How I Recorded Album-Quality Vocals With A $69 Audio Interface
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- Опубліковано 15 лис 2023
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Yes, a $69 USB interface is all you need to achieve album-quality vocal tracks. Here's a quick list of things that you DO NOT NEED:
1) Expensive Microphone.
Expensive microphones can be fun to play with, but they aren't the least bit necessary. If you can't achieve pro-level results with a cheap condenser or dynamic microphone, it's your skills that are lacking, not the microphone.
2) Pricey Audio Interface.
Modern-day interfaces (no matter how cheap) are fully capable of capturing sounds with ruler-flat accuracy and with extremely low noise. Expensive interfaces simply feature better build quality and more features, but you don't need them.
3) High-End Microphone Preamp.
The preamps in your interface are more than good enough to capture sources accurately. High-end preamps can add mojo, color and vibe via saturation, but you can easily add that stuff after the fact with plugins in your DAW.
4) Outboard gear (of any kind).
It's 2023...plugins are just as good as outboard gear. Unless you're rich, SAVE YOUR MONEY.
5) Acoustically treated room or Vocal Booth.
Think of all of the amazing classic albums recorded in houses and all of the great live records recorded in non-studio spaces. The proof is out there...a perfectly treated room is not necessary for pro vocal recordings.
I also practice what I preach.
In this video, you'll learn exactly how I recorded album-quality vocal tracks in my unfinished basement with a cheapo $69 Behringer Interface.
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Thank you so much for having us! We had so much fun
Love this track, guys. Can't wait to listening to this release.
Hell , I use the 8 channel version of that interface with the 8 channel Behringer mic pre expansion , nady mics for my snare and toms , 4 Behringer C-2's for overheads , hat /ride/china , A Behringer C-1 for vox. The only more expensive mic I have is a Sennheiser e602ii for the kick. I'm happy. I'm not out to impress the world , lol.
The Behringer stuff does the job. Ive been using the same behringer 8 channel converter and heaphone amp for a decade at least. I also got a Nady ribbon mic for like $80 and was pleasantly surprised how good it sounds. Especially on heavy guitars and drum room.
If you have a crappy sounding room, record with a dynamic mic!
Listen to Call Me Wild by Cory Wong feat. dodie. That's recorded with a SM7b in an airbnb. And the vocals sound insane.
I recently recorded vocals with an SE Electronics v7 and it sounded great.
Great tip right there!
This is the exact interface me & my band use to record our album.
No cap the pres on that interface are incredible, especially for the price.
I own this exact interface since 2018, it does the job for sure!
Great video as always Bobby! And her voice is amazing, great song too! Can’t wait to hear the final product when this releases
The video I was looking for for so long. Amazing
Great video, Bobby! Behringer pres are awesome, both the current Midas line and the older Xenyx ones. That was a great vocal performance as well. It really goes to show, getting the performance right is a crucial part in getting a desired outcome when mixing.
Great video that explodes all the myths about vocals. Keep it simple is key. It does of course help that you have a really great vocalist there. Great sounding band. I must check them out.
This video is a masterpiece! Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. 👊🏻
Glad it was helpful!
Always solid accessible advice, love your videos dude.
Thanks for watching and glad you're digging the content!
Thank you for another superb video. So grateful that your stuff popped up on my feed! What I love most is that there's 0 bs... in fact, it's all ANTI-bs! I tracked some vocals a couple months ago and deadened my space with a duvet propped up behind the vocalist on two mic stands. It looked utterly ridiculous but sounded really professional.
Glad to help!
I like simple approaches and more analog in thinking .... like you. Can you elaborate a bit on the DAW in use here and the effects and specific to verb and delay settings and elaborate more on the EQ section of where and what frequencies you are cutting and boosting. THANK YOU in advance! Nicely done
Great voice there👍
Thank you!
Very cool Bobby! I would have liked to seen a 360-degree view of the room
You can see it in this video: ua-cam.com/video/QNx5c1wtxWk/v-deo.htmlsi=hUvZuT5UMWycuqYa
great vid as always man! I just think you omit Pitch Correction prior to the Vocal Chain (as part of the "editing" process, probably manually done); I'm pretty sure she is a great singer but unless you had a hundred takes some minor correction here and there is necessary! (and no I'm not a pitch correction fan)
Also helps having a great song ..and that song sounds great lovley singing !! agree with this .
