Getting a good recording, from both sides of the booth

Introduction

Reading “The art of singing on stage and in the studio” by the author Jennifer Hamady from the perspective of a non-singer/aspiring producer and recording engineer was, at least to me, a surprisingly profound experience. While certain parts can be skipped, and certain parts seemed at the surface to be geared specifically towards singers and artists, a lot of very good information can be extracted by looking at the “other side of the glass”, or recording booth, in this case. It was an especially interesting read after having recently read Dave Pensado’s "Recording vocals with Dave Pensado", in which he talks about many of the same points that Hamady makes, while simultaneously backing them up, despite the two authors being on the opposite sides of the recording process. This is especially comforting and useful for anyone who is considering a career within the recording and performing industry as the main point of Hamady’s book seems to be bridging the gap that seems to inherently exist between engineers and performers. A relationship that, unless carefully managed, often seems to lead to frustration, conflict and and other unnecessary negative emotions and outcomes that seems to arise not from disagreeing in regards to the end goal, but simply not being able to communicate and cooperate effectively with each other.

While Hamedy does take this topic, and many other tangentially related topics, much further, from the perspective of a recording engineer I believe this is a good place to start taking notes. It should also be mentioned that Hamedy’s book does an excellent job of explaining both ‘why’ such a thing as “performance anxiety” exists, as well as the ‘how’ to best deal and overcome this obstacle - but for brevity and relevance sake I will only be focusing on the places where the producer/engineer can step in to help.

Communication:

Throughout Hamady’s book a central recurring theme is the communication and the subsequent shortcomings that often occur between the industry practitioners that make up the music and recording industry. Specifically, the relationship and communication that is needed between the singer, the producer and the engineer is especially delicate and requires extra care and attention in order to produce a great result that everyone is satisfied with. According to Hamady this initial disconnect in the ways of communicating is due to a variety of reasons, one of which is the nature of specializing in specific fields and aspects of the music process, as well as the preconceived notions that the different roles come with. As an extension of this, Hamady describes engineers as follows:

“These men and women spend their time in the world of technology, where the intellect plays a leading role. While their work also requires creativity, they deal primarily in numbers, measurements, technical jargon and the straight talk of “what’s so.””

(Hamady, J. 2016, p.78-79)

Hamady does concede that these descriptions are not set in stone, and somewhat based on stereotypes, but nevertheless somewhat true to what she has experienced throughout her career. Conversely, she describes singers as follows:

“Singers, on the other hand, reach for words in an effort to explain physical and sensory experiences that often exist without them. (...) with singers using imagery and metaphors to try to express what they themselves have often never intellectually understood”.

(Hamady, J. 2016, p.79)

When comparing these quotes, it becomes apparent that the entry point of the engineer and the artist is quite far apart, and that the reason for the misunderstandings and shortfalls in the communication between them starts to make sense. As Hamady describes, a singer might be complaining that her headphone mix is “too green”, while the engineer asks for which frequency he needs to attenuate to fix the issue, or which compression threshold the singer is referring to.

Another point she brings up is how the engineer and the singer communicate, specifically in a studio recording context:

“No matter how moving a performance might be, engineers and producers learn to remain calm and even-tempered in order to best capture the magical moments. Meanwhile, singers tend to experience and even require a tremendous amount of passion to create that very magic. (...) Not only because of the consuming nature of performance emotionality, but because these singers are, literally, in another place.”

(Hamady, J. 2016, p.80)

Once again this quote illustrates the importance of effective communication between the recording engineer and the singer. This is strikingly similar to the following quote from Pensado’s book, in which he interviews the singer "Esthero", specifically asking them about what qualities they look for in an engineer:

"When I'm doing vocals, especially really emotional stuff, I need you to stay with me because I'm often doing things that are extremely emotional - things that I'm really attached to and invested in emotionally. There's nothing worse than being with an engineer and trying to get it out - especially if things are going really well - and I'm like, back it up to the second line and they’re sitting there going, "Which one was that?" I need you to be with me."

(Esthero, 2018, p.53)

Performance anxiety

As mentioned by both Hamady and Pensado, the comfort and confidence level of a singer is crucial to giving and recording a good vocal performance. One of the biggest obstacles that stand in the way of achieving this is performance anxiety. Hamady breaks down performance anxiety into two types:

Type 1: Significance-related performance anxiety

as Hamady explains:

“(...) is an extension of the social discomfort that arises when we attempt to connect with people beyond a cursory engagement; the discomfort that comes from standing before, rather than with, a group of people.”

