Ryan Tedder's Tips For Recording SPOTIFY READY Vocals

I've recorded vocals just about every

studio in the world and every microphone

from vintage and expensive and garbage

and everything in between you need to

buy this plugin this is the Chris Mar

microphone I'm going to be standing up

like this autotune live is how you

record with it on if you're going to

record the morning don't eat that the

night before you need a pop filter

that's a pop filter I recorded Bono's

vocals on this and I figured out how to

EQ this microphone to sound like a

$10,000

microphone so now you want to get into

recording vocals and

look I've recorded vocals at this point

just about every studio in the world and

every microphone and every M microphone

chain from vintage and expensive and

rare and crazy to garbage and everything

in between and there's no one size

fits-all thing based on your voice um

but I can give you a handful of options

based on your budget and what you want

to accomplish so on this particular song

I was recording my vocals the whole time

I was writing it with the intention of

bringing in a demo singer to recut it

and I got to the end of this and

listened back and was like I actually

think that my voice works on this that

doesn't always happen a lot of times I

have my co-writers singing if I was

going to be pitching this to a female

artist I would 100% bring in a female

singer to sing this but I'm not um so as

such I think that you know me me leaving

myself on is going to make the most

sense you're going to see me

truly recording someone in real time in

lesson three when I'm recording cautious

uh on the song that we will do uh from

the ground up so you're going to see me

editing comping arranging vocals and how

I do all that um but for the purposes of

this

song I was recording on the fly as I

went and I kind of just like how it

sounds uh I'm not mad at it so I think

that I'm going to just keep my voice as

it is but I'm a big advocate of always

recording yourself first and only using

someone else if your voice doesn't sell

the song if you have the ability to sing

I encourage you to sing your own demos

as much as possible if you can't then um

find someone that sounds the most like

the artist you're pitching it to if you

know if you're pitching a song for a

country artist male country artist get a

male country singer uh if you're

pitching it to a pop artist if you're

trying to pitch something to you know

the whether it's the Jonas Brothers or

um Selena Gomez find a demo singer a

friend that you have they don't have to

be professional find someone that you

know can get close to that artist's

voice tonally their tone their range all

those things find someone that is as

similar as you can be to that and if you

are having an issue doing that get on

YouTube get on YouTube you have the

internet at your disposal I promise you

there's someone out there that sounds

like the artist you're trying to write

songs for they are on the internet

they're probably on Instagram they're

probably on Tik Tok you're going to find

them just just deer research um yeah

crowd Source way the future if you are

recording the vocal

yourself a couple things you need to

keep in mind um the input level whatever

whatever interface you're using to

record your vocal the input level you

need to make sure that when you're

singing into your microphone and it's in

record that you're not hitting the top

you're not spiking over here okay that

right there measures audio volume in DCB

and if you are coming in what's called

too hot that will turn red number two in

terms of

performance um I would make sure that

you're standing don't be sitting like I

am be standing straight up and the

microphone these are more like

engineering tips but I will tell you

regardless if you live in a major city

near cars or a Subway or all those

things you need to have all the windows

and all the door is shut first of all

the room does need to be as quiet

assumably possible um if you have a very

nice microphone like this this is a

cardioid microphone with a tube inside

of it if you're using this this

microphone is not going to pick up all

the Ambient sound that's coming from off

the street the trash guy picking up the

trash cats and dogs people laughing cars

this is a lot less likely so the the

nicer the microphone the quieter the

room has to be the less nice the the

less it matters right this guy will

pretty much only pick up what's directly

in front of it

okay um but you want to be standing so

even if even if I'm using this and I'm

recording a final vocal I'm going to be

standing up like this I'm be holding it

like this and I get a lot closer on this

microphone this one can hear everything

in the room right now at all times so

even the sound of the air conditioner

coming off of the back of my laptop

that's cooling my

laptop this 100% can pick that up so you

you really do have to be mindful and one

of the things if you have too much

Ambient sound in the place where you're

recording all you got to do is add

what's called a gate

okay that right there is a gate you want

to put that after or before I'm I'm

suggesting you use CLA gates are the

easiest thing in the world to use watch

I've opened the

gate and

look what this

does

is it creates a gate that means that

only sound that is over a certain amount

of decb is allowed through it's actually

a gate right so if I'm singing and I'll

