Vocal Production Course

IF YOU RECORD VOCALS AT HOME OR IN THE STUDIO AND WANT PROFESSIONAL SOUNDING VOCALS, THEN THIS 4 WEEK ONLINE COURSE WILL TEACH YOU HOW TO PREPARE, RECORD, EDIT, TUNE, ALIGN AND MIX VOCALS TO SAME STANDARDS AS TOP 40 CHART VOCALS.

The vocals are often the most important part of any song and requires a vast amount of attention and treatment from the producer to make those vocals sound clean, modern and tight. In fact, vocal production is a key part of the role of a music producer and is what can take your recordings to the next level.

This 4 module, certified, online course will guide you through all of the essential approaches that producers and artists need to learn to master the craft of vocal production.

You will delve into the often overlooked (yet absolutely essential) phases of “preproduction,” which will help ensure the easiest, quickest, and most successful recordings once your vocal session begins. The course will also explore your role during vocal recording sessions, including guiding and supporting your vocalist so you are able to capture a truly brilliant vocal performance. This will include an in-depth demonstration and analysis of vocal doubling, stacking and thickening, harmonies, and backing vocals.

The course also focuses on post-production elements: advanced comping, tuning, alignment and timbre enhancement to create polished final vocal tracks. The course concludes with more advanced vocal mixing techniques where you will learn how mixing approaches such as parallel compression, tonal EQ, saturation, reverb and careful analog emulations can bring a vocal performance to life.

By the end of this course, you will have learnt and practiced all the vocal production techniques used by the world’s top producers. By the end of the course, you will be able to:

Prepare for a vocal recording session focusing on the technical aspects as well as the personal, creative and artistic aspects
Run a recording session with technical confidence to bring out the best performances in the vocalist and capture that ‘magic’ in the studio
Comp a final vocal track that has captured the best parts of the vocalist’s performance and to create a brilliant final vocal ready for mixing
Enhance vocals with tracking, harmonies, vocal stacks, as well as technical processes, in order to increase the impact of the overall vocal performance
Clean, edit, tune, align and finalise each vocal take to ensure a truly professional vocal sound
Developing a vocal chain in your DAW that suits the vocalist’s timbre and dynamics and which brings the vocals to life in the mix
Mix a vocal track in the context of the full mix so that it does justice to the vocalist’s performance and to ensure it meets the high professional standards required by the industry

FURTHER INFO

- The course will start on 1 April 2023 and will run every Saturday at 16:00 BST for 4 weeks

- All classes will take place live, however, all classes are recorded meaning that students don't have to attend the live classes and can download the recordings and study in their own time

- All students will receive a course certificate upon completion.

- Places are limited and come on a first come, first served basis.

Next Course Start date: Sat 1 April 2023

Download the course brochure and curriculum in PDF for more info about the course:

COURSE BROCHURE

Course Modules:

Week 1: Pre-Production

During this first module you'll learn about the important of preparing your vocal sessions. From choosing the right pre-amp and microphones, mic placement, gain staging, and soundproofing, to planning your studio session and choosing the right vocalist for your project.

Week 4: Mixing Vocals

In this final module we will take a look at developing a vocal chain, as well all of the important vocal mixing techniques including compression, EQ, saturation, automation, reverb, delay and vocal effects. As well as effects such as AutoTune, detuning, stem printing and blending vocals into a mix.

Week 2: Recording Vocals

Module 2 will focus on the recording process including warming up the vocals, vocal phrasing, diction and timbre, recording a scratch vocal and learning how to effectively record vocal layers and stacks and creating a quick comp of the vocal in the studio.

Week 3: Editing Vocals

Module 3 will focus on the editing and cleaning of vocal recordings. From advanced vocal comping, removing pops/clicks and hiss, tuning and pitch editing, vocal alignment, developing a vocal chain and using mix bus processing for vocal grouping and vocal stacks.

> Course Materials

Each student will also receive a range of desktop guides and guidance booklets after each module, designed to help you consolidate your learning on the course. This will include publisher directories, guidance on writing, producing and mixing and sample briefs to practice to.