(Hamady, J. 2016, p.49)

Also described later in the chapter as “judgment-related performance anxiety”, the main source of this stems from the singer adding a significance to the performance that is directly tied to their sense of intellectual and emotional well-being (on other words, our sense of self-worth), and thus becomes a matter of life and death - at least as far as our bodies fight or flight response is concerned. Furthermore, as Hamady describes, this phenomenon only gets worse when amplified by technology, leading to situations where the communication between the artist and the audience is disconnected, such as when singing into a microphone or camera. This concept does not make inherent sense to our brains, and thus creates anxiety due to the anticipation of being judged by a potentially infinite amount of people. As she states: “This outpouring of self without feedback not only leaves us feeling wary and insecure, it also causes anxiety on a more animalistic level” (Hamady, J. 2016, p.54).

The solution to this type of anxiety, according to Hamady, is a combination of practice, experience and most importantly for engineers to keep in mind, “developing a greater amount of intimacy with your audience by shifting the way you perceive the people in it.” (Hamady, J. 2016, p.55).

This brings us back to Pensado’s points about inspiring confidence in the singer and their confidence in you. By taking a delicate approach to developing a positive relationship with the artist, you can help shift this perception of intimacy, and in that way create a comfortable environment where the artist is free of judgment.

In more practical terms, this can mean following Pensado’s advice of making a good first impression, making them smile during the recording, and generally building a relationship with the artist before and while recording. Furthermore, there are technical approaches that can be taken to alleviate this problem, which we will explore later on in the article.

Type 2: Value-related performance anxiety

As Hamady explains:

“For these individuals, anxiety not only stems from the decline of connection and the rise of technology; it also comes from their personal value and self-worth being wrapped up with their creativity. (...) With value-related performance anxiety, something is wrong with them.”

(Hamady, J. 2016, p.56)

This type of anxiety seems to arise from an idea that the artist is special because they sing, a perception that due to societal norms is often ingrained in talented individuals from an early age. Therefore, the fear and anticipation of losing this talent or not performing well is once again tied to their sense of self-worth, creating the same life or death situation and subsequent fight or flight response.

According to Hamady, because this type of anxiety is caused by the societal norms and pressures we have been brought up and continue to live in, the solution lies in settings aside these thoughts and “(...) allow yourself the opportunity to connect with what your body is meant to do” (Hamady, J. 2016, p.61).

While the explanation and solution to this type of anxiety goes a lot deeper and is explored in much more depth throughout Hamady’s book, I believe this is enough context to conclude where we fit into this as engineers. In fact, I would argue that Pensado already touches upon this in the following dialogue between him and a singer he was recording:

“Sometimes, it’s best to just encourage the singer to just sing. I mean, that’s what they do. Great singers are singing all the time, so just tell them to sing”

(Pensado, D. 2018, p.37).

While he might not have had the same context behind his words in terms of ‘freeing the artist of societal norms’ as Hamady does, the advice and outcome seems to be much the same. By encouraging a setting aside of societal norms, expectations and judgements, and by creating a comfortable environment that inspires confidence in the singer and their abilities, this can alleviate the performance anxiety that many singers walk into the recording booth with. And as both Hamady and Pensado would agree, this is one of the most crucial points to achieving a good vocal recording.

The technical approaches

As an engineer it stands to reason that this is exactly where you shine during a recording session, or any collaborative work with a singer. This is your speciality after all, your home turf. Ideally you should be creating an environment where the singer simply shows up, sings and that’s it. However, as both Pensado and Hamady show us, it is often not as simple as that.

Hamady deals primarily with this issue by encouraging singers to get more familiar, comfortable and knowledgeable about the technical aspects of the recording session such as monitoring devices, outboard gear, headphone mixes, click tracks etc. In that way, the singer will be able to spot a technical problem immediately, and therefore be able to effectively communicate it to the engineer, leading to a great and easy recording in the end.

While Pensado does not make any similar normative statements about what the level of technical knowledge a singer should have, he does go into more detail in regards to what the engineer is supposed to know, and the techniques they can use to get a great recording.