Thanks so much!! 🤘🏻
thanks a lot, saved a hundred bucks buying a sound card interface!
Wondering how this approach would work in a big open space. My band practices in a big room in the back of a mechanics shop with no insolation and aluminum roofing and we plan to record there
Thanks
Love it. Unless you're a pro and you need to turn around tracks really really fast I never saw the point in capturing anything other than flat responses on acoustic instruments and vox. You can do any sculpting you need after you have your linear take.
I agree 100%
Thank you so much for this video! Are there any other recommended plugins for turn amp emulation? Another choice for the MH Character for example?
Any saturation plugin will do. Even the stock saturator in your DAW will get the job done.
The raw vocals sounded so good but I guess it goes to show with a talented vocalist and proper recording technique you don’t need that much. If you didn’t have plugins (besides EQ) it would have still sounded great
I use a Behringer 204HD, same thing, just more input/output options (I can record in stereo), and a Neewer NW700, which is a $20usd mic and it sounds like me, to me! Even those BM800s aren't too bad, although all three I bought, mainly for the accessories in the kit, have different circuit boards, hi pass the rumble, and it's pretty good. If you want to have pop filters, articulated arms, shock mounts and a spare cable, the kit is the cheapest way to go.
I have the 204HD also and it’s a great sounding interface. It’s build quality is excellent as well. I’ve never felt like it was lacking and everything I’ve ever recorded with it sounds great.
@@leogolive Yes, I was impressed with it. I've actually bought 4 of them, 1 as a spare, and one each for the guitarists from my band. I can't really see myself wanting any type of upgrade, so I just bought a spare before the price went up, or there was a war with China! 😬
Great video, thanks! , Is the Schep 73 by waves an console emulation plugin? or neve 73 preamp by UAD? , she has a great voice I'll have to check out the band too.
As far as I know, that plugin features some form of analog emulation.
@@FrightboxRecording Thanks , yeah I might grab the waves summoning one you had in the video anyway , probably on sale this black friday or something pretty cheap anyway.
great :) are you using the ASIO4ALL , or the interface has their own drivers?
I'm using it with a Mac and the device is class-compliant, so no drivers are necessary.
@@FrightboxRecording oh ok! Thanks for the answer 😁
I am using a BEHRINGER UMC 202HD interface for 3 years now and I do not have an issue with it. It does what I expect it to do, convert audio into wave data. I am not a Pro by any means but I don't get why people who already had the expensive Scarlett interface keeps upgrading to the new one when the objective is the same, to record.
Even the raw vocal sounds clean, full, very clear and musical. Most importantly the girl can sing!
Plz tell me WHY i would need the berringer 69 dollar interface for vocals? couldnt we just go directly in to the computers recording,llike line in? what does the berringer do to the vocals??
These UMC interfaces are legit. Not sure if this version is but my 204hd is USB powered so you can setup anywhere which is cool.
Same here, it's powered via USB..super convenient.
This is a flawless video! Learned a lot from it!! The only thing I would say is the last point should be the first. This girl has a beautiful voice, but if your singer is crap and needs to be pitch correct by entire semitones (or tones), you could be produced by Terry Date or Ruck Rubin it would still sound a horse's ass!! :D Thanks again for the super insightful content!
Hello, great video, very informative! I have a question: since you're not using a headphone amplifier, and the singer's headphones are directly connected to the sound card, which has only one headphone input, how do you listen to what she hears in her headphones when she records? In the video, I see you're not wearing headphones; do you listen through speakers? Doesn't that create feedback? It would be great if you could answer because I want to record a singer in my small studio and I'd like to know the procedure to follow. Thanks!
Great question! I can actually plug in my own headphones on my Presonus Eris E 4.5 monitors. I chose not to and just muted the monitors while she tracked and would listen to the take after the fact. I've been doing it like this for years in my project studio, so I'm used to it.
@@FrightboxRecording Wow, I didn't know you could directly connect headphones to speakers! That option is really cool, too bad my speakers, the Yamaha HS8, don't have it! So, from what I understand, it's not a problem to not listen to the track while the singer is recording. But if she asks for her own mix while recording and I want to hear what it sounds like at the same time, what should I do? I have a suggestion for you: if you could make a video on this topic, that would be really, really cool!
