How to Record the Whispering Screamer

[jebudas]

Ola y Gracias,

Any production/mixing experts out there have any advice on how to record a singer who whispers then shouts (then whispers, then shouts) ?

Thanks,
Jebudas

[sidefx604]

put the microphon on a stand, glue a little marker on the floor. tell the singer to move the microphone further from the mouth when he shouts, the opposite when he whispers. hope that helps.

btw I have no clue

[jupiter8]

A good smack over the head???
Record the whispering parts first and screaming later??
A good compressor??
Tell the #¤%& that he'll better get his singing technique straight or it will never sound good??

[jebudas]

Well I think Bono sounds pretty darn good. Or that guy from the White Stripes. Billy Corgan (is that a reach?).

Somehow when I've recorded it twice it sounds like... wait for it... two different recordings. You know what I mean? Like they werent recorded in the same room...

Thanks for the input!

[james0tucson]

Jim Morrison managed to do it nearly 40 years ago.

[robogone]

Basically - get them to learn microphone technique! It's not hard, you just have to practice it, and listen to what you have recorded and see where you're going wrong.

[RobD]

Somehow when I've recorded it twice it sounds like... wait for it... two different recordings. You know what I mean? Like they werent recorded in the same room...

You mean like it's out of phase? If it is, then they probably aren't singing in time as well as they think. If you take the time to record the loud and quite parts separatly they are also a LOT easy to mix properly, especially as whispering often needs a bit more de-essing than normal vocals.

[jupiter8]

If you record it twice (loud ,whisper in 2 takes) you'll have to change the gain,right? So the whisper recording would have much more room sound in it.
Espescially if you compress it heavily.

[jebudas]

When I record using the "distance from the mic" method, it sounds like the singer is in two different rooms...

So how do they do live recordings?

Or during a live performance, what magic knobs is the engineer keeping his fingers on just before Bono screams, "With or Without You!".

[robogone]

Probably the volume slider for that channel. It could be the room you are recording in, or it could be the mic. If the room bounces sound around very easily, then that could affect it, or if the mic doesn't handle certain frequencies very well at a distance then that could affect it.

[idobs]

I think you should just have the singer scream the whole thing and then buy Antares Avox to change portions to a whisper.



-Ido

[jebudas]

I think you should just have the singer scream the whole thing and then buy Antares Avox to change portions to a whisper.
-Ido

Excellent idea! Can you bring it over here tomorrow?

[jones-y]

When I record using the "distance from the mic" method, it sounds like the singer is in two different rooms...

Sounds like your room needs some acoustic treatment... That's an issue for a master's thesis, so I'll leave you to do your own research. A quick fix would be to hang a blanket (or thick rug) behind the singer. Next, take a piece of soft foam, and attach it to the back of the mic, to block room sound from entering the backside of the mic (similar in concept to the Auralex iso thingies).

Also if you have a multipattern condenser, make sure its in cardioid (or even better, supercardioid, if it has it) mode.

So how do they do live recordings?

A fair bit of mic technique and a sound engineer with his finger on...

Or during a live performance, what magic knobs is the engineer keeping his fingers on just before Bono screams, "With or Without You!".

the volume slider...

Also known as manual compression.

[Z3R0T0N1N]

i am afraid there is not a magic fix for this. it is a combination of a couple of the things people have said in tis thread. mic technique, two recordings, and post mixing/production. what i would recomend (and i know it might sound like a wast of time, but if nothing else is working for you, you might as well try it) is to record your singer doing the Whole Song in his quiet voice, and then the whole song in his 'scream' voice. The singer has to just practice enough so that it can be sung in the same timing - either that or send the first track in one ear of the phones when the second track is sung sounds stupid maybe but it works.
you may find it is much easier to match up the parts this way in when you get to mixing it. Also, this is computer recording we are talking about, right? so why not just move the parts around with the mouse if they are out of time?
There is going to be more natural reverberation on the shouted vocals too, so you have to add something that sounds similar to the whisper vocals.
if there is a lot of sound reflection in the room you are using, try this: play a dry piano sound loudly out the speakers, and then try to match the same sound in headphones by using really subtle small room reverb - it will be a really small amount with short time, and damping probably - when you have the sound in the headphones sounding like the one through the speakers, save that reverb as a preset and try it on the quiet vocals.

Real producers will laugh their asses off at me, but these are things that have worked in my experience ( with no schooling in this at all, so please if you have better ideas share them ).
good luck.

[Z3R0T0N1N]

ps: and it looks like jonsey could help you more than me, actually