Best Vocal Sound

[woodzie12345]

I need some help! I am using a Digi002 rack, Protools LE 6.4, a Macintosh G5 with 1GIG of ram, an external 80GB hard drive. For vocals I am using a Shure SM-58 Vocal Microphone. My problem is, no matter what i do - and i don't know heaps about recording/sound etc - i can't get a decent sound for vocals.

When i record, I plug the mic into the mic input, and this has to be at about "5'oclock" before i can get a decent level, but the problem is i then get alot of distortion. So if i want a loud enough volume, I get a bad sound. And even when I have a low level and no distrotion, it still isn't a great quality sound. What can I do to get the 'professional' quality sound that I wanted to get with protools?

Help would be muchly appreciated! Thanks!

[ilulilu888]

hello man ,

with out sounding to snoob .... please understand that there is allot more then an sm58 and the digi002R for making a great vocal track , as the vocals are the most diffuclet things to record . i wont underestimate your talents as a singer so i'll imagine that you are a proffesional singer , which is the First and most importent factor in a PRO vox track , secondly , the Sm58 is a very good microphone that proved over and over the years its worth , but as a neumann o AKG or any other mic .... there is no gaurenty that it is THE mic for your type of vocal. and lets say that you have found a mic for your vocal needs and sounds, what about some good acoustics??? dont forget that as better the mic is , the larger its sensetivety so it will capture all the little neuance as all the small refextions of your suroundings. and lest say that you have build your self a good vocal booth , !!!! what about a good PRE amp ???? like a mic , there isnt one BEST pre amp but there is the best pre amp for your mic and vocals.... so again , you need to chosse carfully for the best things money can buy (your money) for getting best results . about distortion .... that isnt normal , if i understood well ... you have distortion or yuo dont have any signal , look carfully if you havent pused the pad button on the 002R other wise the mic wont get the OO2 preamp bosst and it would not work as it should .
last but not least : protools wont give you proffesional results unless you would use it with a bit knowledge... neither any platform , you can use logic , cubase, DP , neuendo etc , they all do the same things....the only differnce is the person that sits behind the keybored... and i dont wanna sound too snooby or any of this [bleep] , but again protools is just a recoding softwere (the best one...)but thats all

[maccool]

An SM58 should give you a useable level if you're using a balanced XLR-XLR (3-pin) cable into the Mic input. if you are and MIC is not selected on the front panel you'll get nothing. I'd suspect the cable, especially since you're getting noise when you crank up the gain.

[woodzie12345]

I thank you all for your advice so far..

The cable is a brand new Planet Waves mic cable which appears to work perfectly. I have tried running the mic through my M-Audio 8 channel preamp, and this afforded me no differences. I'm not getting horrible distortion, but when I get to the level I like, I get distortion when in the louder levels.

I'm not looking necessarily for a Mariah Carey style studio voice or whatever, (though it'd be nice!), but i just want a decent vocal sound and level, but at the moment I'm not getting that...

[logancircle]

Sounds like something is defective. A 58 through that setup should sound fine, not necessarily brilliant, but it shouldn't be distorting like that. If it's not the cable, it might be the mic. Can you try another mic or maybe see if the pad is on? I'm just guessing.

[Jon_Atkinson]

You need to figure out where the distortion is coming from.
On your Mix window in protools what are your levels looking like? Ideally you want to be hitting about -6 dB at your loudest levels. This may seem like a low level, but for a lot of reasons it's best to aim for that, especially as you're tracking without compression.
If you're used to recording using analogue gear (like a tape 4track or whatever) then recording digital is totally different. With analogue, the occasional red light was a sign that you had levels about right. With digital ANY red lights are a sign that you're overcooking something.
If you're getting red lights on your input channel in Protools, but you feel the vocal is not loud enough, turn everything elso down, and turn your speakers up! It's as simple as that!
In this intance (which is about as straightforward as you can get on the 002) if you're sure you're not overloading your input channel, then have a look at whether there are faults in the mic or the cable..... The 58 if it's functioning properly (and they are remarkably tough!) is a good vocal mic.... In fact Bono often uses one for recording, so it should be fine!!

When you've got safe levels recorded to "tape" have a play around with a compression plugin (the Digirack one is fine, and I believe has a vocal preset) and see if that helps get towards the vocal sound you're looking for.

Hope this helps. If you knew all of this, just ignore me.... I'm waffling!