Quick guide: record vocals

Everything to set up to record vocals right now with the NT2-A: mic, room, iD44, monitoring and Studio One.

The NT2-A is a large-diaphragm condenser: it picks up a lot of detail and a lot of the room too. Here the place you record matters as much as the mic, and what gets into the take doesn’t come out.

The signal path

NT2-Acardioid, with pop filter

Mic inputiD44 with 48V

Mono trackfader at 0 dB

Direct monitoringno latency

1. The mic’s three switches

Polar pattern: cardioid.
Pad: 0 dB. Use −5 or −10 dB only if you scream hard and it clips even with the gain low.
High-pass filter: 40 Hz, or 80 Hz if there’s low-end noise from traffic or thumps on the floor.

You sing toward the front of the mic. If you’re not sure which side it is, sing from one side and then the other and watch the meter: on cardioid, it picks up much less from the back.

2. Placement and room

Pop filter about 5 cm from the mic, and you at about 15 to 25 cm. Closer adds lows (proximity effect) and further adds room.
Height: the mic at mouth level or just above, angled slightly down, so it doesn’t get the direct air.
Away from walls and never in the center of an empty room.
Blankets, an open closet full of clothes or a mattress behind you help more than any plugin.
Silence: fridge, air conditioning and fans off. The mic picks them up.

🔴 Set this NOW· in recording

The room, the noises and the plosives stay stuck to the voice and don't come out well later. Tone, compression and pitch can be solved in the mix.

3. The iD44

An XLR cable to a mic input.

48V: turn it on only with the cable connected and with headphones and monitors low. To disconnect, first turn off the 48V and wait a few seconds.
100 Hz filter: off, since you’re already using the mic’s.
−10 dB pad: off.
Gain: set in step 5.

4. Studio One and monitoring

Format: 48 kHz and 24 bits.
Input: in Song Setup → Audio I/O Setup, create a mono input with a clear name like “Vocal NT2-A”.
Track: audio and mono, with that input and armed. Fader at 0 dB.
iD44 direct monitoring on for that channel, from the iD mixer: you hear yourself with no latency.
Track monitoring off in Studio One (blue button), so you don’t hear yourself twice.

If you want a bit of reverb in the headphones, send it through a send and accept some latency on that effect only.

5. The level

Sing the most intense part of the song, not the first verse. Raise the gain until peaks sit between −12 and −6 dBFS, with the average lower. The voice is less predictable than a DI: when in doubt, stay close to −12.

6. The takes

Record several full takes of the song, in layers, to build the best version later. It’s faster than chasing the perfect take phrase by phrase, and it keeps the energy.

Checklist

Before hitting REC

NT2-A on cardioid, pad at 0, filter at 40 Hz.
Pop filter at 5 cm; you at 15–25 cm from the mic.
Blankets behind you and noises off.
Cable connected and only then 48V, with all monitoring low.
48 kHz, 24 bits, mono track with the right input. Fader at 0 dB.
Direct monitoring on in the iD mixer and track monitoring off.
Peaks of −12 to −6 dBFS on the loudest phrase.
Full takes in layers.

Expected result

Three or four takes that are clean, with no clip, no heavy plosives and little room. If in the silence between phrases you don’t hear a fridge or traffic, and turning it up doesn’t reveal any room echo, the take works. To understand each decision, continue with the microphone and the signal. When you have the final version, go on to the vocal mixing quick guide.