Technical question about mic settings for the generals

I once read RZA has specific 'mic settings' (= filters?) for each general. I guess to give their voice a distinctive, desired sound?

IDK what mic settings are really. I'm aware of EQ and compressing and read the 'explain it to me like I'm a 4 year old' thingie below

https://www.nvansistine.com/blog/a-b...nd-compression

there's more to mic settings I guess? esp. since RZA gave each general their own settings



so some questions come to mind ...

how does Ghost sound like Ghost on his tracks outside of the wu and solo albums? does he get like a numbers sheet with details on plug ins etc? are these mic settings circulated through the industry?


do the generals experiment with different mic settings or do they aim for recognizability for the listener?


do the generals (or artists whoever they are) change mic settings a bit when they are doing features / duets with other artists so the whole thing meshes better or would that not matter in hip-hop

which begs the question, did RZA base his mic settings mostly on how the voices of the generals went together in a group setting, or did he aim more for bringing out the individualities of each voice


sorry for the layman's terms


thanks to whoever can chime in

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full disclosure, I was reminded of RZA's mic settings for Wu after listening to this last night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1LhC1zGouc (vid synch, ?one take?, processed, maybe an audio engineer stacked the girl's voice w/ Stevie Nicks' voice?)

as compared to both this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoStSM1gUAo (live?, another Stevie Nicks cover)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWDlsW_rgX8 (live in concert, I'm assuming actual voice, unless those live mics have settings too IDK)

I will happily burn in hell for posting those links lol

btw imagine INS recording a bunch of songs in the studio right after a live concert (not happening IRL obviously) and his voice being recorded straight, no processors or plugins. not hating at all, Deck is a legend. just saying, in certain situations I could see why mic settings (that go beyond EQ and compression) could be very useful and to both the artist's and the listener's advantage

https://gearspace.com/board/rap-hip-...ml#post3926467

https://gearspace.com/board/rap-hip-...ml#post4200343

https://gearspace.com/board/rap-hip-...ml#post3926467

https://gearspace.com/board/rap-hip-...ml#post4200343

Here is a arricle to read from 2018 might have some info. Its with the engineers that worked with wu. Carlos Bess Nolan Moffite etc

https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.co...g-wu-tang-clan

I think RZA talked about this in one of his books. I think its mostly eq settings, like Ghostface needs a lot of brightness to his voice, U-God needs that crunchy quality etc. RZA thinks he has unique settings for the clan that other producers/engineers mess up.

Yeah I think he just had his own specific settings he liked using for each member. I remember reading about it somewhere too. Not sure if it would've been actual mic settings or post recording editing/mixing.

U can def hear differences in the way they're mixed between different producers/engineers etc. But it's certainly not always noticeable or anything. Somethymes it's very noticeable, but other thymes not really at all.

Wasn't it around the 8 Diagram sessions that RZA was talking about how he was recording everybody? And I recall some interview about him recording Ghost with two mics, one at the chest, and one at his mouth.

Which reminds me, there was some issue with Deck once. Where all his recordings were sounding like shit because he was sick. But it still ended up on the final product.

Nice thread. I wonder if Ghostface's peak in year 2000 was somehow connected to this issue - aside from his lyrics, style, production? Cause, if you guys rememeber, his voice was drastically changed on Fishscale and even more on 8D, BDR and later on....



When it comes to live performance, Deck, being a professional rapper, had to do something about his voice, I'm sure there has been a therapy for that.

GZA, Rae - similar problem.

How come Jadakiss sounds so fresh live? His voice never seems to break. Busta Rhymes (last time i saw him live, which was like 12 years ago) sounded great as well.

8 Diagrams:

Quote:

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At one point during lunch at Lanna Thai, RZA shot Remix a judgmentally discerning glare before offering, “I don't know if I want to tell anybody…but I'll tell you. I'll tell your magazine only. I recorded the vocals in two to three mics at one time. I put a mic right at the chest, one up close to the throat and one right in front of them,” he says. “It's a mess for the engineer. You have like 20 tracks of vocals for Raekwon alone, but I wanted to have a new vocal sound. I wanted to be able to catch a nigga's chest ambience, his throat ambience and maybe his nose ambience.”

---

Cached here https://www.futureproducers.com/foru...om-rza.223399/ from http://remixmag.com/mag/remix_shaolin_secrets/

First time I ever noticed somebody's voice being off was Ghostface on Motherless Child

Have been searching for a bit on this forum. And somebody got this quote from the Wu Manual by RZA:

Quote:

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One thing I did was I would always put certain sound effects-like husk or static-on to certain voices. In my studio, each Wu-Tang MC had their own compressor set to a certain setting. I had 9 compressors, each on a setting. So whoever came over, they could just grab a mic & rip it. That's why on the earlier music of Wu-Tang, everbody sounds like themselves-they're more recognizable. Once they started making their own solo albums, their voices started changing because their engineers didn't use the same technology I did.

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Source: https://wutangcorp.com/forum/showthr...=1#post2060109

And from what I further read, Deck was sick for some of the recordings of 8 Diagrams. RZA did not want to wait untill he was better, so he could rerecord his verses. And Deck did not like that. Does not say anything else about mics and settings though.

Dope thread props