What Vocalists Get Wrong When Recording Vocals In A Studio
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- Опубліковано 28 жов 2020
- ►► Join Chris Liepe's "Perfect Vocal Takes at → recordingrevolution.com/vocals
Great vocalists know that singing live in a performance is completely different to singing on a record.
But unless someone’s shown you just how different performing live is to performing inside a studio environment… it’s tough to figure that out by yourself.
That’s why in today’s guest video, vocal coach Chris Liepe breaks down the crucial differences between those environments, and what so many vocalists get wrong when recording their vocals.
As singer and vocalist, I think that the greatest difference between live and studio is the microfone control to get the perfect result. Each tipe of mic has different sensibility and in the studio we heard the details much better. For good or for worse...
What mic do you recommend ??
When I'm working with my vocal students, they are always intimidated when I tell them that they have to make split second decisions when singing live. Most of them default to over pushing their voice to match the original song rather than taking a lighter tone, or changing the melody slightly to avoid tiring out their voice.
Right, it's a challenging line to walk live for sure!
I just tell them to lip sync ;)
@@MixChecks haha, that's one way to do it!
Alternatively they could train there voice to be more powerful and pull it off in a live performance situation rather than watering it down. Thats the way i see it anyway. You know your own voice its a personal decision making thing at the time for sure. I believe that every performer should give 100%. Thats what the fans want after spending there hard earned money. Feel free to disagree just my opinion afterall.
@@raydowling4888 Of course the performer should give it their best, but singing full out every single time is unrealistic for the vast majority of singers and can lead to vocal damage if you aren't careful. I would much rather go to a concert where the singer is singing at 80% for the whole thing, rather than 100% for the first three songs and 40% for the rest because he wore out too fast. We all have days where we can sing better than others. On the days when you aren't feeling great, you usually need to back off a bit. If you only have one half hour set to perform that week, it's probably okay to go all out the entire time. It's when you have multiple days in a row of performing an hour or more that you need to make sure you're making smart decisions, or the last concert will sound terrible.
Wow! Never thought of it as a "Vocal Budget" before!
That is super helpful!
As a gigging singer, I believe we have to say it depends on the vocalist, their level of stamina, their vocal anatomy, their repertoire and also their voice weight. As an example, a lyric Tenor voice may not have the longevity of a Dramatic Tenor. There are so many examples of singers who sound better live than on the record, or sound almost identical live. I don't believe we can say that employing a vocal budgeting stratagem is absolutely required. Speaking for myself, my voice is actually stronger and high notes more available towards the end of a three hour gig.
Me too. My voice doesn't wear out, it usually gets stronger and more agile; however, I can become mentally tired and lose my ability to concentrate, especially, if I get hungry. My voice is usually better the second day of recording, too.
@@CherieO yes to the day 2 thing - but maybe that means insufficient prep for day 1??
@@petervad replying a year later but sometimes the second day is stronger because you're in the recording groove. If I take a weekend off of singing it's like I forget how to do it. Relaxation, appropriate tension, mentality, etc. Day two I can almost jump into it with just a 15 minute warmup. I almost dread the weekend for this reason 😂
Learn to manage your live vocal budget. Very true. Kudos.
In my opinion, as someone who produces my own songs, the advice of taking your time cannot be overstated. It goes beyond how much time you give to the song in the studio, but also rehearsing the same part for many days before you get to the studio. Rehearsing to a click is essential because often the problem with studio vocals is that the pitch is great but it’s off the beat and the more the producer has to edit the vocal, the more Jenky and less good it sounds.
Essentially what you want is to have rehearsed the part so many times that you’re completely bored of it before you even start recording. Then once you get to the studio, you commit a bunch of takes, between 10 and 20 takes of the song all the way through is usually what I do. Also, Im not going for perfect takes, at that point it’s just doing more takes that might be more or less dramatic.
