The most important instrument of them all, the human voice.
Knocking up a professional sounding backing track these days is getting easier and easier with the help of all those fabulous VST instruments, very professional sounding presets on all the dynamics and effects and a little help from columns like this one. But the one thing that nearly always lets down amateur productions is the vocal. Even if the perfromance is great, it’s often the shoddy production of the vocal that lets it down.

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The Key:

Vocals sound good only when they are ?in tune.? If a singer is  flat (or sharp) the vocal performance doesn't sound as good and can even sound poorly recorded. Add comment (0)

A good rock lead guitar should sound "right there" and "big" (read that as "Huge"). There should also be a clarity of the notes being played. These factors create a conflict in how you place the microphone to pick up the instrument. Add comment (0)

Microphone placement is a big and very technical topic. Here you get an introduction for microphone placement in a table sheet. Add comment (0)