One of the things that Hamady and Pensado both put a lot of emphasis on is the importance of a good headphone mix - Pensado even calling it “(...)the most underutilized tool in the recording engineer’s arsenal.” (Pensado, D. 2018, p. 34).

When Hamady first mentions the headphone mix during this part of the book, she explains the following as one of the first steps in the recording process:

“Together you’ll set whatever balance and blend of your voice and the music you find conducive to your best delivery, while the engineer simultaneously sets the ideal input levels of your voice for the software”

(Hamady, J. 2016, p. 158)

This can be tied back into Pensados point about utilizing a demo recording obtained from the artist themselves (or their team), or just listening to the artists prior work to get a sense of how their “usual” voice and mix sounds, as well as which effects the singer is used to hearing. While he talks more specifically about the importance of the demo in the chapter “THE DEMO” starting from page 32, I think this quote illustrates the general point quite nicely:

“When the session starts, I’ve already taken notes on that specific singer, I have all my levels approximated, and the effects are set up. If the singer has been listening to the rough mix with reverb on the vocals for six weeks, I’ll definitely have a similar reverb ready for her headphones. Now she can just walk in and sing.”

(Pensado, D. 2018, p. 33)

From these quotes we come to an understanding that the headphone mix is used by the singer as a way to improve their delivery, and that the better prepared the engineer can get the headphone mix prior to the artist performing in the studio the better.

Moving on to the more specific ways a headphone mix can be utilized to get the best performance, here are a few quotes that describe exactly how Pensado goes about achieving this:

“If the timing is a bit erratic, I’m going to kick the drums up(...)”

(Pensado, D. 2018, p. 34)

“If they're struggling with pitch, I might pull the drums back a little bit and turn some of the harmonic elements up.”

(Pensado, D. 2018, p. 34)

“Sometimes a little reverb will make a singer sing sharp or flat, so if you’re having a pitch problem, increase or decrease the reverb.”

(Pensado, D. 2018, p. 34)

“Singers tend to sing a little sharp as they get older. Younger singers tend to sing flat. Sometimes you can counteract these tendencies by adjusting the amount of reverb in the phones.”

(Pensado, D. 2018, p. 34)

“I set the level of the headphone mix a little lower than it should be while the singer is warming up, (...) But when I think we’re getting close to a good take, I’ll kick the headphone level up three decibels. It juices their headphones!”

(Pensado, D. 2018, p. 35)

While Hamady doesn’t mention all of the same phenomena that Pensado does, she does mention different parameters of the headphone mix that both the engineer and artist should be aware of. Specifically in terms of EQ she says the following:

“(...) EQ is also used to help make changes to a singer’s voice production during the recording process (...) For example, if a singer tends to be a bit strident, exaggerating the high end of her voice will often coax her into warming up her tone.”

(Hamady, J. 2016, p. 178)

Furthermore, when talking about compression she says the following:

“(...) Compression also allows us to hear vocal nuance in quieter singing, which might otherwise be lost when competing with instruments in a recorded track. In these instances, compression removes the tendency of a vocalist to push by lifting quieter vocal passages, as well as bringen down very loud ones, so that the entire vocal sits just on top of the instrumentation. In this way, like EQ, compression has the ability to improve a vocal performance. (...) When used expertly, compression encourages you to sing with abandon.”

(Hamady, J. 2016 p. 180)

Although this proves that compression on vocals in the headphone mix can be very beneficial, she does also mention the following issues which once again, both the engineer and artist should be aware of:

“Whereas EQ often causes issues with pitch, compression tends to result in tension when three factors are incorrectly managed: When the compressor kicks in, how much compression is used, and the way that it engages.”

(Hamady, J. 2016, p. 180)

Hamady goes on to explain this point in further detail by introducing us to the concept of the “target range”. As she explains it:

“Again, the job of vocal compression is to place the voice just above the music, so that it can always be heard by the singer and listener, regardless of the dynamics of her performance. This sweet spot is known as the target range (...)”

