Recording gang vocals

[avrinder]

I have never recorded gang vox before

Would I be safe with the Sm7b (recorded the part a few times, panned hard l/r) ?? Or would it sound decent having 2 mics (sm7b, and audix i5 spaced out for the gang vox)?

thanks a ton. -avi

ps - I have these mics at my disposal, in case someone had other ideas.

Shure Sm7b
Audix Fusion 7 kit
Behringer C-2 pair
Audix i5

 

[chrisrivalry]

damn, it would be much better if you can get your hands on a LDC, or a ribbon. How many guys are you working with?

 

[gabriel g.]

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/production-tips/522748-how-do-epic-gang-shouts.html

 

[avrinder]

If I had more notice for the gang vox, I would have rented.

It'll probably be 8-9 guys (maybe one girl)

 

[AntonioPetrole]

(maybe one girl)

run train on girl then work it out from there

 

[chrisjmp]

If I had more notice for the gang vox, I would have rented.

It'll probably be 8-9 guys (maybe one girl)

If you do get a girl in there, make sure you spend a minute figuring out how far to have her stand from the mic in relation to the guys. Sometimes a girls voice can stick out when doing gang vocals

 

[Mea_Culpa89]

All you have to do is expirement! I recorded gang vocals with 2 shure betas sm58, and the result was fantastic!
We did 3-4 takes with my bandmates, and each time we were slightly changing our voices! (growl, less growl, more growl etc)
Tried to be in a certain distance from the mic and each other, and sing in a certain volume, to avoid some voices to REALLY stick out.

In the mix, i compressed to fuck and panned all those takes, doubled them with Waves Doubler, de-essed, used reverb and saturation.. Really helped the mix!

 

[Harley Barley]

i recorded some gang vocals for my band, we have maybe like 12 people girl/guys old/young and they turned our really lame. then my friends band did gang vocals with like 4 of the guys from the band and they sounded like about 1000X more powerful.

if i was you get a small space shove 6 of the guys in there, and make sure they are all perfectly in sync together.

girls voices just dont seem to do it. i dunno thats my experience

 

[Fragle]

"if i was you get a small space shove 6 of the guys in there, and make sure they are all perfectly in sync together."

+1, works for me. i did some gangshouts on a powerviolence grindcore combo, and they turned out fucking amazing.
just finished doing a rap album and we did some gangshouts with only 3 guys, works pretty well but you'll have to do some studio trickery.

i tend to record at least 3 takes, panned l-c-r, maybe 5 if there's time. some slight reverb can help too. other than that, compression and eq. saturation is also pretty cool imho.
i set up a LDC in the middle of my control room, position people around the mic, and just shout our asses off. LDCs are great for that sorta thing.

also, try copy/paste and pitch shift the copies a few cents up down, pan them out, and blend them in. adds a little bit of thickness.

 

[avrinder]

thanks a lot guys, I really appreciate all the advice. all helpful!!

 

[egan.]

Last time I did it it was three tracks of 4 dudes, panned L-C-R. It worked out pretty well.

 

[ahjteam]

If I had more notice for the gang vox, I would have rented.

I think Behringer C1 is like $39 or something.

edit: yeah, $39.99. http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/Behringer-C1-Condenser-Mic?sku=582092

 

[avrinder]

for stuff like gang vocals, that would suffice I take it?