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Justin Smith
This week I ran 3 vocal sessions. One of the sessions I recorded piano as well. The first session was for a client i worked with before named Madchild. His producer came in before him to make a beat then they layed down the song. The session was pretty simple we used the Sound Deluxe condensor mic for Madchild through the Neve 1272 pre and the 1176 compressor. We used the U87 for his friend Marty to brighten up his voice. I also ran it through the Neve 1272 and the 1176. To this day Madchild is one of the hardest clients I have worked with because he Punches every bar and doesn't voice what he wants out loud and when you don't do what he expects he get really mad and acts like your "messing up the vibe". Every other client I have worked with is great and always likes me but Madchild is different and Larry told me that it is going to happen and not every client is nice. The second session was for a client named Jon. He is paying Larry to produce a song for him and was laying down vocals over a piano track. Jon also hired Aaron who is Ariana Grande's vocal coach. I used the U87 through the Neve1272 and used the TLA limiter/compressor. We recorded each part multiple times and did a vocal comp after. They were very happy but are going to come back to try again and nail it. The third session was also for a client that I have worked for before. Her name was Lexi and she had a Piano player come in and play piano and then she did vocals over the piano. I used two vintage U87 mics for the piano through the neve1272 mic pre. I did not do normal stereo mic placement. Instead I placed one mic toward the low end strings and one toward the high end hammers. After we recorded 4 takes of piano we did a composite of the best takes. We did the same with the vocals. I used the U87 through the Neve 1272 pre as well. I always add 2 Aux tracks with delay and reverb for tracking so the vocalist can fell like she is on stage. I also sometimes add Auto Tune as well. Overall the week was great. I also got to work with Larry on mixing my 2 songs.
-Justin Smith
