Metal SINGING, mic choice?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Vinnydude
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Vinnydude

Vinnydude

Clunge Monster
So at present, i'm at the stage of recording my vocals for my bands new EP.

I'm using a shure sm7b, and for the aggressive/shouting stuff, it kicks ass, but with my singing parts, it sounds weak and lifeless.

Am i guessing right in thinking that this is due to the mic? Its a very close proximity mic so tends not to get much room sound at all and the sung vocals seem so so clean and dry, nothing i do lets them sit in the mix.

Other mics in my possession I am considering trying are the Oktava MC012 and the trusty sm57.

If i can get some advice before embarking on rerecording the whole lot that would be fantastic!!!

Thanks.
 
Hi, you seem to have two problems here, one, the vocals are 'weak and lifeless' and the other, they won't sit in the mix. I have never used those microphones so I can't really say if that's the problem or not, are you singing loud enough with emotion?

As for sitting in the mix, what exactly have you tried? You say the vocals are recorded dry, most vocals are, with reverb and or delay added later, I dont know how experienced you are, sorry if this is stating the obvious. Sometimes you need to make room for the vocal by creating a 'pocket' for it to sit in by scooping some of the mid range out of the other lead instruments with EQ.
 
Dude, that is a cherry mic!

A different mic may help, but probably what will help more is better recording and mixing technique. Possible doubling vocals, EQ compression.

Have a look at those things before bailing on the mic. Once you have a good feel for those elements, then look at the mic.

Here is something to try for your style of vocals. Paralell compression. Put a compressor on an Bus and send you vocal through the compressor and squash the shit out of it. Then mix this back with your original track and you will find it gives it a much fuller sound. You could also try this with some distortion on a send and mix the distorted vocal back with the original.

Lots of things like this may help
 
A cherry mic? I've not heard that one before! lmao :P

I think it could be my mic technique also, i recorded the singing in the same way as the screaming, with my mouth touching cloth (he he he).

Plan of action I think for this afternoon is going to be to do a test with all 3. I'm pretty confident now that the distance from the mic has been my enemy on the singing though. As I said, the screams were faultless, brutal and in your face, but the singing was in my face too which is why it wasn't sitting in the mix, just stands out like a sore thumb!!!

Also, that trick with compressing on a bus, that sounds like a dam good idea, i shall give that a blast this afternoon too.

Cheers guys, i shall report back with my findings.
 
Just try backing off the mic a couple inches. You can't go too far because the SM7's pickup pattern doesn't reach very far.

The Octava is going to be WAAAAY sensitive to plosives and the 57 will probably give you the same sort of problem that the SM7 is.

One of the cool things about the SM7 is that it takes EQ very well. Without hearing what you have, I can't tell you what you need to do specifically. But you should be able to EQ and compress it into the mix.
 
Haven't had chance to do a lot this afternoon, didn't feel up to doing a lot. I gave the sm7 a quick blast from about half a foot away and that seemed to dampen the proximity effect i was getting a lot and got my vocals to sit better. Now i just need to get myself in a better mood so I can do some decent takes cause what i did earlier sucked balls!!! lmao
 
Found something else that might be of interest to some people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0m4coFTb-w

If you watch that, you'll notice he's is using 2 different mics for vocals, a large diaphragm (i think its a studio projects T3) and an sm57.

Seems like that could be a neat little trick for double tracking vocals. I've always had problems with them clashing and sounding chorusey so i'll be trying this over the weekend too.

Just thought i'd share that one with you.
 
I'll bet the 58 is for an effect, like distorted or telephone voice vocals and the LDC is for the normal vocal sound.

They probably chose the video with him using the 58 because it looked more 'brutal' or whatever.
 
Nah, i think it looks more like he's sucking dick personally!!! :P
 
Vinnydude said:
Found something else that might be of interest to some people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0m4coFTb-w

If you watch that, you'll notice he's is using 2 different mics for vocals, a large diaphragm (i think its a studio projects T3) and an sm57.

Seems like that could be a neat little trick for double tracking vocals. I've always had problems with them clashing and sounding chorusey so i'll be trying this over the weekend too.

Just thought i'd share that one with you.
Click to expand...

It won't end up sounding like good double tracked vocals.
You can use it for sure. I recorded a guy the other day who wanted a messed up, distorted vocal sound and wanted to sing through his harmonica mic (some sort of green bullet-ish thing). He's a somewhat inconsistent singer but, having worked with him before, I knew that if we did a few takes, he'd nail one of them.
I didn't want to just have the distorted vocal in case there were any major problems with how it sat in the mix, and I didn't want to have to track his vocal twice because of the inconsistency issues and because we were running short on time, so I set up a beta57 (which was the mic we had that sounded best on his voice for just a clean recording) right next to the little harmonica mic with a pop filter centered between them - mostly just to give him a visual indication of where he should be singing.
The two recorded tracks both had problems for the final mix (the beta52 came out a little too clean, maybe a bit anemic, the harmonica mic into an overdriven preamp came out too dirty to be the only vocal track), but combined together they created exactly the sort of sound he wanted and had both the clarity you expect from a lead vocal and the dirt we wanted for that vocal.
What the combined vocals did not have was that full, subtle, can't-quite-put-my-finger-on-it largeness of well sung recorded double tracked vocals.
So, maybe it's just a semantic issue, but, in summary, try that sort of thing out, see if you can use it, but don't call it double tracking.
:D
 
Beta 57.

Though I have recorded vocals with a beta 52 before.
They didn't sound good or get used for anything, but I've done it.
 
for a lot of hard core bands now days they set up two mics, of for aggressive harsh screams and singing, and one for more controlled vocals like clean singing.. you just need to be careful about mic selections so you don't run into issues down the road
 
d-rock said:
for a lot of hard core bands now days they set up two mics, of for aggressive harsh screams and singing, and one for more controlled vocals like clean singing.. you just need to be careful about mic selections so you don't run into issues down the road
Click to expand...

Just did a live band last week ..... had to put out a beta 58 and a green bullet.
And they weren't hard core but the singer had the bullet for dirty vocals.





:cool:
 
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