[hyp0static]

Kickin':

I hear what you're screaming!

I tend to become an over-obsessive uber-perfectionist when it comes to vocals. Since the voice is a built-in instrument on humans (even though not everyone can 'play' it well), it is the instrument in your recording that most people will relate to first (or totally turn them away).

I'm always hearing every single slight mistake, detune, whatever - in my tracks sticking out like a sore thumb, and then I start over thinking the tracks to death. And I'm (IMHO) what I'd consider a decent if not pretty good singer.

I think the hardest part of recording your own vocals is this - getting the right sound, and knowing you're getting the right sound. When you are singing, you hear what's going onto disk, but you also hear what's coming out of your mouth in a very weird way because your head resonates when you sing. This is so different than miking a guitar cab in the same room that you are recording. Yeah, you hear the actual cab as well as the mic'd sound in your headphones, but the sound from the cab is 'over there' and the sound in your headphones is 'over here.' With your own vocals, the sound coming out of your mouth is 'right here' and the sound in your headphones is 'right here, too.' I've been thinking of getting an engineer friend to help out when I do vocals. It's really hard to set EQs based on what you are hearing since what you hear is being significantly reinforced by your own head resonating!!

Another tricky point for me(because of this phenomenon) is having the right level of overall music in my phones, as well as the right level of voice coming back at you. Too little voice, and I sing harder (which isn't always a bad thing). Too much voice (where the voice in my phones drowns out the voice in my head - hah!) and I have a harder time keeping in tune.

So, yeah - any tips from anybody?

hyp0static