Voice amplifiers for smothered vocals

[mdemery]

I am looking for advice on a specialized amplifier just for voices. The other sing and I are being continuosly smothered by the rest of the band. The voices don't have any power and are left in the background, as if covered by a cushion.
Can anyone recommend affordable hardware to overcome this problem and give the voices the sound they deserve?

[samuraisoundman]

Thre can be several reasons why your vocals are being "smothered by the rest of the band". This needs to be addressed FIRST! Typically, the culprit is a too-loud electric guitar (careful there, I play one myself!). Or a bashing drummer, an over-zealous keyboardist. All can be guilty.Please elaborate:
What type of music are you performing?
What stage gear is/are the offending musicians using?
How many singers do you have onstage?
What is your budget-and what part of the world are you in?
(This is important because certain brands of gear are not available in certain parts of the world. And even then, the prices for gear vary wildly).
Give us some more information, we might be able to assist you.
In the meantime, some things to consider:
You HAVE to get a "handle" on your stage volume of ALL the performers involved.
The last place to "get cheap" is the loudspeaker system. Next to that, the microphones. Both are more critical in efficiently turning your sound into electrical energy and vice-versa. A good, efficient loudspeaker will out-perform a bad one with twice the watts, if carefully chosen.

[Mixwell]

Originally Posted by mdemery

I am looking for advice on a specialized amplifier just for voices. The other sing and I are being continuosly smothered by the rest of the band. The voices don't have any power and are left in the background, as if covered by a cushion.
Can anyone recommend affordable hardware to overcome this problem and give the voices the sound they deserve?

What the last poster said was very important. Proper gain staging and balancing the instruments is the first step.

The second step could be a better vocalist rig. Sometimes a p.a just doesn’t cut it. I have found that if I can maximize the sound of the microphone, before it hits the p.a, I then have a more coherent, more intelligible vocal sound.

My method for getting vocals done right (I use this method when I setup Rise & Defeat's jam session's at our studio)

(check em out by the way.. http://myspace.com/riseanddefeat)

They have an extremely hardcore sound, very aggressive and hard to gain stage.

I will use a Shure SM81 for vocals, going into a Great River ME-1nv microphone preamplifier, then take the line level output into the Little Labs "Red-Eye" re-amp/d.I. This allows me to take instrument level signal into an amplifier and cabinet of my choice. I will also use the FMR audio RNLA on the insert patch point of the Great River to limit the volume into the amplifier and cabinet. I have found that using compression can really help with feed back while giving me a strong overall level,

peace
mixwell

Adam Brass
Mercenary Audio
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