Making a quiet singer sound "loud"

[hammertime]

I was watching Charlie Rose a couple of months back, and he was interviewing T.Bone something-or-other, a guy who produced a bunch of really well-known people. He recounted a story about how he was fascinated by technology because he saw an engineer make an incredibly soft-voiced Roy Orbison sound like the incredibly powerful crooner we all know him to be. I've heard the same about Bon Scott, that is that he doesn't have a particularly loud voice. I imagine this is how alot of those ridiculously low bass singers record and perform (I've actually tried this myself and it didn't work too bad). Has anyone ever done much of this?

[Hackneyed]

So what's the technique?

[joeysimms]

They sing in their 'head' voice and double/triple-track it?

[hammertime]

I don't know. That T-bone (i think it's walker or something) was talking about the 50's or 60's so I assume he's just talking about alot of compression, and maybe a bit of eq. I heard Bon Scott sang through a 57 or something with like a 10:1 ratio of compression with about 10db of gain reduction. I think most of the magic probably came from the singers, though.

[dokushoka]

I don't know. That T-bone (i think it's walker or something) was talking about the 50's or 60's so I assume he's just talking about alot of compression, and maybe a bit of eq. I heard Bon Scott sang through a 57 or something with like a 10:1 ratio of compression with about 10db of gain reduction. I think most of the magic probably came from the singers, though.

That isn't that much compression for a vocal...

[joel hamilton]

I love the sound of quiet vocals with a ton of gain applied during tracking, and mixing, and then a ton of compression... like an eryka badu type thing... I like the surreal quality you can get from super hyping small sounds.. like a blowup of a photo... all the detail comes out in weird ways (along with the blemishes, if any, like room noise or clothing swipes, or keys in the pockets...)

[hammertime]

I was actually hoping you guys knew a bit about this. Anyway, I thought the Charlie Rose thing was sort of interesting, because the last thing they're going to talk about on a show that has heads of state and famous scholars is some tweaky little engineering thing (I wish they had been more specific, thoug). I sort of got the impression that T-Bone was impressed because they were sort of creating something that wasn't there, almost like putting an actor on a platform when he walks (i heard Sylvester Stallone is like 5 feet tall or something), making someone appear bigger than he actually is.

[hammertime]

Wow, we posted at the same time. I was referring to the previous thread.

I love the sound of quiet vocals with a ton of gain applied during tracking, and mixing, and then a ton of compression... like an eryka badu type thing... I like the surreal quality you can get from super hyping small sounds.. like a blowup of a photo... all the detail comes out in weird ways (along with the blemishes, if any, like room noise or clothing swipes, or keys in the pockets...)

[drumsound]

Besides gain and compression, lets not for get the arrangement of the tune. You have to give the singer some space musically.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

and the word you keep searching for is "Burnett".

[BAM]

and the word you keep searching for is "Burnett".

And his new solo record, The True False Identity, is a recording masterpiece IMHO. Not every song is brilliant, but every little production detail is, not to mention consistently stunning guitar playing from Marc Ribot.

Back to the topic, I'm a weak singer by any measure. My approach is to use my trusty AKG 414 in hypercardioid mode, get real close, sing quietly and as even as possible, then use 2:1 compression with a low threshold so everything gets a nice gentle squeeze on the mix.

But I don't get this 10:1 thing, everything I compress that much sounds like @ss. I'm probably doing it wrong.

[hammertime]

Thanks, I didn't mean any offense by it. I just kept getting him confused with T. Boone Pickens (I think that's his name -- the corporate raider from the 80's).

and the word you keep searching for is "Burnett".

[MoreSpaceEcho]

depends on what's doing the 10:1. for ex with that ratio on the distressor you can pretty easily compress 10db and it still sounds good.

[jmoose]

But I don't get this 10:1 thing, everything I compress that much sounds like @ss. I'm probably doing it wrong.

It is a different kinda animal and doesn't work on everything. But yeah, sometimes it's good to stand hard on the compressor like that. Whatever it takes. Try some longer releases & a slower attack times at higher ratios.

[LeedyGuy]

and the word you keep searching for is "Burnett".

thanks for saying it so i didnt have to!