(Hamady, J. 2016, p. 181)

The target range, as Hamady describes it, is the range where the vocal is sitting just above the instrumentation, which is done by raising anything instrumentation that falls under it, while lowering the instrumentation that goes over it. The result of not hitting the target range when utilizing compression in the headphone mix is described by Hamady as follows:

“However, if the range isn’t set correctly (...) the quieter parts of the vocal disappear into the track, causing many singers to either go off pitch or to push in a n effort to hear themselves. Conversely, when the range is set too high, the louder parts become far too loud, leading singers to pull back on their energy.”

(Hamady, J. 2016, p. 181)

The second part of compression that can cause issues to the artist is the amount of compression used, or in other words, the ratio. As Hamady explains:

“Typical ratios for vocals are 1.5:1 (...), or 2:1 (...). Set any higher than this and even subtle changes in vocal volume are dramatically exaggerated, causing singers to hesitate.”

(Hamady, J. 2016, p. 181)

A central point that Hamady mentions regarding headphones is the act of wearing the headphones themselves. While she goes into greater depth, in short, the fact that singers hear themselves differently when wearing headphones as opposed to not wearing headphones makes a huge difference - especially when it comes to hearing the room and its reflections and reverb. This can be counteracted by introducing reverb to the headphone mix while recording. As Hamady explains:

“(...) most singers still use at least some reverb in their headphones, even when their final vocal is utterly dry. It brings the critical space and room element (...) to the headphone mix, allowing vocalists to hear themselves more naturally and, as a result, to sing well.

(Hamady, J. 2016, p. 182-183)

However, utilizing reverb in the wrong way can also cause issues and hinder the performance. As Hamady goes on to explain:

“That said, reverb sometimes has the opposite effect. The wonderful sound of reverb can give us the illusion that our voices sound better than they do (...) making us lazy in our energy and engagement. Lowering the amount of vocal reverb usually solves the problem when we start sounding dull and lifeless in the control room, if not in our headphones.”

The last point that is important for the headphone mix that Hamady mentions is Panning:

“Panning is just as important in the recording process as it is in a final mix. As we discussed in the EQ section, certain instruments can blend and overlap with the voice, making it difficult for a vocalist to hear herself in her headphones. Rather than EQ each instrument to manufacture space, panning can more easily alleviate the problem.”

(Hamady, J. 2016, p. 183-184.

And once again, she does mention a potential shortfall that both the engineer and artist should be aware of when utilizing panning in the headphone mix:

“Lastly, beware of panning as a cure-all, (...) If you’re still struggling to hear yourself when the instrument and voices have been properly spaced out, be sure to check whether EQ, compression and other levels have been set correctly.”

(Hamady, J. 2016, p. 184)

Lastly, another point that has also previously been touched on in this post is about the emotional aspect of performing that a singer will often experience during a recording session. from a technical point of view, Hamady mentions the following point when talking about which of the technical aspects of the recording session that the singer should know about:

“You may be asked to record all of the verses first, followed by the more emotionally and sonically intense bridge and choruses to make things easier for you to conserve energy and the technician to balance levels.”

(Hamady, J. 2016, p.159)

This is an important point that is also mention by Pensado, who has the following quote:

“I see a lot of engineers who wear a singer out just testing a microphone setup. That’s very destructive. By the time the engineer is through testing the gear, the singer has lost the excitement and energy that comes with just showing up at the studio.”

(Pensado, D. 2018, p. 35)

Since we already established that the singer's comfortability is crucial to getting a good recording, making sure that the setup and testing is as close to done when the singer arrives can be a big help in achieving a great vocal recording.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, there is no doubt that issues are prone to arise when producers, engineers and artists go into the studio together. As such, I believe the exercise of going through each side of the recording booth’s experiences can be hugely beneficial to bridging this gap and ensuring great vocals through a better understanding of both the communication that is required to achieve this, as well as the technical approaches available to help you through the process. Since both books go into way more detail than this post, I would highly recommend picking them up and giving them a try - I definitely learned something.

Sources & links

Dave Pensado (2018) Recording Vocals with Dave Pensado. [Place of publication not identified]: Hal Leonard. Available at: https://discovery.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=acb97151-a5d1-3da4-9705-e39f204af6f0 (Accessed: 3 February 2023).

Jennifer Hamady (2016) The Art of Singing on Stage and in the Studio : Understanding the Psychology Relationships and Technology in Recording and Live Performance. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard. Available at: https://discovery.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=fab49b98-de76-3166-a97a-8506a327ec12 (Accessed: 20 February 2023).