If you're into music and recording, chances are you've recorded vocals before, whether it was as the vocalist or as the recording engineer.

Today I want to share with you some tips that will help you get better sounding vocal recordings, and maybe even better performances as well.

These tips involve both the singer and the recording engineer, so pay close attention.

Tip #1: Minimize Acoustic Reflections

When recording vocals, we usually want to get a clean and dry sound, without too much reflections from the room.

Many of us don't have a vocal booth in our home studio, so when a singer belt out some loud notes, the sound reverberates through the entire room, resulting in a nasty sounding recording.

However, there are a few things we can do to reduce the amount of reflections that get into the microphone:

Find the best spot in your room.

Walk around the room while singing or clapping, and look for the spot in your room that causes the least amount of reflections.

Pay attention not only to your placement, but also to where you're "aiming" your singing at, as this has a big influence on the sound of your room.

If you have different rooms available for recording in your house, you can try them as well.

If you have a walk-in closet filled with clothes, or even just a big closet you can fit your microphone in, try that as well.

The clothes in the closet work similar to acoustic foam.

They absorb some of the reflections and dampen the sound.

And obviously a reflection filter can be useful as well.

Tip #2: Get The Right Monitor Balance

Getting a good monitor balance is super important, it has a huge effect on the singer's performance.

When I say "monitor balance" I mean the volume balance (in the singer's headphones) between the sound coming from the microphone and the playback music coming from the DAW.

The vocalist has to hear the music well enough so they could sing on time and in key.

But they also have to hear themselves loud enough so they won't have to scream and push their voice too hard, and also so they can actually hear if they're singing on pitch.

A lot of vocalists like to leave one ear outside the headphones, so they can hear themselves better and more naturally through the room instead of through the microphone.

On that note, I should also mention that to get a good performance, it's very important to make sure that the singer is comfortable, warmed up and know their parts.

Tip #3: Don't Record Too Loud

We all like to see that big waveform coming in our DAW, it just "looks like it sounds good".

But that's a very common mistake.

I've already wrote an entire article about recording too loud.

But to put it down simply, recording too loud won't give you anything other than a risk of clipping.

You have to make sure you have a lot of headroom so the vocalist won't clip or won't even be closed to that when he sings his loud parts.

Our voice is very dynamic, we don't just sing in a consistent volume level.

Some parts are very loud and other are very quiet.

Even different words within the same sentence or can have a huge volume difference between them.

The same goes for different vowels as well.

As humans, we don't always hear that in the room because our ears are connected to a brain.

But our microphones don't have any brains (yet), so they are very sensitive to the dynamics of the human voice.

So to be on the safe side, turn down your preamp's gain, so you can capture the entire dynamic range of the vocalist without any problems.

Tip #4: Experiment With Different Sounds

It's very obvious to just stick a microphone in front of the singer and start recording, but there's more to it.

It's important to listen back to the recording, mess around with the microphone, and find the best sound possible, just like with any other instrument.

For example, placing the microphone off-axis can reduce sibilance and plosive sounds, and can also take out some harshness that might come from too much high frequencies.

It's also important to know that, each vocalist has a different voice, and each voice works well with different types of microphones.

Some singers can sound better with an old 100$ dynamic microphone than with a 500$ condenser.

You just have to find out which of the microphones you own works best with the singer you're recording, because it won't always be your most expensive one.

Another important aspect is learning to use the proximity effect with cardioid microphones.

This apply for both the recording engineer and the vocalist.

As the engineer, you have to find the right distance from the microphone, to get the sound you're looking for.

And as the singer, you have to figure when to get close to the microphone and when to get farther away, all while you sing, to refine the performance and sound even more.

Whether you're the singer, the engineer, or both, I hope these tips will help you out and improve your vocal recordings on your next session.

Do you often record vocals?

Are you both the engineer or the singer?

How do you go about recording your vocals?

Let us know in the comments!