Great singers with clear voices? (that sing so clearly you don't need a lyric sheet)

[Long Jon]

Originally Posted by lizzie

Great singers with clear voices? (in the sense that they sing so clearly that you don't ever need a lyric sheet)

Who would you put in this category?

I don't mean to side track your question, but honestly most singers that I like sing clear as a bell.

Just about every acoustic artist I can think of, presuming they are singing in English, is perfectly comprehensible to me.

I think that "Mystery Lyrics" and their great comical cousins "Misheard Lyrics" are really more prevalent in certain kind of "noisy" rock and pop.

[Rondoraymundo]

Neil Finn.........

[Kitchen Guitars]

Thom York NOT

[dirkronk]

Originally Posted by kerbie

Ella Fitzgerald. To me, nobody else is close. Among many other things, she was well known for her perfect clarity.

Well, this is true IF we sort of ignore her early scat singing. I fear that I don't grok scat.

But ohhhhhh...her Verve/Norman Ganz period...all those Songbooks...the woman's voice reaches out through the hi-fi, moans or states or whispers each syllable of each song in sweet articulate perfection (not to mention perfect pitch)...

...and melts me.

So...uh, yeah. I'd have to put Ella pretty high on the list, too.



Dirk

[hovishead]

Originally Posted by KevWind

What you are actually describing has far more to do with audio mixing technique, than actual singer voice clarity. Obviously someone could mumble so badly that even mixed to optimum it might be hard to understand but that would be quite an exception. By in large the vocals and vocalists listed or any that might possibly be listed are all far more a function of being specifically and intentionally mixed to bring the vocal forward in the mix and to get clarity and intelligibility and to separation of the vocal from any other instrumental frequencies that occupy the same range as the defining frequency range in the vocal. Or what is referred to as mixing to "feature the vocal". Now for certain, different singers do sing with more distinction and clarity but they simply make it easier to "feature in the mix"

With the possible exception of something that might be just a guitar and vocal or piano and vocal (which other than a vast difference in level, would be harder to bury) , any thing with any kind of multi instrumentation could easily also be mixed to be progressively more buried in the mix, and be made much less intelligible. And that is arguably the case with most of songs you hear where the vocals are less intelligible.

I don't really agree with this (although obviously the way things are recorded influences the vocals in the mix). It seems obvious to me that some singers would have better diction than others. There are many "singer songwriters" that I find hard to understand even in a solo guitar/vocal setting.

[Trillian]

I think diction is the word you're looking for.



Joseph Spence is my nomination for the Duke of Diction. He's right between Tom Waits and Glenn Gould.



Joe Cocker runs a close second

[kydave]

Too many to list... All great singers are like that (other than Joe Cocker).

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by hovishead

I don't really agree with this (although obviously the way things are recorded influences the vocals in the mix). It seems obvious to me that some singers would have better diction than others. There are many "singer songwriters" that I find hard to understand even in a solo guitar/vocal setting.

Actually the way things are recorded does effect clarity but I was talking about mixing not tracking.

With all do respect and given I don't believe you post in the "recording forum" if you are not familiar with and well versed in audio engineering, you are disagreeing out of ignorance, not knowledge. And if you read my post I already allowed that the more clear the voice the easer to feature it , so yes diction helps and of course there are differences . As I stated about solo performances the ones you are not hearing clearly are arguably more to do with relative levels, EQ and lack or misuse of compression and FX's than diction. Off hand the clarity issue probably varies somewhere between the high side for diction being 40 % diction and 60 % mixing to 10 % diction and 90 % mixing.

[catdaddy]

So the task is to name singers who enunciate well. That would eliminate anyone who mumbles, grumbles, screeches, slurs, burbles, gurgles, yowls or howls. Probably easier to name the relatively few singers who are well known for using the above means of communication than to name all of those who don't. Mostly anyone singing in genres other than Rock or Blues has to enunciate well to meet their own genre requirements.

