Singing and Rehearsing: How to Get the Vocals to Punch Through the Mix

For singers, rehearsing with the band can be a real struggle when they can’t get their vocals to punch through the mix. Fortunately, there are a few things that you and the rest of the band can do to solve the issue.

This blog includes the words of Alfons Verreijt, the developer of the VocalFeedback method and author of the book The Essentials of the Voice.

From Drums to Flutes

Pretty much every vocalist who sings in a band will be familiar with the struggle that is getting the vocals to come out on top of the mix when you’re rehearsing in a small rehearsal space. This can also negatively impact live shows. The difference in the audio between rehearsals and gigs can be so massive that it basically feels going from drum-level volume to the meek sound of a flute. What makes matters worse is that fellow band members often don’t understand the problem, and it’s not like it’s all their fault either. In fact, everyone is a bit to blame. Luckily, the solution is rather simple, so let’s get to the heart of the matter.

Small Rehearsal Spaces

Most bands have to deal with a relatively small rehearsal space. In an ideal world, you would rehearse in the same room as you perform live in. In reality, it sadly doesn’t work like that. To ease communication, most bands also set up in a circle for rehearsal, which, just like rehearsing at high volume levels, comes with various drawbacks — even if there are some more or less valid reasons for turning up the volume. For example, many musicians are insufficiently trained to pick out their own sound from the overall sound, so they turn up the volume of their amp to be able to hear themselves. Guitarists will claim that their amp only sounds good when it’s turned up. There’s definitely some truth to that argument because valve amps only start sounding their best at a certain volume. On the flipside, you could argue that this no longer holds water since the invention of power attenuators, which are designed to lower the volume of guitar amps without sacrificing their sonic character. Another argument for rehearsing at high volume is that many bands want their rehearsals to feel more like a gig. “There’s a simple solution for that,” Alfons claims. “Get out there and play more gigs. One gig can yield the same results as ten rehearsal sessions.”

Scaling a Wall of Feedback

Potential hearing loss alone makes a solid case against rehearsing at high volume, but there’s one musician who’s already in trouble as soon as the volume is turned up: the singer. After all, in order to sing well, singers need to be able to hear themselves. While you could simply turn up the PA system, this will only lead to feedback, especially in small spaces. When the volume can’t be set any higher, singers are forced to turn to a last resort, and that is singing louder. That’s exactly where it all starts to take a turn for the worse because if band members force their singer to sing loudly by playing loudly, there’s a good chance that the band’s live performances will suffer. Singers are often so overwhelmed by the enormous difference in sound between the rehearsal room and the stage that they botch up the vocals when they sing live. Now, in pop and rock music, singers usually apply compression. When singing with compression, your ‘internal volume knob’ can be set anywhere between three to seven on a scale of one to ten.. Going beyond seven while applying compression can damage the vocal cords, especially when you’re forced to do it for long periods of time. The alternative is singing without compression or belting, but the latter is primarily an artistic choice and shouldn’t be something that singers are more or less forced to.

Singing and Rehearsing: How to Get the Vocals to Punch Through the Mix

Culture Change

Keeping the volume at more moderate levels during rehearsals requires a bit of a culture change, and you can take various measures to get there. To calibrate the optimal volume, you’ll want to take the vocals as the starting point so that the singer can sing as comfortably during rehearsals as they can during live shows. The maximum volume level depends on a few factors that you can turn into an equation: max. vocal volume = max. volume of the PA system MINUS the feedback threshold MINUS the maximum (acoustic) volume of the singer’s voice. It may come as a surprise, but the maximum volume of the singing voice barely affects the sum of all parts. In other words, there’s barely any point in singing louder into the microphone. Not only that, it can be detrimental to the singer’s vocal cords.

Feedback Threshold

The feedback threshold plays a much bigger role and is determined by various factors, including the specifics of the sound coming out of your PA system (a more shrill sound increases the risk of feedback). Other parameters are the size and acoustics of the rehearsal space. The bigger the room, the higher the feedback threshold. Furnishing the walls with sound-dampening material also goes a long way, just like picking out the right microphone. It’s often better to swap that awesome-sounding condenser microphone that you like to use on stage for a dynamic microphone. Dynamic microphones are simply less sensitive to feedback. They’re no financial burden either. A solid dynamic mike for rehearsals can be picked up for just fifty quid. Speaking of gear, you also don’t need a mega-powerful PA system for rehearsals. An 80 to 100-Watt system is usually more than enough.

