So, Im gonna start a Melodic doom/deth proyect and I would like some advices with the voices. Since February I've been practicing a deeper voice trying to get in a baritone range. I can reach voices like Glen Danzig's, Tommy Joutsen, even like Peter Steele (but without getting that deeper, the dude was a fucking subwoofe) But my real problem is the growls, I cand do harsh vocals ala Jefff Walker, but I can't go deeper and make a decent exhaling growl, I have tried several times, but it seems that its not possible for my voice to perform it. However I can do growls inhaling, getting really deep, I can reach voices like Glen Benton or the Corpse Grinder. I know that the true way of doing it is exhaling... And im only thinking to sing a few parts growling.. so would it be wright if I record the gorwling parts in that way??

Well yeah, it'll obviously mess your throat up if you try to sing immediately after smoking (or any time within the next 16 hours or so.) I usually don't sing for 24 hours after smoking, or smoke if my voice is tired from singing. But if you smoke in good moderation (and take small hits/etc) and let your voice rest afterward, you should be fine.

How much time should a give my voice to rest? 1 hour, 1 day?

How much time should a give my voice to rest? 1 hour, 1 day? After the high wears off? What about second hand smoke? How does that affect my vocals?[/quote]

Before I do my vocal covers normally I take quite a few huge rips, I do fine with it but I guess this is a habit I should quit...

Two words: Chris Barnes.

That is all.

I am a singer, not so much a screamer, but I can do it all, I actually tried out for American Idol and was invited to Hollywood but turned it down, I really didn't want to be on the show anyway. I just wanted to prove to my friends that I could make it.

I thought this thread was about asking for advice and stuff, not telling stories. Interesting tale, nonetheless. Thanks! :)

I kind of used it to introduce myself.

So i was thinking about buying a real mic since growling is so fun and it has become like a little hobby of mine.

I was thinking about http://www.thomann.de/se/shure_sm58s.htm
the shure sm58s.
Anyone got any experience how that mic is for growls and strong vocals?
Will i need anything other than a mic like a portable soundcard etc?
Wich program should i use for the recording of my vocals when i do covers?
Right now i use sony vegas just to put everything togheter with a headset mic, so its about time i upgraded my gear a little haha.

The 58 is kind of the default mic. Works fine for growling in my experience, but some people (particularly those who use the cupped-mic approach) prefer the 57.

You'll need some way of recording with it as well. Normal computer soundcards won't have the input jack for a proper mic.

I'm a beginner growler. I'm female, so yeah. Any good tips for me? I'm doing exhale growling, I think. I don't want to do inhale.

I've already growled Bolt Thrower's song At First Light a few times today. My growl is pretty weak. I can't do anymore growling today, but I'll give a sample of my growling sometime this week. It's not the best, but it's beginner. I'm not going for brutal growling. Just good growling that allows me to convey messages, while still being convincing.

http://www.wikihow.com/Growl

"Here is a place for people doing vocals in a band, or for people starting off and\or that need advice. "

Wow, this would be cool, i love singing but i dont know if the singing love me. LOL

Really need help with starting off doing high pitch screams.

I want to learn the style that is used in Job For A Cowboy and The Black Dahlia murder.

Right now i can only do lows and it can be a bit boring, so i want to spice up my singing to be able to switch between high pitch and normal growls.

Anyone can explain how to learn the high pitch or link a good guide?

Well first you should probably learn how to do just a little higher scream.
Personally, I just kinda close my throat a little more and widen my mouth.
My tounge also kinga curls itself together in the back of my mouth.

This is really the only advice I can give you for a tad higher.
Though they don't really turn out as screams, they're more like high pitched growls.
But that's all I know.

One quick growling question, and I'm done with the growl subject, cause there are enough questions about that already. ><

I can do the high pitched BM shreiks, and higher-pitched Melodic Death vox, but I'm wondering if the same technique is used for Low DM vox and high BM vox.

Thanks in advance!

The same technique is not used with low DM as in high pitch (in my experience).

But if you want to learn how to do lows just watch videos and practise.
Took me a good amount of time before i could even do it without getting hurt.
But slowly you will progress and get deeper and deeper.

To describe the technique for low DM you can close your mouth and sound "Mmmmm", like if you are enjoying some really good food.
And then you slowly go deeper and deeper until it starts to sound like half decent growl.
There you have your growl, now you just have to build out of the foundation you have created for yourself and get that growl to sound better.
And in time it will not hurt either.
You can also try open your mouth while you do it.
But remember that growls shouldnt sound much louder than talking, then you will just hurt yourself in the beginning.

Ummm well... I've got 2 questions, entirely different from one another:

1>
I've felt this all the time. Do you think that death growls without music in its background sounds a little lame? I mean, I have recorded my growls many times while practising, and it quite doesn't sound as sadistic as when I've recorded with my band with all those guitars and drums following me.

2>
I've been wondering for sometime if the vocalist in the Devourment album "Molesting the Decapitated" does those growls inhales or exhales. I've come to believe that there is a mixture of two techniques - the cricket-like sounds might definitely be through inhales, and there are other parts where the vocals sound a little low and of a bit exhaled type. What do you guys think of this?

How much is your volume while doing these? I mean, I think it's impossible to reach the volumes created by Blenton or Corpsegrinder through inhales, with all those blowing wind like sound effects accompanying.

Does anyone know how to add that raspy sound, or heat to clean vocals? I'm talking the effect that Hansi, Dio, and Nick Holmes has. That gruff sound. Does anyone here know how to add that effect to your singing voice?

Thanks!

