Recording

Recording: ‘It’s Not Happening’ vocals

By ronanfitzgPosted on
Time to Read:-words

Wow! Today, we look at recording vocals It’s Not Happening. It feels like we’ve moved through recording it at breakneck speed.

It’s Not Happening vocals: rig run down

As can be seen, that rig easily fits in the man bag!

it's not happening vocals

It’s Not Happening vocals: recording

Step one – set up

As I have noted in previous vocal recording sessions, I can’t control the volume of my singing voice like I can a guitar or bass. Consequently, it’s off to the ever-reliable room eight at Astoria SoundWorks. $10 for an hour for the win!

When I arrived at Astoria SoundWorks and room eight, I set up my hardware in the usual way.

Additionally, I attached the pop shield to the mic stand, and adjusted the height of it and the microphone, so that the capsule would be level with my mouth.

Step two – admin

Now, you might remember the last time I was recording in Astoria SoundWorks, where I had a bit of a fight with the WiFi in room eight.

With that experience in mind, I opted to avoid bothering with the internet at all while I as there. After all, I only had booked an hour.

Way before BandLab was even invented (I think), I used a DAW app called Audio Evolution for Mobile. I abandoned it because I couldn’t get it to work with an audio interface on my Chromebook. But, it was time to resurrect it.

But this required a little additional work in terms of admin.

At home, on my Chromebook, I bounced down what I tracked thus far in BandLab from It’s Not Happening – electric guitars. Then, I created a new project for vocals.

Next, I uploaded the bounced track to Google Drive. Then, on my phone, I downloaded the bounced track from Google Drive. Finally, I imported the bounced track to Audio Evolution.

Thus, at Astoria SoundWorks I just set up my hardware as in step one, and opened the Audio Evolution app.

Step three – recording It’s Not Happening vocals

As much I evangelize BandLab, it’s not perfect. For example:

  • If there’s no internet, it doesn’t work
  • If there’s no WiFi, it’ll demolish your data allowance
  • When you create a track, there’s no way to get a level before you tap the record button, so, if it’s too loud or too quiet, you have to keep starting takes until it’s right

Although it unfortunately doesn’t automatically sync with anything when you save your track, Audio Evolution doesn’t have these issues.

So, here we are!

Conclusion

And finally, the vocals for It’s Not Happening are done.

Pros
Cons
Size of rig: it all fit in the man bag! Sync: there is none between Audio Evolution and BandLab
Audio Evolution: works offline – so I didn’t have to waste time fighting with patchy WiFi Paying for space to record in: but it’s only $10

Next week, we’ll go through percussion for the track.

light audio recording it's not happening vocals

Moreover, share your own light audio recording thoughts and experiences! There’s a Facebook group, a Subreddit, Twitter and Instagram.

Also, feel free to shoot me a coffee.