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Working with a soprano? (alt. rock/metal)

lostcontrol_

lostcontrol_

Guest
Jul 18, 2011
188
26
Helsinki, Finland
#1
Not sure if this is the proper subforum for this, but...

We're looking for a new singer for our alt.rock/metal band, and are auditioning a candidate next week. She seems nice and might make a good fit to the group, but we have some worries about her vocal range. She's a somewhat classically trained soprano (did lead soprano back in her choir days) and if I'm not mistaken, that's going to be high as heck. We're looking for good cleans instead of nonstop growls and grunts so in theory a higher vocal range might not matter in the end - it might actually be quite nice if we can avoid the whole Nightwish/Tarja Turunen -thing.

However, our previous singer was a baritone (if I recall correctly), so I'm thinking that there might be a lot of work redoing and -keying the songs for a soprano? Our current tuning is D standard with a drop C on the bass, most of our material is in Gm/Dm at the moment.

Should we prepare to key up or down? If down, should we look into adding synths to fill any gaps? A backing singer (probably male) for lower parts is not a likely option in the near future, as a) most of us can't sing b) the only one who probably could sing has absolutely no interest in doing vocals. We like the possibility of having low tuning growls of the guitars/bass, so going up feels a bit awkward (prove me wrong?).

Can you give examples of sopranos in alt.rock/metal? The only sopranos (outside of classical music) that come to mind are Tarja Turunen (ex-Nightwish), Sarah Brightman, Mariah Carey etc., so I'd love to hear about examples from a genre closer to what we try to do. (See our audio samples below for reference)

Any other advice/experiences on working with a soprano in the field of alt.metal/rock? I haven't worked with a soprano before, and the leap in vocal ranges sounds huge, so every piece of advice is appreciated :)

As alternative [insert genre here] is a large and ambiguous field and I suck at picking genres, here are a couple of random recordings from our practice sessions for reference. Even though these are a bit more from the mellow side of things, there are also some songs which venture more to the doomish side. General critique is also very welcome, as the whole thing is still in development.

Samples:
Apocrypha: Link Removed

Untitled: Link Removed

Thanks :)
 
#3
I'm guessing you'll have to adjust the songs a bit, but she should be able to sing in a minor key to give your songs the feel you want. A soprano can add anything from soaring power to haunting whispery highs depending on what you're going for. You might consider an extended trial period if you're not sure what you're looking for. Give both her and you a chance to come together.
 
#5
This is probably too late to matter, but I am going to chime in anyway.

Being classified as a soprano simply means that is your strongest range. That is, many sopranos can sing much lower and still sound good. They all sound different and they all have a different actual vocal range.

As far as tuning, a soprano's ideal range is c4-c6. So, generally anything would be fine. To allow her to us more of her natural range in her performances, keeping it in D would be better than G.

Listen to Within Temptation (several live vids on the tube). She is a Mezzo-Soprano (lower than a true soprano). Their music is mostly drop tuned to C# and they keep her in the C-C range. She can sing much lower, but it is harder for her to do that than it is to sing those ear piercing highs of a true soprano range. Her voice just simply isn't as strong in the lower registers as it is up high.

In recordings I have done with sopranos in a metal genre, it is helpful to have something else up high with her to support her voice (any soprano will never have a "thick" sound). Choir ohhs and ahhs or synth strings in the chorus do the job. If you play live to a click, you can send those synths to the PA as well. Keyboardist need not apply.
 
#7
Hi, thanks for the replies and sorry for the delay. So far so good, she was a bit quiet during the first try-out (and I mean _quiet_, we maxed out the PA and were just barely able to hear her during the more distorted parts, and we don't really have our volume _that_ loud ) but that's probably due to nerves & strangers etc. She did have a nice voice, and should make a good addition to our group - if she's able to quickly overcome the issue of being quiet :)

Wolfgang2049 had a good note (thanks!) about the lack of thickness in the voice and Within Temptations tuning; we'll have to give both of those some thought.

I'll post back later this week for updates :)
 
#8
Second practice session with the singer was yesterday, looking good. We managed to solve most issues regarding her volume (partly due to her being quiet last time, partly due to a tiny hidden button in the mixer which caused a small volume drop in all channels... stupid technology :P ), but we'll still have to drop our overall band volume a bit to hear her better during the heavier parts.

Her voice seems great for us, but it seems like there's going to be some work ahead with the tunings etc. We had some range issues with Teargas by Katatonia (originally in F major, I think), ended up droptuning to C as noted by Wolfgang2049. Made things _a lot_ easier for the singer.

All in all, there's still some work rearranging the songs etc., but I think we found a keeper. Yay!
 

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