12 Weeks
Level 3
3-Credit Tuition
$1,545Non-Credit Tuition
$1,290In almost every recording, the lead vocal is the most important element to engage the listener. It is the emotional driver of the record, and what draws us in. If you are an aspiring or established producer, engineer, mixer, or even a recording artist, songwriter, or otherwise connected to recorded music, Vocal Production will be a primary foundation for your art and craft. It will guide you through the essential concepts and methods to master the craft of vocal production.
This course will first give you background about the importance of the vocal since the earliest days of recording, the technologies that enhanced vocal recording, and why listeners focus first on the voice as the most communicative instrument. You will then delve into the often overlooked yet absolutely essential phases of “preproduction,” which can help ensure the easiest, quickest, and ultimately most successful recordings once your vocal session begins. The course then explores the recording session, including guiding your vocalist to the most fluid and convincing performance through the use of often-invisible yet very complex methods, such as singing for the comp, vocal doubling, stacking and thickening, harmonies, and backing vocals. The course then focuses on post-production elements: advanced comping, subtle tuning, and timbre enhancement to create the most compelling final vocal tracks. The course culminates with more advanced vocal mixing, where creative use of technology can enhance the vocal and its focus to even further heights.
By the end of this course, you will have perfected a producer’s perception of what makes a vocal reach through to a listener, bring them into that recording, and hold them there. You will have enhanced your “producer’s ear” to successfully guide a vocalist to their best and truest performance. You will also have gained the engineer’s knowledge and basic skills to ensure the quickest, most fluid, and creative recording of those vocals, and the skills to enhance them and mix them to the full satisfaction of the producer, the artist, and the audience. These combined skills will allow you to apply your abilities to many roles, from producer to engineer to vocal producer/engineer to artist to avid fan of recorded music.
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Prepare for a vocal recording session, both as an engineer, focusing on the technical aspects, and as a producer, focusing on the personal, creative and artistic aspects of the vocalist
- Run a recording session with technical fluidity and an interpersonal mastery to bring forth the best and truest performances
- Compile a final vocal track that has both a consistency and maximum impact of emotional and dynamic growth, staying true to the artist and the song
- Enhance that vocal with additional tracking, harmony, etc., as well as technical processes, in order to increase the impact of that compiled vocal performance
- Mix a vocal track so that is has the proper size, placement, and focus within a total mix
Syllabus
Lesson 1: The Vocal in Recorded Music
- Why the Vocal Is the Focal Point of Most Records
- "Scoring" a Dialogue
- Your Favorite Recorded Vocals & What Makes It So Special
- A Brief History of the Vocal in Recording
- Imagining Recording in an Earlier Era
- The Magic Triangle: Vocalist, Producer, Engineer
- Level Panning and EQ of Recorded Vocal
- Assignment: Testing Your Emotional and Technical Ear; Describing What You Hear
Lesson 2: Knowing Your Singer; Knowing Your Song
- The Vocal in Different Musical Styles
- Mixed Genres
- Vocal Ranges
- Identifying Vocalists Ranges
- Getting to Know Your Singer
- Describing a Singer
- Getting to Know Your Song
- Mark-Up Lyric Sheet to Highlight Punctuation/Interpretation
- Identifying Key, Mode, and Pitch & Range
- Assignment: Choose from Four Choices and Identify the Requested Elements and High Points
Lesson 3: Pre-Production: Initial Steps for the Producer, Engineer, and Artist
- How a Producer Prepares a Singer for the Session
- Producer Considerations for Pre-production
- Preparation for Working with Various Personality Types and Ability
- How an Engineer Prepares for Working with a Vocalist
- The Full Recording Signal Path
- Microphone “Shoot-Out”
- Assignment: Handling Pre-production Scenarios
Lesson 4: Vocal Session Preparation - It’s All About the Singer
- Essential Vocal Recording Approaches and Concepts
- Note Taking and Purpose-Based Lyrics Sheets
