Hardcore/Screamed Vocals

[EXPLORERBOY]

Evening, first post and that.

I'm recording my singers vocals tomorrow. I'm using a ProTools 8 rig with outboard compression (can't remember for the life of me what they are but we've got a couple at our disposal). The rest of our demo was recorded with live drums and bass and doubled tracked guitars through Eleven. Head on over to http://www.myspace.com/therabhus and give the instrumentals a listen if you want, critique them to hell too! They're only rough mixes but any advice will be appreciated. And, I know that MySpace sounds crap but as its the way most people listen to their music these days (through crap laptop speakers none the less, sad but true) then I consider it a good way for most people to get an idea of a mix.

From what I've read all over the internet so far I've been told that an SM58 -> Compressor -> DAW w/plug in compression set to SQUASH (4:1 ratio, fast attack and release, gain to taste) is generally the best idea to record screamed hardcore vocals. Anyone got any idea of what I should be looking at setting the compressor that is sat before the DAW to?

Paddy/The Rabhus

 

[Trevoire520]

Hey dude, rough instrumentals aren't sounding too shabby like, snare's pretty stinking though in my opinion.

If you're absolutely set on using an outboard compressor before you hit pro tools I would be VERY careful with how it's set, keep the gain reduction really really low and make sure it isn't doing any weird pumping to the vocals. Personally though I just record with plenty of headroom and do all my compression in the box.

Most people will reccommend a Shure SM7 for screamed vocals if you have one at your disposal, but as long as your vocalist is good then any mic should work well.
Plenty of people using 57's and 58's on heavy vocals around the world so you should be good. Personally I prefer a 57 as I find the 58 to be a bit less clear and muddy in the low mids, all depends on the voice though!

If you have the time then try as many vocal mic's as you can to see what suits his voice, this'll help you in that you won't need to use as much eq in the mix.

Performance is everything, so do whatever it takes to get a good take out of the singer, here are some ideas:

• Let him track with monitors blasting in the control room if that's what he'd prefer IF he's loud enough.
• Get him to go outside and sprint down the road and back straight into the control room so that his heart is pumping and get straight into recording the song while he's still getting his breath back.
• Wind him up to get him pissed off and get the adrenaline going.
• If he's really uncomfortable with a mic on a stand let him hold it BUT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T LET HIM CUP IT AT ALL OR IT WILL COME OUT SOUNDING LIKE MUFFLED SHIT! If he's bad for doing this normally (most screamers/growlers are, watch live footage of just about any metal band) then slide a roll of electrical tape up the mic and tell him that his hand must not go past it under ANY circumstances!

When it comes to mixing, try to avoid over eq-ing, some heavy compression will probably be required (I like parallel compression using Pro Tools' BF76 and some more gentle compression on the main track. Subtle distortion/saturation can also be really cool. Delays tend to work better than long reverbs, though I sometimes find myself using short room reverbs on aggressive vocals.

 

[EXPLORERBOY]

Cheers for that, I wont use the outboard Compressor going in. The snare is pretty sucky but we only top miked it :S

As for the mic technique and stuff, he is pretty sorted for that. He used to be in a pretty big UK Metal band with two vocalists so he's had a good 10 years of roaring down microphones

Cheers pal.

Paddy.

 

[DestroyTheColossus]

Since you copy/ pasted your question to a new thread, ill copy/ paste my answer.

If you don't really know what your doing, which you most likely don't because you are asking, it would probably be better to track without the compressor. That way you don't permanently mess anything up and can experiment with in the box compressors.

 

[MEGA DAVE]

The only compression I will usually do while tracking is just a monitoring compression... it wont be tracked but since the vocalist hears the compression it'll usually tend to make them sing louder and with more aggression, getting rid of any stage fright they might have while tracking

 

[darthjujuu]

hand-held 57 is a no-no in my experience, gets showered in plosives and wind and is totally unusable. The 58 grill is made for this. if he's a gutteral cookie monster fiend and insists on holding/cupping a mic and is trying to tell YOU that this is how it needs to be done to sound good, youtube "big chocolate" and show him that. but yea, SM7B is regarded as the go-to aggressive vox mic, even in the largest/most expensive studios, most of the time.

 

[MEGA DAVE]

whenever i use a 57 to record vocals i use the tape rule and i also bought a windscreen cover for it to get rid of the plosives and also if you have a singer that HAS to cup the mic you just have him stand about a foot from the mic and act as if he's cupping an invisible mic, throw a tad bit of distortion on that track and there ya have it, the cupped mic effect. if you have the new suicide silence cd with the dvd that comes with it it shows and explains the method of the cupping technique