There are vocalists out there that will never ever give you a good performance in headphones, but even seasoned vocalists sometimes have a hard time matching the vibe and the performance of a relaxed studio environment with the monitors on. We’re taught that vocalists always wear headphones, and of chorus in a perfect world we don’t want the track bleeding into the vocal mic, but if you’re a producer your job is to get the best performance, and that doesn’t always mean perfect. A vocalist is a special animal and it’s as much about narrative as it is about musicianship.
I’ll take a good actor with a solid performance any day of the week. I can fix your timing, I can fix your pitch, but if I don’t give a s*** about what you’re saying, there’s no fix for that. There’s no such thing as auto care.
If you find yourself in that situation, don’t get precious about it. If you’re trying to catch fire in a bottle, lose the headphones, get the take, and if so, here’s one thing that might make the bleed a little more manageable. You’re going to keep your control room volume low, you’re going to flip the phase on one of your monitors, and you’re going to plant that microphone exactly halfway between both monitors.
The phase cancellation in that spot is going to give you an extra 3 to 6 dB of attenuation at the mic’s position. Being a producer isn’t about knowing a bunch of formulas and keyboard shortcuts, it’s about having the tools and the sensibility to respond to the moment. If you or someone belongs in a Beat Kitchen class, send them my way.
