How to make your vocalist sing out.

[MetalDave]

Every once in awhile I hear some vocalist whimpering into the mic on here. This is hard to fix if you are the engineer and the vocalist. Here is a trick I have played with many a vocalist. If it seems like they are struggling to get anything out, turn down their vocals in their mix. They can't hear themselves and hence sing out better. If you are singing and you hear your voice over the volume of the music, you tend to hold back, This causes WVS (Whimpering Vocal Syndrome) 99% of the time it sounds better if the vocalist sings out from his/her toes. I have said things like I am giving it everything I can when asked to turn up monitors. I tell them "you are going to have to sing louder". It is a snowball effect. Once they start singing louder, they hear themselves sounding better, then they get confident and sing out even more. If they hear themselves too loud in the mix they will tend to not sing out at all. they hear themselves sounding bad so they sing even quieter. It is amazing what one knob can do!

[tatteredstudios]

Ha HA HA...I love that!!! I'm going to give that a try !!!! Thanks !

[drago]

Thats a good tip, but the drawback I would see is that I've noticed if the singer's vocal is too low in the monitor mix, they tend to sing out of tune...

[MetalDave]

Originally Posted by drago

Thats a good tip, but the drawback I would see is that I've noticed if the singer's vocal is too low in the monitor mix, they tend to sing out of tune...

This is true if you turn them down too far or if you turn them down too fast. the best way to do it is to do it gradually. you will notice them pushing themselves. as long as they stay in tune, and sound like thay are singing out good, don't turn them down any more than that. Or sometimes it may work better to turn up some noted or chorded instruments instead of turning them down. Of course this only works when you have several monitor mixes. Otherwise the bass player or the other guitarist or whomever says hey now I can't hear me! Another tip with psych monitor mixing is you need to do it so gradual that they don't notice you are doing it.

[Vulconizer]

I'll agree. When I hear too much of myself in the headphones, I tend to hold back. When I get just enough so that I can hear the notes from the music a little bit louder than I hear my voice, then I tend to sing much better.

If you can call what I do singing... It's more like irritating the hell out of every sasquatch within a 100 mile radius.