Vocals or Instrumentals?

MDP

MDP

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What is your preferred style of music?

For me, it's vocals about 90% of the time. I love the sound of the human voice, along with great storytelling. It's what makes music talk to me.
 
MDP said:
What is your preferred style of music?

For me, it's vocals about 90% of the time. I love the sound of the human voice, along with great storytelling. It's what makes music talk to me.
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Well, I my favorite genre is chamber music and there aren't a lot of vocals ... but there are are a few, e.g. Arnold Schoenberg's String Quarter No. 2, 2nd movement ...

"Entrückung" - Margaret Price and the LaSalle Quartet
 
MDP said:
Really

I didn't think it was a hard question, vocals or instrumentals?

What's your percentage breakdown?
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Mark-Jazz is mainly instrumentals. Rock is mainly vocals. Classical is mainly instrumentals. Opera is mainly vocals. When i listen to Jazz, I enjoy instrumentals very much, but I'm fine with vocals in jazz as well. When I listen to rock, I prefer vocals instead of just instrumentals. Classical speaks for itself. As for opera, I would rather not hear it. Anyway, no, it wasn't a "hard" question that you asked, but I do think it's more genre specific than maybe you thought about. I'm not trying to argue with you. I'm just adding my viewpoint to the mix that I don't think it's an "either/or" question.
 
I really wouldn't want to have all of one and none of the other as a steady diet. I grew up on rock and roll and if that was the only genre of music that I still listened to, I would have replied "vocals." It's just not the case now for me. I can spend hours listening to vocals and hours listening to instrumentals. At some point I want to hear them both.
 
C
mep said:
I really wouldn't want to have all of one and none of the other as a steady diet. I grew up on rock and roll and if that was the only genre of music that I still listened to, I would have replied "vocals." It's just not the case now for me. I can spend hours listening to vocals and hours listening to instrumentals. At some point I want to hear them both.
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Thanks Mark, I was curious about what percentage people preferred one "over" the other.

Thanks Mike.
 
it can be vocal or instrumental it can be perfect or imperfect some times it just does it right and brings you in. That is what I like.
 
It is hard to put a % on this but I prefer Music over Songs. I rarely listen to the words when there are vocals and zero in on specific instruments most of the time. I wish one could purchase the Karaoke versions of everything to suppress the vocals. Of course, much of what I listen to does have vocals and there are exceptions to my rule when it comes to certain vocalists.

As far as Vocals being an Instrument, for me that would be Phil Collins on Trick, And Then There Were Three, Wind & Wuthering. Greg Lake on many of his Solo works like It Hurts. I have always been an Annie Haslam fan along with Mary Fahl and several others. I also dig some of the vocals from Transatlantic - The Whirlwind.

But, if given the choice to listen to Chad Smith and the Bombastic Meatbats or Diana Krall, the latter would lose in a millisecond. I prefer virtuoso instrumentalists and super groups for the most part.

If I had a choice, it would be 80% Instrumental and 20% Vocals.
 
I prefer Arias or Orchestral. In auditions, I use orchestral to crash test a system. I think a lot of systems can be voiced nicely for the midrange but fail when 60 instruments across the frequency spectrum are thrown at them.
 
bonzo said:
I prefer Arias or Orchestral. In auditions, I use orchestral to crash test a system. I think a lot of systems can be voiced nicely for the midrange but fail when 60 instruments across the frequency spectrum are thrown at them.
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As good or better are large-scale choral works that have soloist and chorus vocals as well as orchestras.
 
Feanor said:
As good or better are large-scale choral works that have soloist and chorus vocals as well as orchestras.
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I do use a Bach Cantata choral. What do you use for large scale choral auditions. I don't have a good enough recording of Ode to Joy.

Also I find Choral to do a different thing (soundstage, separation, and midrange), as compared to the speed and slam of orchestrals, as well as the brass in Orchestrals (Mahler Bruckner)
 
A lot of prog rock has long songs that are often mostly instrumental, yet the vocal segments are very important and integral parts of the songs. Simlarly some Mahler Symphonies, esp 2 and 3, to a lesser extent 4. How do you count those?
 
rbbert said:
A lot of prog rock has long songs that are often mostly instrumental, yet the vocal segments are very important and integral parts of the songs. Simlarly some Mahler Symphonies, esp 2 and 3, to a lesser extent 4. How do you count those?
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Genesis Supper's Ready
Marillion Grendel

too many to list but good call Rob
 
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