So you want to learn how to record vocals in FL Studio?

1. Best Software To Record Vocals
2. How To Record Vocals In Fl Studio Mac Free

In this article I am going to show you four easy steps to get you recording in no time.

The 6 Best Reflection Filters for Recording Vocals; Up next 5. With certain flooring Every single footstep can be heard loud and clear throughout the entire house. When singers tap their feet, those vibrations travel up your mic stand, and onto the recording.

When you open up FL Studio the first time, it can feel a little overwhelming..

It seems a little daunting to figure out how to record vocals. There are so many windows, so many options.

How do you get started?

Trust me I’ve been there.

But don’t worry, I’m going to take you step-by-step through the process that I use to record vocals in FL Studio.

This is certainly not the only way. But it’s the method I use almost all the time.

I think the way you choose to record vocals in FL Studio will be dependent on the workflow that you choose.

Music production is a very personal things.

As you get more comfortable, you may find a different way to do vocal recording, and that’s completely fine.
NOTE: if you want to see how I produce music in FL Studio, you can check out the free course below

HOW TO RECORD VOCALS IN FL STUDIO

ASSUMPTIONS BEFORE WE BEGIN

There are a few assumptions that I am going to make up front to help clarify the process.

ASSUMPTION #1: I am going to assume that you are working on a desktop or laptop computer to record your music. I am working on a Windows 10 based laptop. So that’s where a lot of my examples will be drawn from.

ASSUMPTION #2: I am also going to assume that you are going to be recording through an audio interface as well. If this is not true for you, then you can look at some other options, like recording voice through a USB mic, or using your iPhone to do mobile recording. So let’s just get that out of the way before we start, so that there not a misunderstanding.

STEP 1 – SETTING UP THE HARDWARE

The Recording Studio Components for Recording Vocals

Here’s a brief list of home recording equipment that I use when I am going to record my voice in FL Studio.

This a good starting point to work from. And this is the list of equipment that I will be using in this guide.

ESSENTIAL ITEMS:

• Laptop or Desktop computer
• Audio interface
• Microphone – condenser or dynamic
• Microphone cable
• Pop Filter
• Mic Stand
• Pair of Headphones

CONNECTING ALL THE RECORDING EQUIPMENT

Let’s get all the recording equipment set up.

This brief video will show you how I connect all the items together before I start the recording process.

Before you connect your condenser mic, make sure that phantom power is off.

This can cause damage to a condenser microphone, and you definitely want to protect it.

Once the condenser microphone is connected is when you want to turn on the phantom power.

Not before.

If you are interested in seeing what products I use in my studio, you can go to the resources page.

I’ll show you what I have purchased and what I am currently using in my home studio to record and work on music production.

PLUGGING THE AUDIO INTERFACE INTO YOUR COMPUTER

Most of the smaller audio interface draw their power from the computer they are connected to.

These include USB, Firewire, and Thunderbolt audio interfaces.

So you shouldn’t have to plug them into a wall outlet to get them powered on.

Just plug the cable into the back the audio interface. And connect to the correct port on your computer. It should power on.

See if the computer recognizes the device.

Sometimes you’ll get lucky, and everything will work right out of the box.

Best Software To Record Vocals

Sometimes you won’t.

DOWNLOADING THE LATEST DRIVERS FOR YOUR AUDIO INTERFACE

It’s great if your computer recognizes your audio interface straight out of the box.

But it’s still a good idea to make sure that you have the latest drivers.

Open up Google and type in:

[manufacturer] [device name] driver.

In my case, I’m using the Presonus AudioBox iTwo, so I type in Presonus AudioBox iTwo Driver, like this:

You will see the page that you can download the driver from in the top results.

Make sure it’s the manufacturer’s website, and not some crazy spammy site.

Select the correct driver based on your operating system and download it:

Once you download the file, install it.

*Unplug the device from the computer before you install the driver. Once the driver is installed you should be able to plug it back in and have the computer recognize the device.

After you the install the driver, there may be updates needed.

