One of the oldest, best-known and most versatile instruments of all those that exist and have ever existed: the voice. It is more than important to know in depth each of the elements that will be recorded in our studio. “Controlling” a recording studio, or in other words, having a home setup, involves more than owning a computer that records several tracks.
It is more than advisable to have a store of experience and knowledge that will help musicians deliver their best passages, and that will give us the wisdom to know what “color” we can add to every second of our recorded tracks.
Although they sometimes seem like minor things, details such as the lighting in our studio while an artist is performing and recording can be highly relevant, since we may be able to break through shyness or bring out certain “juices” that excessive light (for example) could diminish or spoil. With that introduction out of the way, I’ll go on to analyze the characteristics of the voice for the benefit of engineers, operators and curious musicians who have a recording studio of greater or lesser scale.
The Voice
Looking into the mechanism that produces voice, we can sketch it out by understanding that the vocal organ includes the lungs, the larynx and the mouth. Each of these parts performs concrete, specific and defined functions.
Thanks to the contraction of the chest muscles, “the instrument” expels the air held in the lungs, generating an airstream that can then be modulated into consonant and vowel sounds. That airstream passes through the larynx and, more precisely, through the “glottis.” The well-known “vocal cords”: elastic folds of the membrane near the larynx, are the first modulating element, their membranes forming a diaphragm that, as it opens and closes, modulates the flow of air passing through them.
As a rough guide, we can say that this opening differs in men (approx. 2.5 cm) and in women (approx. 1.5 cm). Delving further into the sounds the voice generates, this instrument is determined by the positions of several additional elements: the position of the jaw, lips, tongue and larynx.
Diagram of the Elements That Make Up the Human Voice:
- Lungs: the element that generates the energy.
Vocal folds: which act as the oscillator.
Vocal tract: which is our resonating chamber.
There are, however, other organs that can play a part in the performance, such as the stomach (belly).
Cross-Section Diagram of the Human Head
- Nasal cavity
Lips
Mouth
Palate
Tongue
Epiglottis
Pharynx
Vocal cords
Larynx
Lung air
Esophagus
Why Do Some People Have Great Vocal Abilities and Others Don’t?
Acoustic Characteristics
Unfortunately or fortunately, as with all of the human being’s abilities, the physical makeup of the person in question is decisive in determining the qualities that are possible. A football player is fortunate to have a robust build, and a basketball player is better off with great height.
Without going on too long, it makes sense that depending on lung capacity, vocal elasticity, the shape of the jaw, tongue and other elements, the abilities of each vocal instrumentalist will vary a great deal. Fortunately, vocal discipline, like everything linked to music, can be trained, corrected, matured and improved, although some individuals will undoubtedly be more capable than others of developing this musical instrument to a virtuoso level.
Frequency Range Table
Instrument Lower limit
Note-Hz Upper limit
Note-Hz
Soprano C3-261.62 C5 - 1,046.50
Mezzo-soprano A2 - 220.00 A4 - 879.98
Contralto F2 - 174.61 E4 - 659.25
Tenor D2 - 146.83 C4 - 523.25
Baritone B1 - 123.47 A3 - 440.00
Bass E4 - 82.40 D3 - 293.00
Sound Pressure Levels of Different Voices
Whisper level: 20 dB
Man in quiet conversation: 30 dB
Woman in quiet conversation: 25 dB
Man in normal conversation: 55 dB
Woman in normal conversation: 50 dB
Man shouting: 85 dB
Woman shouting: 80 dB
Professional singer: 80 dB
Maximum power: 90 dB
As I mentioned in the introduction, recording the voice has a lot to do with knowing its characteristics: intensity, pitch, timbre, directionality, etc. Naturally, the various devices (studio tools: microphones, amplifiers, speakers, multi-effects units, etc.) are conditioned by the characteristics of the source, so they should be chosen accordingly.
The Spoken Word
Some of you may put your studio to work on activities beyond the purely musical. Considering this, and thinking about studio work for dubbing, documentaries, interviews or journalistic sessions, etc., the main factors for recording the spoken word properly deserve serious attention.
We have to keep in mind that it is essential to get clean, clear recordings in which the words can be understood without effort and are well shaded. It is equally important to achieve enough quality to tell voices apart and give each speaker their own personality. On top of these elements, we must remember that speech depends on intonation, so that a speaker can create different effects and moods through expression; applied to our own field, we have to capture all of these nuances and qualities in our recording sessions.
It is therefore advisable (for both sung vocals and spoken word) to know the characteristics of the source, the purpose and/or goal of our session, as well as the characteristics of the room, possible interference and all the sources that will take part in the recording: audience voices, telephony, etc.
Conclusions
I hope and trust that reading this chapter proves useful to you. I think it is healthy to gradually get to know, even if only preliminarily, the different aspects that can come into contact with our recording, editing and playback “gear.”
Without wishing to be a bore, I want to stress how beneficial it is for you (those of you who have plunged into the adventure of a home studio) to professionalize your knowledge, and even though it can sometimes feel a bit tedious to read certain texts or secondary information (at first glance), our musical culture will grow so that we can optimize our resources in the studio, discuss the best recording approaches with our “guests” (musicians, engineers, composers) and, in short, reflect a professional discipline that characterizes our trade: the home studio.