Recording a very dynamic vocal without clipping

[Drengur Grar]

Originally Posted by clineaudio

if you have someone at the desk, have em ride the gains. THat's how they did it in the old days, one take, it better sound good, and it better not clip. When you think about stuff like that, old chess records, motown, etc are even more impressive

i agree with this...and most of the stuff said on here.

[McLean]

When I am worried about clipping, I will set the recording in levels low. This allows for a lot of head room so the vocalist can go crazy without the concerns of the dredded clip. This also allows for there to be no peaks without using any extra gear like a compressor/limiter. You can do a great deal of magic in post edit to get the signal where you want it in the mix. From there you can add the correct amount of gain and whatever effect that you or the client likes. The trick with that is you should have good mics and pres or your signal to noise ratio can increase to a bit more noise. However, I am going to employ the trick with the two tracks set at two levels. I think that is a pretty good idea. I did not have enough tracks for that untill recently so I am going to use that idea in several applications.

[abarnett]

I've serious problems doing this with some people. I ended up getting the best results with an ldc 3 feet out a little off access and a dynamic far away off the axis to the other side. I told the singer to tell the quiet parts to the close mic and the loud parts to the far mic.

some singers just have crazy dynamic changes. I also end up riding the faders a lot.