Monitoring vocals - help!

keir

newi123 said:

Understand that you want to use the same gear / volume as when you gig - but guessing you won`t be gigging in such a small space, so I wouldn`t worry about trying to replicate it too much.

I`m trying to bring our practice levels down as much as possible partly because of the room, but also if you can`t hear the vocals, what else are you missing? Practice is there to get all those little subtleties right - the pushes and pulls, the accents, and to make sure your all 100% playing exactly the same parts correctly. Also to make sure harmonies are in tune and timing of the BVs are spot on with the lead singer. It`s all about attention to detail, and that`s all much easier to spot, identify issues and rectify at lower levels where everything is clear.

In a small space with an acoustic kit you`re always tied to the level of the drums, so a start is to get your drummer to play less aggressively (if he / she does!), and then as others have said, bring other levels down too.

We`ll do regular practices like that, but then we will also book a bigger room occasionally before a gig to run at gig levels and run our own PA etc. 

All great points. 

We recorded a diy album pre covid and we learned a lot about the songs and re-wrote quite a lot of sections as notes clashed here and there or it was too busy. 

I think the problem is that there are no large rehearsal rooms within a decent travelling distance so the option of renting a bigger room to rehearse for a gig is a tricky option, so I suppose we’re trying to find a happy medium. 

I’ve been reading up on mic placement and feedback and we’ve been doing loads of things wrong. For example, placing our amps directly in front of us. Fine for cardioid mics but not good at all for super cardioid which is what we use (SM58 betas). Also placement of the pa in relation to the mics has not been very good.  

So have some stuff to try, asking the drummer to play a bit lighter and maybe rotating so he is 120 degrees from the mics could help too

I also learned that supercardioid mics are unforgiving when it comes to the singer moving about and you need to make sure you are front and centre to get the best pickup of your voice. 

Roland

Have you tried village and church halls? My local village hall charges the same hourly rate as nearby rehearsal rooms. It’s bigger, cleaner, better lit, and we know the electricity supply is safe. There’s also a kitchen for tea and coffee. 

mike257

I remember having the "rehearse quietly" epiphany. Played in loud rock bands right through my teens and early 20s, we used to be blazingly loud in the practice room. When the penny dropped, and we all started playing a ton quieter in the studio, and wearing earplugs too, the difference was almost instant. Suddenly, we could hear all the little details in the timing, the arrangement, and the performance, and within a couple of weeks the difference was huge. Massively tightened up our playing and the band was genuinely much better for it, and the huge decrease in ear fatigue was an absolute joy.

Playing your gigging rig loud is "fun", but it's not the answer in the studio if you want to make best use of your time. 

ESBlonde

Youvd had some good advice so far. Remember one simple rule.
Double the distance = half the volume.
So because the room is small turn down since you can't get away.
Kiss the Mic grill, it puts more signal in, waving your head around like your on tv or a big stage won't work in tiny venues.
Keep the amps away from the drummer so he has to play quite to hear. 
It's no use screwing up your hearing while just rehearsing (or even at all) so insist everyone plays to the room.