Members mcsdude Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 Do you all run your vocals bone dry or do you add any delay to them? While it's easy to over-do it, I have always been a fan of a very slight delay on vocals as I feel it gives them that added ambience and makes the singer voice sound a bit stronger and more lush. Our sound person does not agree and keeps them 100% dry. What do you all think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 Dry through the monitors, obviously. But a few different effects through the mains. Mostly light reverb along with slight doubling or fairly short delay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Crownman Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 I agree, 100% dry for the monitors. Running completely dry through the mains just doesn't sit well with me. If your sound person will only run the vocals dry, then I would suspect he doesn't know how to use an effect and won't admit it. Tell him to try setting the delay to 100-125 milliseconds, and see if you like it. It's not a very discernable delay because the time is so short but it give a nice fatness to the vocals. If your guy isn't even willing to try it then I'd start looking for a different guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members belayslave Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 when mixing FOH it will depend entirely on the band and genre of music. Often i will only use effects for certain parts of the songs to make them stand out. also my decisions are effected by the acoustics of the venue. For monitors it's entirely up to the artist. I work with one female singer regularly who likes to get a little bit of reverb in her foldback. whereas others don't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 I'll take dry in FOH rather than too much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GZsound Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 All our effects are changed via MIDI per song. We run FOH and monitor effects.. Depending on the song we use reverb, short slap, longer delays, etc. as needed. Just a MIDI controller button push away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Crownman Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 I'll take dry in FOH rather than too much. You mean you don't like the vocals buried in delay and reverb? Who needs to understand the singer anyway. LOL. I agree though I'd rather have it dry than too much. But hopefully this guys sound guy will open up to at least trying a little. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Alan Roberts Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 No effects in the monitors, but some short delay or reverb in the mains is nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WynnD Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 Considered a "lot of reverb" to be the crutch of the poor vocalist. I usually run a small amount of short delay on vocals FOH. (seldom on instruments who usually add their own reverb.) I avoid running instruments through the monitors. Anyone else trying to reserve them for vocals? (Exceptions, large stages, acoustic instruments.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Balladeer Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 In the performance environment, I'd be inclined to put a short delay onto the lead vocal(s), but not the backing vocalists. In the church setting, where the band is leading community singing - dry! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted October 16, 2007 CMS Author Share Posted October 16, 2007 Monitors dry, always. FOH, depends entirely on the room. Outdoors, the mix can usually benefit from some room or hall 'verb and/or a touch of delay. Only miniscule amounts are fine by me. Indoors, the room can add reverb and delay, so possibly nothing at all or some very minimal delay if the room is relatively dead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Phil Clark Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 Monitors dry. FOH, generally for my main band just reverb when needed, and delay for effect at the end of one song to create an echo effect. For other bands it depends on the music. Mostly just a bit of reverb, and occasional Delay for effect. Some songs call for delay, others don't. My rule of thumb is when in doubt, don't use delay. If I know the song and the band and delay adds something... then I use it. If the band says they don't like it, then I don't add it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 On big stages and outdoors maybe a touch of verb in the monitors, but this must be taken in context. The monitor system we own has plenty of gain before feedback and very flat/smooth. It's also split and run on stage, generally large stages so there's a Rev 7 or SPX-900 just for stage verb and it's used sparingly and generally shorter decay time than the house verb. It's also helpful for IEM mixes where GBF isn't an issue at all. This is not what I would recommend for most of the users here though, different application with different limitations. Effects in monitors can get you into a lot of trouble too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fingerpicker Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 When I play with my trio we are running sound from the stage and always have the same effects going through our monitor as we do the FOH. How else can you monitor it esp. if you change fx settings??For 80's rock we use more delay, which was the trend of that particular decade. Also we postion our monitors as side fills so patrons at smaller venues will hear the monitor mix and again we want the same sound as the mains. After doing it like that I dont care for a dry monitor mix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Glyder Posted October 16, 2007 Members Share Posted October 16, 2007 If the song calls for it.....it gets it. If it dont.....it dont. