Recording Vocals with "normal" mic

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sj82

New Metal Member
Jul 20, 2008
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Hey Girls,


first of I found this forum while searching for recording tips and was really pleased to see some qualified answers here.

Lets get down to business:

I am singing in a "Melodic Death Metal / Thrash Metal" Band, Downstream (www.myspace.com/downstreammetal) in Germany. This is the first time I do death metal vocals and actually pretty fast got away from normal grunting. One of my major influences (besides Karl Willets of Bolt Thrower) is Randy Blythe from Lamb of God.

So, if you might have listened to our tracks on myspace, you can actually hear that in recording, I am the weak link of my band. This is somewhat not the case live, where all people tell me "Dude, great job, you should scream like this on your recordings". The great problem for me is, that I cannot get the feeling and intensity with just standing in front of my Microphone, but I would love to have something in my hand, cup my mic and such.

Rather stunned I saw that Lamb of God Producer MACHINE records vocals with Lamb of God by just using a "normal" Live stage microphone. So my question is, regarding my Sennheiser S 825, and our o2r Yamaha preamp and stuff, could I somehow record this way? Or would you always, ever no matter what you do, have noises recording this way. Or does it need a better mic (Shure SM86? Condensator Live mic)?

Would love to get some answers, cause my bad recorded vocals really piss me off :zombie::puke:

Cheers from Germany, feel free to add us on myspace!
Stephan / Downstream
 
Well, sounds okay. You could record both and see which one sounds better?
 
Try that, but don't cup the mic or we'll have to take your metal license away. There's no reason (apart from time... but you're a bloody singer, you don't have anything useful to do anyway) not to try as many things as you can.

Jeff
 
As a live mixer I'll add to this , NEVER cup the mic!

I hate singers (rappers are pretty fucked too) who want to have their monitors loud as fuck and then they sing/scream with their hands over the microphone and they look surprised when they are getting feedback all over the place, more I hate amateurs which I have to mix live and I'm telling them that cupping the mic isn't such a good idea and they are just ignoring it.

But that's another story, lets get back on track ;)
 
Well I use in ear monitoring, so actually I won't do it for volume reasons ;) I actually do not cup a mic all the time, with certain screams it just sounds different. And,, indeed I AM singer and do things for emotional reasons, so I do not intentionally cup a mic, but just grab cause I am going to scream like shit - and end up grabbing the head of the mic.

And with taking the metal license away :D - I just ignore people wo go with pig squeals, chris-barns-grunts etc. and tell "cupping is bullshit", but on the other hand say "try everything, just the result counts." So if something sounds brilliant because you cup the mic, I see no reason not doing it. *cheers, no offense*
 
every time I do live sound for a band and the singer cups the mic they always ask for me to turn up the vocals in the monitors, even though it was loud enough for everyone else...

and every time it sounds like unclear, muddy shit coming through the front of house. some guys get to the extreme that they've got their fingers over the top of the mic, so they're having to sing THROUGH their fingers to get to the microphone, how can anyone not see that this is wrong and stupid?

i think screamers like it because they think it makes them sound like they've got more low growls going on, when really all they're doing is attenuating the highs...

recording vocals with 58 or similar is ok if thats whats REALLY needed to get the attitude and intensity in the performance, but watch out for handling noise, and don't cup the mic.
 
boy I said the wrong thing with "cup my mic" :D

Is there a way to reduce handling noise (except watching it ;) ) ?
 
cupping the mic blocks the rear of the capsule, which is needed to make the pattern cardioid (through phase cancellation). Cupping the mic effectively makes it Omni, which will kill the proximity effect, kill the feedback resistance and increase the handling noise.
If anything screaming into it like that will make it sound less powerful.

theres more to being a singer than just singing and screaming.
ever heard of mic technique?



and to answer the original question, there is no reason you can't use a dynamic mic for vocals in the studio.
 
Yeah, never cup the mic, but if you need to go "handheld", you could split the difference and use the SM7b... I've seen guys track Vox while holding that mic. As long as you aren't moving TOO much, it should capture everything you want and nothing you don't.
 
sj82 said:
Well I use in ear monitoring, so actually I won't do it for volume reasons ;) I actually do not cup a mic all the time, with certain screams it just sounds different. And,, indeed I AM singer and do things for emotional reasons, so I do not intentionally cup a mic, but just grab cause I am going to scream like shit - and end up grabbing the head of the mic.

And with taking the metal license away :D - I just ignore people wo go with pig squeals, chris-barns-grunts etc. and tell "cupping is bullshit", but on the other hand say "try everything, just the result counts." So if something sounds brilliant because you cup the mic, I see no reason not doing it. *cheers, no offense*
Click to expand...

no love for chris barnes? he is the man!!! whhhhaaaaaaannnnn! love that shit! all about the bringer of blood and true carnage albums!!!
 
On the DVD to Unearth's last album Terry Date uses a SM58 for Trevor - the singer - and they talk about cupping the mic etc.
Date actually tells him to cup the mic for certain "effect"-purposes (but of course he tells him, to NOT cup it the whole time, too).
 
@beyond dead: Sure, I was talking bout the imitators which sound like shit. Barnes rules!!!

@Joe: Ah, I guess you get what I mean. And from Germany - we should do some gigs then ;)
by the way, while listening your recordings on myspace - your singer just stood in front of the mic and sang that? I might just have to re-record I guess and try some different shit than just standing and shouting. oO
 
sj82 said:
@beyond dead: Sure, I was talking bout the imitators which sound like shit. Barnes rules!!!

@Joe: Ah, I guess you get what I mean. And from Germany - we should do some gigs then ;)
by the way, while listening your recordings on myspace - your singer just stood in front of the mic and sang that? I might just have to re-record I guess and try some different shit than just standing and shouting. oO
Click to expand...

Actually we tried something like was said on the last chimaira-album. Our singer held a "hand-mic" (not sure, which one - but I guess it was his own sm58. vocals were done in a "real" studio *hehe*) and additionally he sang into a more expensive vocal-mic (I'm guessing SM7). I wasn't really satisfied with the outcome ... of both mics :)

german-mode on:
Ja klar, warum nicht? Wir suchen immer mal nach Shows. Wo kommst du denn genau her?
 
Give recording with the mic hand held a go- clearly it works for some people. Think about every live dvd/ cd you've ever seen- nearly all of them are handheld and the production on some live stuff is top notch- Maiden's last few and Iced earths spring to mind as being particularly savage and they get great vocal sounds.

I've never been able to figure out how they don't have huge problems with plosives and handling noise though- I recorded some of my own bands stuff and did some of my backing vocals handheld and even though it was just a few lines here and there I found myself having to re-do about half of it again because of it
 
Great point. That would be question of what kind of production was done afterwards in the Studio, what amps where used etc. But I agree, during live concerts I seldomly hear handling noises while watching the Band.
 
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