As a producer, when in comping the takes, I often don’t select the perfect take, I often pick the quirky take. The take where I do something really unexpected that I don’t even remember singing it that way. The quirky takes often give way more character to the final product. Don’t be afraid to push yourself to behave in a way that resembles singing in a broadway show. It sounds corny but gesticulating with your hands and body can affect how you sing in subtle ways.
The only way any of this works is that you have rehearsed the song so many times you could sing it in your sleep. If you haven’t rehearsed the song enough, you won’t have the flexibility to do the quirky stuff and still get a good take.
I've invested in a couple of Chris's courses. I love his approach and I feel that Chris takes on lots of challenges that everyone faces when they attempt to sing. I certainly struggle to get a decent performance in the studio verses singing live where I have so many more years of experience. I think that constant study and practice is the only way forward but it's useless unless you try different ideas and measure them up against eachother. That's where Chris comes in for me, he always has loads of new ideas and perspectives. Thanks Chris and thanks Graham for introducing Chris on your channel.
Fantastic tips, thank you!!
Loving this series! Chris is great
Glad you're enjoying it!
I really enjoyed singing from Ez Voice because I love singing with headset with microphone and write the lyrics from my tablet.
incredibly helpful perspective.
YO I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS !! THANKS ALOT FOR THE TIPS
Awesome. Thank you.
I watched a video interview with Beinhorn. He said that Chris blew the capsules out of 5 U87's recording SuperUnknown because his voice was so powerful. 😮
You voice and control are so fucking powerful. You're so awesome dude.
Thanks
Awesomeness!
Here's an observation - and I know it weighs upon my experiences. Chris Cornell, when in a live situation, obviously has his attention torn between his voice and his guitar playing. Something the studio removes from the equation. I've dealt with this. I'm a "piano player"/vocalist. I put piano player in quotes, because if you ask anyone who knows me, they would identify me with that instrument. Here's the rub - I'm only slightly trained on the piano. 99% of anything you would hear me play is the result of decades of just "faking it". I can take any song - original, or cover - and produce on the keyboard a great rendition - a way to adequately accompany myself. As a vocalist, I've had years of training. So - if I can sing ONLY - I get a great performance. If I play piano ONLY - I get a good performance. But, when my attention is drawn, say, to my vocals, and my eyes must leave my fingers - everything, as far as the piano goes - goes bad. To sum it up, maybe Chris is showing the difference between how the studio allows him to deal with each performance independent of the other. His vocals vs his guitar playing.
Multitasking a.k.a. juggling is almost impossible. You really can only think about one thing at a time and the rest must be on autopilot.
Are you both using the same wardrobe consultant......? (the olive t-shirt squad!!) :-)
Daniel Lloyd Davey has to disagree.
Dope video quality 👌
Thanks!
Great insights, thank you guys
Good stuff!
Nice!
great video
This was very interesting. However in the bluegrass genre we generally sing and don't scream, ha!
A very untapped idea... Challenge ya to do it! I'd be down to collab a song just for the fun of it. I can actually hear it.
The same principles still apply. You can push your voice harder in the studio than live.
How many other people thought "Hey, he's got the same headphones as me!" Great video.
Also, there's nothing wrong with changing the key of a song for gigs. Guitarists sometimes struggle with this, but on a keyboard it's easy - there's a transpose function. Or years and years of lessons.
@@budgetguitaristcom I agree!
I thought the same thing. About his watch though. Not the headphones. LOL
I'm wondering how that condenser mic doesn't load up to clipping level when Chris Liepe screams as he demonstrates the D5. Post production volume leveling is my guess.
If he clipped it live then there's nothing in post production that could fix it.
He just set his gain properly to make sure he didn't go into the red.
He’s compressing and/or maybe limiting on the way in……in other videos he explains his usual vocal chain….that Manley works wonders :-)
I'm at 10:09 and I just had to comment my thoughts on this. Thanks...
The studio can make you sound like a million dollars because it provides so many tools that can make that happen . Live shows the audience and the band how far their talent has got them. You can't fake it live.
What mic did you use sir???
