[OldG]

Looking for advice on the best way to get the vocals set up, to help the singer in our band.

She has an absolutely beautiful voice acoustically, but when she sings through our old desk and out of the PA in a live situation - we can't seem to do it justice, no matter how we adjust the settings...

Tracey currently uses a Shure PG 57 mic atm, which we are gonna upgrade to an SM57, and hopefully that'll clarify things there...

The desk is old with no reverb or effects onboard and needs something to add a bit of sparkle... Ideas peeps?

[P-90]

You mention reverb, and a lot of singers seem to appreciate a little of that, but I think that EQ is even more fundamental. Tried playing with that yet?

[wjp01908]

If your desk has an effects send and return, it`s a fairly simple matter to add something to it - I have used a zoom effects pedal in the loop of our (also very old!) desk to give the vocals a bit of reverb and it works OK. (as a bonus we can use it to tune the bass and acoustic guitars!).

Making sure the singer can hear herself clearly also helps a lot - do you use monitors?

Will

[Ben_Sir_Amos]

Please try a Shure beta 58a instead.

I have used a 57 for about 30 years and stared to have trouble with "popping" so I thought I would upgrade. The Beta series was much much much much better value for money. It's about £40 more expensive than a 57 - but it has added sparkle to my tired old voice. I don't use reverb or any other effect.

FWIW I wanted to compare prices and was in central london so I called into Turnkey near Denmark street - never normally the cheapest street but on this occasion it was the best deal I had found.

Would you play live with a £65 guitar? Her voice is her instrument so cough up £100 and give her the best. (PS I'll be bringing mine to the UK get-together).

[namiguShin]

I think 57 is an instrumental microphone and 58 is vocal... Could that be the reason for no success in recording? (I ask this because I have no experience with microphones whatsoever)

[OldG]

Thank for the replies guys, I'll reply in order...

@P-90 ( great name btw, I love the sound of them), The desk has 2 LF,2MF and 2 HF pots but it would be great to try a nice equalizer... Thanks, I hadn't thought of fine EQ'ing live, yet I do it for all my recorded stuff... Doh!

@Will, Yes, we monitor through 2 Peavey floor wedges(also old) with the drummer getting the full mix in-ear. We did try my Boss ME-50 in line, but not using send/return, does this give a clearer sound than straight in?

@Ben, I checked reviews etc for the Beta 58a, that is now top of our list to tryout! and yes you are right. Her voice is worth way more than the price of the best mic, let alone a cheapie. I'll post a recording as soon as I can.

@namiguShin, a correction to my first post, It's a Shure PG58 she currently uses not 57 as I first posted

[wjp01908]

"@Will, Yes, we monitor through 2 Peavey floor wedges(also old) with the drummer getting the full mix in-ear. We did try my Boss ME-50 in line, but not using send/return, does this give a clearer sound than straight in?"

No idea mate.

We have 3 vocal mic`s going into the desk ( our singer, keyboard player and myself - we take duties depending on what sounds best for the song in question as well as backing vox). Hence we`ve only tried it on the loop - we all like a bit of reverb as does the acoustic guitar.

Worth a try though

Will

[Ben_Sir_Amos]

Originally Posted by namiguShin

I think 57 is an instrumental microphone and 58 is vocal... Could that be the reason for no success in recording? (I ask this because I have no experience with microphones whatsoever)

I think that the insides of the sm57 and sm58 are exactly the same - but the 58 has a pop shield and a singer is further away from the real workings. Generally the 57 is considered an instrument mic, but singers like me who want to get up close and personal have used them happily for years.

But the beta 58a changes a lot of old habits. People in the audience tell me that we now set my vocals lower in the mix - but they don't need to be any louder because the clarity through the beta 58a is so much better.

(If anyone from Shure is reading this, I am available for endorsements at a very reasonable fee.)

But seriously, OldG, never mind the reviews, you will thank me for my recommendation. I'll look forward to listening to the recording.

[OldG]

Originally Posted by Ben_Sir_Amos

I'll look forward to listening to the recording.

At the moment,we're still getting the funds together to buy the mic. To give you an idea of the quality of vocal I'm talking about I will post links to recordings made with the budget Shure.

This track was recorded in Oli's (drums) warehouse unit which adds a natural reverb you'll be able to hear clearly . We were playing around with different songs and decided to have a go at this for fun.
Please bear in mind,this was the first time we played this song together ever, Tracey had never tried singing it before and the bassman (me ) last played it around 10 years ago... hence the lack of memory moment just before the solo.



http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/gross/Mic...-TheRemedy.mp3

More recordings of Tracey's can be found here

Enjoy
Mick

[skinnybloke]

Hope you don't mind me butting in Mr G, but, that was wonderful. Tracey has a great... big, voice!
Wouldn't have noticed your moment of old timers, if you hadn't mentioned it.
Cheers

[OldG]

Thanks for the comments Skin, and please comment on anything I post - I won't consider it butting in at all. In fact feedback from anyone is much appreciated.

As a side note, Matt was playing his roller nut,Lace Sensor equipped Strat through a 10w practice amp DI'd into the desk on this one - nice tone considering....

[Ben_Sir_Amos]

She has got a great voice. I love it.

I'm not keen on that particular song - but I checked out the myspace stuff and she is consistently strong. I'll look forward to hearing her live one day.

My band is playing closer and closer to you - and I think Bedford is on our forthcoming dates list - so I'm sure we'll meet up some time soon. I'll start looking for duets that we could sing together.

[OldG]

Thanks for your comments Ben, All Right now is not my favourite either, but in the name of variety... we play some Tracy Chapman, Annie lennox, Foo Fighters, Radiohead... all sorts o'stuff

I was wondering if your band have a myspace page I could link to?

And could you let me know when you are in bedford? I'd like to come and say hi

[Ben_Sir_Amos]

We are currently in, umm.... negotiations with the authorities about how much we should contribute for having covers on our web site so we are hanging on before launching ourselves onto myspace. We should be recording some of our own material at the end of this month so we might set up myspace then. But I shall make sure that I let you know.

We are in The Anchor in Bedford in October and in the Grebe in Milton Keynes the same month so it would be great to meet up then, if not before. Full details of our gigs are on out web site (which is on my profile page).

Have I just missed you at Gladstonebury? I overlook that park where I live but I can't work out from your shows page what is real and what is not.

[Aunt Doty]

I couldn't get the 1st one to load for some reason....but I listened on MySpace and you guys sound great! Tracy does have a beautiful voice and the music was great!