Great Live Vocals for Bands

It's crazy to me when I go to shows where bands have clearly spent some serious cash on their instruments, effects, and amps, but leave the vocals to whatever the venue happens to provide.

The results is the same at almost every show I see locally in a small venue - you never hear the vocals. Or if you do hear them, you can't make out what they are saying. Or they just sound boring.

I'd say 95% of the bands I see playing locally have this issue.

Think about this for a second. You as the band pick your own guitars, basses, drums, amps, keys, and effects and then you spend hours and hours fiddling to find the sounds you like. I'd like to propose something to you: you should spend a similar amount of time fiddling with your vocal sound.

Lyrics are such an important part of your songs, but people aren't hearing them. Or if they are hearing them, they're not in a way that are evoking emotion or helping them connect with the lyrics.

Don't you want that?

Here's how you can help yourself.

Listen to every professional live show, live recording, or studio recording and you're going to hear two key things on the vocals: reverb and compression.

Everyone is familiar with reverb. Dialling in a great reverb is tricky, though. Too much and you've got a washy mess. Too little and there's no point. But find the right amount and your vocals are going to sound better, be more interesting, and actually enhance the whole sound of the band.

Compression is less-known for musicians that don't spend time behind a sound board, but it's the most important. Compression is all about taking your voice and making sure it's the right volume at all the right times. When setup properly, compression brings your quiet vocal passages and brings them to the forefront above the other instruments. It also takes the parts where'd you be blasting the audience hitting those huge vocal parts and reigns them in so they sit nicely.

By combining these two elements your vocals end up with a polish that not only help your vocals be heard in a clear and more interesting way, but you also sound much more professional as a singer and a band.

One more thing. Find a mic that suits your voice. Every mic is different and sounds different. Don't just listen to what people are telling you online - really try a few and see which one helps accentuate your voice in a nice way and help you cut through the mix. The less EQing the sound man has to do, the better. You'll spend $200 on a pedal - pony up a couple hundred bucks for a great microphone that you know works, suits your voice well, and doesn't have another 500 people's spit sitting in the windscreen.

More and more bands need to be thinking about vocals as another instrument. It would take them to another level.

OH BUT WAIT. It's not quite that easy. Because vocals have always laid in the realm of the sound man, you need to be very diplomatic about this. We sound guys are very possessive over the sound and our gear. We're the ones who have to try and make your 100 watt tube amps turned up to 11 and full drum kits sound good in a venue that holds 50 people while trying to keep everything from feeding back because your monitors are so loud to hear over all the noise.

This is only going to work if you're smart.

The sound tech wants to keep things under control and sounding good so you have a few fears to manage. Let's get you comfortable with those.

First and foremost, have some respect. It's your best chance at getting the best sound possible. Whether you agree with sound man or not, selling him on a idea is way better than telling him what you think.

Let him know you're trying to help by having spent some time picking out a microphone that suits your voice well and that you've also brought some compression to help the vocals sit well in the mix and are already dialled in for your voice and the songs.

The reverb is there simply as a part of your sound like any other instrument, but every venue is different so it might take some adjusting to get it sounding right in that venue. A big space likely requires a little less reverb and a smaller space might need a little more (all dependant on your sound). Work with the sound guy on this.

Compression can be messy because it's boosting the lower volume parts and can induce more feedback. Read the next part very carefully and take it seriously:

You need to take feedback out of the equation.

Do a little bit of learning when you pick out your microphone. Ask the guy at the music store about it's polar pattern (the directions it picks up sound and the directions it rejects sound) and where you should place your monitor. Placing a monitor directly in front of you or off to the side makes a big difference for the amount of feedback. Play around in practice and nail the spot where you can get the most amount of volume without feeding back. Letting the sound guy know you've done this work ahead of time is going to make you his friend not his enemy.

By doing all these things, you're going to take your vocals to a whole other level. This makes a huge difference to everyone listening to your music as it's so much easier to connect with the music when the vocals are present and sounding great.

Less is More in Team

Not a long post, but I just want to say that I'm once again reminded how awesome it is to play in a band with strong team players. It just makes everything easy and your music sound better.

Have you ever been playing in a band where everyone is giving 100% all the time? Everyone wants to be heard so everyone gives er' non-stop.

You end up with this giant wall of disgusting mush because there is no dynamics and no space to be heard.

When you're playing on a great team, people know how to make space for other people and understand that, while their part may be simple, there are other people filling the other space and they're contributing exactly what they need.

