic is the Neumann U67 large diaphragm multi-directional tube condenser microphone. This mic is certainly costly, but has proven its worth many times over. I’ve used the U67 for vocals on 99% of every record I’ve ever engineered.

There are a few characteristics that truly make the U67 fantastic for recording vocals. First off, it can handle a very high SPL (sound pressure level). I have the vocalist right up on the mic and I’ve never had a capsule collapse, and Neumann says with the 10dB pad in place, it’s practically impossible to overload the amp.

Secondly, the frequency response has curves in all the right places for a vocal: a wide subtle dip in the low mids that helps remove boxiness and a rise in the top end from 5-12kHz that adds presence and clarity that really makes a voice come to life. The microphone features three polar patterns: omni-directional, cardioid, and figure-eight, although I almost always use it in the cardioid position. Additionally, Neumann makes a pop filter that fits over the grill and sounds significantly better than any other pop filter or windscreen I’ve tried, and I’ve tried them all.

My choice signal chain for vocals, from the mic to the box, is my personal 500-series API-based channel strip. You’ll remember this signal chain from my recent blog post on recording acoustic guitar: BAE 312A Mic Pre w/ Avedis 1122 Op Amp, API 525 Comp/Lim, and the API 550A EQ. When I do sessions at studios away from home, I take my 500-series lunchbox filled with two of these signal chains, one for acoustic guitar and one for vocals.

The BAE 312A is a superior mic pre, and for vocals, especially so. It’s got size without sacrificing transparency and plenty of punch. From there, the API 525 comp/limiter is quick enough to catch the transients of a voice and does a fantastic job of keeping the vocal even throughout the track without it sounding compressed. I use it in compression mode, which has a ratio of 2:1, with the fastest release setting and ceiling at 8. I set the input to have a gain reduction of about 4-6dB on the peaks and the output gain around -3dB on my meters. After the 525, the signal chain hits a 550A, where I typically add 2-4dB at 10kHz on a shelf for some top-end sheen and air, plus a boost of 2dB or so at 200Hz on a peak if the vocal still needs more size. I’ll also use a Lang PEQ-2 equalizer at 20kHz on vocals like I used to do for all those years on Linda Ronstadt.

If I’m processing the vocal in the box, which I tend to do up to the point of final mix down (when I process it out of the box analog), I use the Smack compressor in optical mode with input set so the gain reduction is around 3-5 dB for average transients and output gain set so that the signal has a slight boost in level when compared to the bypassed signal. For EQ, I use the Waves API 550A with comparable moves to the tracked 550A settings; a boost at 10kHz on a shelf if top end is desired and a boost at 200Hz on a peak if more size is needed.

For reverb, I use Arjen’s AudioEase Altiverb with impulse responses that he custom made for me from the EMT 140 plates at the famous Rockfield Studios in Wales. I believe you can find these IR’s online if you dig deep enough. Within Altiverb, I always set the pre-delay to 14ms and make sure the “mute direct” button is engaged. I also use the UA EMT 140 plates from The Plant Plate B preceded by a UA-Cooper Time Cube Plugin set to 14 ms of pre delay. I also send the vocal signal out of the box to a Lexicon Prime Time digital delay with the delay set to 256 ms, and that signal returns to the box on a stereo auxiliary fader. If I need delay that’s synced to the tempo of the track, say a ¼ note or ½ note delay, I tend to use Soundtoys Echoboy.

The Method: In getting a vocal sound that’s larger than life, the method is just as important as the gear. The further from the mic, the thinner the sound, so I make sure the vocalist is right up on the mic. The U67 has a pop filter that’s perfect for this purpose. It has a hole in the design so that you can reach the polar pattern switch without removing the filter; I hang the mic upside down and tell vocalists to stick their nose in the hole. This gets them right up against the pop filter in order to catch the resonance of their voice from their chest. This also increases the transients, which is why a fast compressor works best for this mic technique. Also, when the mic is hung upside down with the capsule facing downward it captures some of the chest tones as well.

I set up two vocal channels for getting the vox into the box; one is an aux channel that functions as an input fader and the other is the audio track that the signal is printed to. This setup allows me to ride the level with the aux fader so that the recorded vocal sits evenly in the mix and becomes much closer to where it should end up in the final mix. I prefer this to be part of the recording process, rather than an afterthought, as it helps to make sure that everything is sounding the way it should, and it keeps the vocal-riding during mix-down to a more fine-tune precision.

Once the vocal is printed, the magic of the digital domain begins: comping, editing, removing pops, clip gaining, tuning, aligning harmonies, etc. The cleaner and more precise and even the audio, the more professional-sounding the finished product.

During mix-down, I automate the final level rides for the lead vox as well as the backup parts and harmonies, which I usually ride grouped, and any other key instruments within a given mix, ie. strings, guitar solo, slide guitar, etc.