This is the third in a series of articles on recording vocals. View part 1 and part 2.

With mic choice and signal chain dialed in, listen to your singer over the monitor speakers to determine the correct distance from the microphone.

You should have a fixed the initial distance back when you set the microphone height for the singer out in the studio.

Some engineers will open a hand and use the distance from the end of the thumb to the end of the baby finger as the starting distance.

The volume or level of the human singing voice operates in ways very predictable.

I’ve found (and then I’ve never recorded operatic singers) that generally pop singers are loudest at near the top of their full-voice range and lowest in volume at the bottom of their range.

Falsetto doesn’t count here, but singers with a falsetto louder than their full voice are in a blessed minority.

In the studio this is a consideration since this vocal dynamic range must be handled so that both the quieter moments and big and loud moments are accurately recorded without noise or distortion. This is accomplished by either changes in the singer’s mic distance, a change in microphone pre-amp gain by the engineer, or the best solution, a combination of both.

Five Fingers Example

If your vocalist sings loud all the time and all through the song, you’ll want to pick a fix distance from the mic for your singer to stand - maybe mark an “X” on the floor with tape.

For loud singing, this distance balances the mic’s direct sound with the room’s ambient contribution. Experiment with this distance because the room will contribute a feeling of size to a loud vocal that is energizing it.

At all times I try to keep my singer aimed at the mic’s capsule. Singing only inches off beam will result in radical change in “mic presence” - the components of the sound that, to our sense of hearing, builds a solid mental image of the singer performing in front of you.

In addition, you’ll change the tonality (relationship of top, middle and bottom of the vocal sound) and decreased intelligibility—important for understanding the words of the lyrics and for the vocal to cut a dense track in the final mix.

If your singer is a live performer used to backing off the mic for loud moments and then “eating the mic” for the quieter bits, you can make use of this in the studio.

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