Re: Getting some distortion when recording vocals...

Sounds like your vocalist was overloading the microphone itself. If your mic has a pad (-10dB, for instance), engage it and try again. If it doesn't have a pad or you don't care for the sound of the mic with the pad engaged then you vocalist needs to move away from the mic during those powerful notes. This is usually a very common issue with newer singners that haven't devoloped a microphone 'technique' yet.

Actually I did have the 10dp pad engaged on the mic. Maybe she just got too close and overloaded it. We'll try it again tonight.

Make sure you have a master fader on the track. Sometimes it clips there. If you aren't using it, you won't see it. And if you have Rosetta, make sure the soft limit is on.

One of the more annoying things in studio life is that singers voices will occasionally sound exactly like they are distorting when it's really just what their voice sounds like in that range.

Getting some distortion when recording vocals... 

I keep all my mics in their original boxes too. Anyway, the distortion is definately not her voice... I can best describe it as sort of a harmonic sound. I might just be overdriving the tube in the preamp. After all, it's just a budget preamp, not real high end. I am actually going to trade it in and get the new Focusrite Twin Track Pro... it can double as a two-channel compressor.

Hi, This happened to me with two brand new U87's we just purchased. They are at Neumann customer service right now. Everything through them had some harmonic distortion and compression coming from the mic itself. I tried different preamps, different tie lines, different mic cables and still the same. When I switched to a different mic it was gone! I sent the mics in for repair and they still haven't been able to figure it out yet. If you get to the bottom of it let me know! My guess is some type of electrical problem inside the mic itself. We'll see.