Blew my voice! Uhg
lightning337
Enrolled Posts: 4
Any of you guys blown out and recovered?
Sat in on a gig friday. Blew it out. Of course enter the horrible PA, no monitors in a chuck-e-cheese bar setting. I can still hit the notes (my upper mix A4 to D5/E5) pitch wise but they are really restrained and held back beyond my control. If i recover never will i be a slave to bad PAs. A tough lesson indeed.
this ever happen to you guys?
Comments
No not at all in fact that IS part of learning to be a professional singer. Here's the thing: at some point you will either be able to demand monitors you can hear, ask the ego guitar player to to turn down, not let the other players suck up the wholel monitor system for "their sound" etc. etc. etc.
This may sound silly but I want to share something with you.
At many a hotel I had to figure out a way to not sing so loud when warming up before a show so people wouldn't complain. So I got good at singing into a pillow. (seriously).
This was actually a blessing in disguise because I learned to hear my "placement" in my head.
Why is this important? So that we don't "over-sing".
Fast forward now to singing the national anthem at the rosebowl.
We soundchecked on the sideline with a nice loud monitor.
But when it came time to sing the anthem they put me in the center of the arena 25 yards away from the monitor I sound checked with AND the stadium delay was so intense I couldn't hear a note I was singing....however ta da, I used what I had learned from controlling my sound in those hotel rooms and nailed it.
It's all part of growing as a professional vocalist.
Kt: That is genius....the pillow thing. Necessity is the mother of invention. But I gotta warn you.You don't know what you've started Ken. Now you're gonna get pillow endorsements at NAMM!
I think when we sing in our rooms or at a beautiful sounding venue, we aren't thinking about when we are projecting what it feels like on the inside cause we can clearly hear it resonate in room or on a $100000 system. Then enter the gig at "joeys bar and grill" with a $250 public speaking pa system and its like "what is going on? I could've swore I was belting... Guess I better hit it harder then".... GAME OVER.
sounds like a webinar to me boss!
Pat. Always nice to hear your tales of vocal survival. Ear monitors.... That's been my top xmas choice! Ur right about the voice regenerating. Finally getting my highs back as I write this. Go figure.
Thanks guys for taking the time and sharing your war stories! Love hearing them.
As a relatively new singer, I have learned some lessons singing back-up in my first band & performance experiences. First, it seems the "back-up singer" is just about the lowest/last priority during sound checks. I bought some nice custom in-ear buds and Shure monitor however, I have never been able to use it during an actual performance because once I get to sound check the sound guy will usually tell me there aren't enough channels/mixes, whatever (I still have more to learn here about sound engineering!). So then, I usually have to share a floor monitor with another back-up singer or the guitarist(!!) that is never actually pointed in a good direction for me. I have also had the percussionist tell the sound guy to turn down the back up singers cause it is distracting him. Very often during the sound check it almost seems like it will be OK but then when the performance starts the lead singer's voice and the guitars so massively overpower the mix that I have to share with whoever. I'm supposed to blend but how can one do that if you are lost somewhere behind everyone else? If some fan's I-phone recording that might show up on FB the next day is not sonically perfect, it is definitely the back-up singers fault! I think the only way to overcome all this is to massively improve vocally! That's why I want to learn everything I can from this coursework. Certainly no one sings perfectly every single time, not even the greats but I want to learn to, at least, do the best I can even in less than ideal environments. I also think I want to move into a lead singer spot eventually. I think that would be a great step forward!
Mackie also makes a unit that is just like the Behringer model. They're both the same, and the Behringer is less expensive.
It is convenient to have a "more me" control on your monitor. The nice thing about these is that you can put one on a mic stand, right in front of you so that it doesn't have to be very loud for you to hear yourself (not to mention, others who may not want to hear you shouldn't be bothered, because it's closest to you, not them).
The bass player in my band has a little black box (not sure who makes it) that clips on to his regular mic stand. It's a little headphone amplifier, and he runs his in-ear monitors from it. It runs on phantom power from the main mixer. It has a mic input on it, and he plugs his microphone into it. There is a control on the black box that allows him to make his mic louder or softer in the mix he hears. He has a monitor mix coming to him from the main board, but he can turn his own mic up in his headphone mix... MORE ME.
A mic cord comes out of the little black box and goes on to feed his mic into the main system. He has to run a cord from one of the monitor mixes into his black box.
That's just another variation on what rcrosier gave a link to. My brother has one of the Mackies and also one or two of the Behringers. He says they are identical in quality, power, etc... but not in price.
Bob