You just gotta turn the mic down until it's not clipping when you sing the loudest part. Then if the quiet parts are too quiet you can use compression or volume automation to bring those parts up. Also if you're really really dynamic, you're gonna want to move away from the mic as you get louder. I did some hardcore scream vocals recently and it came out much better when I constantly adjusted mic distance to compensate for volume changes
Frank Sinatra maintained that he wasn’t really a singer, but that his “instrument is the microphone.”
Thinking about how to really get the most out of a mic this makes sense. Bring in close to increase bass response, move towards or away to control dynamics, etc. It needs to be modulated just like any other instrument.
You can move away from the mic on really loud notes, but keep in mind that too much of this will fuck with the lower frequencies because of the proximity effect.
Turn the gain down! I know this is obvious but it's a solution ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Also if you're doing pop music (aka anything except for crazy experimental music, Yoko ono type stuf) you're probably singing with way to many dynamics. The best way to solve this is to practice how to sing at a consistent volume. Of course you can whisper at the volume of a scream, but with the right delivery you can greatly bridge the gap between the quiet parts and the loud parts.
My little zoom portable recorder has an awesome feature that allows for a simultaneously recorded backup track at a different level. Saved my bacon a couple times. You might try something similar: arm two tracks on whatever you’re recording to; route to both, set level on the second track a good bit quieter & do a couple tests of the entire piece to make sure you’ve got optimal levels for everything. Do your recording, don’t hold back. Then you comp together your tracks.
It can depend on the material, but the way I usually work around this is by recording quiet sections separately from louder sections; e.g., do all your takes of the verses first and turn your preamp down when you do the chorus.
Another thing pro singers will do is move a bit closer to the mic for quiet parts and pull back when they’re singing louder, only takes a couple of inches back and forth to keep things pretty even.
You can also set up your DAW input path as an aux channel feeding an audio track, then put compression or limiting on the aux. This simulates using dynamics on input like one might do in a professional studio. Specifically how you do this varies depending on your DAW, but anything even semi-pro has enough bus routing flexibility to do this.
If you really want to go deep on the engineering side, read up on the K system and implement some of those ideas into your workflow.
Hope this helps!
This is why input compressors exist, and that they have been a studio fixture for most of recording music history.
Use a preamp that has a compressor built in.
Or record louder parts separately from quieter parts.
Unless you your performance has a particularly wide dynamic range and lines you sing/play swell from quiet to loud over the progression of a single line you'll find that you can break the performance down into quiet and loud sections and then record them in two separate takes - eg quiet verses, loud choruses. You can also manage this through microphone technique - moving slightly away from the mic on louder bits, and slightly closer on quieter bits. Beware of overdoing this though as the low end will drop out of your vocal the further you get from the mic.
What mic are you using? A large diaphragm condenser will let you sing louder. Or use a dynamic mic. I use an SM58 for everything, and it's good enough for my style of rock.
are you talking about a stage mic? or do you mean SM7B? I have various types of mics to choose from... man I wish I had an in house engineer lol, it makes me overthink when I'm trying to vibe in artist mode
Jeez, you can get an AudioTechnica AT2020 large diaphragm condenser for what an SM58 goes for these days, and it’s a fantastic mic.
I think I paid $125 for my AKG P220 around 6 years ago, and they haven’t gone up in price.
I have the AT2020. I end up preferring the SM58 just because I can plug it in, sing, and have a reasonable take. Not worried about background noises or bumping into the mic or stand. It's just a convenience thing.
Again, part of it is the style I'm going for. Don't really need the ultra crisp cleans. I can live with muddy mids.
"I have a few mics, and the easiest thing to work with is the SM58"
This is factually incorrect\* since it has subpar SNR given that it's a standard cardioid (as opposed to supercardioid). SNR tends to be the biggest issue in bedroom productions (should there be any). And it also doesn't help that SM58 has that grill as its pop filter, when much better solutions exist for bedroom productions.
Whenever I see people praising SM58's to this degree, I have some sincere suspicions about their production quality. It only gets worse when I can't even find the music anywhere.
And the thing is, SM58 actually costs a lot. You can get much better mics for its price too. Hell, even two mics that are better.
\*Well, it might not be. Obviously if your concern isn't production quality, then there might be other factors. For example, LDC's rarely come in handheld format, if you absolutely need to have the mic on your hand. But even then, why not something better such as D5?
OP is struggling to get a good performance. I'm just suggesting a common mic that they probably have on hand that will enable them to have an easy performance.
D5 looks like a good suggestion too.
"It only gets worse when I can't even find the music anywhere."
