varying vocal-volume???

[Hexer]

I do both high screams and lower growls (kinda from Vader over Satyricon and Immortal to some more Cradle-ish stuff) and just recently I noticed that there is quite a bit of volume-difference. the lower growls are much louder than the high screams. either my growling is too loud or the screaming can hardly be heard. I didnt even notice I had this problem until a friend told me after a recent gig of our band. the problem only seems to occur when playing with the band (say: when using a mic), when I "sing" without a mic, just to practice or something I seem to have pretty even volume levels.

I also noticed that same problem when I saw Graveworm live (the vocalist also does lower and higher stuff)

is there anything that I can do to get rid of that?

 

[Erik]

You talking about technical solutions or are you looking to improve your technique? There has been several very good threads on vocal technique already, but otherwise, try singing with a compressor before the PA. with the right settings the compressor will make sure that all levels are pushed down to a unified level, so all you vocals will be at the same perceived volume, etc etc

 

[Hexer]

more a technical solution, I think my vocal-technique is pretty good and as I said: when I dont use a mic, there's no problem at all.

should I get a compressor as a pedal or something? (dont know really much about vocal-effects) I thought about getting a vocal-multi-effect-board, but most of the time i have enough to do with singing, playing guitar and switching my amp at the same time (I use quite a few different sounds, clean, crunch, distortion, lead, second master-volume) so I dont really want another bit of tech-stuff that I have to care about

 

[Erik]

Get a rack compressor I guess. Behringer makes some cheap units that should do the trick.

 

[Nostalgiaplatz]

You should try working your fluctuation first. Try to maintain a reasonable distance from the mic and don't move to much or simply move according to the amplitude of your voice. I.e if you're singing cleanly you've got probably a stable level, but if you suddenly change to growls, you should step back a bit...it all depends on the amplitude of your vox. Work it out with a recorder to find the right spot for you. The best way you can work that out is if you can see the monitoring level of your mic or recording your voice and looking at the waveform to see the discrepancies between the waves. I think this is much preferable over spending money on gear. As for the effects... I don't think you'll need them for this particular case but if you know anyone using, try asking them to try it out before you go and spend money...

Hope that helps!

 

[Hexer]

morningstar: that effect-thing was an idea so i could add things like reverb, echo, maybe chorus, but I dont really need that stuff (well, a bit of reverb would be cool, but...) so I wont spend money on it

I'll try experimenting with different distances from the mic, if it doesnt help, I'll probably try a compressor

 

[dreamcatcher]

I'll try experimenting with different distances from the mic, if it doesnt help, I'll probably try a compressor

Yeah, mic technique is a first priority. Don't get dependent on compression for live stuff, cuz you will rarely get it from a soundman you are not bankrolling.