Graham
I love your youth and vitality
are you kidding me
great vocalist
please bring
another john, paul, Daltrey, and Freddie
Graham you're killing me
when you get older, you'll say what was I thinking
lol love u bro
Waffle
Pancake
Studio and Live are two completely different beasts
Wow very nice tutorials..
Micheal star from steel panther sings a entire show without tiring or flat notes. Not very many rock singers can do that.
Top
Some of us don’t have the monetary vocal budget to spend a whole day in the studio on each song of our albums.
Axl Rose in the Studio vs Axl Rose Live would be a good comparison
8:38 - TOTALLY NOT TRUE. Wild, large, ambiguous statements with apparent authority. Honestly...he's wrong. Cornell (my personal favorite) is NOTORIOUSLY flat live because the song are difficult and his mixture of distortion and range are difficult in the best of circumstances and I honestly don't believe he really ever cared. He's an artist and a songwriter more so than a performer; for those of us who can distinguish those two, I think you'll be able to relate. It can be done, but you have to do it with proper care and self control. Many have. Chris L, in my personal opinion is talking out of principle he subscribes to and not his personal experience. I've listened to the way he sings in his studio...it's THIN AS HELL. So, it makes sense that he thinks you have to tone it down live...because, when you're singing that far forward in the voice, it can't be held up. Why? You're doing it wrong! Yeah, and +1 to all the "lots of talking, no substance" comments.
Chris, your advice is as good as your singing. Thank you
I feel like Chris Cornell and Ian Thornley may have a common parent.
I think there is something to be said for bands that do try to make the recording performance nearly identical to studio - that's a style. And the closer you can get - great. But the listening experience is about production - production is part of the art, and it's what makes recorded music so visceral and moving. For me, production is part of my art form, and so I don't take that approach. The sound of my band is big and layered. If I was doing a garage sound, I might deliberately go the other direction. But let's face it - it's hard to sell music, and you're going to sell less music with lower production value, unless your sound just represents some moment in culture, and even that is going to be more limited. I do however, always make sure I can reproduce the track live.
90s Cornell's voice was blown out.. he couldn't sing live very well during this period.. on top of that he's playing guitar in an odd meter while singing.
6:44 - 🤷♂️
Man, this guest is long-winded. Makes me appreciate Graham's punchy delivery.
He also provides basically zero information on this subject that is accurate or usable.
Except for, you know, all the information he provided.
have to respectfully disagree there; i found it very educational.
.......
It's hard to distinguish what is going on through all the distortion. Play something loud enough with enough sonic noise across the entire spectrum, add in a cheering shouting crowd, and it makes no difference what your vocalist is doing. The studio allows a better chance to listen, which always returns a better result. The value of this lesson is diminished by the choice of such a narrow style of singing. Both Graham and Chris are in the rock shouter genre, so I guess the lesson works for them.
I'm Sorry Chris but I personally do not like Your Vocals up in that high register.... I have been a professional singer for 35 years performing live and now recording in studio and I would have to disagree with this view on how to play with the voice. I don't think Chris Cornell considers anything Chris speaks about live. Chris Cornell is flat and sharp at times live, as with most singers as they tend to do a lot more vocally when adrenalin is pumping and crowds are hyping them up. Chris Liepe is croaking his voice and then saying how he likes that sound. As with all the videos I have seen through this channel with Chris he tends to always go into the screaming register and croak his voice out and sound terrible. When he sings lower he has a nice sound in his voice. I guess this info might work for screaming styles of vocals but I feel it is opposite to many other styles of music. Graeme.... you never sound like that with your style of music and I personally miss your style of teaching and sorry to say...... feel this is a major step back in quality of material. You have gained a huge following because of you and your quality of content you provide.... There seems to be a lot of Chris Liepe Videos so to speak on your channel and that's ok if you are into his style of singing and teaching but If I wanted that I would search out his channel. I come to your channel to hear from you which I sadly miss. Sorry for the negative (none is meant out of nastiness but rather just one man's opinion). And it also doesn't mean I'm right!!!!!
theres only One who can save you - Jesus Christ :)