Recording Sweet & Beautiful Vocals 1 - The Ribbon Mic Trick

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Here at The Coolest Recording Space in London Town - we get a whole bunch of vocalisers - from full on rock gospel belters to sofly spoken folkists - & they all generally need one thing - attention to detail.
There's not One go to mic for any session - but you can betcha life that the Shure SM7 is a good place to start for most sessions - to test the waters so to speak.
It's got a good full range - and just sounds excellent - especially if you've got someone who doesn't have great recording technique - like your live singers etc.
We always double it up with either a condenser or tube microphone to add either variety of tone or airiness - looks a bit like this.

king krule recording with mica levi and ghost poet in london studio

The sm7 is sung into from about 5-6 inches away - the tube or condenser mic is set further away to pick up more air.

Another great trick is to set up either an omni condenser or ribbon microphone & face the side to the singer - this means the voice will hit the side of the mic body & enter around both sides of the element - makes the voice sound further away than it actually is - works great on guitar too!

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or.... you could try this old 70's trick of taping a pencil over the front of a mic - stops "Pops" & again can make the vocals seem more distant than they actually are.

bet recording studio music producerin london play with king krule & ghostpoet

You can see the studio HERE:
www.shrunkenheadsstudios.com

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