show you an example of what this does

right now see all the things I'm moving

around here these are the dead gaps

between

phrases as a rule of thumb you remove

move

those a lot of but the the the fix the

simple cheat on that if you now listen

to this you're going to be able to hear

all the stuff in the background had some

nights anyone regret wasted days trying

to forget chasing love that I could not

get so list listen to all these little

tiny clicks and sounds listen to

this that's playing in the background

between all my phrases and it just adds

clutter and junk to to a mix but if I

throw this gate on Watch What

Happens

nightset days trying to forget chasing

love that I could not get and drinking

away the lonely spin a bag just I can

get rid of all these noises

watch so for me to get rid of that

little clip there if I'm using a gate

I'd probably have to go you don't ever

want to go above 20 ever so watch

you go that now it's not picking up

anything so the higher this knob goes it

means the louder the sound in there has

to be for it to come through the gate so

even at what is this 30 it's still

picking up that click so you got to get

rid of that but for the rest of this

stuff the gate covers

itet chasing I could not get right so

that's why you use a gate do not drink

carbonated beverages be like within an

hour of recording you want to avoid hot

foods and high acid like red sauce like

anything that gives you heartburn or

could like give you any kind of

heartburn or whatever don't eat those

within 12 hours of recording don't eat

it if you're going to record in the

morning don't eat that the night before

if you're going to get heartburn those

are the things that can destroy your

voice or just destroy your session I've

had days where I couldn't cut vocals

because I the dinner I had the night

before if you're going to have somebody

come record vocals and you're paying

them uh to do it it's okay to ask them

can you come already warmed up can you

come with your voice already warmed up

because otherwise you're wasting a lot

of time sitting there going through take

after take after take and they're not

even ready to really sing it yet um the

other trick that I do with just from

trial and error with recording songs is

very few

vocalists nail a song the same day that

they've heard it like if they're hearing

the song at at 1 p.m. in the afternoon

and you're trying to record them at

1:30 it's it's just they haven't

memorize it yet they don't know all the

nuances and the nuances of a song are

what make everything the nuances are

critical so you have to be sure that

they

know the song it's that simple otherwise

you're going to waste a lot of time

you're going to probably want them to

come back the next day or later that

night and it just saves everybody time

if they already know the song and so

what I do is I send them the song the

day before and I just ask them hey can

you please listen to this a handful of

times before you get here um that has

always saved me time and money and

stress so I would highly recommend

getting the song to the demo singer be

the day before they sing it if you're

comfortable sending the song out it is

critical to get a good vocal uh a bad

vocal no matter how good the singer or

the song can make a song very very very

difficult to place to to sell or pitch

or whatever so if you're going to record

a vocalist you need to have a handful of

things that you just you just have to

have um one is you need a decent

microphone so there's there's a whole

range of what defines decent microphones

um I will tell you that when I got into

writing and producing in college the

first legitimate like real check that I

wrote uh or money that I spent on any

piece of gear was for a good microphone

um i' had been recording in a friend's

garage and recording Non-Stop and hating

how my voice sounded I was recording on

a road nt1 or nt2 back in the day very

cheap like Australian microphone and it

sounded cheap I don't know what else to

say there are some cheap Alternatives

though that are okay here's a few

options if you have bags of money or

have a friend or you're Renning a studio

um I would recommend a vintage u67 this

is at the high end of things right this

is hard to get they don't make them

anymore now what's great is they do make

noyman is the name of the the company n

m NN Austrian company I think they make

a u87 and for years that was my go-to

microphone u87 is probably going to cost

and again this is one of the larger

ticket items that you would have but I'm

going to go down the price range this is

way expensive like 10 12 Grand sometimes

more depending off if their vintage um

u87 might be anywhere used on eBay from

$800 to

$1,100 great microphone uh it's kind of

a Workhorse microphone and not not not

that breakable a little bit further down

the chain this is what I travel with on

the road on my personal tour microphone

this is about the nicest microphone that

you'd want to travel with this is an AKG

414

EB um silverface okay this is a killer

vocal mic though like and I like I don't

want to travel with a tube microphone

because they'll break if you're buying a

microphone that has a tube in it you

have to be very careful with it this one

however solid state AKG c414 made in

Austria again the austrians make great

microphones clearly this is a silverface

AKG this is kind of rare this is

probably again around the price of a u87

