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Metal Vox

X

XtheDeadPawn

May 24, 2008
1,155
4
Texas
#1
I am a metal guy and do metal vox that I like to call metal growling and was wondering what are some ways I can get deeper sounding almost Cannibal Corpse sounding vocals.

Right now I'm about in the same range as Corey Taylor or Buddy (Lead vocalist for Senses Fail).
 
#5
I'm not a vocalist nor do I know any real technical terms but I will try to explain best I can the difference between death growls and more "shouty" singing. When you shout your vocal cords are lengthened and tight making a higher pitch I.E similar to fretting at the 12th fret vs playing an open string. When doing a death growl you need to let your vocal cords relax,breath with your diaphragm and basically just let the air escape from your body rather than forcing it out;let the microphone do most of the volume work. It should also be noted that shouting will ruin your voice eventually; you will likely develop vocal nodules and you wont be able to sing anymore with out having them surgically removed, I am pretty sure this is either similar to or what happened to Mr.Slipknot as well as glenn danzig. Sorry for text brick and I hope any of this helps; also there is also a video on youtube where George Fisher the singer of Cannibal Corpse talks about this exact thing.
 
#6
Sebek-Ra89 said:
When doing a death growl you need to let your vocal cords relax,breath with your diaphragm and basically just let the air escape from your body rather than forcing it out;let the microphone do most of the volume work. .
Click to expand...

This. Don't try to force it out or be too loud. Just like turning your bass or amp up is a better way to be louder than digging in too hard (and I'm a dig inner!), let the microphone and the amps make your voice loud; thats what people are going to hear it coming from anyway!
 
#8
I know all about nodes and that stuff I got Susan Carr's Art of Screaming DVD. However she doesn't give any mention on how to improve it just simply how to do it.

I'll give the Youtube guy a try.
Holy Crap! I love him but, there's no way I could sound like that.
I mean practice makes perfect but, I'm pretty sure in reality I'll never even reach it.

On second thought screw it! I'm gonna try it. Lifes too short too stand on the sidelines or in this case the mosh pit.
 
#9
Practice is the key, and don't get too frustrated if you aren't getting an insane amount of volume / projection from your deeper, more gutteral growls. You literally have to drive the vocals from the bottom of the diaphragm (lower, actually...) and you have to keep your vocal chords looser than you would for the higher pitched stuff, which is pretty unnatural.

Susan Carr's video is a good place to start, and it will give you enough of the basics to not rip up your throat and avoid "the headache" long enough to develop your breath control.
 
#11
XtheDeadPawn said:
Yeah is it normal to get whoosy after a long passage of screaming. Sometimes I mess up the bassline because of it.
Click to expand...

Yes and no, but since this is basically your body saying that you're getting oxygen deprived the only fix is to work on your breathing.

In a nutshell, you can increase the available volume of air by developing your cardio (stop smoking, run, etc), more efficiently use the available volume of air, find ways to sneak in "sips" somewhere in your cadence... or some combination of the above.

It is also worthwhile to do a little bit of planning out your breathing for the songs with longer verses... try to time your breaths with the beat, and you may find your delivery to be smoother and more natural sounding. If you know a longer passage is coming up, make sure you get a good reserve (you may have to break this up over multiple in breaths if there are no good breaks).

Basically, if you take away anything from The Art of Screaming, let it be the part on breathing. That will help you more than anything.
 
#13
Yeah, they will end up being a little bit lower in output than your mids and upper screams, so play around some with mic proximity as well. You can get a significant low end boost (up to 16dB at 100Hz and below) by eating the mic, but you'll still have to balance out non-cookie monster dynamics by backing off the mic or by not putting out as much when staying close.

Another thing to consider is if you start really forcing the deeper stuff, they'll lose low end fidelity and sound strained. Case and point is Phil Labonte from All That Remains on "The Weak Willed" (YouTube reference link - ‪All That Remains - The Weak Willed (lyrics)‬‏ - YouTube) where he's singing "there shall be wisdom in my beliefs" towards the end. This is pretty much a textbook application of the technique in The Art of Screaming, and you can hear a major difference in clarity between those lines and the other 3-4 voices he uses. One sounds like he's singing through a paper towel tube, the others are more open and natural sounding.

You're also going to be fighting for frequency space with the kick drum, your own bass, and maybe a guitar or two if they play 7 or 8 strings, so this is kinda no-mans land for low output vocals anyways. Let the mic and PA amps do most of the work for you, and take your time developing your technique. You'll start getting deeper and deeper with more control.
 

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