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hey everyone,

first off, i just found this forum, and I'm upset i didnt find it sooner. its an amazing network of incredibly talented and knowledgable people in the industry, and i look forward to working with all of you. I'm quite a beginner, so youll have to bear with me as i try to grow in knowledge and experience.

I'm working with a group right now in the ever popular "indie"/"screamo" genre. they want to add in some of the screaming that I'm sure youve all heard, but the problem is, theyre not really good at it. I'm sure with all of it out there that there is a way to use mastering/editing effects to make it sound good. does anyone have any pointers? any info about the raw recording as well as the effects would be greatly appreciated. thanks everyone.

Comments

Ben Godin Mon, 09/13/2004 - 12:15

rules for screamo,

1. always use a sm58 (or57) it sounds f'n amazing with screaming
2. make the kick sound loud and very tight, most certainly use a beta52 at least
3. get the singer at least 8 inches from the mic
4. make the vocals not as loud as everything else, unlike most music, screamo uses lower level vocals
5. compress the vocals well, you want the vocals to reamain lower than everything else (aka lo-fi screamo)
6. have a good pre, even for the sm58, a good preamp (i found the digi002 preamps quite adequate)

mastering, its just like everything else but for the master the kick drum at close to 0db and the guitars peaking at -1.5db, and the vocals at -2db, many many screamo bands do exactly this,,, but for mastering, get a local pro because screamo i s hard to work with, i have done a bunch of screamo bands before and because of this i know a bunch about the topic, if you want more info email me at beng410@yahoo.com,,, hope this helps 8-)

flatrat Wed, 09/22/2004 - 13:42

If you want to add fullness to that "screamo" have the singer/sreamer double his tracks, throw a little (not a lot) of chorus on it and pan the double just a little right or left of center. Of course if you want it to be really dramatic, a little reverb or delay works good for that too.

I did this with a band I just finished up with and worked pretty well. I only wish I would of used a 58 on him.
~Bill

Guest Sun, 09/26/2004 - 19:48

screams

I have the best results with any mic around $100. The mic pre-amp is gonna be the "sound" you want. That will make the screaming or screams sound bigger than life. Then make sure you use some reverb and some delay.
hope this helps :)
A good mic pre amp will cost you some where between $250 and $600 dollars. Try to get one with a tube! All the other ones (without tubes)suck that are in this price rage
good luck

anonymous Mon, 11/14/2005 - 13:51

DJ Fade:

Here is what I have tried to decent results.

I tracked the vocalist on a Groove Tubes GT66 Condensor Mic through a Focusrite Twin Track Pro preamp, used a mid compression setting on the opto compressor just to keep it from clipping like crazy.... but here's the deal, our guitar player who did the "screams" did more of a whisper/scream/growl and not a very high SPL scream as the people you are recording may want to do. Then in my DAW (Sonar 4 PE), on the track I put in an amp sim effect and put some distortion on the track, and also some delay. This gave it a larger sound.

You can check out the screams in our song "walk away" here:

http://www.sonicbids.com/pauldelmotte under the audio section

I agree with the others that for much louder, "real" screams, a dynamic mic would be the best through a good pre, but i suggest experimenting w/ diff EQ options (a telephone preset on an EQ, for example?) and diff effects as well as adding reverb or delay to make them sound good.

hope this helps!