There's a mix pot on the soundcard that allow to inject the playback and adjust the balance between vocals and playback in headphones to taste. I suppose that's how it was set...
Can you make a video on mixing in untreated room and/or headphones and getting mixes that sound 100% professional?
Stay tuned!
Out of curiosity from mic choices, is there any reason you chose to track with a condenser microphone over your Sm7b? Thanks!
It all comes down to personal preference. For me, I record with a condenser mic cause it captures the tone I want. I don’t get the same results using my dynamic. hope this helped !
My SM7b was all set up at my desk for UA-cam and I didn't feel like disconnecting it, so I used the AT4033a instead since it was already in the basement. I'll use pretty much anything for vocals, I'm not picky.
@@FrightboxRecording thanks champ!!!
Everybody is trying to record a quality album, but it seems like no one is listening to the music.
There is NOTHING wrong with Behringer interfaces! I have the 1804 8 channel interface!
It does up to 192K sample rates along with 32 bit float! All the others do the SAME resolution!
Mine sounds GREAT!
The ONLY difference would be, the more expensive units MIGHT have a longer operating life, but that's IT!
(Some features too! )
Love this gorilla style series! I think it’s CLA or TLA who says, “it’s not the gear, it’s your ear”. Good writing/performance will beat out $$$$ spent on gear every time.
This is really great! I would however disagree slightly with your thoughts on interfaces- there is definitely a difference in terms of 'naturalness', "detail" and transient response when it comes to more expensive models. In my experience you can definitely hear the difference between, say, a 100 dollar interface vs a 300 dollar interface. Is that the be all and end all though? Absolutely not!
There is no difference. Run some accurate double-blind tests and you'll find out, it's all marketing BS. Watch this video to learn more: ua-cam.com/video/BYTlN6wjcvQ/v-deo.htmlsi=TwKCawNaw26KZzHI
How do handle the bleed of your monitors ?
They're muted while she's singing.
But what is on the vocal bus? Sounds like a delay, another compressor and a ducking reverb?
I'm just sending the vocal to a subtle quarter note delay and that's it.
Just a lil disclaimer:
Guerilla means "Little War" in Spanish, describing something improvised and unconventionally selfmade.
It has nothing to do with gorillas
Yes, I know the difference between Guerrilla and gorillas. With that being said, Sasquatches with glowing green eyes have nothing to do with gorillas either 😂
That’s a $500 mic you skipped over!
It's a $400 mic, but definitely cheaper than most guitars! You can get similar results with an SM57 on vox, watch this vid: ua-cam.com/video/h6kljoQGA-g/v-deo.htmlsi=CNPS4P9NGjRDhYRM
@@FrightboxRecording Sorry for the overestimate….it costs $458 or so in Thomann in Germany, a reputable music store around here. However, my comment still stands. Your post centred around the low cost of the $69 audio interface and skated over the cost of of the microphone you were using.
IDK, Im starting to think to do it properly people will need that magic bullet Beanie...LOL
😂
Can I just live in your studio?!? I loved being there until Mark my drummer brought like 12 packs of 12 packs of beer there 😂 he sucked. Like his drumming was fine but him as a person was awful 😩
So the trick is... to have a good voice! LOL!
That said, a real trick would be how to take someone with a lousy singing voice and make it sound great... with the same equipment, of course.
Don't overdo the De-essing or your vocalist will sound like they have a Lisp ...
Just dont get the um2
What's wrong with the UM2?
@FrightboxRecording it's super noisy with electronic interference and idk what the exact term is but it's really low preamp gain
meh I can record grindcore with no interface at all lol
Wannabe producer. Joke
Hey Joke! Hopefully after you watch this vid from Bobby you'll go from the Wannabe producer you are today to the producer you wannabe! Keep at it and good luck Joke!
His mixes sound pretty damn good.
Yeah they do.@@keithferris9574
@@roommother3398 Bitch I am about the Cash, you hear me. I don't play and waste time buddy. I am like a fucking CEO
Don't breed. The world doesn't need more of you.