Easiest Vocal Chain Setup for Recording

Being that you’re recording at home, your setup may be as simple as a mic, an audio interface, and a computer with your favorite recording software. I may be oversimplifying but that’s the important elements of your home recording studio.

However, if you’re looking to become more professional with your sound you have to look into exactly what makes a professional vocal sound…professional.

The biggest difference is that professional studios have invested a ton of money into their environment and more importantly their gear. They have gear where they can bake the sound they want into their recording, making the creation process easier, faster, and better.

You in fact can do the same thing for your recording. In fact, I believe you should be recording into the sound of some plugins. With the use of some effects, you can turn any plain mic and turn into a studio sounding vocal recording!

Why Do it?

Budget audio interfaces have become outstanding in quality in the past few years. Even the $100 interfaces have blew my mind. The problem is the preamps that come with them are TOO clean and perfect.

This is perfect because you can add whatever sound you want later in the process. But as someone who is a firm believer in get the sound you want in the recording, I find I have trouble with the mixing stage because I can take the song in any direction I so choose. And too many options leaves you paralyzed. There is magic in having limited and committed decisions. That's a life lesson for you...

By having a set vocal chain for recording, you can start to give your song a direction, you’ll feel more confident in your recording, and it just sounds better.

Here’s an easy way to set it up.

#1 - Gain Input Level

The most important part of a vocal chain is a healthy initial gain input signal. This is the mic level you set on your audio interface. It’s imperative to understand that this knob is NOT a volume knob. Set this at a level to where your loudest moments don’t peak over -6db. Having this correct will give you a healthy clean signal that doesn’t distort or introduce the mic's noise floor when you add compression. If you’re using analog emulated plugin effects, this will also ensure they are working at the optimal level.

I’m serious, if you need to hear yourself louder, Turn your headphones up, not the mic gain level.

#2 - Channel Strip

The easiest way to get closer to your sound is using a channel strip. A channel strip is basically an all-in-one tool that offers the basic mix your recording needs. In other words, it’ll have an eq, compressor, sometimes a noise gate to reduce noise, and even a limiter.

If we take a look at the mixing board in a studio, it’s basically a collection of 16-48 channel strips. The difference is that they usually have preamps built in and add a color to the sound that engineers know and love.

This SSL Console is a collection of channel strips equipped with all of the engineers' needs.

My favorite channel strips that emulate the actual boards are the SSL Channel Strips and The API Channel Strips. There are many others, but Protools or your DAW will have a stock version. I would prefer at this stage this is where you would spend your money and buy some quality channel strips. But if not, using a stock eq and compressor works just as fine.

Just remember, less is more. Especially if you are actually baking the sound into your recording. Once it's set there’s nothing that you can do except re-record the takes. Your EQ could be as simple as a low cut at 80hz and compression should definitely be at a 2:1 with no more than 3db of gain reduction. If this is too risky right now, use the plugins as a post recording effect, so you can go back and change it.

#3 - AutoTune

Having autotune on your tracks while you record helps bring out your best performance when you can hear how it’s affecting your vocal. My only caveat is to use sparingly when committing vocal takes. Actually, only using this as a post effect would be better.

My favorite plugin for this is WavesTune Realtime, but AutoTune is the industry standard. There are other options out there including free ones like Graillon and M-Auto Pitch

#4 - Reverb & Delay

The reason I use reverb and delay while recording is to take an artist out of the feeling that they are recording in a small room and giving them the feel that they are performing in front of an audience. You should do the same for your recording.

To set up, you would create separate aux tracks named reverb and delay. On the reverb track just open your stock reverb. Unless you have a specific sound in mind, the default settings work. Delay is highly optional but set your delay to ¼ delay or ½ delay, depending on how fast the tempo of your song is. Route your recording track to both of these aux tracks and adjust the levels according. They are post effects so they won’t be baked into the recording.

#5 - Extras You Can Add

Everything I have mentioned so far was so that you can save the most cpu usage, but if your computer can handle, here’s a few extra things you can add to get a pro level recording

Preamp

As I said your interface’s preamps are wonderful, but they are too clean. To get close to that studio sound, you need a preamp emulation that colors your vocal going in. If you bought an analog channel strip plugin, it’s already baked in, just turn up the input level while simultaneously turning down the output. Driving the input makes the signal going into the preamp more hotter and pushes it to work hard. The end result is a more colorful and rich sounding vocal. Turning down the output ensures that you keep the flowing signal the same as it was before you added the plugin. Meaning that you will able to hear how what you’re doing is actually affecting your sound.

Adlib Chain

If you record rap, r&b, or even pop, you may also record ad libs. A standard way to set up your sound for these is to create a separate audio track, copy over your same settings, but then add another eq plugin with a low cut up to 350hz and a high cut down to 5khz (I go as low as 3khz). This gives a “telephone” effect that is used on mostly all adlibs and pushes the vocal farther back in the mix than the lead vocals