Recording/Mixing Male Acapella Vocals

[generationdigital]

Hey everybody, I am getting ready to record some male acapella stuff. I have an idea of what I think would work, but I just wanted to see what you guys would say about the subject.

There are 6 guys. They of coarse use nice tight chords which is why I really want to find a good recording and mixing strategy for this. Somebody that has heard them sing before said they are more of the style of the Christian acapella group "GLAD." I'm not sure if all of you know who that is. I have heard some of GLAD's things and the have a really cool vocal sound. We want something like that.

It would be really good if a lot of you posted on this kind of thing!

Thanks!

[michaelhoddy]

Good mics and pres. I don't do a lot of accapella recording, but the right mic and right preamp will make a lot of difference (along with good AC conversion). Also, you'll do well to match singers to mics individually. I've found that using several of the same mic across a whole group doesn't necessarily yield the best results. You will generally want the same or similar preamp across all singers. I've had good success with my Avalons, Buzz, and Great River preamps for this. Rent some channels if you need to.

I'd also for sure track them as a group, and isolate or baffle each singer separately, which will allow you to overdub individual parts if necessary without having to contend with the bleed from the other singers. Tracking in pairs or individually yields extremely uninspired sounding takes, as well as phrasing and entrance/cutoff problems, unless the group is amazingly good.

Mixdown, I'll often buss all the tracks together, and after processing the tracks individually, usually with an optical limiter and light EQ, I'll put a multi-band compressor such as the Waves C4 or LinMB across the buss, and compress lightly. This helps "gel" the sound together and makes the individual voices blend better and sound more cohesive as a unit, eliminating much of the occasional bumpiness of the individual tracks.

[cmchamp]

Michael's got it good!!!
Recording them as an ensemble (all at once) is very important as the tight harmonies lend themselves to just tempered intonation, not just tempered as on a piano or synth. Again, isolating individual mics is very important as any bleed through from a bad note, obiculation or sibilance can't be tollerated if corrections to the track will be made later. Another good point Michael made is that you need to experiment with different mics. Each vocalist has his own characteristic sound created by the chest cavity, the vocal chords themselves, the throat, nasal passages and structure of the mouth. Groups I work with live, who really have it 'together', use different mics. It takes a good ear and good knowledge of each mics characteristics to do this. Don't be afraid to let the bass vocalist get in his mic. Wit proper wind and pop filters, there shouldn't be any reason to roll off the bottom any either.
"Glad" stacks their tracks. To my recollection, there are only 4 of them. Another Christian A Capella group is "Acapella," and a newer group called "One Generation." If you want a demonstration of good tight vocals, though stacked and sung by one guy, look for a CD from David Maddux.
Compressors are good, but don't over-do it. Also, don't use on on the pre. Make sure you leave yourself plenty of headroom for the ocassional out of characteristic increase in volume by setting things up at -14db. As long as you're at 24/48 that should still give you plenty of SN ratio to work with.

[seterry]

I've had good luck putting vocalists together in a half-circle around one high-quality mike. Their voices blend well. As stated before, of course, mistakes turn into long sessions to get it right. Alternate the types of voices standing next to each other. It will take some experimentation, and is not the easy way out, but the results are worth the trouble.

[JeffBarnett]

I'm a singer as well as an engineer, so I'll chime in here.

If these guys are good (which they likely are - there's not many bad acapella groups out there), then they have spent hours and hours honing their sound, perfecting their blend without the aid of any electronic gadgetry, in essence, they have done the majority of the mixing for you. The last thing you, the engineer, wants to do is screw with that.

My suggestion would be to record them as a group around a single omni-directional mic, preferrably facing each other in a complete circle. My guess is that you will get a very natural, full sound without having to do much else. This approach is best used when the style is traditional, ie, not heavily produced and loaded with effects like a pop track.

If they are going for a more pop style, then it's best to close-mic each singer with his own large-diaphram cardiod condenser, but still facing each other in a circle. Recording each singer individually, or with acoustic baffles between them will do more harm than good.

The best approch may be to employ both methods: an omni in the center, and cardioids all the way around. I doubt you'll want to actually use all 7 mics, but you can make the decision of which way to go in mixdown, after hearing both tracks.

By the way, there are lots of instances in most acappella music where one singer has a solo line, backed by "oohs" or some other non-lyrical sound from the other singers. On these occassions, it may be advantageous to overdub the solo part later.

I hope that's helpful.

[cmchamp]

Ok, question for the omni supporters there. Where's the stereo separation come from? Easier to separate vocalists into a sound space when miced individually. Omni, your kinda stuck with overprocessing the daylights out of it later if you want some expansiveness.
Just a ??

[JeffBarnett]

If you've got one, try a binaural (aka dummy-head) microphone in the center of the circle If not, better to go with one of the various stereo mic'ing techniques (XY, AB, MS, Blumlein, ORTF) and a semi-circle setup rather than a full circle.

The same concept still applies, though - that the most important thing is to record them together, in a setup that allows them to see and hear each other very well (acoustically, no headphones).

[Ernest828]

I am a singer, an engineer and I also direct choirs for a living. Leave the mixing of levels to the group. They will have so much more control over the sound than any engineer including Bruce Swedien can. Speaking of which, Swedien recorded lots of big band stuff with two mics. He did nothing but put the mics in the right spot because he KNEW there is nothing he could with a group of musicians except trust that they know their stuff which they did. Those records sound great because the musicians were and he knew that the best he could do was set the mics up and get out of the way. I recommend you do the same.

As a choir director, I know how hard a good choir works to blend and to be dynamic so let them put their hard work to use and display and just set the mics, get a good level and let them do their thing. One suggestion besides the obvious of Getting yourself a really quiet pre like an Earthworks or a Great Rivers. Use some mild compression as you record. I know this goes against everything we are taught but compressing 2:1 at -10 will get you better recorded levels and a tighter overall sound.

Take these steps and you won`t be mixing very long. Or maybe you do...if thats the case, set up as many mics as singers and create complete havoc but you`ll do the group wrong.

Peace,
Ernest