Vocal Tech. "Do you mind if I nail your feet to the flo

[Ryan Silva]

As much as we would like our vocalists to stay on their ?Spot? when recording Vocals, it can be difficult. The last thing we want to do is make a singer feel stiff, and restricted by chaining them to a very small sweet spot on the mic, but if we don?t?..

I was hoping for examples, and creative solutions to these problems.

Double compression?
Omni?
Head Restraint?
Highly reflective room?

Thanks

[the finger genius]

How about attaching a mic to the singer through some kind of headgear?

[the finger genius]

Something like this...

[A.David.MacKinnon]

Hand held mic? I've done some hardcore records this way. It's not a technique that translates to every genre but it can work really well on rock types.
57 or SM7 (or M88) -> pre -> a nice brickwall limiter (the ADL tube limiter is great for this).

[cgarges]

Highly reflective room?

I would think the exact opposite.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[Ryan Silva]

Highly reflective room?

I would think the exact opposite.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

Well it might color the hell out of an off axis cardiod, but there would be a lot less level variation. I did this with an accordion track and an Omni in the bathtub of a bathroom. All the reflections helped in hearing a constantly moving instrument without volume variation.

But yes, not a very good solution for vocals.

[drumsound]

My mind goes to omni in a fairly dead space, or one with a short but pleasing reflective tone.

[accordion squeezist]

google search Ray Charles.
you'll find out how they did it.

[Brett Siler]

In the book Mixing With Your Mind, the author talks about using a handheld mic for the singer but the arm used to hold the mic being in a sling (for for arm injuries) so they can control their own dynamics (if you have an awesome singer with great technique, but we know that is rare) but still be restricted to still be in the "sweet spot". I bet it will still apply to a singer that is kinda out contol, by restricting their movement some.

If their head moves to much use a neck brace too. Only a half joke.

[Nick Sevilla]

Depeche Mode : Exciter.

DPA 4001 Omni mic on all lead vocals. Put on a stand, had singer dance around like on stage.

Cheers

[Snarl 12/8]

2 things I've tried. Tell them "keep your nose touching the pop screen". (Put pop screen on somthing more steady than the usual gooseneck.

Put some sort of bar above the mic and tell them to keep their forehead pressed against that bar.

Obviously you gotta adjust the bar or pop screen to put their mouth where you want it vis a vis the mic.

Limited/varying success with those methods.

[Morgan R. Koren]

Put some sort of bar above the mic and tell them to keep their forehead pressed against that bar.

Along those lines, I'd suggest putting something heavy, like a concrete slab on the floor. Then position the mic so that the performer is where you want them to be when his/her toes touch said concrete. But I admit that doing so would not make as good a photo-op as the forehead against the bar idea.

[Nick Sevilla]

Iron Maidens are good for holding down the singer too...

[newholland]

i recently did a session with a guy who couldn't get used to standing still and firing..er.. singing (screaming) at an LDC. he's singer only who cups a 58 live.

well.. i just threw up an sm7, fed him back ONLY the sm7 in the phones, but put an LDC up right behind it. he controlled his own dynamics for the most part by standing still and blasting the dynamic, but i got the openness of the LDC. you don't really 'hear' that theres a big black canister in the way.. but it also gave me a second option on vocal takes too.

i think we figgered this strategy out last time i worked with them, because last i did, i actually duct taped one of his feet to the floor... not kidding.

[Aj]

Two words: Ikea Ringum.

No need to say anything about "staying on your mark". Just casually drop one of these in front of the vocal mic while setting up the session...

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70141493

Again, I've found I don't need to say anything when I do this. Usually, the visual of a perfectly-sized round colorful dot on the floor does the trick.

And... only 10 bucks! (in the states, at least.)