maybe I I I hard to remember but it's

somewhere between $1,000

$1,400 this is the Chris Martin

microphone this is what he use use uses

to record or has historically used this

microphone to record pretty much every

Coldplay song you need a pop filter

that's a pop filter stemman this is a

thing that keeps cuz if you're singing

without it all your p's your PP and your

t's like TT that's the air that your

mouth makes when you make a p or a t

that air hits the capsule and when it

gets recorded it's terrible sounding

it's like sounds like a it sounds like a

huge mistake so it's like pencil and it

just distorts the mic and it's like and

so that's why they call these a pop

filter so the air that pops out of your

mouth does not hit the microphone

so if you don't have one of these get a

shoe bag occasionally you could use a

sock I've I've used socks

before this is a sure

sm7 so if you're budget conscious but

you still want a pretty good uh vocal

sound this is the go-to I've used this a

ton it comes with the pop filter on

there so you're not worried about your

p's and your s's your t's um and it

plugs into kind of anything um this is a

great microphone and I've gotten killer

vote I've recorded Bono's vocals on this

I've recorded Adele's vocals on this

I've recorded my vocals on this and I

figured out how to EQ this microphone to

sound like a $10,000 microphone so

there's a way to actually match the

tonality of this with a nice mic um and

I'll tell you one other cheat for those

of you who really want your stuff to

sound good but don't have the money if

you ever end up in a studio with really

good microphone that you love like a u67

or a e El M Tel funkin 251 um those are

very expensive $20,000 microphones what

you do is you take an

sm7 you plug it

in and you

record your voice or whoever you're

recording side by side with the

extremely expensive rare rented

microphone that's from the studio one of

the big things that a nice microphone

has is it's about tone body frequency

and if you just tweak and you've get

some get some uh compressors get some EQ

get some you know uh some dsers on that

channel on the cheap mic and just keep

moving stuff around until both vocals

sound identical and then save that

setting on your EQ call it the expensive

setting and then from then on every time

you use this Cheapo what is this 200

bucks 300 bucks every time you use this

mic you've mapped it to the super

expensive mic and you can thank me later

but that's a little Pro tip cheat on

microphones that I do all the time in

terms of recording

vocals uh I don't suggest you record

them sitting down like I'm doing this is

not ideal for a good vocal I've just

been doing this for forever so I'm used

to it and it's quicker and I'm not but

if I am doing a final vocal for a Wonder

Republic song

or Kao or whoever I'm working with at

the time I don't do it sitting down I

stand up up so I get more air in my

diaphragm I usually I usually am

standing about what is that about 6 to 8

inches from the mic is about where I sit

I'm in a acoustically treated Studio

this is my one of my main Studio rooms

here I've got five studios in this

building and they're all treated like

this so I don't have much Echo but most

rooms

bedrooms closets bathrooms they they

have a really bad Echo that's going to

give you a bad vocal so you want to

block the sound right that's your

objective well you have multiple ways

you can do it um if you've got again

maybe 300 bucks to spare 25300 you can

Google um microphone sound absorber or

sound proofer and it'll pull up it's a

conical conical what is that word it

wraps around like this and it blocks

sound you know um Ambient sound from

hitting the microphone and it makes your

your your voice way more controlled um

if you're super cheap you can take a

couple pillows two or three pillows and

kind of tape them together and like set

them on your mic stand where they block

it it does the same thing I'm not making

this up but like the first session I had

in this studio was Paul McCartney who

came through this is probably two and a

half years ago and I didn't I was in a

room that hadn't been acoustically

treated in this building we didn't it

was echoey it was bad reflective noise

like like when you're in a big room and

you just hear the echo everywhere so I I

took a bunch of pillows and I taped them

over the thing and and you've got Sir

Paul McCartney recording vocals on the

jankiest microphone setup of all time in

a room that did without the air

conditioner turned on sweating like

surrounded by pillows it was the point

being the vocal came out great and he

didn't care it doesn't matter how you

get there all that matters is that you

get there nobody wins awards for how

fancy their microphone setup was like

all that all that really matters at the

end of the day is the song however you

get there get there there's no rules um

so anyway that's my technique for

recording uh vocals my cheat if I open

up a vocal track right here I have

19,000 plugins right I don't I told you

I don't use most of them here's all my

this is all vocal stuff look at this

right that comes with protols all the C1

stuff they're great they're fine Channel

strip comes with it that's like EQ and

compression compressors

dsers uh distorters filters um reverbs

for days I have a all these they're all

great right um they've all taken my

money um and I've gone through fads and

