Analog to Digital

jonbouriaque

I run a mic (I forget the make/model at the moment) straight into a AudioBox USB 96 (which provides phantom power to the mic), and use Studio One Artist (i.e. the cheap version) as my DAW. Looking at Ken's PRO videos on doing "how to record vocals", I see he goes through an analog pre-amp, EQ, and compressor (all analog I guess??) before going digital. All of that (amp, EQ, compressor) can be done digitally in the DAW after the "raw" vocal is recorded. Any recommendations on what should be done to the signal before it's digitized and recorded, vs. afterwards?

Vocality

@jonbouriaque

Couple points when your recording your vocals, don't record them too loud/hot and use a pop filter to avoid plosives. If you need extra volume use your monitor gain apposed to turning up mic gain.

Couple of points you may be aware of just wanted to put that out just in case.

Vocality

Klaus_T

your way of doing it is fine, of course it is much fancier (and more expensive) to use outboard gear, but for home recording purposes, the chain you use is good.

one thing that is a difference analog vs using plugins, if you use a compressor/limiter before going digital, you can actually catch some of the peaks and not clip the converter, whereas if that has already happened, the plugin modeling a compressor cannot reverse that and "unclip" your signal. so as @Vocality said, be mindful of your gain.

jonbouriaque

Thanks all. I do have a pop filter Very important not to clip the input, for sure. No unclipping once it's recorded.