I was hoping to make a thread where people can share micing techniques for vocals.

I read an article in tape op about Danielson Famile and Brother Daniel mentioned in there a technique (from Steve?) that I tried that was really interesting. Basically its a close vocal mic, with another mic 2 or 3 feet away and another mic another 2 or 3 feet past that. the second and third mic both have gains boosted (because of distance) and are gated. So yelling and/or loud singing triggers the gates. This can also be done wtih just 2 mics. Which is mostly how i do it.
This of course only really works with a singer who has a purposefully dynamic voice (i.e. both screams and sings) but I've used this technique on people who just scream and, in some cases, worked out fine.
Anyone else have any interesting vocal micing techniques?

Jeremy

yeah, i got one...

i use a kleenex as a pop filter. it sounds rad.

one time someone listened to a song i did with that and said "what did you use, a kleenex in front of the mic?" and i said "exACTly!"

rad.

Jeremy wrote:I read an article in tape op about Danielson Famile and Brother Daniel mentioned in there a technique (from Steve?) that I tried that was really interesting. Basically its a close vocal mic, with another mic 2 or 3 feet away and another mic another 2 or 3 feet past that. the second and third mic both have gains boosted (because of distance) and are gated. So yelling and/or loud singing triggers the gates. This can also be done wtih just 2 mics. Which is mostly how i do it.

A variation of this is how the vocals on Bowie's Heroes was recorded.

Anyway, I've set a mic in a dryer cylinder and sang into it for an odd tone and have also used reflections to pick up a backing vocal (i.e. face the mic into a corner of a tiled room (like a bathroom), crank the gain and sing into an opposite corner.) neat ambience.

Stairwells, hallways and other odd spaces do different things and can sit in the mixes differently.

hth.



Faiz

the first studio recording i did we put an SDC in the end of a vacuum cleaner hose and sang into the end of it. that was kinda cool. also, on that same session we did a spaced stereo pair SDC about 6" from the wall and the singer screamed into the wall. that was kinda cool i guess. similar variations, put the ambient mic in a heating duct... bass drum... whatever.

the mulitple mics described above in the other posts is how i've done things lately. a lot the wierdo stuff above just kinda sounds like an effect - and the bowie technique just sounds more professional.

i think i remember reading somewhere that some jesus lizard vocals had a lavalier mic clipped to yow's headphones and he sang in a trashcan or something for some songs - but chalk that up to internet speculation and rumor.

those are the "wierd" things i can think of.

The other day I put a room mic inside a mug... sounded like a weird Q effect. Quacky!

theres a certain effect I've heard on a few different Albini records(and Bob's records too I think) and I'm wondering.....
You can hear it on The Jesus Lizards "S.D.B.J." off of Head. It's one of the breaks in the song he yells and you hear (or so it sounds) how big the room is he's yelling in. You hear it again on In Utero, i think on the last track, when he gets loud. I think i heard it on Danielson Famile's "Domino Rally" from fetch the compass kids when he yells "WHAT" come down dan, "WHO WHAT" come down dan "WHO WHAT WHO"
I wanna say on June of 44's "Anisette" i heard it again.

anyone know what that is? or what i'm even talking about? I can't seem to duplicated the effect.

Chris

Chris Hardings wrote:theres a certain effect I've heard on a few different Albini records(and Bob's records too I think) and I'm wondering.....
You can hear it on The Jesus Lizards "S.D.B.J." off of Head. It's one of the breaks in the song he yells and you hear (or so it sounds) how big the room is he's yelling in. You hear it again on In Utero, i think on the last track, when he gets loud. I think i heard it on Danielson Famile's "Domino Rally" from fetch the compass kids when he yells "WHAT" come down dan, "WHO WHAT" come down dan "WHO WHAT WHO"
I wanna say on June of 44's "Anisette" i heard it again.

anyone know what that is? or what i'm even talking about? I can't seem to duplicated the effect.

Chris

uh - it's what jeremy & kerble are talking about. quick recipe: take close mic and compress as usual for vocal track. take room mic and put in room. delay it if you want more roomy sound. record both tracks simulatneously. on the real loud notes the compressor clamps down harder and doesnt let the level increase on the close mic, but the room mic (uncompressed) comes up in relative volume. mix to taste.

read more by a much better engineer than me here:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/ ... i_93579456

Jeremy wrote:I read an article in tape op about Danielson Famile and Brother Daniel mentioned in there a technique (from Steve?) that I tried that was really interesting. Basically its a close vocal mic, with another mic 2 or 3 feet away and another mic another 2 or 3 feet past that. the second and third mic both have gains boosted (because of distance) and are gated. So yelling and/or loud singing triggers the gates. This can also be done wtih just 2 mics. Which is mostly how i do it.

great technique..."borrowed" i know of from someone who did it earlier (perhaps it was even done by someone else earlier, i don't know...) Tony Visconti on David Bowie's Low and Heroes records (probably Lodger too)...actually, when they did it was like one mic right up close, another a couple feet away and the third was like completely across the room...well, farther than 6 feet anyway...it's especially noticeable on the song "Heroes"...the more passionate and loud Bowie's vocals get, the more distant and detached it feels...it's a reall cool effect...it's been constantly on my mind ever since i saw that documentary on pbs or whatever a few years ago...

anyone know anything about mulitple mics on vocals? i head it on in utero and the danielson famile record. someone said david bowie used it too? anyone got any resources describing how they did it or who did it?

I heard Albini uses pop filters on all the mics.





Faiz