ABSTRACT
The vocal is the most important element of many musical styles, particularly pop and commercial music. It is the vocal performance that listeners identify as “the song,” and is often the element one spend the most time getting right when tracking and mixing. This chapter discusses that mics and recording technology are secondary to the performance. Bidirectional mics can be used to minimize spill between the voice and guitar, as long as there are no sound sources or undesirable room reflections behind the mics. Positioning the singers around a single microphone or a stereo pair are also valid approaches, but they are only effective if the singers are naturally well-balanced. The sound will be more unified- less individual, and more of a blended whole. Individual miking captures an isolated perspective of each singer, which then needs to be blended into the group sound. Each voice can be processed, shaped, and nuanced individually to form the mix.