[hovishead]

Originally Posted by KevWind

Actually the way things are recorded does effect clarity but I was talking about mixing not tracking.

With all do respect and given I don't believe you post in the "recording forum" if you are not familiar with and well versed in audio engineering, you are disagreeing out of ignorance, not knowledge. And if you read my post I already allowed that the more clear the voice the easer to feature it , so yes diction helps and of course there are differences . As I stated about solo performances the ones you are not hearing clearly are arguably more to do with relative levels, EQ and lack or misuse of compression and FX's than diction. Off hand the clarity issue probably varies somewhere between the high side for diction being 40 % diction and 60 % mixing to 10 % diction and 90 % mixing.

So because I don't post in the recording forum I'm obviously disagreeing out of ignorance? Hmmm

Your post "What you are actually describing has far more to do with audio mixing technique, than actual singer voice clarity" implies that audio mixing is much more important than diction when it comes to hearing words correctly which is nonsense (certainly in a singer songwriter setting although much less so in a noisy rock mix).

The OP asked which singers had great voices and great diction (or that's the way I read the question). I don't believe she was asking about audio engineering.

[patrickgm60]

Originally Posted by hovishead

So because I don't post in the recording forum I'm obviously disagreeing out of ignorance? Hmmm

The OP asked which singers had great voices and great diction (or that's the way I read the question). I don't believe she was asking about audio engineering.

Yes, some members can't help but provide "bonus material" in their replies...

I interpreted the question the same way: lyrical clarity. Immediately, Al Jarreau came to mind. He seems to chew his lyrics. For his style of music, it works very well, IMHO.

[semolinapilcher]

I immediately thought of REM's perfectly-named Murmur album.

Actually Mary Travers comes to mind.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by hovishead

So because I don't post in the recording forum I'm obviously disagreeing out of ignorance? Hmmm

Your post "What you are actually describing has far more to do with audio mixing technique, than actual singer voice clarity" implies that audio mixing is much more important than diction when it comes to hearing words correctly which is nonsense (certainly in a singer songwriter setting although much less so in a noisy rock mix).

The OP asked which singers had great voices and great diction (or that's the way I read the question). I don't believe she was asking about audio engineering.

Well first off lets clarify I did not say" obviously" and I did qualify "if your not familiar with and well versed in audio engineering" And I simply noted that you have not posted in the recording forum. If that offends you then ignore "not having posted" and I change my statement to read. "if you not familiar and versed in exactly what mix engineering does and how it contributes to the sound and how the various mix techniques apply to clarity , then you are disagreeing based on a lack of knowledge of, or ignorance of how mixing might be more important than diction. If you are well versed in mix engineering then I stand corrected and you are not speaking from ignorance, you are simply mistaken IMO .

Not to mention I clearly stated the diction plays a part in clarity. But the fact remains if you really have very little or no idea how much the mix contributes or detracts from the clarity. Then you can disagree all you want but can't really be considered to be speaking from knowledge. Given that thru mixing alone you take any vocalist (even ones with the best clarity and diction) and make them much much less intelligible in the mix. Or conversely you can take singers with more limited diction and clarity and make them "clear as day" in the mix as per the definition the op gave . And the definition the OP gave

What I mean is that you don't need to look up the lyrics on the internet because every word is as clear as day

that I was directly replying to that you disagreed with, was and is still much more a reflection of mixing than diction.

[Herb Hunter]

I rarely hear him but Al Stewart’s exceptionally clear pronunciation, which admittedly could sound affected, was, nevertheless, refreshing given that the unwritten rule for rock and pop music seems to be that a singer should either affect a slurred regional accent or if one’s native accent happens to be fashionable, to add an extra measure of garble.

[Trillian]

I've heard rock mixes that seemed to favor the instruments pretty heavily and not be so ideal for the vocals. Of course that's not always much of a loss. Then there are lyrics that you just don't expect so it's easy to 'mishear' them into something that makes sense. Who expects to hear about 'rearranging your liver to the solid mental grace'?