- How the DAW Can Be Used to Speed up Workflow
- Three Approaches: Playlist, Drag and Drop, Loop
- Preparing and Rehearsing Your Vocalist
- Establishing Communication Hierarchies
- Assignment: Four Vocal Preparation Scenarios
Lesson 5: The Scratch Vocal
- The Session Begins Long Before We Hit Record
- Takes that Got Away, Being Prepared, Saving the Day
- Recording the Vocalist—Adjusting the Signal Chain & Monitoring to the Singer
- Set-up: Adjusting with Scratch Takes
- Producers Have the Overview, Engineers Have the Micro View
- Production Stories
- Assignment: First-Time Recording Experience and Lessons Learned
Lesson 6: Producing the Vocal - Creating a “Keeper” Take
- Facilitating the Best Pacing for Your Singer
- The Complete Vocal Take: The Pluses the Minuses, and the Purpose of Momentum
- Points to Stop, Continue, Punch In, and Take a Break
- Listening in the Moment - Don’t Miss the Magic
- Expert Interviews
- Comping on the Fly - Momentum Choice of Methods
- Magic Triangle Interaction to Sustain Momentum
- Setting Up Effects to Use in the Session
- Assignment: Full Vocal Session
Lesson 7: Advanced Vocal Performance: Enhanced Conviction & Singing to the Comp
- The Powerful Impact of Phrasing - Telling the Emotional Story
- Vowels - Their Purposes for the Song and for the Artist
- Consonants are the Clearest Communicators - The Real Source of Clarity & Conviction
- Momentum: Keeping the Technical Process Fast and invisible
- Prep and Execution
- Revisiting Phrasing and Singing for the Comp
- Assignment: Using Your Producer’s Lyric sheet and Comping
Lesson 8: Advanced Vocal Editing: Final Comp, Tuning, Timbre Changing, Stretching
- Final Comp Techniques to Create a Powerful, Consistent, and Sustaining Vocal Track
- Comp Comparison
- What Comping Teaches Us for Active and Future Singing for the Comp
- Advanced Tuning and Pitch Editing
- Expert Interviews on Pros and Cons of Time Editing Tools
- Advanced Time Editing
- Assignment: Tuning, Thickening, Stereo in the Chorus
Lesson 9: Making the Vocal Bigger: Doubling & Stacking; Harmonies; Background Vocals
- Bigger Vocals
- Guidelines for Doubling and Stacking
- Adjust levels, Time Alignment, Timbre Choices
- Harmonies. How, Why, and Where
- Background Vocals: From Pads to Featured Parts
- Stretching the Vocal in Size and Length: An Introduction to Delay and Time Based Techniques
- Assignment: Critical Listening and Description
Lesson 10: Vocal Mixing
- Why We Premix a Vocal?
- Planning the Mix: Review the Arc of the Song; Note Problems or Enhancement Points
- Listening to Recording and Making Your Own Notes
- Comp Adjustments and Fixes
- Compressing, Limiting, & De-essing: Powerful Tools That Are Often Misused and Misunderstood
- EQing the Vocal: The Many Reasons Why and Why Not, and the Subtlety of How
- Automation to Maintain Consistent Level
- Advanced Use of Time Based Effects: Delay, Phasing/Flanging, Chorusing, and Reverb
- Assignment: Mixed Vocal
Lesson 11: Creating a Vocal-Focused Final Mix
- The Mix Exists in Three Dimensions
- Diagram Supplied Mixes
- Adjusting the Arrangement, Sounds, and Setting to Support the Vocal
- Stems in General and Vocal Stems in Particular
- Delivery of Vocal Assets to an Outside Mixer/Remixer
- Assignment: Adjusting Mix Stems
Lesson 12: The Producer/Engineer, The Self-Producing Artist, and the New Vocal Production
- Summarizing Production Approaches
- Using Collaborators When Possible, and Why
- Techniques to Use When Playing Two Roles of the Magic Triangle
- Remembering Who Your Client Is and What Matters Most to the Listener
- Assignment: Revisit Your Favorite Vocal Recording
Requirements
Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements
Prerequisite Courses, Knowledge, and/or Skills
Completion of Audio Fundamentals for Recording, or equivalent knowledge and/or experience. Basic experience recording and working in your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) is required. To meet the DAW proficiency requirements, you may benefit from taking any of the following courses: Pro Tools 101, Pro Tools 110, Producing Music with Logic, Producing Music with Reason, Producing Music with Cubase, Ableton Live Fundamentals
Textbook(s)
- No textbooks required
Software
- Full-featured Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), such as Pro Tools (Studio or Ultimate), Logic Pro, Cubase Pro, Ableton Live (Suite or Standard), Reaper, Reason, or FL Studio (Producer or Signature). Note that GarageBand is not acceptable.
