How to record a Group Shout?

  • Thread starter Thread starter kendallking
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kendallking

kendallking

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I was just wondering how to record a group shout with about 7-10 people. I have an NT1-A as a vocal mic, just wondering if i should record each person individual or as an actual group, where they should stand etc etc. any comments would be appreciated

thanks :)
 
I usually would run the reference track over a monitor, have everyone stand back from the mic about 5-10 feet in a semi-circle. Then do two or four passes, to have a nice stereo spread with a big crowd sound.

Keep the monitor as low as possible, and set it up so the speaker is in the null of the mic, to reduce the amount of bleed.
 
excellent thats great thanks!! do you need to do any panning or anything if there are multiple tracks, or just keep it centered and thicken up the sound?
 
I'd pan each pass to get the right effect. If depends on the song, of course, but having at least two passes gives you something to work with!
 
You again!

Depends upon what its purpose is in the final mix. It's easy enough to experiment at mix time.

Other thing I'd suggest is, in between single takes, shift the people round randomly with respect to the mic so you don't have the same voices coming from exactly the same spot... could make it seem more "natural" - I'm guessing... never tried it myself... :D
 
I just stand as many people around the mic as I can find and have at it. Crank the headphones and keep them off peoples heads so they get the cue.
 
yeh that sounds good :) the main purpose is to lead in to a breakdown, so there will be silence and it will justbe a group shout then breakdown. i like the idea about moving people around. i will experiment with multiple passes and panning
 
The best group shout I have done with with 15 people crammed into my tiny home studio shouting as loud as we could into a single mic. I've had ok results with 3-4 people and stacking tracks as well, but the vibe hasn't ever been as good as that giant group track I did.
 
4 people at a time around 2 cardioid mics arranged in a loose figure 8 pattern (not right against eachother). Repeat as necessary. This gives a fairly good ambiance and stereo spread. That's how this was done (about 50 voices by the time it was finished).

I call it Billy Mure and His Unruly Mob.
(Excuse the political message)

 
Armistice said:
I'd suggest in between single takes, shift the people round randomly with respect to the mic so you don't have the same voices coming from exactly the same spot... could make it seem more "natural"
Click to expand...
^^^^^^^^This;
I don't know what you record on but if you have the ability to speed up and slow down the recoding, then record each take at a different speed so that when back at proper speed/pitch, it sounds like 70~100 people. A howling mob, "Oi ! Zuko !!".
 
Go to a local high school I'm sure that the drama class of music class would be sure to accommodate you if you contact the teacher and and explain what you need ...... then you just show up with a mobile set up and record away.









:cool:
 
grimtraveller said:
^^^^^^^^This;
I don't know what you record on but if you have the ability to speed up and slow down the recoding, then record each take at a different speed so that when back at proper speed/pitch, it sounds like 70~100 people. A howling mob, "Oi ! Zuko !!".
Click to expand...

Reaper can do varispeed, though I haven't used it myself...


Good idea!
 
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