Keep it comfortable.

Your voice comes first.

You can read without singing. The options menu lets you leave at any time.

The technique · 1 of 5

Set a working distance and mark it

Start around six to eight inches, roughly a fist and a half. Close enough for presence, far enough that small movements do not swing the tone. Put a piece of tape on the floor or note where the stand sits so you can return to it after a break.

Aim your mouth just past the capsule rather than straight at it, or angle the mic a few degrees. Plosives pass by instead of hitting it. You lose almost no high end at that offset and you save the engineer a great deal of repair.

This is the actual technique. On a loud belted phrase, lean back an inch or two. On an intimate line, move slightly in. You are performing the compression yourself, and it sounds better than a compressor doing it after the fact because the tone follows the intent.

Nervous singers sway, and the take goes in and out of proximity effect on a random schedule. Feet planted, movement only when you choose it. This single habit fixes a startling number of amateur takes.

Record thirty seconds, listen critically for plosives, distance swings, and sibilance, adjust the setup, then commit. Fixing the setup early is worth more than any number of performances into a badly placed mic.

Read at your pace. The guided practice comes next.

Why this exercise · 1 of 10

The idea behind it.

Most singers arrive at their first recording session having practiced singing for years and having practiced using a microphone for zero minutes. It shows immediately, and it is the difference between a take that needs three plugins to rescue and one that sounds finished.

Mic technique is a small skill with an outsized effect, and it takes about twenty minutes to learn the parts that matter.

Proximity effect is the main thing. Directional microphones boost low frequencies as the source gets closer, substantially so within a few inches.

That is why radio voices sound so full, and why a singer who drifts between two inches and twelve during a phrase produces a take whose tone lurches around in ways no compressor can undo. Your distance from the capsule is a tone control you are operating with your neck.

Distance also controls the ratio of your voice to the room. Close means dry and intimate, further back picks up more reflections. In an untreated bedroom, further back means picking up a small boxy room, which is almost never what you want. This is why home recordings usually benefit from being closer than feels natural.

Angle handles the plosives. Consonants like p and b fire a burst of air that hits the capsule as a thud no amount of EQ removes cleanly. Singing slightly across the mic rather than straight into it, or offsetting a few degrees, lets that blast pass by.

A pop filter helps and is not a substitute for angle.

Recording advice for singers tends to jump straight to gear: which microphone, which interface, which preamp. Technique in front of a modest microphone beats a poor position in front of an expensive one every single time, and the position is free. Almost nobody teaches it because it is not something anyone can sell you.

Before a session it is worth knowing your baseline. The free pitch test takes 60 seconds and gives you accuracy and stability numbers, which is useful information when you are deciding how many takes to budget for a demanding song.

Tell Vocal School you record your own vocals and the daily plan weights tone, diction, and phrasing, the things a close microphone exposes most. Free tier: one full session a day, no card.

Put it into practice.

A short version of the technique, with its own cues and pacing. Stay in a comfortable range.

What did you notice?

Record one phrase, then listen for whether the tone changes across it in ways you did not intend. Sudden fullness usually means you drifted closer; sudden thinness means you drifted away. Consistency is the whole skill.

An observation, not a diagnosis. No answer is required or scored.

Choose a snapshot.

Pitch matching and range are separate measurements. Neither identifies the physical cause of a vocal problem.

Both return to this guide. Stop and rest if your voice feels strained.

No saved snapshot yet

The local result is missing or could not be read. No result has been inferred.

Keep exploring.

• A 5-Minute Vocal Warmup That Actually Prepares Your VoiceFive minutes, in order: lip trills, sirens, then scales. What each step prepares, so on a rushed day you know which part you can shorten and which you cannot skip.
• Long Tone ExerciseSustained notes expose support, steadiness, and onset all at once. How to practice long tones so they diagnose rather than just endure.
• How to Sing Louder Without ShoutingVolume comes from resonance and efficiency, not from air pressure. Three mechanisms that make a voice carry, and the test that tells you which you are using.

Explore gently

A practice cue, not a diagnosis or a finish line.