How Can You Make A Rock Vocal Sound Better?

Admit it... you were expecting a magic answer to this one. You were going to get advice on what plug-ins and effects can turn an ordinary vocal into that of a true rock god. Or goddess.

The key fact about rock vocals is that they are an established musical form. If someone invents a better way of doing vocals for rock... well they will be some other style of vocal, and not true rock.

So you have to look at the defining parameters of the style. Just as you wouldn't record hip hop without an MPC60 or the like, and you wouldn't record country music without a Fender Telecaster guitar, then you shouldn't record rock vocals without a Shure SM58 microphone.

And that's all you need. You don't need a fancy preamp - just plug it into your mixing console, set the levels and record.

Now if you really want to get better rock vocals, what you need is a great rock singer. You could of course fire your current singer and get a better one. Might as well fix the drummer while you're at it.

Or you could get your singer some voice training. Rock vocals demand great control. They might sound out of control but there is a hell of a lot of precision work going on in that there larynx. The art is to sound loud and aggressive while letting the mic do most of the work, and developing the muscles and tissues of the throat over a considerable period of time. Even the great rock singers took time to develop. (And many over-developed too quickly leading to surgery to correct serious problems).

One technique that is used all the time in rock is the 'fry'. This is where the soft tissues surrounding the throat and larynx are made to vibrate coarsely and roughly. I'm sure you know the sound. I'm sure you know also that you don't have to do this for long before you get a terrible sore throat. Look forward to an infection the next day and possibly a trip to the doctor for antibiotics.

Building up the technique to produce the fry on the regular basis required by rock demands competent instruction. You can do it alone like the ancient greats of rock, but it will be a hit and miss affair - and no-one knows about the rock singers who didn't make it because they shot their voices to pieces before they were ready.

You know, great singing will sound great with any decent microphone and any competent preamplifier. We hear so much about equipment that we forget that the source of so much music is in fact human.

David Mellor, Record-Producer.com

MORE RESOURCES:

Music industry eases tactics in fighting piracy - Reuters

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#39;08 music sales hit record high - Hollywood Reporter

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Music marketers target female shoppers at home - Reuters

Hyundai Super Bowl ad to feature music by Yo-Yo Ma - Reuters

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A Year in Love and Music - New York Times

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Read all #39;Macworld 2009#39; posts in Digital Media - CNET News

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Bid to open prison doors for music - The Press Association

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Musebin: The future of music reviews? - Los Angeles Times

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd width=80 align=center valign=topfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifa href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/7i-0fd=Rurl=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/01/musebin-the-fut.htmlcid=1287319293ei=ZVljSZKnIN3EmQf7hrD2Awusg=AFQjCNGskMGpNsv_WsamJloseGCXfKTi0wimg src=http://nt2.ggpht.com/news?imgefp=ngf9aeILEXwJimgurl=latimesblogs.latimes.com/photos/uncategorized/2009/01/05/musebin_300.jpg width=80 height=80 alt= border=1brfont size=-2Los Angeles Times/font/a/font/tdtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/7-0fd=Rurl=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/01/musebin-the-fut.htmlcid=1287319293ei=ZVljSZKnIN3EmQf7hrD2Awusg=AFQjCNGskMGpNsv_WsamJloseGCXfKTi0wMusebin: The future of bmusic/b reviews?/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fLos Angeles Times,nbsp;CAnbsp;-/font nobr14 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1The user-driven site allows for only a sentence or two, paring down bmusic/b reviews to a Twitter or Facebook status update. Although the launch of such a site b.../b/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/7-1fd=Rurl=http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/01/musebins-140-ch.htmlcid=1287319293ei=ZVljSZKnIN3EmQf7hrD2Awusg=AFQjCNE6RTjg0F5RppYGXRk_c4u9JA6yTQMusebin#39;s 140-Character Reviews Go Live, Power Hype Machine/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrWired News/nobr/font/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/7-2fd=Rurl=http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/hype_machine_zeitgeist.phpcid=1287319293ei=ZVljSZKnIN3EmQf7hrD2Awusg=AFQjCNGeZ3g9WO3hmS3bm3U20MG709B50AHype Machine Zeitgeist: Listen in Full to the 50 Most Blogged b.../b/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrReadWriteWeb/nobr/font/fontbrfont class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclientie=ISO-8859-1rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-22,GGLG:enncl=1287319293hl=ennobrall 4 news articles/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table