I only know from my experience, and being an untrained baritone, my voice is nothing like Dio or Kürsch. However, rasp can be done with your diaphragm much in the same way as hardcore screams are done. Inhale as you would for a growl, then push the air with your diaphragm and let it resonante strongly in the nasal cavities like you would do when screaming. Just don't tighten your throat nearly as much as you would for a scream.

Holding your head up high helps.

This technique is by no means entirely safe. I would advise against using a lot of air at least, and most preferably, using the technique at all. It will temporarily hamper the tone of your clean singing voice and make you unable to reach notes as high as you normally could. That can't be a good thing.

Thanks!! Any other advice is much appreciated! Thank you again.

I don't know. I don't smoke much weed, but I smoke quite a bit of tobacco, and it doesn't seem to screw things up other than making it hurt a bit more.

Also, I have a question for the death metal vocalists here: Is being easily understood always a good thing? I have very, very easily understood vocals, and I feel like they sound more like some kind of thuggish hardcore screaming than death metal vocals.

While I'm not a proper death metal vocalist, I can still say this: Just because you enunciate your words well (which is what I'm assuming you mean by "easily understood vocals") doesn't mean you suck. Look at (early) Novembers Doom and all of Immolation. Both have amazingly easy vocals to understand, and yet neither lose the power of the music behind it.

On the other hand, if you're saying your growl is weak, then... I guess it'd depend on the music behind you.

I can't really tell which of these it is you're trying to say, as you were quite vague.

I can make my words made understood, but I don't want to, most of the times.

I'm very loud. I have a pretty high voice to begin with, and therefore my loud, "low" vocals sound more like someone with a lower voice shouting.

I can go significantly lower, I just can't get anywhere near as loud, and I feel like the volume and air flow will produce more "powerful" vocals than a quiet, sub-bass Chris Barnes-style gurgle.

If you have a mic, I don't think you have to be particularly loud. Personally, I'd say go for the deeper vocals, 'cause from what I can tell, just the shout or whatever sounds like something a little ehhh.

depends. i particularly like my growls with or without music. but i play a type of prog metal where i can use both deep death chord growls and shreiks, while also having riffs where i can false chord scream (the real one, not none of that metalcore bullshit). i dont like my low false chord screams when its just them alone because it sounds really airy and strainy. but with music it sounds great.

you can check out my music and see for yourself what i mean, just search Oath of Obscurity in youtube or myspace. (prefer myspace cause my youtube hasn't been updated lately and it only contains my false chord screams and growls, not my death chord)

Pardon me, but what the hell are you talking about? A voice cannot produce a chord.

I am a black metal vocalist, along with grindcore. I mostly base my self around dead and M8L8TH. Anyone else do much black metal screaming?

Perhaps this technique isn't quite a proper one indeed. If you watch some recent live videos of Paradise Lost, Nick Holmes struggles a lot when it comes to clean vocals. He always did, but especially with that gruff voice that he uses as times, it might damages his vocal chords, while that's hardly notable when it comes to Dio. He didn't use that gruff vocal style that often. Personally I never felt comfortable with this vocal style. I pretty much did what you described. The result was a strained, semi-harsh voice that sounded weak while my clean vocals eventually sounded worse.

This technique comes from the operatic music, in Italy we call it "canto in testa" (singing in head), that's why the resonance is in the nasal cavities; this technique is useful when you want to reach high notes and you are not a tenor, and improves the precision of sound in the higher range of your voice. This technique is always used in combination with "canto in avanti" (singing forward) that increases the power of higher notes. If you did not notice any advantage by using this technique perhaps you did not use it right: moving the head is useless, the most important thing is where you send the air.

You have different vocal cords in your throat. (i spelt it as chords, not cords, my bad) You talk with your true vocal cords and scream/growl/shreik with variations of your false cords. I don't know if you know that or not, but its pretty basic info for a vocalist and most if not all people understand that there isn't a lot of emphasis on seperating "chord" spelling from "cord", at least in an online discussion. Not trying to be rude or insulting by the way.

Oh, that makes much more sense. Using the spelling 'chord' I thought you were suggesting that you could produce harmonic combonations with you voice, ha.

Soon my friends and I will be making a band. I am to be the vocalist, and we want kind of a mid-tone scream. Not high like black metal, but not low like growls. I can growl, but I cant go any higher than that without it being painful. What I do to get higher is tighten my throat up, and I get the vibrating feeling just above my adams apple. What am I doing wrong, and how can I fix this?

don't tighten your throat first of all. you can get a higher tone by just opening your mouth and relaxing your tone more. for the record, what type of music are you aiming for?

Any help? I'm a complete beginner, I want to learn them just for backup vocals in my band. I play bass, and we have a clean vocalist for lead. I just want any help I can get, from techniques to tips to YouTube videos, anything helps.

Not sure if anyone gives a fuck, but I'll post the link to my new vocal cover anyway

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUosJDLRAiU

To be honest with everyone here I have pretty much given up with attempting harsh vocals. Every time I did them I could never make the sound without using my throat (which is obviously the bad thing to do). After reading countless web tutorials and some posts on here too, I have pretty much completely given up for the time being at attempting them.

On a slightly better note, I have begun practicing my natural singing again. Although it probably won't be the level that it used to be when I was singing in choirs etc., I think I will be able to get back to that level through continuous practicing and just taking care of my voice (which is one of the reasons I stopped attempting harsh vocals). At the moment I'm just occasionally singing along to the likes of Stratovarius, Iron Maiden and Blind Guardian within my vocal range. If I feel comfortable enough I may even upload some covers for some of you to see, but for now it's all about getting my voice back in better shape.