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How Can You Make A Rock Vocal Sound Better?
Admit it... you were expecting a magic answer to this one. You were going to get advice on what plug-ins and effects can turn an ordinary vocal into that of a true rock god. Or goddess. The key fact about rock vocals is that they are an established musical form. If someone invents a better way of doing vocals for rock... well they will be some other style of vocal, and not true rock. So you have to look at the defining parameters of the style. Just as you wouldn't record hip hop without an MPC60 or the like, and you wouldn't record country music without a Fender Telecaster guitar, then you shouldn't record rock vocals without a Shure SM58 microphone. And that's all you need. You don't need a fancy preamp - just plug it into your mixing console, set the levels and record. Now if you really want to get better rock vocals, what you need is a great rock singer. You could of course fire your current singer and get a better one. Might as well fix the drummer while you're at it. Or you could get your singer some voice training. Rock vocals demand great control. They might sound out of control but there is a hell of a lot of precision work going on in that there larynx. The art is to sound loud and aggressive while letting the mic do most of the work, and developing the muscles and tissues of the throat over a considerable period of time. Even the great rock singers took time to develop. (And many over-developed too quickly leading to surgery to correct serious problems). One technique that is used all the time in rock is the 'fry'. This is where the soft tissues surrounding the throat and larynx are made to vibrate coarsely and roughly. I'm sure you know the sound. I'm sure you know also that you don't have to do this for long before you get a terrible sore throat. Look forward to an infection the next day and possibly a trip to the doctor for antibiotics. Building up the technique to produce the fry on the regular basis required by rock demands competent instruction. You can do it alone like the ancient greats of rock, but it will be a hit and miss affair - and no-one knows about the rock singers who didn't make it because they shot their voices to pieces before they were ready. You know, great singing will sound great with any decent microphone and any competent preamplifier. We hear so much about equipment that we forget that the source of so much music is in fact human. David Mellor, Record-Producer .com
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Beauchamp Brings Diversity to Music Everyone has a talent. For Miami, Okla.'s, Brian Beauchamp, it's playing music. Beauchamp who began playing guitar in 1998 while attending college at the University of Oklahoma said he first played after borrowing a guitar from his friend, Jamie Neal. He now plays rhythm guitar and is lead vocals. For this he was nominated for the Payne County Line 2005 New Artist of the Year award. How to Create Hip, Mature and Lush Harmonies Rarely is a chord played with its tones contained in a single octave, the root on the bottom, the third in the middle, and the fifth on the top. Zen and the Art of New Age Piano We all want to be in the moment. That's where real transformation takes place. For some, walking gets them there. Others like to play sports or watch movies. For me, it's playing the piano. When I'm in the moment, letting the music speak, it's like the world is new again. Taking iPod Culture into Clubs as Well as Cyberspace: Jonny Rocket Interviewed by The G-Man Already making plenty of noise in the marketplace is a new concept called Playlist, which exists both as a club and as an online music competition (see www.ipod-dj .com for details on how to enter and what you can win). Your PC Is An Awesome Singer... If You Let It! As an amateur songwriter, who struggles with a computer far from powerful enough to run the necessary software to record vocals of good quality, I have looked for good solutions. And I've found a few. Beginners Guide to Music File Formats Are you confused by the various types of music file formats out there? Most of you would have heard of the popular MP3 format, but are you aware there are other alternative digital music formats like WAV, WMA, RA and MIDI? Some of these give better sound quality than MP3 (e.g. the WAV format) but also need more disk storage space. Others like WMA give file sizes smaller than the MP3 format and are more suited for portable music players. Bang on Your Drum All Day Long - Without Annoying Your Neighbors! Bang! Bam! Bang! Have you always wanted to play the drums, but are afraid your neighbors would call the police on you? How To Overcome The Lyric Writing Hurdles That Are Keeping You Behind The lyric writing side of songwriting is known to create an enormous number of problems for some folks. No matter how hard they try, they are unable to write a single line that they can be pleased with. Jazzing Up Your Leadership