Music matters at Sundance - Variety

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Many students want to create music that has a certain emotional quality. For example, I once had a student ask me to show her how to play something that sounded happy.

Getting Rhythm - Three Tips for Guitar Beginners
If you are just starting out learning guitar one of the hardest things can be getting a good rhythm and keeping that rhythm going while you change chords with your left hand.When I first started learning guitar I would strum along happily until the chord change and then my right hand would stop while I changed the position of the left.

Music Making as Spiritual Experience
If you've been playing piano for some time, you may come upon periods where you forget yourself and only the music remains. You might even have had a spiritual experience.

Creating Stark Atmospheres
One of the things New Age pianist George Winston is known for is what he can do with just a few notes. In fact, in his piece Colors/Dance from the CD "Autumn" he uses an ostinato pattern in his left hand to create a wonderful stark mood.

A Guitar Lesson to Help You Develop Your Vision
Have you ever done any of the following?1. Made excuses for not practicing because you "didn't have time"?2.

Acclaimed Songwriter and Performer Michael Alan Releases New CD: Searching for the Heartland:
New York born singer songwriter Michael Alan, who records with the Indie-label Global Fish Records in Seattle, is an artist who creates without a prescribed musical formula. His approach to writing is purely straight from his heart, lyrically poetic and honest, and void of any sound-alike comparisons.

Six Reasons to Play New Age Piano
Here are six very good reasons to learn how to play piano in the New Age style:1. It's easy.

Why Play Guitar?
As a full-time guitar instructor, I am constantly faced with people in all walks of life who, for all different kinds of reasons, believe that playing the guitar will add something to their lives. Most people that are just starting the guitar for the first time are young (pre-university) although certainly not all.

Beginner Guitar Lessons - Learn Guitar without Ever Leaving Your Home!
So, you think you'd like to learn to play guitar, but you're put off by the high cost of lessons? You don't want to put up with a teacher showing you a bunch of theory and boring songs that you don't want to learn and won't get you where you want to go? Look no further, online instruction is now available that provides comprehensive beginner guitar lessons to anyone who wants to learn to play guitar quickly and easily.Do I need to read music? No! Most online programs use a very visual approach, using picture diagrams and videos that actively demonstrate techniques so you hear what you need to play, not read it.

CD Clubs: How to Get the Best Deals Online
(1) The BMG Music Service offers the best deal you'll find -- 11 CDs for the price of shipping ($2.79 each) when you buy one CD at full club price, which is typically about $15 plus shipping.

Learn To Play The Piano Better By Learning To Arrange Chords & Chord Progressions
Piano arranging is the process by which you take a written piece of music and rework it with chords, adding new bass accompaniment, fills, or even slightly altering the song's structure. And while it's a process that takes years to truly master, anyone with a basic education in piano and a working knowledge of a few key techniques can create an inventive, satisfying arrangement.

Music Licensing
Music licensing can be a very confusing subject. My intent with this article is to give you enough details on what music licensing is and what are your rights to use music in advertising and / or video productions.

Review: Coheed and Cambria - Second Stage Turbine Blade
Ever wonder what would happen if you mixed the progressive showmanship of Rush with Dashboard Confessional's emotional escapism? Me neither, but Coheed and Cambria has been described as that exact mix-up more times that I'd like to recall. While it's easy to understand the Rush comparison, with lead singer Claudio Sanchez's high-pitched vocal delivery.