Common updates are firmware.

Run those to make sure you are all up to date.

Now let’s set up the audio interface in FL Studio.

STEP 2 – SETTING UP THE AUDIO INTERFACE IN FL STUDIO

Open up FL Studio.

Use the shortcut key F10 to open up the settings menu.

*By the way, learning short cut keys in FL Studio is one of the best things that you can do. It can speed up your workflow so much!

In the Settings window open, you are going to click on the Audio tab.

This is where we are going to make sure that FL Studio recognizes our audio interface.

Look for the drop down menu DEVICE.

Click on that drop down menu:

Look under the ASIO drivers section.

Find the driver that has some or all of the name of your audio interface.

I am using the Presonus AudioBox iTwo interface in this example.

The ASIO driver I see is labeled as AudioBox ASIO Driver. So I’ll select this option.

I don’t know all the technical details of ASIO drivers. So I’m not going to spend a ton of time trying to explain it.

If you want to get into the technical details of ASIO, you can start with this Wikipedia article.

Now let’s click on the buffer length option.

What I do know is that it was developed by Steinberg. And that’s enough for me.

Mine looks like this for the Presonus AudioBox iTwo:

If you are curious what latency is, Presonus has a good overview article about audio latency.

Rule of thumb: when you are recording audio, the lower the latency, the better.

Set the latency as low as you can go.

Make sure you aren’t getting any glitches, crackles, pops, etc.

You will have to work that out by a little bit of trial and error.

STEP 3 – SETTING UP THE MIXER FOR RECORDING AUDIO IN FL STUDIO

To open up the mixer in FL Studio, you press the F9 shortcut key.

It may look a little different than mine, but you should a window similar to this.

With a tracks that are labeled Insert 1, Insert 2, etc.

Select an empty track

Click on an empty track in your mixer. In my case, Insert 6.

To the far right of the mixer window there is the effects panel.

Choose the input from your audio interface

At the top and bottom of the effects panel you will see drop down menus.

The default selection is (none).

Left click on the top, drop-down menu. This is your input selection from your audio interface.

Select whatever input you have your microphone connected to.

In my case, I’m going to select input 1, like this:

When you do that, you should start seeing the audio meter in the mixer channel detecting sound.

You will see the meter responding as you speak into the mic.

It will look like this:

There is a button down at the bottom of the mixer track. A circle. As soon as you select the input on your interface, it will turn red.

Make sure the track is armed for recording

When it’s red, it’s letting you know that it is ready for recording.

You can see the red circle in the picture above on Insert 6.

To find out a lot more detailed information on the mixer window visit the FL Studio Mixer Explained page.

FILE LOCATION AND NAMING FOR RECORDED FILES

FL Studio will automatically select where to record file to and what to name it, if you do not.

But I like to be a little more organized with my projects than that.

I like to name files in a way that helps me when I come back to a project.
File names like vocal, or electric, or acoustic, etc. What can I say? I like simplicity.

To be able to select the location you want to save the file and what to name it, right click on that red circle.

A folder will open up. This is where you are going to name that track that you will to record.

You can also select the location that you want to save the file.

The more organized you are with the recording the better.

It’s easier to come back to a project and pick up where you left off.

With file location and name set, you can start the process of setting the level of the microphone.

SETTING THE RECORDING LEVEL

There are lots and lots of opinions on this topic.

I won’t get into all the details, but one of the biggest traps for beginners is to record the audio as loud as you can get it.

This is not the smartest move.

AUDIO HEADROOM

The reason this is not a smart move is that you aren’t taking into consideration the steps that come after the recording process.

After recording, there are the editing, the mixing and mastering phases of a project.

Each track that you record at a high level adds up in your mix.

The more files you have in the mix, the faster those levels add up.

Plus you don’t have a lot of wiggle room to alter and manipulate the track you record with effects.

In my opinion it’s better to take a more conservative approach to recording your audio tracks.

Here’s what I mean by that.

Find a good level for the vocal

As you are setting your levels for your voice, watch the dB meter on your track.

