house speakers. Your ears will adjust! Then
when it’s time to bring up your monitors, only
put in the bare minimum of STP (Self, Time and
Pitch). Never hesitate to ask your sound tech
to come onto the platform and stand where
you’re standing to listen to what you’re hearing.
This will give them a better understanding
of what you need. And pay attention during
soundcheck- no talking!
Make sure that regardless of what you hear,
you don’t over sing. Let the sound techs deal
with the problem, don’t hurt yourself trying.
But always make sure you are using proper
microphone technique. This can make a world
of difference to both you and your sound techs.
[WM] What advice do you have for getting
a great vocal mix for IEM’s as well as floor
monitors?
[Sheri] I still recommend doing a sound check
with the house first. This helps to acclimate your
ears to relying on less. Trying to get a good mix
in your personal IEM is not as easy as it may
seem! Mixing sound is a skill that takes time to
learn. Don’t look for a ‘CD quality’ mix, just get
what you need to stay in tune and on time.
It’s important to put all of your vocalists, except
perhaps the leader, on one channel (or a stereo
pair). It’s tempting to put each singer in his
own channel, but background vocalists should
be functioning as one and therefore should
technique. Learn how to relax your larynx
as a team member asking for help?
and keep it low/neutral in the throat. Always
use proper tone placement (usually higher [Sheri] Make sure you place yourself as
when hitting big notes) and always use breath far away from the drums as possible. Often
support to reach those notes. Do not scream. what looks the best isn’t what is the best for
everyone sound wise. All too often we place
[WM] There are a lot of teams who aren’t singers directly in front of the drums and that
using in-ear monitors, and the vocalists can creates a host of problems.
a loud band, drummers frequently being the When doing a soundcheck, work to get the
biggest culprits. What suggestions do you have room right first with no monitors. Get used
on how to approach this, both as a singer, and to singing to only what is going through the
January 2019
also forces the singers to blend as one and
listen to each other. This is how they should
be rehearsing offstage when preparing their
songs, so when they step onto the platform
and hear all the vocalists on one track, it will be
the most similar to their rehearsal.
[WM] Is there any lingo you’d suggest using
really hurt themselves when trying to sing over
40
be treated as one instrument in the mix. This
to make sure that vocal-centric requests don’t
get lost in translation when communicating with
the sound team?
[Sheri] I would suggest a couple of things.
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