I don't know for sure, but I doubt if compression as it is today was available when singers like Vaughn Monroe were popular. And, I was pretty much unaware of it until the 1980s, and I still do not use it. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I do NOT have the polished vocal abilities of Mel Torme, Tom Jones, or Inglebert, but I manage to get the job done and seem to always get lots of complements on my vocals.

Gary

Gary ... I am sure many of the performers here (I purposely did not say WE) could say the same thing, but truthfully, we are not being critiqued like professional performers are ...

You wana bet Tony, just post some music and we will all tell its good, even if its crap, go on give it a try where ever you hold the mic.

BTW have you ever thought some old video might be mimed

I love My Job!!

Tony, I always considered the folks on this forum Professional and no one that I know here would have any qualms about telling someone they sound like crap. One of the main reasons I've posted songs here is to get some constructive criticism - and most of the time I utilize that information to make my act better for my audiences.

I'm pretty sure I am among the few on the forum, however, that went the extra mile and took vocal lessons - I could be wrong about that, but I don't think that's the case. And, I do have several pro musicians in my audiences, many of which played for the Baltimore symphony. Those ladies can be damned well hardhearted when it comes to vocals and playing. I love them, one and all, though. Over the years I've performed for them they've always been complementary, and freely offer me challenges to learn new songs they would like to hear. You would be amazed at some of the songs they requested, though. Just two weeks ago a lady asked me to perform In The Still Of The Night by the Five Satins, and she said she wanted to hear that harmony and all the sho-bop stuff as well. I managed to pull it off, but it was a lot of work to get it together and make the song sound pretty close to the original. She loved it!

Cheers,

Gary

... when it comes to you performing, Gary, I have no doubts ...

Tony ... I've posted and have been told when it was crap ... perhaps not in so many words, but told none the less ... AND I've posted since ...

I'm keys+ vocals not using a headset so I have some leeway in head position. I've had a small amount of vocal training which helped my voice control quite a lot. I use a compressor / limiter to help control things a little more. I still find it necessary to back off at times.

Certainly the vocal technique demonstrated in all the videos is really good nevertheless I'd expect all the big names will have a top notch sound man who knows the arrangement riding the sliders.

Personally with one pair of hands and no sound man I find the compressor invaluable.

Net's not forget that these people look effortless at the top end because the song will be carefully arranged to suit their range and not overstretch the voices, you can't do this stuff night after night on tour or in a residency if you push your voice too far too often. The fact that these guys are relaxed singing in keys that us mortals can only dream of is one reason they are where they are.

I've always taken tine to work the best key for any song that I sing and this is the first bit of advice I give to anyone starting out in this business. It's very nice to be able to do stuff in copy but it's not worth ruining your voice in the process.

As a more general point I'm certainly not going to beat myself up because there are people out there who are better than me, it's a pretty big list!

first vocal tip, ...take the highest NOTE in the song and hit it effortlessly just at the tip of you breaking vocal range to give you power, if it's too high back down in 1/2 step increments until you can hot it,....the rest will all follow suit. Do this for every tune you sing....then play it in the appropriate key on your KB, etc,.
I cant stress this enough.

I'd add, take into consideration you might be asked or want to do the song at the END of the engagement... Whatever is really comfortable while you are warming up might be a bit of a squeeze for the last song.

A half step down from what you CAN do (whole step if it puts you in an awkward key to play) can make all the difference if you are playing most days of the week, or longer engagements than your average NH gig.