Outernational Vox & Comp

SpeakerSonic Studio

I received a message from an old friend on facebook about a band looking for a quick vocal recording spot ASAP. Outernational had played a midwest tour three years prior and she's kept track of them ever since. A facebook post lead to this session.

Outernational

Leo, Miles and Jesse came in late Monday to sing on the Lou Reed cover, Waiting For the Man, for a tribute project. It seems they had recorded the track a few years ago, and once the news got out that Lou had passed, they decided to dust off the cover, put some vocals on it and put it out in his honor.

The Goal: Record several takes of lead vocal and several takes of backing vocal. All comped and ready for mix down at another studio. 3hrs.

I had everything setup on their arrival. I checked out the band's music as well so as to familiarize myself with the singers style and volume. U87 sounds great on any male vocal, I added a touch of EQ and a pretty stiff compressor. The singer has a very loud and transient delivery, so I didn't want there to be any issue with distortion at peak levels. I also added a bus compressor to get the volume up to the bands loudly recorded and mixed track. 

Waiting For The Man Lyrics

Another simple trick I use for recording overdubs such as vocals and or guitars, is to bus the entire track (except for what's being recorded) to a mix bus prior to the master. This way you can adjust the band volume without effecting the volume of the vocal. Its like having one, pre master, fader that does not effect the original mix. 

Miles sang 5 passes of the song while Leo made notes line by line for his performance. This helped save a lot of time while comping. We had 95% of the song on those few passes and then Miles went back to the mic to punch in a few lines we missed. Jesse was singing a pretty great chorus in the control room while Miles was on mic, so once we finished comping the lead vocal, Jesse knocked out a nice even low harmony in a few takes. Then Leo added a high harmony. We comped the backing vocals in no time and after a bit of clean up and crossfades, the vocal tracking was complete.

Really nice guys, very easy to work with. Well organized. Everything was done on time and out the door. They seemed to like the space a lot, and that always feels good. They're playing a show with Brook Pridemore at The Paper Box Nov. 2nd.

Update: Here's the final mix: Waiting For The Man by Outernational