You want the basic range of where those levels hit to be somewhere between -16 and -12 dB.

This is just a rule of thumb to follow when you are starting out.

It just helps you make sure that you are louder than the room noise.

But makes sure that you have some headroom to manipulate the audio after you record it.

Again, this is just a safe rule of thumb, this is not the gospel of recording by any means.

Setting up the transport controls

So once you have the track averaging at the right levels, then you can move up to the main transport control.

This is where you see the record button, play, stop, etc.

Right click on the record button and you will see a menu appear with a lot of options.

Since I’m recording audio, I want to make sure that option is checked.

You can uncheck or check any other option by right clicking on them.

This is usually how I set up the recording options when I am recording vocals:

You may also want to select the option “Recording Starts playback”.

This just means it automatically starts recording when you hit record.

Otherwise you have to hit the space bar after you hit the record button.

SETTING UP HEADPHONE MIX TO RECORD

Put your headphones on and set the volume of the music that you are recording to.

Check to make sure that you can hear the vocals the amount that you want to hear.

this will be for the headphone mix, not for the recorded file. Balance that the way that you would like to hear it.

CHECK THE RECORD ARMING IN THE MIXER

Go back to mixer window.

Check to make sure that the vocal track is still armed for recording.

The small circle in the bottom of the mixer track should be highlighted in red.

SONG vs PATTERN MODE WHEN RECORDING

Look back at the transport bar in FL Studio.

Make sure that you are in song mode, not pattern mode.

Pattern mode is active when the button to the left of the play button is highlighted in orange like this:

YOU DO NOT WANT THAT PATTERN BUTTON TO BE ORANGE.

You want the SONG button to be green like this:

So now you are in song mode.

This allows the audio to be recorded onto the playlist. Just trust me on this.

I can’t tell you how many times I thought I had a great take, but no audio appeared on the playlist when I stopped recording.

I would frantically search around to see what had gone wrong only to realize later that I had been in loop mode.

So frustrating.

Now that you have setup everything, you get to the exciting part.

STEP 4 – Recording the vocal in FL studio

All of that set up work has led to this moment.

Now you get to actually record the vocal.

When you click on the record button in the main transport panel the first time, a menu is going to pop up, like this:

I select the button in the top corner that says “Don’t ask me this again in the future”.

Like this:

And then I click the option:

“Audio, into the playlist as an audio clip”

And the recording will start!!

Press stop when you are finished and you should see your audio show up in the Playlist like this:

Congratulations!

You now know how to record vocals in FL Studio.

It may seem like a lot at first. But once you do it 3 or 4 times, it feels more natural.

AGAIN, if you want to check out how I produce songs in FL Studio, check out my FREE course!

Is FL Studio Good for Recording Vocals?

The short answer: Yes. Yes it is.

SOME COMMON PROBLEMS

It can be frustrating when you record a vocal and then go back to listen it and find out it doesn’t sound anything like what you expected it to.

Maybe it turned out a lot quieter. It sounds muffled, and you hear a lot of background noise.
You had an expectation of what you hear on a professional record, but what you hear is anything but that.

Usually the problem has nothing to do with the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) you are using.
Most of the time, the fundamentals haven’t been addressed or considered.

So let’s talk about three areas that you need to address in order to get a good vocal recording from FL studio:

1. The recording equipment you use
2. The environment you record in
3. The vocal performance

If you can work through each of these areas, you will get decent results.

But you also need to make sure that you understand that your vocals are not going to sound anything like what you hear on the songs you listen to immediately.

Your goal at this point is to get a quality recording that you can then take to the mixing and mastering process to get the desired sound that you hear in your head.

IF you want to learn how to use FL Studio to produce your own music, check out this FREE course:

So let’s talk about recording equipment.

