Well you can look for condensors with really high spl's but what I'd do is track what you can with a condensor and track the screaming parts with a 58. Just a thought.

Well you can look for condensors with really high spl's but what I'd do is track what you can with a condensor and track the screaming parts with a 58. Just a thought.

but how high? what is the average screaming vocalist spl?

Hi Clay
The AT4040 can handle up to 155 dB (with the 10 dB cut engaged) which is seriously loud. However, you still need to stay back from the mic as screaming up close messes things up. If you're a foot or so from the mic, you'd probably cough up your vocal cords before the mic notices, provided your preamp can take it.

John Stafford

Alot of mic's are good for screaming. If you use a good quality pre-amp that will give you a distorted sound on the vocals then (alot of mic's) will sound good for screaming vocals. Just drive the input transformer real hard. You can use a $100 mic, and get great results. But if your pre-amp is cheap then the end result will sound cheap.
A good pre-amp can make the signal sound Hard, Heavy, or even real distorted, from being over driven.

He may not want to distort his vocals, he's asking what mic is best for screaming and really there is no answer to that. The vocalist may not what his vocals distorted anymore than his voice does naturally. So lets stick to the real issue which is what mic to use to record screaming vocals. I've recorded screams with my baby bottle, i make the vocalist step back about a foot and a half and let him go at it. I have added effects to screams to get the better sounding but like I said that really isn't the question.

re

md421, i've used it alot now, i just recently picked up a groove tubes gt66 tube mic that sounds awesome on acoustic gtr and male singing vox, but i am today going to try it out on a hardcore/metal band and see what it sounds like. For one metal band that i recorded, it was just really basic 4 songs, and they were young and never been in a studo before so i just handed the screamer a beta 57a and then ran my preamp hot and put a limiter on him and let him go, I felt that he was more comfortable with this option, and it made the session go a lot smoother and quicker. and in my own band the singer does alot of singing into screaming, (sounds like glassjaw) and i got some good demo stuff with my studio projects c1, but then again he's got a good scream,

I record mostly metal/hardcore bands including my own screamo band, and from what i've got out of it, it really depends on the screamer's scream, if it sounds good then it will sound good on the recording, and another thing i've noticed is that what the screamer hears through his practice PA system is not what its really going to sound exactly like on the recording.

Do you want to distort the vocals Clay?

it just seems some of your answers are not related to the question. and when i said there is no real answer thats the truth, everyones vocals are different so no one mic will be the go to screaming mic. its like monitors, they're different to everyone. and you're geting on me for not answering his question, i actually gave him a couple of options from the get go. again his question was about mics not preamps. i gave him one possibitly an idea, not go out and buy an expensive preamp. and the info i offered was on my first post no need to post it twice. i don't have any problems with you, i've read many things you've posted and you seem extremely knowledgable, but Clay didnt ask about preamps, he asked about mics. and what the hell is wrong with the baby bottle, what do you use. I sincerely apologize for jumping your case, its just that when I was a noob I'd ask questions and get so many useless answers that didn't seem to answer what I was asking. I'd like to answer a couple of your questions about DAW's that I see you've posted but now I'm not sure you'll take it seriously. So hopefully you aren't too pissed and we can get along.

hey, it's clay, um... i do want some distortion on my vocals b/c my
p.a. has some distortion on it when we practice b/c it's overdriven(it's a carvin 1200 watt 16 channel) i was just looking at tube mics and i found a cheap cad M9 and was planning on buying a art prochannel preamp any feedback on those mic/pre?

The ART stuff is not a hot topic here on RO...sorry (more like a cold one)

...

I was just trying to help, the suggestions I made where two of the mics that I own, the baby bottle can handle some pretty high spls and the 58 is what I've seen many singers use for really heavy screaming vocals, including the guy from mudvayne that you asked about a month ago. I apologized and all you do is make threats. I gave a reason for getting onto you and I'll admit I shouldn't have said anything. I've given you answers to questions in the past and was never ignorant about it, but now you jump on my case, the only reason I did say anything is because you didn't really tell clay anything but get a really good pre. And as I said when I was a noob I hated getting answers like that, honestly at the time they didn't really help me. And I never said pre's weren't important, everything in the recording chain is very important, I can talk pre's all day long. And you do seem a little pissed.

Buy a Shure SM7,crank it through a single channel Sebatron...relax after each take....and the rest of you mellow out.

I'm sure I'll get flamed....

...but for a lot of screamers here, I find the cheap Nady's work well and sometimes better than some of the higher end mics out there. Also, if your screamer knows how to "scream" properly and not tear the living poo out of his vocal cords, then you shouldn't have to worry about high SPL's.

I've found that a lot of the screaming types have developed some type of technique when working the mic in live settings. So I use something like an SM58 so that they can do their thing. I just use the 58 for the whole track typically unless there is something very melodic in there, then I might use something else.

I second the 58- and compress the hell out of the whole thing!