This project is about different aspectrs of my instrument im going to need to research as its going to help me when it comes to recording in the studio and the reasearch also means i can make my instrument improvfe and make the producers job easier which helps me and the produces. Im also going to be talking about how i can take my research put it in to place and how thats going to help me when im recording in the studio.
Vocal warm ups are extremely helpful as without them theres a chance your voice wont be clear, theres also a chance that you have a vocal crack which infront of a producer or anyone in the music business doesnt look good. On bbc bitesize they explain that vocla warms even though extremely short can help your voice in so many ways for example Helps strech your vocal chords allowing you to reach higher notes it helps clear your throat so if you have a cold on the day which you dont have much control over your able to help your voice improve with warm ups. Its not only good for your throat but helps with breathing aswell. More on streching your vocal chord this allows your muscles to relax so your not so tense meaning you cant achieve your best singing voice at that moment in time. (for more information look at the link) https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zfrb7nb#:~:text=If%20you%20were%20running%20a,relax%20your%20muscles%20before%20singing.
How different warm up methods help warm up the different parts of the voice. For example if you do a warm up but us huming or lip trilling you actually close your larex which is good for clean tones but if you want to belt you need your larex to be moving and open. With vca warm us you also nd to do breathing warm ups as they help you reach them larger notes and means you know your not gonn loos breath throughout recording. This means there is a ls chance on geting a dry throat and you voice cracking. The way you can use this in the studio is before you go in the studio do a ten minute long warm up i you have the time longer so as soon as you enter the studio you ar readyso you arnt wasting any time as studio are usually quite expensive.
You also have to have a good understanding of breathing as when you sing th way you brath wll ffct the note that is createdfor example the two different breathing stiles mae tw singing voices fo example had singing or singing fom your stomach. they both hav positives ad negatives that help you sing different genres and styles. The head voice helps as it allows you to hit higher notes as they wont b as powerful and can cause your throat to be dry. Were as the chest/ stomach voice allow you to hot notes alot more full and create a powerful sound for example you would use your head voice when using false seto and your chest voice when belting a note or elongating it. https://www.masterclass.com/articles/head-voice-vs-chest-voice. One downside to chest singing to muh is your voce is prone to frying. However all kinds of singing if done for a long time it mean that your vocal chords are going to start to get dry thats why doing a warm down is also important. The reason for this is your voice has been woring and all your muscles are tense so it means they need to be relaxed.
Mic placement is extremely important. for example if you are belting a note very close up to the microphone then it means the sound is going to be to loud and loose quality another thing that happens is the vibrations on the recording clip which makes the producers job really hard. I read a article which explains that the mic placement is 20% of the work you have to understand and use in the studio. And most importantly this contributes this amount to the over all sound and the rest is through instruments skills and so forth. Another aspect on why mic placement is important involves signal to noise ratio. This is the level of disired signal compared to the background noise. This is mainly effected by what mic your using for example to deal with this it is suggested to use a directional microphone to avoid unwanted noise. A directional microphone can pick up sound only from one direction concealing out the back ground sound, however depending on the level of the studio you are recording in some have very expensive microphones. which actually can change the direction the music is recorded and picked up. However this can only be used correctly if the way you hold and sing into the microphone is towards were the sound is being picked upon the mic (commonly from the front of the mic).https://www.tonormic.com/blogs/microphone-knowledge/4-reasons-why-mic-placement-matters?srsltid=AfmBOoqZYLDU9czcXGiE8XZzAsdv_Nxj4Ch1U-ZlaSP06e77rK7JzuFy
More on Mic placement Its not only important for vocals but for all instruments meaning that its a extremely key aspect of recording in genral. The different microphones ar l so extremely important as same people experiment with old mics to get that classic sound and some people use alot moe modern mics as they want that clean soft tone on the voice howether mixing cnv et the sounnd as close to what you wnt as thy want depending on the time they have.
The first microphone im going to be talking abut is the Mojave MA3000. This microphone costs £1,394 so isnt a cheap purchase which is worth its money howether.
The second microphone im going to be researching is the AKG C414, this costs just over 1000 pounds. This microphone is good as it has different pick up settings. On the back of the microphone there is also a button for a low cut filter. The microphone isn't to large so it means its not to hard to travel around and set up as well.
WA87 is the third microphone im going to look into. This is a budget build for the noimen 87 but uses a lot of the similar recording techniques as the microphone at a fraction of the price. Like the AKG it has a gain changer a low cut filter and also different pick ups, so,e being figure of eight omni directional and more.
Te next mic is a manley microphone these come with the shock holder so must be put on a straight bar so it makes the microphone placement one way only. This microphone is very large and one of the most expensive microphones coming in at just bellow 3,500 pounds.
The next microphone is the Neumann u87 whic costs the most out of all the mics being £3,750. This microphone is probably one of the most well know microphones to be in a proffesional studio. Alot of big artists have used all the microphones in the list but this one is the most used and well know out of the bunch.
Im going to have to talk to the studio depending on what microphone they use. As it is a profesional studio I know the microphones are going to be at a proffesional level i just have to inform them if i want to se different pick up settings for the microphone. It also depends on wether were doing a live recording or a sectioned recording as i will not be able to move around overwise it makes the producers job a lot harder. With mic place ment f i belt a note close up to the microphone there is a chance that the recording clips which means some producers will tell yo to do it again which means your wasting time doing a lot of takes or they will have to take a while trying to change the gain and comp the performance. Without a vocal warm up your voice not be at its best meaning that the finished take isnt gonna be at th level wanted so might not sound good when released so you have spent money for not alot of out come as your sog isnt the best it could be.
Im going to look at different warmups i can do for different styles of singing with my personal teacher and ask him what i should do for individual parts and so on. Were then gonna sing the song before and after and see there is a difference. After this when it gets to the studio I will have a fully prepare warm up to make sure my voice is at its best of abilitys.
Week 3-4
Im going to find out what microphone the studios use and then do some research intop the so i know exactly how to use them and different skill i can have to make sure the recording is at a good level.
Week 5-6
Im gonna speak to my singing teacher and also look into different singing and breathing techniques for the song were recording to improve my singing skill before the actual recording to see if i can improve the song on my behalf.
week 7-8
This is the time we will be in the studi so before hand im going to see if i can talk to the producers before hand to meet them and also see how they work if possible and also have a look at the equipment and the studios some more so i know were everything is and how it works the producing equipment aswell as i am personally intrested.
In this research task i have learnt about different was inwhich yuocan record n the studio i have also learnt how to make recording in a studio easier and more proffesional. Ive also found some sources which i can g back to and learn even more about this subject or even similar matters. I have fund this task extremely helpful as i now know what i need to do for when we record in the studio with performance students.