The next time your band gets together and it's not jiving or it's not sounding good, think about playing less rather than more and get everyone else on the same page.

Start with a good foundation and simply add a few layers on top. You're going to sound better.

-Justin

Review: JHS Pedals Lime Aid Bass Compressor

Up for review today is the JHS Lime Aid. It's a compressor pedal specifically designed for the bass. At around $200, it certainly isn't cheap, but I will tell you that there are worse ways to spend $200.

I originally bought this pedal because I was looking for something clean to boost the output from my previous bass as the output was low. I thought some compression wouldn't hurt, either. Little did I know, that I'd be having my world changed.

The funny thing about saying "having my world changed" is that compression should almost always be subtle and unnoticeable. In this case, that's exactly what it did, and did it so well, that it changed my life. Here's why: without noticing it at all, it makes you feel and sound like you're a way better player than you are. That's because it smooths everything out, tightens the sound, and adds a little more punch. It makes you more consistent and that's a good thing when you want that. Your note volumes are even as you move up and down strings and your sustain is much better.

I'd caution against getting a compressor pedal too early in your bass career as the best thing you can do is learn how to play an instrument properly and evenly. This takes care of bits of dynamics for you which can be a good thing when you want it to do that, but if you can't control your dynamics yourself, you're lacking something. I certainly wouldn't practice with it as it's best to hear as accurately as possible what you're doing, but when you want to add polish to your playing, it's awesome.

The great things about this pedal is that it keeps the signal pretty clear and has a wonderful blend knob to mix in uncompressed signal with compressed signal. It's easy to operate and sounds great.

Construction is solid and I like how simple it is. JHS pedals don't come with a 9V option stock so you do need to power it with a power supply. Here's one thing to note: they DO NOT like 1-spots, Godlykes, or other cheap power supplies. They get noisy. With a good, isolated power supply like a Voodoo Lab, it's dead quiet.

Overall, it's a chunk of money at $200, but this is a well-designed, great-sounding, hand-built boutique pedal. I think having a good compressor can be invaluable for smoothing things out or giving you that tight, even tone for certain things. I like it and it'll be sticking around for quite some time.

New Bass Day: Take 2

Ok, so I had posted about new Bass day a few months back, but that bass didn't stick around long as I felt like I was supposed to give it away to someone who needed it so I did (no, I'm not rich and I won't give you this one). Although this one isn't quite the same level as the last one, it's going to be nice when I'm done with it.

It's a 2008 Mexican Standard Fender Jazz Bass V. I've always loved the Jazz Bass sound and the way it can cut through a mix. For the stuff I play, this is perfect. However, the pickups on the Mexican is less than desirable so I've ordered some Bartolini pickups for it (57CBJS1 in case anyone cares), a push/pull switch to be able to switch between series/parallel pickup selection, and a new pick guard (if we're all honest, how an instrument looks IS important). Overall, the bass is in great shape with the neck being straight and true. After I clean it up and install my mods, maybe I'll post some before/after of the sound.

I did my best dorky face for our roommate.

The Empire Associates - In Times of Trouble

Hot off the press - every spare moment of my life for the last two months comes to fruition with this bad boy:

The Empire Associates - In Times of Trouble - Listen on iTunes

This album was recorded in the basement studio except for the drums which were recorded in the big room in my basement. It was all mixed and mastered here as well. I wouldn't typically master something, but for the scope of the project, it made sense.

I really wanted to keep all the indie feel in it so there's no pitch correction and it's not heavily edited which I think is pretty cool these days to find a band that can get a good take down in very few tries.

If anyone is curious about any of the details, just drop a comment and I'd be happy to answer them.

December?! Already?!

Wow, time flies! I was thinking my last post was just a few weeks back, but nope, it's been 3 months! Things have been really busy for me with a new job started in September that's been eating up more time (but I'm loving it).

All my other spare time has been working on an 8-song LP with The Empire Associates. The entire thing is being done in-house (literally, all in my home) from start to finish which is a first for me. We've done all the tracking and the initial mixes. We're now just tweaking a bit more then will be off to mastering. All-in-all, it's sounding pretty good. Stay tuned for some samples!

Awesome.

Justin

Updates Around Here

Hey all, nothing too crazy to report, but I put up a few samples of my work as well as a page of YouTube videos I like. Unfortunately, the YouTube page was supposed to be more awesome, but a lot of the videos I like have embedding disabled...I'll find more videos and add them soon, though.

Also updated my previous post with a link to iTunes for the Break of Day EP.

Awesome.

Justin