I am a female Hard Bluesy Rock singer covering everything Led Zeppelin to Alice In Chains, Godsmack and then softer rock such as Fleetwood Mac and Journey, have always been told I have a lot of power and tone and range..
However, recently while rehearsing and auditioning for a new band (building my own vs joining existing, weighing these options out), I have not sounded anything like I do when singing w/o sound reinforcement (singing either alone running a CD and Microphone thru PA or just singing w/o a microphone along with instrumental tracks practicing on my own!. I was advised to get my own PA and just invested in a new Harbinger V2115 600 watt PA and have been using a used AKG Acoustics D3800 corded microphone, the PA only has 2 input channels with lines for a Mic and guitar, etc but no vocal effects other than 2 Equalizers, input gains and master volume, can run a CD player thru it, etc.
When I tested with my microphone and singing along to CD tracks in the large music store where I bought it, everyone said I sounded really good (covered from FMac, Godsmack, Journey, etc all very different) However, I have had all kinds of issues in 3 live band rehearsals in a very small spaces with different players, the first 2 with my PA and microphone and the last with just my mic lined into their PA.
On the first 2 sessions with PA and Mic, I was getting all kinds of mic feedback even though standing as far away as possible from speakers, the initial session was just with a me singing thru PA with my AKG microphone instrumental wth a bass player jamming along with me, this wasn't so bad...the studio told me to invest in some vocal effects to boost and refine the sound.
The second session was with a rhythm guitarist and drummer at his outdoor shed/studio, the feedback between the mic and PA was so bad I had to stand as far as possible from the PA and then they had trouble hearing me unless really boosted the gain and volume of PA which distorted my voice on the lower range, upper not as bad. Despite all these issues all of the players still want to work with me because they could still some idea of how my voice sounds.
Last night, I went to a meeting which turned into a rehearsal with a Hard Rock band, not knowing we were going to rehearse I only brought my microphone. They had tremendous power packed into a very small room, thousands of watts between lead guitar, drummer and key board player, I plugged my microphone into their PA and had trouble being heard over them plus my speaker was at the front of the room and I literally had to stand in the hallway outside of the room to avoid mic feedback and from sounding too echoing, I literally had to scream/belt as hard as I could to be heard when they were going full blast, which is not good for my voice. When I was only singing along with guitar player with little or no drum, outside in the hallway to a soft rock FMac to a cover of Bad Company Five Finger Death Punch (for this I came back in the room and stood in the middle of room in front of lead guitar and in front of drums and keys), and they could finally hear some of my power vocals!
Supposedly they had reverb and other effects on their high end equipment, but I left there extremely frustrated (not to mention fact that they told me they knew most of the songs on my song list, but when I got there they wanted me to sing songs I have never performed before and had never heard or had only heard thru radio some!) In spite of all this, they still expressed an interest in me afterwards.
I need a solutions to fix these issues ASAP, I am going back to where I bought the PA from and I don't know if my solutions should be to add the vocal effects mixer and replace my microphone, which I suspect is not designed for Hard Rock sound, maybe the mic cable as well or what to do. I don't have much $$ to budget because of just buying the PA (which I exchanged up to from a 60 watt system to 600 watt), good news is I do have a bunch of Amazon gift cards to use to spend towards whatever I need. But I also think part of the issue is the players have not been able to figure out how to set me up properly and I am kind of hardware dumb! Help me please!! Thank you so very much for reading this!