phases of using different ones here's my

go-to across the board though pretty

much every producer I'm with this is

their default vocal setting so you need

to buy this plugin this is this is going

to save you so much time for making your

vocal sound like radio ready and pop and

whatever it's the Chris Lord Al uh this

this plugin CLA

vocals right it comes like this my

default setting is face tace dry that

just something about that setting makes

a voice just feel present like it's

coming off the radio or off Spotify now

if you've got someone with a very bright

voice okay you can adjust these things

top or roof if I you know depending on

where I'm singing in my register I'll

adjust those if there if my voice is too

bright or a singer's voice too bright

you pull it down that's it if it's not

if you're not getting enough bottom end

you pull it up or if there's too much

you pull it down if you want it to sound

cool and like stereo effect and like

like the weekend or something like you

you add this stereo spreader on there

and just go to stereo or wide and adjust

that and it will make your voice just

sound like cool I don't know how else to

put it so like a a really cool different

effect on your voice it has delay which

I use all the time I use the quarter

note delay you click on this little guy

up here little folder thing and you can

add delay delay color right so now let's

say when this word

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happens see that regret right there

anyone regret watch what I can do with

that because I've now automated this I

added it to the thing right I clicked

delay delay and I said add add and now

it's in this

column this is getting on some basic

vocal edits but you can add you can

anything in the left column you can add

to the right column which means you can

automate it you click on waveform

delay now so what I can do is I have it

set to delay so now watch there's my

automation this bar right here if it

goes up it means more if it goes down it

means less so now watch if I want that

regret if I want that word to just like

have a crazy uh delay effect like regret

regret re right I just turn that dial up

and watch what

[Music]

happens right and that I might make that

part of my vocal production so

[Music]

likeing right you notice how there's the

difference in delay anyway so bottom

line is is CLA allows you

to allows you to do a lot of different

it it's just easy it's just easy I

recommend CLA it works it works in

Ableton it works in logic it works in

Protools I think it works in qbase I'm

not sure but I think it does um so

that's my default setting you're looking

at it I don't record with autotune on

but so many artists do now that you I

just leave it default set there autotune

live is how you record with it on you

can see my setting 10 humanize if you

want it to sound like tea pain you go

all the way there to zero and then it's

super hard autot tuned add a little

humanization monkey around with these

things you know move them around to

figure out what sounds good for you

there's no secret here you can

screenshot my setting of this song but

I'll probably change it on the next song

so I don't know how helpful that'll be

artists have their producers that they

just

use period cart launch they just use

them on everything so if I'm going to

pitch this to C Brown he already has his

team he and I talked about it he's got

his one or two guys that produced

everything that he does and so if I'm

trying to to get a song placed as a

writer and I don't care about the

production then I would send it like

this I might even send it more strip

than this is if I am trying to get the

song placed and I also am trying to get

the gig as a co-producer or a producer I

would spend probably

another oh hour two hours on this track

something like that to get it to feel

like

the last two or three records that that

artist has put out and get it in that

same sandbox so it just feels instantly

like oh we could record this tomorrow

and it can go on radio and I do that a

lot um but that's you know with if I was

to pitch this to Kane I know he has his

team I already know who would very

likely be producing it so you kind of go

is it worth me spending a bunch more

time doing a bunch of stuff that's just

going to get redone by somebody else and

probably not so this is I think produced

well enough for me to send it to his his

team

um I've got a couple other ad lib

moments that I want to edit in here um

just to punch up but right now this is

feeling pretty much like a finished

record hopefully this has been helpful

for you uh I think this in theory uh

should save you a lot of time on your

next production your next song um Lord

knows I wish that I could have taken a

class like this when I was 18 19 29 uh

this would have saved me

so much time um so I hope You' had a

good time watching today's lesson now

it's time for you to get your microphone

set up S situated start cutting

vocals editing them don't be afraid to

fail remember that uh it doesn't really

matter you've got all the time in the

world to make as many songs as you need

to until you're ready for the world to

hear them you know nothing else matters

other than actually starting sitting

down with the blank canvas and just

starting that's the most important step

so have fun good luck hit it

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