It’s now Week 4 of the Michael Jackson’s Beat It cover for out Multitrack session and reflecting on what was produced with a month was a Drum, Bass & Guitar track. This week we are working on recording the vocals. Danny was happy because this was the first week he wasn’t performing in the recording rootlike all the other time, he had the most demanding job role ever. But this week wasn’t about Danny but more about me, it was my time to shine as being the vocalist of the group. I had worked for weeks to know the song inside and out, I learned the lyrics to the song and also the style of singing to the song. Honestly the original way the song is sung is not of my capability because its a high pitched sort of intense which isn’t my usual type of singing as I’m more of the smoother type of singer because of my deeper voice (blame puberty for that) but I ws able to learn it all. It wasn’t easy because the first line was difficult to do because to me there was too many words in just one whole bar so getting used to saying all those words while keeping a consistent rhythm was a bit tricky but not too tricky. I have great skill of remembering lyrics and I’m able to remember them lyrics even after years of performing a particular song lyric and I keep in perfect sync to any song I know the flow of but with the song “Beat It” was different, the verse can become confusing in the order of when they have to come in so I have to keep a sheet of lyrics in the room while singing. Instead of being in the normal recording room I was in the dead room.
There was three microphones set up in the dead room a Shure SM57, Electro-Voice RE20 and an AKG C414 and we had to test which microphone worked best with me voice. I felt more comfortable using the SM57 and the RE20, they felt right when using them but everyone else though I sounded better using the C414 so it was decided to use the 414. The pop shield was placed about 15-20cm from the microphone. The 414 was set as a cardioid polar pattern so it picks up sound from whatever is in front of it because singers tend to sway or dance a bit while recording so their never really standing still so this was the best choice when recording singers. After the first take I thought my voice sounded a bit congested and needed to recored again but this time the microphone stand was increased in height and was tilted so the microphone was pointed directly at my mouth, It’s better for singers to sing upwards than downwards as it clears the air way better which is better for singing. So in two takes we finished recording the vocals.
