Vocal Recording For Optimal Clarity

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dan01

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I would appreciate if you could give me a advice or two on the above.

A few music fans are arguing over the technicalities of a singer who fails to render the emotive/passionate voice he has been displaying before in a CD single which was released soon after.

a few of us decided to write in to the music publishing firm and suggest the next recording to be in an unplugged format (not unlike a live singing competition). the critics hit back with absurd claims about us being jeopardising the latter's career and so on.

I would appreciate your expert opinion on this and I thank you very much.
 
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Clarity will be a combination of the voice, microphone, preamp, room, and recording medium. If all are top notch and set up properly, you should get a clear vocal. However, none of this has anything do do with the vocalist being able to infuse the performance with emotion/feeling, to which you also allude. For that, the singer has to be in the right "head space" and there's really no way to accomplish that with recording technique. You can add some "vibe" to the room with candles, etc., but it's really about the singer being able to capture the moment.
 
the CD single has a 'clean' sound not unlike a studio album.

he is a blind busker who has been consistently singing in public places and ktv for years and has learned to handle his emotions well during crooning. it was consistently displayed during the singing competition.

if he is able to capture the audience's imagination during the live competition both in t.v. and live ground-alike, why hasn't that being reproduced in the studio? surely there must have been over-tweaking on the part of the sound engineers.

is recording in an unplugged format another alternative?
 
You can impart some energy with proper compression, but passion/emotion really primarily starts before the sound hits the mic.

As far as blaming sound engineers for over-tweaking, Id have to think that is shortsighted. While it is possible that the engineers could have compressed incorrectly or gave bad headphone mixes while tracking, there are vocalists/musicians who feed off the energy of the crowd and arent so excited to be singing to themselves in a quiet studio.
 
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