Distance to mic for lead vocals

[Armistice]

• I'm talking LDC here...

• You've all heard me sing - I'm not very shouty but I do try to get reasonable apparent dynamic range into vocals via moving in and out as I sing

• Untreated, large (7 x 6.5 m/ 23 x 21 ft) room with 3 m / 9ft ceilngs

, mic set up 1/4 into room, no baffling, pointing into far corner which is brick on one side and glass with a light muslin curtain on other side. Carpeted.

It strikes me that the vocals I recorded in 2014 for The Jongleurs were better than the vocals I recorded in 2018 for Honey Hunters which were better than the vocals I've recorded this year...

I haven't changed anything other than the distance to the mic - I'm singing further away, because somewhere along the way I picked up that I should - which could well be wrong, but that's what I've been doing. Deep voice - proximity effect etc.

Not quite the only thing - I did have a big couch that I up ended for the Jongleurs which we put in front of the mic and sang into. Alas, one day it fell down and destroyed itself and I needed a new couch anyway, but I can't up end this one.

Seems to me, at volume, certain syllables ring out in a piercing way which I struggle to tame in the mix, and there's a resonance that's a little unpleasant generally - and so my theory is that by moving back off the mic and thus using more gain to get the required recording level I'm capturing more of the reflections from the room and that's making the overall capture worse, and that probably the first thing I should do is just go back to what I was doing and get back to being closer.

I'm probably singing from about 10 to 12 inches whereas before it was more like 6 to 9 inches. Downside is that you have more vocal artefacts: sibilance, plosives, breaths, lip smacks etc to deal with.

What works for you?

[vomitHatSteve]

I use a dynamic, so I couldn't say for sure, but

Not quite the only thing - I did have a big couch that I up ended for the Jongleurs which we put in front of the mic and sang into. Alas, one day it fell down and destroyed itself and I needed a new couch anyway, but I can't up end this one.

That is a tremendous solution!

10-12" seems like it should be about right for an LDC. I usually go with whatever matches the gain staging: i.e. whatever distance and pre-gain gets me a -12 average with peaks landing around -6.

[Tadpui]

I usually do what you specified as your older method: about 6 or 9 inches away from the mic. When I'm doing any backup vocals, whether I'm using the same mic as the lead or not, I'll usually take a step back so I'm more like 12 to 18 inches away.

Agreed, the more intimate distance will yield more mouth noises. It's amazing how many little air bubbles can form between the gums and the lips when you're hyper-aware of them

Is this your main living area that you're recording in? I take it that acoustic treatment isn't exactly welcome in the space. You could always try to rig up something temporary to see how dampening the room might help (or not). Those dense packing/moving blankets can do quite a bit of dampening in the vocal range. Maybe that would allow you to back off and not get the resonances and comb filtering that the lively room yields?

[CrowsofFritz]

I pretty much like to make out with the mic.

[Greg_L]

Same with Tad. I'm about 6-10 inches off the mic, a little farther off for backups.

[JD01]

I must be a max of 6" off the mic.
I don't really back off for my backings either. Just add more verb in the mix.
Small room is reasonably well treated.
Like Armistice, I also used to upend a sofa when I was recording in the main living room.

[Lt. Bob]

I find different mics require different distances.
On my EV N/D mics I tend to sing with my lips right on the mic. It has a large proximity effect which I like.

My MXL V63 seems to like me about 6-8" away but my MXL V67 likes me further away and my Rode NT-1 likes it more than a foot way

[musicturtle]

I would say 8-10 inches from the mic is about normal for me.

If I am belting a part, I usually will back away a bit more. If I am singing falsetto for backups usually I will lean in a bit more.

[Armistice]

Interesting - I think I'll head back in closer and test my theory, not because it's optimum in a great recording environment, but because I don't have such a thing and can't be putting gobos in the lounge room. I can see one of those iso shields in my future.

Especially if we move north and close to the beach, where tiled and wooden floors are very much the thing, for reasons of sand...

[JD01]

Interesting - I think I'll head back in closer and test my theory, not because it's optimum in a great recording environment, but because I don't have such a thing and can't be putting gobos in the lounge room. I can see one of those iso shields in my future.

Especially if we move north and close to the beach, where tiled and wooden floors are very much the thing, for reasons of sand...

When you move north to a decent size house though you'll also be able to build yourself a nice dedicated studio space that you can treat.