how to record crazy metal vocals without clipping?

[Chagos]

i was more concerned about the loud parts clipping than the noise on the quieter parts.

the booth is very quiet, and the mic and ultralite should not have any significant noise on the quieter parts.

i just didnt want to lose a great loud part or metal scream due to clipping, so i thought compression might be an answer, but it seems like there are many different ways to work on this.
thanks for the help

[James Steele]

If you booth is very quiet, than I think you could just record at 24 bit and then set you preamp for the loudest possible screams and then perhaps use bite gain or volume to increase the volume of the quiet parts. I would experiment with it yourself before the session. Go out there and set the preamp so you can yell really loud without overloading, then try talking at normal speaking voice (or sing it if you wish) and then see if you can level things out by first applying bite-gain to your quiet sections and then compressing the track overall. You could also add positive bite gain to your quiet parts and then negative gain to the loud parts so they are closer together in levels before compressing with a plug-in.

[monkey man]

+1

My thoughts exactly, Jimbo.

[resolectric]

I don't understand.

Why not just record the vocals the way they sound?

I believe the singer will respond to whatever he hears in his headphones, singing louder in the loudest parts and softer in softer parts.
Unless he tends to change his position relative to the microphone when singing, i don't see why the simple, correct, setting of the recording level won't be enough?
Why worry with anything else?
Afterall, as you said, the mic and the room are quiet enough for low level vocals. No problem there.
Let the singer sing... and adjust the level afterwards. Ride faders, compress, automate, do it all... but let him sing and adjust your recording level for the loudest parts.

[Chagos]

I don't understand.

Why not just record the vocals the way they sound?

Let the singer sing... and adjust the level afterwards. Ride faders, compress, automate, do it all... but let him sing and adjust your recording level for the loudest parts.

because he is a heavy metal singer, and he will clip. i've seen him play, i've seen him sing and i'm 80% sure that at some point the vocals will clip.

he has not been doing this as long as someone like bruce dickinson, so he does not has as much control of his voice yet.

he's smart, and willing to try different things, but i want him to be comfortable in his element, so thats why i was worried.

[monkey man]

You should still be able to get him to scream/make his loudest "sound" LOL in order to get you into the ballpark in terms of level setting. I'd keep an eye on his mic distance though; I suspect his plosives, when combined with the general ruckus, might push the poor thing into overload. LOL

[James Steele]

I'm sure this is obvious to you, but no doubt you're using a pop filter, but also, you could figure out a distance from the mic he should not come closer than and put a music stand or something between him and the mic so he can't get closer on it. That way he won't come closer to the mic than you expect and clip.

You know, it might seem crazy, but if he's used to singing live with a handlheld mic and using mic proximity for quiet parts, you might just try and record him with a handheld dynamic mic. I've heard from reliable sources that no less than artists like Bono have recorded tracks using a handheld dynamic in the control room with decent results. Any way, just throwing it out there in case his singing style is based on live and he's used to "eating the mic" for his quiet parts.

Again... sorry if this is not helpful... just throwing anything out there in case something might be useful.

[monkey man]

Ridiculous. My thoughts exactly... again!

Do you have a long-lost twin, James? No? Same here! Uncanny. LOL

[airtime]

It's always been a problem, those screamers. This, from Recording Engineer/Producer magazine, 1971.
[img/Users/wayneyentis/Desktop/MicOverdrive.jpg][/img]

Hm, I've never inserted an image file here, I hope it works.

Wayne

[resolectric]

It's always been a problem, those screamers. This, from Recording Engineer/Producer magazine, 1971.
[img/Users/wayneyentis/Desktop/MicOverdrive.jpg][/img]

Hm, I've never inserted an image file here, I hope it works.

Wayne

It's like this:
[img]InsertImageLinkHere[/img]

Or just click on the Img button above and paste your image link there.
You can not paste a link from your computer, from your harddisk. The image must be on the web, so, you must insert a weblink for the image there.

[airtime]

OK, here's another try.
[img]http://www.sendspace.com/file/hwndhk[/img]

[resolectric]

OK, here's another try.
[img]http://www.sendspace.com/file/hwndhk[/img]

That is not an image link.

[airtime]

That doesn't work either. I just wanna drag and drop.

[resolectric]

That doesn't work either. I just wanna drag and drop.

It doesn't work that way.
You can not drag from a virtual space on the internet into a virtual window on a different internet space.
You have to locate the image you want on the internet or else upload the image you want, from your computer into a hosting site. I recommend "Photobucket.com" but there are others.

After you have the image you want on the internet, with a specific address, you just copy it's link and paste here, between those tags.

As an example, this is the link from the image you want to paste:
http://www.idcow.net/idcow/products/aa2039.jpg

You copy the link (Ctrl+C on a PC), click on the Img button above and paste the link (Ctrl+V on a PC).
You can also create the tags manually.
It would work like this:

[airtime]

Thanks resolectric, I'm trying it out with Photobucket.com, let's see if it works.
[img][IMG]http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk13 ... rive-1.jpg[/img][/img]