Working with vocalists

[neoking]

Well, again -- it really depends on your situation at home... I've simply found those cheaper pre-amps to be unreliable, at least for me. I know some other people who have used it without problem, as well as other people with the same problems that I have.

IMO, I'd go with a USB/firewire pre-amp -- the interface I have is also an external soundcard, and you can plug your studio monitors in to it as well.

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/pr ... sku=243007

I used this for a couple years. My only complaint was that there wasn't very good gain support -- but the recording quality was perfect. I recorded "Another Day in my life", "Promises", "Project Hardcore", and "Angel of the Sun", "Bloodlust", and part of "Abduction" with this (I switched to my Korg Zero 4 for the really loud screaming) with my Studio Projects C-1 mic, and Presonus Audiobox.

The price is also pretty fair -- and it comes with a copy of Cubase LE. You might be spending a bit more than the other one (I got my Audiobox for $120 CAD), but at least you'll be prepared.

Another thing I'd recommend, is go to the store itself if you can... if there's a music store that sells this equipment near you, and ask advice from someone who is familiar with this. There could very well be more products out there that could suit what you're looking for.

Didnt know that was your voice in Abduction!
Im pretty sure you lost your voice for a while after that one

[VOL-E]

I don't think that she lost her voice, effects do the trick

[nikkita]

VOL-E, I actually did lose my voice... I used to do death metal vocals, so I can still scream with the best of em But it's tough to do that kind of scream because it just overloads the mic too much.

But I had to re-record that stupid scream 800 times, I was getting frustrated because for some reason whenever they tried to increase the volume it would be too distorted and fuzzy...

[Radiant]

VOL-E, I actually did lose my voice... I used to do death metal vocals, so I can still scream with the best of em But it's tough to do that kind of scream because it just overloads the mic too much.

But I had to re-record that stupid scream 800 times, I was getting frustrated because for some reason whenever they tried to increase the volume it would be too distorted and fuzzy...

Think the results worth it though, didn't know you were in that track either.

Thanks for the advice, I'll make sure to use it as my guide when I decide to purchase these things.

[Noxit]

Cant you be my vocalist in a track of me, since youre a vocalist on this forum lol.

[Shepherd]

Was just going to say the same... Question, how did people like Zatox, The pitcher, ... approach you? Where they like: Could you scream: 'Sit down and shut the fuck up' For me please? Or do you scream random stuf and send it in a mail or ... ? Or a big brainstorm session

[nikkita]

It really depends, in some situations the producer doesn't really know what they want... most times, there is no track, and they want to build the concept and idea around it. In some of those situations, we'll do a brainstorm session where we get some idea together for an atmosphere or particular words, phrases, sounds, etc which exist at the minute that really "jump out" to them...

After that, I get to work and write and record as much as I can for them to use. This is how Bloodlust and Abduction happened. With "Abduction", Bart wanted something that was scary -- initially he was like "some really insane girl, like she's in a mental institution screaming about something getting her, etc"... then he showed me the word "Abduction" that he wanted to use, so I wrote like a scene from a movie and recorded it. For "Bloodlust", Nosferatu/Erwin wanted a poem to be like some kind of personal anthem -- together we got a bunch of keywords and phrases, Underworld, and Angelina Jolie's voice/character from the movie Beowulf, etc...

In some other situations, they already have a track ready, so I work my vocals in to it. Usually I have free reign over these tracks. Sometimes I'll take what the producer wants in to consideration, but otherwise I just do my part if I don't like their idea. IE: Promises was supposed to have "hardstyyyyle! noisecontrollersss!" type lyrics, but I'm not really a fan of that kind of vocals. With "Another Day In My Life", Michel only gave me an idea of what style of lyrics -- he wanted something kind of spiritual. I fucked up the timing, but he decided to slice it up so it worked out well anyway. When Zatox approached me, he was like: "I have this track called 'Rawstyle', and I need some quick vocals for it"... so we did that.

In other songs, I have free reign over everything -- with Poltergeist, Zatox sent me a melody and I said "Okay, this is what we'll do with it", and he produced the product of our brainstorming. In future tracks, I'm a bit more involved... so I say "Ok, I have this vocal, I have this idea, I have these sounds/basic arrangement/etc".

There's also some situations where I write lyrics for other people (ie: "A New Dimension").

And thennnnn... in some situations, they will already have a bit of text (Angel of the Sun, Samara) so I just record them in like 5 minutes and that's that. I don't particularly care if I get credit for those.

Hope this helps.

[Shepherd]

Great reply, thank you. This gives me a very good view on how you do these things.
And do you make these vocals on a distance? I mean, do you go to the producer or is it all sending mails and stuff like that?
Oh and why are there some tracks with your name in it and in others not? Because if i were a vocalist, i would love it to see my name featured.

[MKN]

awesome post nikkita, do you fancy doing some vocals fror mee? lol

[nikkita]

Why my name isn't on some? I really don't know, and I spent the better half of my music career being very pissed off about it, too. It's a complete disrespect, truthfully. It also shows the true character of the producer themselves, which is why I make it a point to never work with those people again, unless they give me a good reason for what they did. Some producers even say things like "oh, we'll give you as much credit as we can! ft, vocals, blah blah!" and when my friends buy the stuff and say "hey, your name isn't anywhere"... for example, when Surge of Power was releases, I went to Midtown to check it out with my friend -- we saw the vinyl and my name was NOWHERE... it was a huge slap in the face for me. I didn't even get an apology for this. At first I used to keep quiet, but now I learned that's the worst possible thing to do -- so I'm very open until it's dealt with, or until they make up for it.

Yes, I do all of this from a distance as well I have my own home recording studio that I work from.