Recording Extremely Loud Screaming Vocals

M

mwarkentin

New member
I'm going to be recording my band again in a few weeks, and I'm just wondering what kind of micing techniques could be used to get a good clean scream mixed with singing, without clipping for the scream parts.. that was the main problem I had last time.

My vocalist can be very loud when he gets going.. I'm just wondering, back him way off from the mic? How will this effect the recording of the normal singing parts? Is it possible for vocals to be loud enough to clip right at the mic? Or is it usually clipping the signal sent to the preamp?

I've uploaded an mp3 of the kind of sound I'm looking for.. hope it's not too big for you guys to download, I could downsample the mp3.. let me know..



We've got access to SM57s/58s, and a C1000 condenser, into a Mackie v1604 board, if that makes a difference.. any ideas at all.. I'll give them all a try. :) Oh I'll probably be renting a RNC compressor, I'm guessing that could probably be useful for this..
 
If you are going to be recording vocals that are all over the map, then you're definitely going to want to use a compressor or limiter.

________________
Post indie electronic
Meriphew
www.meriphew.com
 
My vocalist can be very loud when he gets going.. I'm just wondering, back him way off from the mic? How will this effect the recording of the normal singing parts? Is it possible for vocals to be loud enough to clip right at the mic? Or is it usually clipping the signal sent to the preamp?
Click to expand...

Yes, it's very likely that this guy could overload a condensor mic unless you back him way off. Then you have the problem of picking up too much room sound and not being hot enough when he's actually singing.;)

The singer in the metal band I was in back in the 80's was really loud. So loud in fact we ended up recording him with a Sennheiser dynamic (I think a 441- been a lot of years since then) and we still had to back him off about 2'.:eek:
 
Sounds like you need a compressor.
If the vocals range from very quiet to very loud you may need to do the loud parts and the quiet parts as 2 seperate tracks.
 
vox said:
Sounds like you need a compressor.
If the vocals range from very quiet to very loud you may need to do the loud parts and the quiet parts as 2 seperate tracks.
Click to expand...

This is what I was going to suggest... Easiest way to do it. You still should use a compressor and whatnot on them however.
 
shredded77 said:
just turn the gain on the way in as low as you need to avoid clipping by a LOT then normalize once it's in
Click to expand...

normalizing is the last thing you'd want to do to vocal tracks after you record them, you leave no headroom for eq and effects

I have loud parts on our songs and for vocal recording i just take some time to set the compressor/limiter to the right settings so instead of clipping the limiter brings it down

compressor/limiter I think would be your answer there
 
and a dynamic mic might not be a bad idea either, chris cornell swears by em and used them on most of soundgardens's recordings, just a shure 58
 
I would use the 57 or 58 and track the screaming parts seperately from the regular vocals so you don't have to record the rest of the vocals at too low of level.
 
mwarkentin,

i have the same style (somewhat) as you do...

i use the SM58, and do a test recording and get it so it never clips (like you normaly would).

then just compress the track after you're done.


in our songs, we have a singer and a screamer (2 distinct parts). of course in that situation, we record 2 seperate tracks (and compress each one accordingly..etc.) example at http://www.mp3.com/fightorflight

however, your singer seems to do both back in forth, so i'd just try the 58, and just experiment to make it nice.

but my question is, is that your band that you've uploaded?
 
yep!

i agree with the other post. i wound recorded a loud vocal with a
sm58. and instead of recording 2 vocal tracks ( 1 loud and 1 soft)
just get you a compresser/limiter/expader when you sceam...the compresser will keep them from cliping and when you sing soft the expander will boost it up. you can get a good comp/lim/ex for around $100-$150


good luck.
 
No, that's not my band (Unfortunately.. ) but they had the style of vocals that I'm going to be aiming for, so I thought it would help.
 
maybe one of the experts here will back this up, but doesn't Harvey mention something about a trick David Bowie used(uses) in The Big Thread?

Set up your main vocal mic, then put another mic 30 feet away; gate it so that it only comes on during the loudest parts of the vocal. If the original clips, you can use the secondary vocal track (comped).

This, if you have a gate and a large enough studio (room).


Chad
 
Mwarkentin,
I would not consider myself that great at recording by any means but our singer in my band definantly goes between singing and screaming alot. A limiter will definantly help keep your levels from being all over the place. I have a cheap compressor/limiter that colors the sound alot but usually in the case of screaming vocals, i enjoy the effect it produces. Try the limiter and if it doesnt seem to work, see if theres anyway you can break the vocals up in to two tracks.

thats a rough mix of a newer song weve been screwing with. Its got alot of screams, they may not be what your looking for though. We intentionally distorted them just to give them a different feel than alot of our other songs.
 
what band IS that? ha...i like em.

if you're recording onto your computer - check out the BlueLine Compressor (i use it all the time, seems to work fine, no complaints).

just do a search on this board for blueline, or even yahoo.


btw, its free.
 
participant said:


Set up your main vocal mic, then put another mic 30 feet away; gate it so that it only comes on during the loudest parts of the vocal. If the original clips, you can use the secondary vocal track (comped).
Click to expand...
30 feet? Wouldn't that be far enough away to where it would pick up a weak signal? I'm assuming the second mic should be moved back and forth with the singer screaming to get a good recording level for when he's screaming. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Christopher
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top