Everyone Can Sing!
The first part of this Pro Talk is about how to embrace vocals as an instrument. The similarity: If you don’t practice you’ll get rusty. The difference: If you blow your voice you can’t just go change a string. You’re just done. Norma Jean and Hundred Suns vocalist Cory Brandan tells the story of his transition from guitar to vocals in the early days.
“If you’ve ever heard yourself recorded, like talking. A lot of people go like ‘That’s what I sound like?’ – Yes, that’s what you sound like to everyone else. Embrace that! Because if you try to force yourself to sound like someone else you’re gonna fail. At the end of the day, you have to embrace the way your voice sounds.”
I Might Lose This Mic Or Break It
“The difference between studio and live comes down to ‘It’s possible that I might lose this mic or break it’.” In part 2, Cory discusses the importance of microphone selection and how he uses mic technique to shape his sound on stage. Learn how his choice of microphone varies from venue to venue and album to album.
Make Sure It’s Real! That Is Huge for Music.
“Music industry isn’t really made for everybody because it’s like there’s a game to it.” Staying true to yourself means more than satisfying radio listeners. Cory’s advice to young inspiring artists in this part is to just try not to cut any corners!
- Making music is a lot of work! You can run around in your front yard and try to get struck by lightning if you want but most of the time disproportionately you got to work.
- Make your demo sounding really good! Hire someone to mix it! They’ll make it sound good.
- There’s plenty of time. You don’t need to drop that single before this date. Slow down! Pump the breaks! The slow and steady wins the race!
Learning From Professionals: Sennheiser Pro Talk
In the music industry, there is no classic right and wrong. That’s why we at gigmit BLOG aim to share experiences and knowledge of people who work in the industry – just like our friends from Sennheiser do with their award-winning Pro Talk Series. Designed to serve as a valuable resource for aspiring engineers, producers and audio enthusiasts, the series focuses on the journeys of the world’s leading audio professionals and their expert advice for a path to success. In 2018 the Pro Talk Series won a TEC Award for Outstanding Technical Achievement in the Audio Education Technology category.
Check it out, get inspired and learn from professionals how to embrace vocals as an instrument.
