Vocalists who have a hard time keeping velocity

[bryan_kilco]

How do you guys deal with this? I'm tracking our vocalist and he has about 3 different velocities of "types" of vocals. His lowest "gutteral" is the quietest, and his highs are much louder.

Do you normally track each of these types of vocals separately, trying to match gain on the preamp? I slapped a compressor on and hit the vox pretty hard and it smoothed things out a lot, but his highs still want to jump up a few db over the lows. I'm going to end up tracking his highs separate, but I'm more concerned about the lows and "lower-lows" at this point....

Should I go phrase-by-phrase and just try to get the best performance of each line or 2? I tracked about 4 takes of full performances for a song, then went through and edited out all the bad stuff, then pulled my hair out picking through the best phrases of each 4 takes. What a tedious process!!! This is only my second time tracking vocals for "real".....

 

[zer0_c00l]

You really should record it phrase by phrase, and if you're going to treat every type of vocals differently you really should record everything from type 1 on one track (or two, in case you'ra double tracking), then type 2 on the other track(s) and etc...

 

[musickey]

I track lows first, set the pre accordingly, run through the song section by section, then switch to highs and repeat. I am always mindful of were the pre is hitting, I just adjust it to were im hitting about as close to 0 on the pre without clipping, and be sure to do the same thing the next day we track. I have also pointed out in the past that sometimes a singer will come in the next day to track, and I will notice he isn’t hitting it with as much balls as the day before, so with the same setting on the pre as the day before I will just record a little pass and show the singer the difference in the waveforms...it has helped get the singer back into giving a "good" performance when they can actually see that they aren’t hitting it as hard.

 

[Scott Horner]

Phrase by phrase and always have different vocal styles on different tracks. This way you can process each style (cleans, screams, growls, etc.) separately according to the need but still send them all to a vocal buss where they can be treated as a whole which will help make the whole vocal track sound a bit more cohesive.

 

[egan.]

I always do different styles on different tracks. You are more than likely going to EQ and compress them totally differently so it just makes life easier if you have the tracks to spare.
On a side note, "velocity" is a midi term. What you really mean is "dynamics" or even simply "volumes." I'm not saying that to be dickish but b/c talking about a vocalists velocity issues could easily be interpreted as timing problems.

 

[Aaron Smith]

I've never actually needed to process high screams and low growls differently, although it's not inconceivable that someday I might need to. Generally just some fairly strong multiband compression in the low mids (to remove the woofy junk inherent in low vocals), prior to squashing all the the vocals with full band compression, does the trick for me. As far as setting the preamp differently for the high vocals, that just kind of sounds like a pain to me and seems unnecessary. I like tracking vocals through a hardware compressor on the way in, not more than about -3dB max on the loudest parts (which is the high vocals), and the low stuff often times doesn't even move the gain reduction meter at all.

 

[bryan_kilco]

I've read a lot about compressing the vocals to hell. I used to run 2 comps in a row, with pretty extreme settings, then slap a limiter on at the end of the chain to bring the volume up. Now, I am only using 1 comp and GClip after that. Hitting between -6 and -12 dB GR.....with a high ratio and fast attack and release. Should I be comping with less GR? Not comping the way in, just ReaComp after the tracks are recorded.

 

[Uros]

GClip? Sorry, I am all for no-rules think in AE, it's just that I am just surprised. IME clipping is only useful on instruments with rather strong transients.
As for me, generally - using two different comps in series and finishing it off with a limiter tend to do the trick.

 

[bryan_kilco]

Yeah, I decided to change it up and try GClip to boost the gain. I used to do comp-comp-limiter. But this time around I got pretty steady results with just one comp. Maybe I'll take GClip out of the equation and use the limiter again.

 

[RiF]

I see nothing wrong in using a Clipper or Limiter in a vocal chain. Especially if you want to really pin the level slightly above a busy (metal) mix.

 

[P-E]

Are you even clipping the vocals with GClip or just using it like just another "volume" plugin to boost the gain?

 

[bryan_kilco]

Are you even clipping the vocals with GClip or just using it like just another "volume" plugin to boost the gain?

I mainly just used it to boost gain, but I did clip off a bit of some of the bigger peaks.......figured, "What the hell?"

 

[amarshism]

good mic technique is paramount with some of the transitonal vocal stuff from low to high and vice versa

 

[Uros]

I mainly just used it to boost gain, but I did clip off a bit of some of the bigger peaks.......figured, "What the hell?"

It makes sense, since we're talking about growls/screams here, and the both types are fairly rhythmical - hence transient-y, which makes it possible to clip their peaks off without audible damages.
For some reason, I thought of clean vocals when I saw your post about clipping, hence my question

 

[MondoLikeMetal]

I've never actually needed to process high screams and low growls differently, although it's not inconceivable that someday I might need to. Generally just some fairly strong multiband compression in the low mids (to remove the woofy junk inherent in low vocals), prior to squashing all the the vocals with full band compression, does the trick for me. As far as setting the preamp differently for the high vocals, that just kind of sounds like a pain to me and seems unnecessary. I like tracking vocals through a hardware compressor on the way in, not more than about -3dB max on the loudest parts (which is the high vocals), and the low stuff often times doesn't even move the gain reduction meter at all.

+ 1 on the Hardware Compressor

Also, make sure the vocalist can easily here him/herself over the music. Singers tend to overmodulate over a loud mix


If you ever want to hear a master at vocal dynamics (non-metal) check out anything from Bono from U2 Must have been a dream to work with in the studio

 

[AndrewPGlover]

+1 to a hardware compressor. Life is so much easier with one.

 

[greyskull]

1176. all buttons.

 

[musickey]

As far as setting the preamp differently for the high vocals, that just kind of sounds like a pain to me and seems unnecessary. .

The reasoning, im only using a hardware pre on the vox on the way in, usually the highs are pushed more by the vocalist hence clipping the pre if it isn’t adjusted......

 

[OneDaySky]

1176. all buttons.

Smash em with this or a 20:1 ratio, a 1176 FET comp will definitely help this!

 

[elsenator]

I usually just adjust the mic for the loudest one, making sure things don't peak. And then I record all of it, making the vocalist move back and forth depending on the velocity. Actually, you could argue that this is a vocalist thing. I believe a good vocalist knows when to go "off center" of the mic to even out the velocities.