Be a Teamplayer

After taking the right measures, the next step is to start rehearsing at lower volume levels. As I said, that requires a bit of a culture change. Here, the willingness of everyone in the band will play the biggest role. Together, you’re a team, so don’t hesitate to call on everyone to be a teamplayer. In addition, you’ll want to optimise your set-up. “The guitar amp is usually the biggest culprit when you’re playing at (excessively) high volume,” Alfons says. “Turning up the guitar amp not only leads to the rest of the band turning up their volume, but the sound of a guitar amp is made up of lots of mid-range and high frequencies, which travel in a straight trajectory. This is why guitarists like to stand directly in front of their amps. However, when the amp is set up on the floor, the sound is projected at your trouser legs instead of your ears. A simple solution to this is tilting your amp backwards.” So what about amplifier heads and cabinet/amplifier stacks? The sound comes out of the speaker cabinet so you can’t really tilt the speaker cabinet back since the amp head might fall off. Alfons is adamant here: “Amplifier stacks usually have so much power that they should be banned from rehearsal spaces in the first place. It’s just too tempting to turn the volume up otherwise.” Much can be gained if the guitarist stands a few metres away from their amplifier, as seen in the set-up below. Chances are that they’ll object, arguing that such a set-up puts the controls out of reach. “Guitarists shouldn’t be fiddling with their settings mid-set anyway,” says Alfons, who’s a guitarist himself. “Almost everything can be controlled via pedals these days.” For bassists, amp placement matters much less. Due to the abundance of low frequencies, bass amps are much less directional than guitar amps. The only exception to this is a bassist who plays slap bass a lot. In that case, there will be more mid and high frequencies in their sound, making it a good idea to tilt back or elevate the bass amp as well. And the singer? They’ll want to face the PA speakers and set up their microphone so that it’s facing away from the drummer’s cymbals so that their sound isn’t amplified along with the vocals.

Singing and Rehearsing: How to Get the Vocals to Punch Through the Mix

A Singer’s Set-Up

Enough about the band, let’s talk about gear for singers. First of all, the sad fact is that there are many singers who don’t have any gear of their own at all. A lot of them depend on the gear that’s made available to them, which means that unlike the rest of the band, who lug thousands of pounds worth of gear to gigs and rehearsals, you’ll rarely see singers haul a case of microphones and their own PA system around. Ask any keyboardist how much they had to scrape together before they could join the band and they’ll probably tell you not to get them started.

Minimum Gear Requirements

To make life seem a bit fairer for the rest of the band, every singer should consider getting a microphone of their own, plus a microphone cable, a mic stand and, if needed, a music rest (with built-in lights and spare batteries). Added up, that doesn’t even come close to what the guitarist, drummer or keyboardist has to fork out for their gear, so singers may also consider grabbing an active stage monitor that they can hook up to the PA system so they can hear themselves. When going for a stage monitor, you do want to factor in the pickup pattern of your microphone. A microphone with a hypercardioid pickup pattern like the Shure Beta models also captures sound coming from the back, so if your monitor is right behind it, you’ll only increase the risk of feedback. In this case, it’s best to set up the monitor in front of you but off to the side.

The PA System

As a singer, it’s important to know how a PA system works. They’re not too hard to get to grips with and finding a fellow musician to help you break down the controls and connections shouldn’t be too difficult either. As Alfons explains: “A lot of instrumentalists are always trying to perfect their sound, while most singers are only ever concentrating on their vocals, unconcerned about the hardware behind it all. If anything, the only effect they might add to their sound is reverb. In reality, there are many more options, like equalisation and other effects that can help make the most of vocals. These tools can also help colour the sound in the same way that producers fine-tune the timbre when they produce records.”

Good to Know

Feedback Destroyer

Earlier in this article, it’s explained that feedback is one of the main limiters when you want to turn up the vocals.. One way to increase the feedback threshold is to expand the PA system with what’s known as a feedback destroyer. Feedback destroyers are basically automated, fine-tined equalisers that suppress certain frequencies that are prone to feedback. Vocal coach Alfons has his doubts. “I know about feedback destroyers and can tell you that, in practice, they’re kind of disappointing. It’s also worth asking yourself whether you really need to be able to go up in volume. It doesn’t take much to get to the point where hearing loss is a serious risk.”

Record Every Rehearsal

Alfons also suggests that bands record every rehearsal. “These days, there are various ingenious bits of kit that can do this, like multi-track recorders. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t record rehearsals either. The recordings can be listened back to later and analysed to see where there’s room for improvement. You’ll also capture brilliant bits of inspiration that you happen to play and can turn into fully-fledged songs later. Honestly, it would be a waste not to record your playing sessions.”

Find the Sweet Spot

If the room you rehearse in is big enough, make sure to check out which part of the room you sound best in. The acoustics of a room can be different in every corner, so it’s always a good idea to look for the sweet spot and set up there.

Setting Up for Rehearsals

Optimising your set-up for rehearsal can allow you to play at a lower volume without destroying the vibe. Below, we’ve included illustrations of a traditional set-up and an alternative set-up that allows for lower volume.
In the traditional set-up, the singer is in the ‘line of fire’ of the instrument amps. In the alternative set-up, the singer is no longer in the blast zone.
In the traditional set-up, the PA speakers are behind the singer. In the alternative set-up, the singer is facing the PA speakers, which allows them to better monitor their singing. Setting up a floor monitor specifically for the singer makes monitoring the vocals even easier.
In the traditional set-up, each guitarist stands in front of their amp, which is set up at knee-height and can be hard to hear since the amp on the opposite side is projecting sound in their direction. In the alternative set-up, the guitarists stand a bit further away from their amp. Here, using a tilt-back amp stand will make monitoring the guitar sound even easier.
Since the singer does a 180-degree turn in the alternative set-up, the drummer will need to move to a different spot, or else the vocal microphone will capture too much sound from the cymbals.
With the drummer relocated, the bassist can no longer stand right beside them. While that’s essential during gigs, it’s by no means necessary during rehearsals. This alternative set-up not only enables the drummer to clearly hear the bassist and vice versa, but opens up eye contact between them – ideal for tightening up the rhythmic foundation.

Singing and Rehearsing: How to Get the Vocals to Punch Through the Mix