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GZsound Posted October 17, 2007 Members Share Posted October 17, 2007 When I play with my trio we are running sound from the stage and always have the same effects going through our monitor as we do the FOH. How else can you monitor it esp. if you change fx settings??For 80's rock we use more delay, which was the trend of that particular decade. Also we postion our monitors as side fills so patrons at smaller venues will hear the monitor mix and again we want the same sound as the mains. After doing it like that I dont care for a dry monitor mix. Yeah.. effects in the monitors. Back in the 70's one of our singers would stop singing and tell me to "push the button" if he couldn't hear effects on his voice in the monitors. When running sound from stage, I have a foot pedal that I made that has an LED in it that comes on when the effects are on. That way I don't have to hear the EFX to know they are on, and I can always tell they are off between songs just by looking down at the switch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted October 17, 2007 Members Share Posted October 17, 2007 Oh yes, always mute the effects between songs. To not do this is so tacky IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members The Real MC Posted October 17, 2007 Members Share Posted October 17, 2007 Effects in monitors only if requested. FOH, depends on venue, quality of singer's voice, and FX required for a specific song. Any combo of room reverb or delay can suffice, occasional chorus on backup vocals. Experience speaks in this situation, it helps to intimately listen to recordings of major artists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted October 17, 2007 CMS Author Share Posted October 17, 2007 Oh yes, always mute the effects between songs. To not do this is so tacky IMO. Andand nowow someum.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted October 17, 2007 Members Share Posted October 17, 2007 When I play with my trio we are running sound from the stage and always have the same effects going through our monitor as we do the FOH. How else can you monitor it esp. if you change fx settings??For 80's rock we use more delay, which was the trend of that particular decade. Also we postion our monitors as side fills so patrons at smaller venues will hear the monitor mix and again we want the same sound as the mains. After doing it like that I dont care for a dry monitor mix. You should set your delays ahead of time and double-check them in your soundcheck. I don't know why running sound from stage would make someone think that they needed effects in the monitors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted October 17, 2007 Members Share Posted October 17, 2007 Some songs just don't sound authentic without some fairly heavy effects on the vocals. Say, PURPLE RAIN, LUNATIC FRINGE, lots of FLOYD just for a few examples. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Crownman Posted October 17, 2007 Members Share Posted October 17, 2007 Some songs just don't sound authentic without some fairly heavy effects on the vocals. Say, PURPLE RAIN, LUNATIC FRINGE, lots of FLOYD just for a few examples. I agree, this is also where a unit with a tap delay is your best friend. I hate units without a tap on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fingerpicker Posted October 17, 2007 Members Share Posted October 17, 2007 Some songs just don't sound authentic without some fairly heavy effects on the vocals. Say, PURPLE RAIN, LUNATIC FRINGE, lots of FLOYD just for a few examples. Exactly--thats why I like to hear the effect in the monitors too. I'm not quite sure why the monitor mix is supposed to be dry as a rule of thumb. We never have feedback problems or anything and we hear pretty much what the listener does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted October 17, 2007 Members Share Posted October 17, 2007 Exactly--thats why I like to hear the effect in the monitors too. I'm not quite sure why the monitor mix is supposed to be dry as a rule of thumb. We never have feedback problems or anything and we hear pretty much what the listener does. Not me. I'd prefer the tightness of the dry mix while still hearing a bit of the effects from the mains. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dogoth Posted October 19, 2007 Members Share Posted October 19, 2007 Oh yes, always mute the effects between songs. To not do this is so tacky IMO. Agreed. It's also usualy better to mute them at the send to the FX unit (rather than at the return). Abruptly muting the return makes for very unnatural reverb and delay repeat decay (muting the return works if you use a fader (relativly slow fade) or are using very short decay times). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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