Recoring Newbie with a new microphone

[mathub85]

Hey everyone. I've had a micro br for sometime now and have learned a few of its' ins and outs. I had been using the on board mic and wanted my vocals to sound better, so I went and bought a SHURE sm57. I got it to record on two track with a left and right input, so it wouldn't sound mono, but I only achieved this once and I don't know how. I also couldn't add a third track guitar part the one time I had it using two inputs. Could anybody walk me through how to get a guitar track and then but a dual track vocal down with my microphone? Thanks for anyones time who helps. This forum seems awsome by the way!

[64Guitars]

Recording a mono signal simultaneously to two tracks is still mono (the two tracks will be identical) unless you process the tracks in some way to make them different. On the Micro BR, the only way to do that is with the Delay effect and the TAP delay type which pans the delayed sound between the left and right channels (see page 67 of the Micro BR manual).

The procedure for "Selecting stereo tracks for recording" is described on page 41 of the Micro BR manual. It depends on the Input you've selected.

[mathub85]

Ok, so the fact that it is still mono makes since. Is that how vocals are normally recorded? Is there a way to record my mono vocals and then go back and spread the sound to the left and right input, or should i just record the left and right at the same time divided between two tracks?
Also, is there some book reference that someone would suggest for a beginner to start learning common recording knowledge and practices?

PS- why do you have to have a poll on your posts? Looking at my post, I obviously didn't know what it was asking for lol.

[Oldrottenhead]

i record my vocals  with the onboard mic, but to get a fuller sound i will doubletrack the vocal, by that (and i hope i used the correct terminology) i mean that i sing the vocal twice. before i double track i try to learn and rehearse the vocal before recording, then i can sing as close to in sync with 1st vox recording. this give your voice a fuller sound, you can then  mess about with panning to get this best effect, sometimes for me i have both vox on top of one another panned in the middle other times one panned left the other right. sometimes i might also sing the two vox at different pitches for a harmony effect or a full octave apart. once youve recorded your vox you can import them to cubase or sonar etc and mess about with reverb and panning effects etc.

[64Guitars]

Ok, so the fact that it is still mono makes since. Is that how vocals are normally recorded?

Yes, in the studio a vocalist is usually recorded with a single mic. There's not much point in using multiple mics to record a single voice. However, multiple mics would be used when recording a group of vocalists such as a choir.

Is there a way to record my mono vocals and then go back and spread the sound to the left and right input, or should i just record the left and right at the same time divided between two tracks?

Yes. When you mix/bounce your tracks to create a two-track master, you can pan the sound from any single track to the left, right, or anywhere in between. See page 44 and page 50 of the Micro BR manual.

Also, is there some book reference that someone would suggest for a beginner to start learning common recording knowledge and practices?

The Library page on my website has links to many documents about recording. Some are fairly advanced and not specific to the BR series, while others are more introductory and written for the BRs (the "Guides and Articles from Roland/Boss" section).

https://songcrafters.org/64guitars/BR/Library.html


If you want to thicken the sound of your vocal tracks, a good technique is to record the vocal tracks twice, as oldrottenhead suggested, then pan one track to the left and the other to the right in your mix. If you can't be bothered doing that though, you could record your vocals using a single mic to two tracks with the Delay effect applied and set to TAP. The delay and the automatic panning of the delayed sound thickens the vocals and gives the illusion of doubled vocals without having to record the vocals twice.

[mathub85]

Awsome, thanks for the input 64guitars! And to you as well oldrottenhead.

[Glenn Mitchell]

I've been recording one track, copying to a second and simply using different FX on each. That seems to work too.