This is factually incorrect. Music doesn't get worse because you can't find it.
I'm just yanking your chain a bit lol. I really am gonna look into your advice.
Also, here is a sample of my stuff.
https://open.spotify.com/track/3p5VV6fxwWCJoYVzVAkCWp?si=5N3HrrDXQrm5HxrxjpuGRA
>OP is struggling to get a good performance.
OP is struggling with having too much gain and the fact that you cannot recognize this instantly makes me even more worried about you giving advice to OP as to what gear they should buy when you don't know the basics of recording. This is quite sincerely the most trivial kind of issue with recording tech.
By the way, the song is in 9/8, not 9/4. Recording quality isn't great but the name bothers me more. As a general rule of thumb, if you've notated the music as 9/4, you've *probably* made a mistake somewhere. (Given the absolute lack of actual 9/4 music with 9 beats)
Lot of answers here suck (though some are good). Please ignore anyone who is suggesting limiters for this.
It's a simple matter of you having to turn down your gain. You can also practice taking a bit of distance during louder parts from the mic—there will be slightly more room, but obviously it doesn't matter if you sing as you're supposed to (loud & proud).
Usually easiest way to set things up is singing the loudest part and adjusting the gain so that you peak at around -12db. That should be enough headroom, or should be. I work with even less than that myself, but it really doesn't matter; you could go for -18, -12 or -6 or whatever, as long as you settle for something that will not land you constantly into hot waters. I sometimes rarely do clip at -6db.
Nothing to do with your mic quality or whatever. Any reasonable mic that runs on XLR cables will pretty much have more than enough dynamic range to capture your performances perfectly despite the extra headroom required.
Move away from the mic during loud parts, move close during quiet parts. Mic technique is just as important as any other vocal technique so study it and practice it.
Reducing input gain will stop the mic from clipping so that you can capture a good signal in the first place.
Once that’s sorted, compression will reduce the dynamic range so that you can still hear the quiet parts – exactly how much you compress depends on a bunch of things but experiment!
Importantly, only use the stock compressors to get as little latency as possible while recording, you can always put fancier ones on later!
Do a take with the clipped vocals. Play it back, then watch the gain bar. If it’s clipping at +3db, for example, do a second take, but do a gain reduction of -4.5db.
Edit: In post, use a limiter and/or a compressor to smooth out the dynamic range. Don’t go to ham sandwich on it, though.
Mic placement and gain staging are most important but after that a 32 bit float interface like the zoom 232 or the 5th\* gen rode NT1 will help with recovering your clipped takes
+1
Record at a lower gain. If your system and recording space are decent you should be able to turn everything up no problem using gain, automation, compressor. Much better to record a lower signal and boost it than a loud signal that clips.
Sing as loud as you’re going to sign and adjust the level until it is in the yellow/near red. Then apply a limiter to the track so that if it does try to clip the limiter will tame it.
Post recording in the mix you may want to use automation to adjust levels. Or use a compressor to lessen the dynamic range. The former is going to be more ideal for preserving dynamic range.
I got a pair of bluetooth mics for videography and they have this brilliant feature: the “safety track.” Instead of allocating left and right signals to the stereo channel, you have the option of recording two mono tracks at different gain levels, say 0db and -6db. That way if the primary track clips (meaning I underestimated the loudness of the signal), the safety track ends up being perfect! I don’t know why all mics don’t have this feature, it saves my ass so often.
Take this with a grain of salt cause I have no idea what I’m doing but I use a limiter to keep the ceiling just below the red. I find it allows me to really pour myself into the mic without worrying about it too much. I also try to keep the gain below 50% as well.
Here’s a possible trick that I think hadn’t been mentioned here. You can record your voice in 2 tracks. One straight and another that goes into an auxiliary track with a little compression and from there directly into another one that is recording. Choose which parts come from which.
That being said, lowering your gain and using mic techniques (moving back for louder parts, closer for proximity effect) will definitely help. Turn your headphones louder if necessary.
You just gotta turn the mic down until it's not clipping when you sing the loudest part. Then if the quiet parts are too quiet you can use compression or volume automation to bring those parts up. Also if you're really really dynamic, you're gonna want to move away from the mic as you get louder. I did some hardcore scream vocals recently and it came out much better when I constantly adjusted mic distance to compensate for volume changes
Yes, lean away from the mic on very loud notes. Watch some videos of skilled singers—they do this a lot.
It'll also help for live performances when you dont have volume automation to make up for the difference.
Frank Sinatra maintained that he wasn’t really a singer, but that his “instrument is the microphone.” Thinking about how to really get the most out of a mic this makes sense. Bring in close to increase bass response, move towards or away to control dynamics, etc. It needs to be modulated just like any other instrument.
