SING LIKE YOU MEAN IT

So, my problem when I started was that I was focused on “blending” which is a term used for choir singers to match the tonal quality of the person next to you.  Thereby giving it like a more “rounded” or smooth sound.  When you add 50 people to it, it sounds large and reverby.

However, when you use that technique for rock singing into an SM57 or some other microphone, all that comes out is this wash of a sound.  I think that onstage microphones used for rock, or hip hop, reward staccato ryhthms and “sharp” sounds.  Sounds that are able to cut through the loudness of the stage itself, and the din of live music.  If you have a band, and the bass is taking care of the lows, and the keys, and guitars are in the mids, and cymbals are in the highs… it really doesn’t leave very much frequency range for the human voice (which reside somewhere in the mids).  So, “blending” to get a round sound doesn’t do very much except add to the wash of sound.

I believe that the correct path to take is to sing as if you were the lead singer with your parts.  With conviction.  And try to produce a tone that is clear and bright.  The blending should be taken care of by the reverb and other effects of the PA system.  One important note about that is that it’s important to be sure that the rythms of the melody are in the right place.  That way, things will sound locked in.

PUT YOUR MIC WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS

Another common mistake that I see people do is to sing “across” the mic, rather than into it.  In the rush to setup for a gig, in New york there is like five minutes of time from when the other band leaves to when you have to go on, I’ve seen some people point the mic to set it up and then leave it for the rest of the show as they play their instrument and sing “under” the mic.  Maybe pointing the mic at their eyebrows or something.

Every mic has it’s sweet spots for where it picks up sound the best, but to make it simple, in most live situations, you’ll find a mic not unlike the Shure SM58 or something like that. 

So, Just keep in mind that you want to point your mouth directly into the mic.  Pretend you are singing into the bottom of the mic.  As if you were singing into a paper towel tube. If that means adjusting the mic on the stand and at a lower level than you may be accustomed, then so be it.

I think you’ll find the sound more to your liking.  Good luck.

When you make and share music you are creating a community. It may be a big audience at a show, or a small group of friends blasting your tunes in the high school parking lot. In collecting an audience you are often bringing together people who have more in common then just an appreciation for your art, like the way they dress or the other music they listen to.

The promise behind Social Networking on the web is that it allows people to parallel   what goes on in “Meatspace” in virtual form. Ning.com is a site that helps your fans    connect with each other and keep up with your artistic endeavors.

Overview

Ning makes it super simple to create and customize a brand new social network. It allows you to go beyond the simple profile that the Facebooks and MySpaces of the world allow. Your fans can even create groups within your network that are based around, for example, where they live or who their favorite band member is. A certain rapper famously used it as a tool to keep in touch with his audience and also make some extra pennies (Free Social Media Tools Unite 50 Cent Fans).

Once it’s up and running, and you have your fan base using it, you can do things like: blast out notes to everyone on the network, keep a calendar of your upcoming shows, write blogs, and upload pictures and video. Many of the features of Ning overlap with what you’re doing on other sites. This is fine because you can just pull in feeds through RSS or widgets (they have an easy way to integrate with Flickr too) and still only update content in one place.

Costs

Singing up is free and for most musicians the basics are good enough. You’ll have to put up with a not-so-easy to remember URL (your-bands-name.ning.com), some ads on the side of the page, and extra ning promotional links. For a various monthly fees you can change any of those things and clean up your network to focus on you. You can also get more storage and bandwidth if needed but you’d have to have a REALLY active networkto need it.

One thing to consider — once you have a good amount of traffic — is signing up to “Control the Ads”. It’s $20 a month but will allow you to run your own ads (e.g. Google AdSense) and potentially make money. How cool would that be?

Final Thoughts

The focus on having your own social network is getting your fans to interact with each other in the context of your music. Ning accomplishes this to an extent and hopefully will continue to provide features to bring the site beyond being a glorified profile on another social network. Right now there isn’t a whole lot for your fans to do past posting to forums, creating groups, and checking out other fans. Allowing users to share their own pics of your shows or blog about your music without having to use the forums would be nice.

Regardless, it is an easy way to make a website for your music with a lot of functionality and the social aspect can just be a bonus — or if it really catches on a great way to really expand your audience.

Check out BrokeDownVan’s social network at brokedownvan.ning.com It took about 10 minutes to set up, which you can tell by the ugliness of it.

Also check out our blog on setting up a social network with Ning.com.