Recording and performing spoken word/narration to music

[jellyjim]

Hello all

Started a new project with some interesting guys. Drums, guitar, vocal and bass and me joining with maybe guitar and vocal but primarily as synthesist and narrator of spoken material - flash fiction, prose rather than poetry.

It'll be fun exploring the creative possibilities but I'm not sure where to start with the technical aspects of spoken material over live or recorded music.

In a brief rehearsal, clarity and being heard at all were the first challenges, though it all seemed to work well in principle and was lots of fun.

There are two scenarios essentially:

- Recording spoken material into a sampler (Elektron Octatrack) for live 'performed' playback once thoroughly manipulated, mangled and mutated at leisure.

- Narrating spoken material live over band playing music.

Any advice on mic choices (are there such things as spoken word mics) effects (levels of reverb suitable for vocals made things muddy, would some aggressive compression or specific EQ make it sit better with the music) performance techniques and other accessories (close/far from mic, use a pop shield) etc.

Obviously half the fun will be in the experimentation but any obvious pointers would be most welcome.

The working title for the band is 'Tail'. Geddit?!

[Mike Stranks]

I've done quite a bit of this sort of stuff in my time.

First; I would never attempt to do the vocals live - even though doing so adds greatly to the performance.

Doing them live runs three (at least) risks:

1) Presenter fluffs and timing errors
2) Getting vocal clarity - volume, audibility etc.
3) The risks of acoustic feedback

So pre-record in as dry an acoustic as you can with as good a signal to noise ratio as you ccan manage. Absolutely no reverb or any other voice enhancement. This also applies to EQ. Get rid of any boominess around 200/250 but otherwise leave it alone. You can adjust the voice EQ when you have the sound-check. Clarity, clarity, clarity.

BUT do use some compression or limiting on the recording AFTER you've got a good edited take. Reduce the dynamic range of the voice as much as you can without it starting to sound strange or completely obliterating the dynamics of the piece. However, those may need to be somewhat compromised as the voice DOES have to be heard over a lively backing.

As for playback, put the relevant sections into something like Multiplay and then fire them in at the appropriate point. I wouldn't advise trying to stop/start one long edited take. In my experience a separate stub for each section that needs to flow without any pause etc is the best way of keeping on top of this.

Hope that may be of some use.

[jellyjim]

That's all very helpful thanks Mike. Yes it's a pity doing it live is potentially so fraught. Maybe for quieter musical passages and more intimate gigs

Cheers
Jim

[Bob Bickerton]

It's not unusual to set dialogue to music but in doing so you enter the world of theatre discipline. Fully rehearsed scripts, band accompaniment that is sympathetic to the spoken word passages. Technically not difficult but challenging in terms of discipline.

You'll need a director to do it well.

Technically you need a trained actor with an excellent voice suitable for purpose using a microphone that gives good separation from the band, or you get the band to play at appropriate levels. Some compression would be fine. Don't swamp the voice in reverb.

Bob

[Brian M Rose]

Something of the kind was done many years ago...

Walton's Facade:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFyTI4zjAVc

[damoore]

I wrote a piece for solo flute and voice for a fountain dedication years ago. It was an utter disaster. The speaker raced way ahead of the music so that they did not match at all.

On the other hand somebody who has done this rather well is John Cooper Clarke.