Instrument
- A piano or keyboard instrument
Hardware
- Audio interface
- XLR microphone suitable for recording vocals, such as Shure SM7B, Shure SM58, Audio Technica AT2020, or better, as well as XLR cable
- Studio monitors (pair), such as JBL 305Ps or better, as well as necessary cables
- Closed back, over-ear studio headphones such as Sony MDR-7506 or better for tracking
- Note: If recording in the same room as your vocalist, an additional pair is required (or two additional pairs in situations with a separate producer and engineer), as well as sufficient headphone outputs with individual gain control.
Student Deals
After enrolling, be sure to check out our Student Deals page for various offers on software, hardware, and more. Please contact support@online.berklee.edu with any questions.
General Course Requirements
Below are the minimum requirements to access the course environment and participate in Live Classes. Please make sure to also check the Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements section above, and ensure your computer meets or exceeds the minimum system requirements for all software needed for your course.
Mac Users
PC Users
All Users
- Latest version of Google Chrome
- Zoom meeting software
- Webcam
- Speakers or headphones
- External or internal microphone
- Broadband Internet connection
Instructors
Author & Instructor
Prince Charles Alexander is a sought-after music producer and audio engineer whose clients include Mary J. Blige, Destiny's Child, Faith Evans, the Notorious B.I.G., Usher, Boyz II Men, Brandy, Babyface, Sting, Aretha Franklin, Brian McKnight, Donnie McClurkin, and others.
Alexander has garnered more than 40 Platinum and Gold certifications from the RIAA and has multiple Grammy Awards and nominations. He teaches Advanced Production and Mixing at Berklee, and created the Commercial Record Production minor in that department, for which he received the Don Wilkins Excellence in Curriculum Development Award from Berklee's Professional Writing and Music Technology Division in 2013. Alexander also teaches production and engineering for Berklee Online, is co-creator of the Vocal Production course for Berklee Online, and for ten concurrent years, was also an adjunct instructor at New York University's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music.
He has taught audio technology at the Institute of Audio Research in NYC, and is a frequent lecturer at colleges and universities around the world. From the early to mid 80s, he produced, wrote, and recorded on Virgin Records with his group, Prince Charles and the City Beat Band. Alexander was an early innovator of wind synthesis and a part of the "punk-funk" generation that incorporated many of the devices that would propel rap music to the forefront of the American music scene. Prince Charles Alexander is one of the proud founders of the annual Berklee in Atlanta Spring Break Trip. Read Less
Author & Instructor
Mitch Benoff is a professor in the Music Production & Engineering department at Berklee College of Music. His focus on vocal production began in the days of analogue, developing for himself many of the comping techniques that have now become the norm in the digital world. Vocal Production is based on a similar course Benoff created on campus.
For decades, Benoff has split his time among various fields in the art. As producer, songwriter, and musician, he has written short film scores, musicals, music for off-Broadway, and lots of songs. He is the former owner of Downtown Recorders, home to much of Boston’s New Wave and Reggae scene in the 80’s. His 3-D sound company had clients like Pink Floyd and Michael Jackson.
Benoff has also consulted on special effects concert lighting for national tours, and at M.I.T.’s Center for Advanced Visual Studies, he created large-scale art installations like his 400 ft. long Athens Olympic Meteor for the 2004 Olympics. Read Less
What's Next?
When taken for credit, Vocal Production can be applied towards the completion of these related programs:
Related Certificate Programs
Related Degree Majors
Related Music Career Role
Employers look for skills learned in this course, when hiring for the following music career role:
Questions?
Contact our Academic Advisors by phone at 1-866-BERKLEE (U.S.), 1-617-747-2146 (INT'L), or by email at advisors@online.berklee.edu.