The Recording Equipment You Use

In order to get decent results you have to have some good equipment.
For the moment I’m going to limit that to 3 basic items. You can always expand from there.
But the basic elements you need are:

1. A Good Microphone
2. An Audio Interface
3. Accessories – cable, stand, pop filter

A Good Microphone

When you are starting out, I think the most versatile mic to have in your collection is a good, large condenser microphone. There are plenty large condenser microphones on the market. So you need to decide what your budget is. I think a good mid-tier price is somewhere in the $300-500 range.

I have a few recommendations for microphones you can see here.

The reason I think you should purchase a good condenser mic is that it is a versatile tool.
If you get a decent one, you can record pretty much anything and get fairly good results. You can use it to record vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, percussion, and just about anything you can put in front of it that will make a sound.

And when you are starting out, you need that kind of versatility. Later on you can decide to get more microphones to add to your collection. Mics like a small condenser, ribbon mics, dynamic microphones, etc.

Those can help you get some specific kinds of tones. And can add to your arsenal of colors.
But back to the condenser mic. Pick up a decent one. And once you have that, you need to get an audio interface so you can get the sound into your computer.

A Good Audio Interface

There are so many options for audio interfaces on the market. And what you might what to get will be based on what your plans are for the future in music production. I have an article that breaks down what and audio interface is, and another that explains what the outputs are used for.

If you are just starting out, you can get some decent audio interfaces in the $100-$300 range.
These will get you decent recordings, but you have some limitations with the cheaper audio interfaces quality on the inputs.

You can get a decent amount of gain, but the cheaper the interface, the more noise you are going to hear in your recordings. Just keep that in mind. Eventually you will probably want to get some sort of a mic preamp in order to help you get a cleaner, better sound than the preamps on your starter interface.

And when you are setting up your channel, make sure that you are getting a good signal level from the singer. Not too loud, and not so quiet that you will hear a lot of room noise.

Now to get the sound from the mic to the audio interface, you need to have a couple of accessories. We’ll talk about those now.

Accessories – cable, stand, pop filter

The basic accessories you will need are:

1. A good microphone cable
2. A decent microphone stand
3. A pop filter

MICROPHONE CABLE

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The microphone cable is something that you don’t want to cheap out on. Go for a higher quality cable, and think about how much length you need to get to the interface from where you plan on setting up the microphone.

You want to try to get the shortest run of cable that makes sense in the space, but make sure you don’t go too short.

It’s an absolute pain in the butt when the cable doesn’t have a ton of slack and you are having to set your mic stand up in a weird place in order not to have too much tension on the mic cable.

MIC STAND

The microphone stand is pretty self explanatory. You can find some decent ones around for the $20-25 range. I would recommend getting a boom style mic stand with adjustable arm. This will give you a lot of flexibility for setting up the mic at different heights and locations.

This also helps when you start recording other instruments like guitar, etc.

POP FILTER

Finally on the accessories, make sure that you grab a pop filter.
I wouldn’t purchase the cheapest ones, because they often have mostly plastic components on them that won’t tighten down very well on the mic stand.

I made this mistake, and the pop filter doesn’t grip well, so it ends up rotating a little bit, and it’s hard to get the pop filter in the exact spot that I want to put it.

So spend a little more on it. I would say you can get some decent ones in the range of $20-30.
So that’s all the basic equipment that you need to record vocals, now let’s talk a little about the place you record them.

The Environment that you Record in

I think a lot of times, people don’t give a lot of thought to the room that they are recording in.
It’s easy to just assume that good equipment and a good performance can make for a great recording.

And they can, but they can also be heavily influenced and affected by the room you are in.

And most people are not doing their recording in the most ideal situation. Meaning that they have probably set up shop to record in small extra room in the house, and you don’t have a lot in the way of acoustic treatment.

You can combat this in a couple of ways:

1. Create some basic room treatment
2. Try an unconventional blanket route
3. Find a better space to record in

Create some basic room treatment

Basic room treatment will help improve the sound of your recordings.
It won’t solve all of your problems, but we are looking for improvement, not perfection.
So there are two basic principles that are at work in basic room treatment: reflection and absorption.