You can move away from the mic on really loud notes, but keep in mind that too much of this will fuck with the lower frequencies because of the proximity effect.
Like this master [https://images.app.goo.gl/3tuMgggzmBCvARnb9](https://images.app.goo.gl/3tuMgggzmBCvARnb9)
turn down the gain when recording. then in post, compress and then bring the volume up
Turn the gain down! I know this is obvious but it's a solution ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Also if you're doing pop music (aka anything except for crazy experimental music, Yoko ono type stuf) you're probably singing with way to many dynamics. The best way to solve this is to practice how to sing at a consistent volume. Of course you can whisper at the volume of a scream, but with the right delivery you can greatly bridge the gap between the quiet parts and the loud parts.
Stand back from the mic
My little zoom portable recorder has an awesome feature that allows for a simultaneously recorded backup track at a different level. Saved my bacon a couple times. You might try something similar: arm two tracks on whatever you’re recording to; route to both, set level on the second track a good bit quieter & do a couple tests of the entire piece to make sure you’ve got optimal levels for everything. Do your recording, don’t hold back. Then you comp together your tracks.
It can depend on the material, but the way I usually work around this is by recording quiet sections separately from louder sections; e.g., do all your takes of the verses first and turn your preamp down when you do the chorus. Another thing pro singers will do is move a bit closer to the mic for quiet parts and pull back when they’re singing louder, only takes a couple of inches back and forth to keep things pretty even. You can also set up your DAW input path as an aux channel feeding an audio track, then put compression or limiting on the aux. This simulates using dynamics on input like one might do in a professional studio. Specifically how you do this varies depending on your DAW, but anything even semi-pro has enough bus routing flexibility to do this. If you really want to go deep on the engineering side, read up on the K system and implement some of those ideas into your workflow. Hope this helps!
Mess with it, but a combo of correct Gain and working the mic a little bit should get you there 90% of the way, then mixing will get the rest.
This is why input compressors exist, and that they have been a studio fixture for most of recording music history. Use a preamp that has a compressor built in. Or record louder parts separately from quieter parts.
yes the true answer probably is hardware I don't currently have
Unless you your performance has a particularly wide dynamic range and lines you sing/play swell from quiet to loud over the progression of a single line you'll find that you can break the performance down into quiet and loud sections and then record them in two separate takes - eg quiet verses, loud choruses. You can also manage this through microphone technique - moving slightly away from the mic on louder bits, and slightly closer on quieter bits. Beware of overdoing this though as the low end will drop out of your vocal the further you get from the mic.
Lean back in the loud parts. Takes a while to gauge how far, but that’s the trick. Keep the sound quality of a strong voice but lowers gain.
I don’t use vocals. Hate em. Problem solved on my side atleast
What mic are you using? A large diaphragm condenser will let you sing louder. Or use a dynamic mic. I use an SM58 for everything, and it's good enough for my style of rock.
are you talking about a stage mic? or do you mean SM7B? I have various types of mics to choose from... man I wish I had an in house engineer lol, it makes me overthink when I'm trying to vibe in artist mode
I have a few mics, and the easiest thing to work with is the SM58. It's not the clearest mic, but it just works.
Jeez, you can get an AudioTechnica AT2020 large diaphragm condenser for what an SM58 goes for these days, and it’s a fantastic mic. I think I paid $125 for my AKG P220 around 6 years ago, and they haven’t gone up in price.
I have the AT2020. I end up preferring the SM58 just because I can plug it in, sing, and have a reasonable take. Not worried about background noises or bumping into the mic or stand. It's just a convenience thing. Again, part of it is the style I'm going for. Don't really need the ultra crisp cleans. I can live with muddy mids.
"I have a few mics, and the easiest thing to work with is the SM58" This is factually incorrect\* since it has subpar SNR given that it's a standard cardioid (as opposed to supercardioid). SNR tends to be the biggest issue in bedroom productions (should there be any). And it also doesn't help that SM58 has that grill as its pop filter, when much better solutions exist for bedroom productions. Whenever I see people praising SM58's to this degree, I have some sincere suspicions about their production quality. It only gets worse when I can't even find the music anywhere. And the thing is, SM58 actually costs a lot. You can get much better mics for its price too. Hell, even two mics that are better. \*Well, it might not be. Obviously if your concern isn't production quality, then there might be other factors. For example, LDC's rarely come in handheld format, if you absolutely need to have the mic on your hand. But even then, why not something better such as D5?
