Music Production with Vocalist
The #1 thing that will make or break your song, is your vocalist. Even when other factors like songwriting, arrangement, and sound choice can all heavily influence the impact of a production, your vocalist will either have the listener hooked, or turned off immediately.
It doesn’t matter whether you are working with some who started singing yesterday, or an experienced professional. They are people, we are human. Because of that, we are all susceptible to the same crippling creative obstacles like ego and vulnerability that can be either our own fault or stirred up by someone in the team.
Imagine someone putting you a sealed room with no windows, putting headphones on you and setting you in front of a microphone. Then they say “act natural”. This is what we do whenever we send a vocalist to the vocal booth.
Remember….
Be Empathetic.
Your ability to make a vocal recording the best comes down to 1 thing: a convincing performance. You need the vocalist to trust you. And if it’s their song, you need to be respectful of their baby. They need to be in zone, it’s going translate to a great take.
Let’s take for instance, a situation where you feel a line or a lyric in the song isn’t working. Let them try it few times and then offer a suggestion of something else they can try. The point is that you let their idea play itself out, without immediately saying “this doesn’t work”. Maybe they will try your way, and maybe not. If it helps the outcome then great!
Be Aware.
First, remember if you are recording with the artist in another room, don’t forget how disorienting that can be. They are probably communicating with you through their microphone and hearing you through your talk back mic. There are no visual cues to let them know if you are for example, joking or being sarcastic.
Remember, be clear about your comments, be honest, yet diplomatic.
Second, being in a separate room means you have to keep them updated about everything!
If you’re going to play back music in their headphones:
- Are you listening to something they just did?
- Are they supposed to sing now?
- Why is there such a long silence all of a sudden?
They have no idea what is going on so you have to let them know. Keep them in the loop. Keeping these things in mind will allow a better performance and make your singer feel more comfortable. The better they will feel, the better they will perform, and the more genuine their performance will be.
Let’s Collaborate!
I’m Mark, my passion is to help people and make their music come to life! Let me use my experience and my team to get your project out to the world. Reach out to me here at mark.a.barrie@gmail.com. Reach out and Contact Me Here
