Seal

[cl516]

I've tried searching -
Does anyone know what kind of vocal chain Seal goes through to get his special sound?

[indie]

Well, I don't know his studio vocal chain...but my band opened for him for about 2 months. Live he sounded exactly the same (actually even better) as on the
cd. He used the Neumann handheld mic into the Midas board into focusrite compressor, then de-esser. Sounded GREAT!
He probably could have sung through a 57 and sounded the same...trust me, it's just his voice.
Good luck on the search.
Micah

[trazan]

He may have been using different mikes on his albums, but I know he used an M-149 on "Human Beeing".

[cajonezzz]

I had the privilege of hearing the "shelved " album form a guy that assisted on it.

brilliant.
Much like Human and the Seal (kissed by a rose) album put together.

I'm a HUGE fan, and not really digging the last album that the put out instead...

[robdarling]

comb-filtering effects.

[thethrillfactor]

Originally posted by robdarling
comb-filtering effects.

Is this do to the lack of latency correction for plug ins at the time?

Are you speaking about Human Being or the latest?

To me Seal's best album was the first overall in terms of production,style and sound("Crazy and Killer" are classics for sure).

The second album had better songs("Kiss from a Rose" and "Prayer for Dying").

The third you can hear where the relationship between him and Trevor was growing tired(even though the intro to "Bring it on" was hot).

The latest one i didn't care for that much.

[WunderBro Flo]

did anyone actually notice that the vocals on "love divine" from his new album are excited/distorted to the max? I heard the tune on the radio and it sounded fine, but then from the CD in the studio....I would never dare to push it that much....but it worked for them!

[Songhead]

I had asked one of the engineers who worked on the first album, and he said what Micah said - it's just his voice, nothing really unique or special - U47 with a little 1176 and some Focusrite EQ - but he has such great vocal control and really knows how to interact with the mic to get the sound he wants.

[robdarling]

I think "Bring It On" was on the second record- first song.

By comb-filtering effects, I mean a solid but subtle dose of short delay effects that let him keep the intimacy of a dry vocal but keep him from overwhelming when he takes off and the arrangement builds.

r.

[not_so_new]

Originally posted by thethrillfactor
Is this do to the lack of latency correction for plug ins at the time?

Are you speaking about Human Being or the latest?

To me Seal's best album was the first overall in terms of production,style and sound("Crazy and Killer" are classics for sure).

The second album had better songs("Kiss from a Rose" and "Prayer for Dying").

The third you can hear where the relationship between him and Trevor was growing tired(even though the intro to "Bring it on" was hot).

The latest one i didn't care for that much.

I'm with ya, well mostly. I think the first 2 albums are about his best works yet and I agree on the third being a little tired. On the other hand I really like the new album. Yeah some of it is off but a few tunes feel really good to me. I would rank the new one up above the 3rd.

Did a live production gig with him once years back. Yep he used a Midas board into (focusrite maybe??) compressor back then. Monitor guy told me his sound was all in his voice he did very little to it, very light compression and no EQ if I remember correctly. Heard he liked to have the CD sound in his in-ears so the monitor guy listened to the CD production and tried to match the verbs and panning like the recorded song (good luck).

I was at the monitor rig all night checking out the show, he was amazing. His road crew were good guys, he was very fun (before the show he was heckling the promoter **who we all hated** from back stage). Tony Levin and the drummer (??) were way off that night (I think it might have been the start of the tour) and Seal took it all in stride, even had fun with the screw-ups the rhythm section made.

I got the impression he was a very good and down to earth guy, I like that.

[cl516]

Sounds like maybe it just is his voice.

I really do like the latest album, songs are good, I don't things are too overdone.

[thethrillfactor]

Originally posted by robdarling
I think "Bring It On" was on the second record- first song.

Rob,

You are correct.

I think i was thinking about Human Beings actually, the first cut on the record.

Different guys have mixed his vocal.

I loved the way Steve Fitzmaurice and Tim Weidner mixed them the best.

Dry and wet at the same time.

I guess like a California wine.