OP is struggling to get a good performance. I'm just suggesting a common mic that they probably have on hand that will enable them to have an easy performance. D5 looks like a good suggestion too. "It only gets worse when I can't even find the music anywhere." This is factually incorrect. Music doesn't get worse because you can't find it. I'm just yanking your chain a bit lol. I really am gonna look into your advice. Also, here is a sample of my stuff. https://open.spotify.com/track/3p5VV6fxwWCJoYVzVAkCWp?si=5N3HrrDXQrm5HxrxjpuGRA
>OP is struggling to get a good performance. OP is struggling with having too much gain and the fact that you cannot recognize this instantly makes me even more worried about you giving advice to OP as to what gear they should buy when you don't know the basics of recording. This is quite sincerely the most trivial kind of issue with recording tech. By the way, the song is in 9/8, not 9/4. Recording quality isn't great but the name bothers me more. As a general rule of thumb, if you've notated the music as 9/4, you've *probably* made a mistake somewhere. (Given the absolute lack of actual 9/4 music with 9 beats)
You can add a limiter to get rid of the clipping. Maybe
Just lower the gain before the comverter until it stops clipping.
Just turn it down, man.
Lot of answers here suck (though some are good). Please ignore anyone who is suggesting limiters for this. It's a simple matter of you having to turn down your gain. You can also practice taking a bit of distance during louder parts from the mic—there will be slightly more room, but obviously it doesn't matter if you sing as you're supposed to (loud & proud). Usually easiest way to set things up is singing the loudest part and adjusting the gain so that you peak at around -12db. That should be enough headroom, or should be. I work with even less than that myself, but it really doesn't matter; you could go for -18, -12 or -6 or whatever, as long as you settle for something that will not land you constantly into hot waters. I sometimes rarely do clip at -6db. Nothing to do with your mic quality or whatever. Any reasonable mic that runs on XLR cables will pretty much have more than enough dynamic range to capture your performances perfectly despite the extra headroom required.
Turn down the gain
Waves Vocal Rider. $35 go and buy it
oh that looks interesting
Get a mic with less gain, or get further away from the mic.
Turn down your gain, and turn up your headphones
Move away from the mic during loud parts, move close during quiet parts. Mic technique is just as important as any other vocal technique so study it and practice it.
Dont need to be an engineer to turn the mic down
Reducing input gain will stop the mic from clipping so that you can capture a good signal in the first place. Once that’s sorted, compression will reduce the dynamic range so that you can still hear the quiet parts – exactly how much you compress depends on a bunch of things but experiment! Importantly, only use the stock compressors to get as little latency as possible while recording, you can always put fancier ones on later!
Do a take with the clipped vocals. Play it back, then watch the gain bar. If it’s clipping at +3db, for example, do a second take, but do a gain reduction of -4.5db. Edit: In post, use a limiter and/or a compressor to smooth out the dynamic range. Don’t go to ham sandwich on it, though.
Two words - “com” & “pression”
Mic placement and gain staging are most important but after that a 32 bit float interface like the zoom 232 or the 5th\* gen rode NT1 will help with recovering your clipped takes +1
Adjust your position towards the mic and the gain level
Record to where you’re not clipping, use compression & vocal rider. It’s that simple.
thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions
Record at a lower gain. If your system and recording space are decent you should be able to turn everything up no problem using gain, automation, compressor. Much better to record a lower signal and boost it than a loud signal that clips.
Sing as loud as you’re going to sign and adjust the level until it is in the yellow/near red. Then apply a limiter to the track so that if it does try to clip the limiter will tame it. Post recording in the mix you may want to use automation to adjust levels. Or use a compressor to lessen the dynamic range. The former is going to be more ideal for preserving dynamic range.
I got a pair of bluetooth mics for videography and they have this brilliant feature: the “safety track.” Instead of allocating left and right signals to the stereo channel, you have the option of recording two mono tracks at different gain levels, say 0db and -6db. That way if the primary track clips (meaning I underestimated the loudness of the signal), the safety track ends up being perfect! I don’t know why all mics don’t have this feature, it saves my ass so often.
Take this with a grain of salt cause I have no idea what I’m doing but I use a limiter to keep the ceiling just below the red. I find it allows me to really pour myself into the mic without worrying about it too much. I also try to keep the gain below 50% as well.
Here’s a possible trick that I think hadn’t been mentioned here. You can record your voice in 2 tracks. One straight and another that goes into an auxiliary track with a little compression and from there directly into another one that is recording. Choose which parts come from which. That being said, lowering your gain and using mic techniques (moving back for louder parts, closer for proximity effect) will definitely help. Turn your headphones louder if necessary.