REFLECTION

Reflection is when the sound bounces off of a surface and comes back at your ears. It can bounce off of multiple surfaces before it gets back to your ear, and that can create some undesirable effects on your recording.

Think of being in a completely empty room and clapping your hands. You hear all kinds of crazy echo because the entire room is hard surfaces that are bouncing the sound back towards your ears. This more reflection you have, the more “live” the room sounds.

ABSORPTION

Absorption is when you have some sort of material (foam, fiberglass, rockwool, carpet, etc.) that is taking away some of the reflection of the sound by absorbing it as it passes through the material.

Think about what would happen if you were singing really loudly. And then you decided to put a pillow over your mouth and keep singing at the same volume. Suddenly that sound has completely changed, because the pillow is absorbing some of the sound. The more absorption you have the more “dead” the room sounds.

In an ideal room, you want to have a mixture of both live and dead, that makes for the best sound.

To create some basic room treatment you need to develop a combination of absorption and reflection. Absorption can be created fairly simply by purchasing some wood, insulation and fabric to create your own absorption panels. You can hang these around the room to help.

You can look at this article on absorption placement to figure out the best way to setup your room.

You can also create some diffusion panels as well. These can be used to break up the sound and send it out in all different directions. This cuts down on strong reflections, and breaks them up into smaller reflections (diffusion) that can help you keep the live sound, without it being overpowering.

You can see an example of a diffusion panel here.

Try an unconventional blanket route

I have seen this a couple of time in different variations.
But the basic principle is that you cover over your head or around yourself and the microphone.
And then record from this small impromptu isolation booth.

I’ve seen a few posts of well known musicians doing this on the road from hotel rooms, etc.

There’s a good article where you can hear the differences between different kinds of impromptu vocal recording booths.

Again, it’s more of a hack than a permanent solution, but you never know. You might end up getting some great results with this method.

Or if you want to build your own, more permanent version of a blanket, check out this article from Musician on a Mission.

Find a better space to record in

Maybe you don’t have the best space to work in.
So maybe you need to go and look for a place where it is designed to be quiet already, and see if you can use the space for your recording project.

This could mean that you maybe know someone who has a recording studio, and they will let you use their room for an hour or so.

Or maybe you have access to a theater room somewhere, or an auditorium or sanctuary.
Often times these spaces are created to be acoustically desirable.
Maybe you can borrow them at a not busy time, and do some quick vocal recording for a project you are working on.

The Performance of the Song

Sometimes you could have everything in order with your equipment and the room, but your singer is just not ready. They might be sloppy with how they are singing into the mic.

Which could mean that they are getting up too close it, or staying too far from it. Or it could mean that they aren’t aware of themselves moving toward and away from the mic a lot.

If they aren’t taking into consideration how loud or soft that they are getting, that can cause problems as well..

Maybe they aren’t conveying the tone or emotion of the words well.
Did they warm their voice up before they started recording? If they didn’t, you’ll notice that their voice gets worn out quickly while they are recording.

All of these personal factors for the singer can play into whether or not a voice recording will sound good.

So before you blame the DAW for not being able to record a good vocal, make sure that your singer:

1. Warms up their voice
2. Knows how close or far from the mic they need to be to get the right tone for the song
3. Is ready to convey the emotion of the section they are recording
4. Understands how to control their volume so that they don’t over stress the mic and create clipping or undesirable sounds.
5. Knows when to get in close to the mic, and when to pull back on the mic to regulate their volume

That in a nutshell is the vocal performance. And it can have a huge impact on whether or not a vocal recording sounds good.

CONCLUSION

So now do you think FL Studio is good for recording vocals?

It can be very easy to think that something must be wrong with the Program, or something else.
But the truth is often that the basics haven’t been taken care of first.

Make sure that you have the basic equipment to record quality vocals.
And make sure that you have taken into account the environment you are recording in.
Do you best to get a great performance from your singer.

If you do those things, your DAW will just capture what you want it to.
If you don’t do those things, then you can’t blame the DAW for not recording good vocals.