- 1). Setup to record using a professional quality condenser microphone. Don't use an internal microphone or any microphone meant for use with a computer. Run a professional microphone through a phantom-power-equipped preamp and audio interface into your computer and recording software.
- 2). Record your vocals in a clean-sounding space without a bunch of ambient sound. Make sure that cars in the street, footsteps from other floors and furnace or air conditioning noises are not audible in the recorded track.
- 3). Put as many mattresses, pillows, blankets and other thick, dense materials in your recording space as you can. These materials help break up reflections and absorb echos so you obtain a clean-sounding vocal on the recording.
- 4). Record several versions of the vocal track. Listen to them all and cut together the best parts of the song. For example, if, in one take, the choruses are stronger than the verses and the verses are better in another, use your audio editing program to cut and paste the best parts from each take into a single master track.
- 5). Apply an equalizer (EQ) effect to your vocal track. Listen for harshness in the upper and lower registers and use the EQ to trim those frequencies until the sound is as pleasing as possible. Then, apply a compression effect to level out the dynamics of the track. When applying compression, listen for an even, clear sounding track. If it starts to sound distorted or if you can clearly hear that the track has been digitally manipulated, you must reduce the attack. No specific numbers are available as a hard and fast rule on these effects, as every track and vocalist requires completely different settings. To get a truly professional sound, train your ear to recognize what sounds best when applying effects like these.
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