when recording a mono vocal audio track which contains a verse which is
'talking level' and then for the next part (chorus) contains shouting -
whats the best way to do this?

the problem is, i need to turn the gain right down on the mic to leave
enough headroom for the shout but i dont want to do the verse/chorus in
different takes - to keep the natural feeling element. this means
obviously my verse is really quiet. or if i have the gain up, i have to
stand back from the mic which means the shout isn't in-ur-face enough.

How about doing multiple passes of the whole track; some passes with the
mic chain set up for the talking, some passes with the mic chain set up
for the shouting. Then you still get your natural feeling, but you can
comp the two sections together.

Or, how about two separate mics next to each other with two separate
chains set up, one optimized for talking, the other for shouting, to two
separate tracks of your DAW, then comp them together?

--
Eric Frampton, keyboards Atlanta, Georgia, USA
http://www.ericframpton.com

(remove the year from the email address above to get my real address)