Style I met New York jazzman Tim Armacost in college almost 25 years ago, at a time when we were both grappling not only with what careers we ought to pursue, but with what kind of adults we wanted to become. Tim comes from an illustrious family, boasting more than its fair share of bank presidents, ambassadors and college presidents. I would not have been surprised if he had gone into finance, diplomacy, or academia. And yet, with seemingly limitless professional options open to him, Tim chose a more modest path ? that of the jazz musician. For two decades he's been traveling the globe, pursuing his career as a professional tenor saxophonist, in such exotic locations as Amsterdam, Delhi, and Tokyo. His albums, including Live at Smalls and The Wishing Well, have received high praise from the Washington Post and Jazz Times. Fluent in Japanese, Tim is also a longtime student of Zen Buddhism; his meditation practice infuses his music and contributes strongly to his relaxed yet passionate performance style. Does Your Band Need a Manager? New bands looking to book gigs and establish contacts often start looking for a manager to handle the business aspects of their music. This is especially the case in cities with big music scenes, like New York, Los Angeles and Austin. The Flower Garden and New Age Piano Music If you've ever looked at a flower garden, not only its beauty may have captivated you, but also its overall arrangement. Memorizing Music - How Is It Best Achieved? When memorizing music there are several things you can do that will make your job that much easier. Memorizing music is important as most people know you play better when having the music in your head rather than having your head in the music. So where to start when memorizing music effectively? Independent Music Promotion on the Web: 3 Steps to Success Let's face it, the wildfire spread of web-based portals designed to introduce independent music to the world has created a bewildering array of opportunities and costs. So where do they all balance out? When does the cost of signing up to yet another music promotion service yield results? What results are we looking for anyway? Buying a Violin "How do I buy a violin, (or fiddle)?" How To Play Piano Using Chord Symbols Chord symbols (for example, Fm7, Cmaj7 or G6) are a type of notation used frequently in jazz and other areas of modern music to notate chord progressions and changes. This type of notation differs from that of classical music in that chord symbols don't show the function of a chord the way the Roman numeral notation does. Chord symbols, for modern music with lots of changes, are much easier to read. They function as a sort of shorthand for change-heavy music and are written with four chord parts in mind: the root, the quality, the extension, and the alterations. How to Make $30,000 with Your Music Before Years End As an independent musician and/or recording artist, if you did *NOT* earn $30,000 (or more) with your music alone last year, let's jump right in and get you started with doing so this year. Creating Caverns - an Improvisation Exercise In a recent post to my Yahoo group, I mentioned that I created the piece "Caverns" using one chord. I'd like to explain how I accomplished this. Benatar and Geraldo - Still Rockin on a High Note Most people look forward to the summer months because they bring warmer temperatures, vacations, outdoor gatherings, and longer days. Those are all fine and dandy, but what really gets my fires stoked for the warm season is when the Queen of Rock (a.k.a. Pat Benatar to the uneducated) takes her show on the road. Always the dutiful parents, Pat and her husband/producer/lead guitarist Neil Geraldo wait for school to let out before beginning a tour so that they can bring their children along for the trip. Some kids get to visit Disneyland or the beach during their summer breaks; these kids get to see the country and the throngs of fans who think their mother is the bomb-diggity. Celtic Music: The Japanese Connection My friend, guitarist Brian Hughes, toured with the Chieftain's in Japan as an opening act with Loreena McKennitt. He then went on to perform with the Chieftains in North America and Europe when they were promoting their album Santiago. In Japan they played about ten shows between Tokyo and Osaka, mainly at soft seat classical concert halls. The seating ranged from 1500 to 4000 capacity. They were booked through the agent Plankton who specializes in Celtic music. Although the audiences were enthusiastic Brian felt that Celtic music was still a niche market in Japan. Closet Monsters London Spicoluk Way back in November I found myself at the Casby Awards after party trying to socialize with whomever I came across. One person who I chatted with that night was a guy named London Spicoluk, from the band Closet Monster. At that time I haven't heard of them but I remembered his name and checked out their band out of interest.
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