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Dio's vocal up for studying here


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I stumbled upon this dude who seem to have original tracks from the studio. This is a vocal only track of Holy Diver. He have a lot, check his channel out.

any experts there care to share what they hear from Ronnie's vox and explain how it is done?

Especially near the end of the song, he gets very very rough. Almost forceful? I'm not an expert on this.

This is Dio on Rainbow In The Dark

this is head voice right? but with so much roughness on it it's amazing.

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I'll tell you what it sounds like to me. Great support, open throat, significant twang (to the point of distortion), focus on 'errr' kinds of vowels which works great for belt screaming, and what sounds most complicated is even some of a hold (pot smoker's breath) to me. He basically used all of the advanced techniques to my ears.

What I will tell you however, is especially when combining this pot smoker's breath thing (I am pretty sure it's quite similar to curbing which is a moan, but I'm not sure it's identical), it's by far the easiest technique to constrict on and you need the exact right amount of air and support and the minimal amount of hold. Applying too much or too little, even changing your vowels can make it messy, sometimes even painful or flat out damaging. You could go anywhere from into some kind of heavy metallic falsetto, to some kind of forced shout, or the worst, you'd just over blow and injure yourself. So I'd take things slowly and one thing at a time, rather than trying to juggle everything.

Keep in mind, even if you applied everything exactly like Dio, most people will never sound like Dio. But I think 'edge' mode, is what CVT calls it is pretty close. Heavy twang, 'errr' kinds of vowels would be the safest way to get in the ball park. Beyond that, I'd consider Rob Lunte or a CVT teacher would likely be your best bets at achieving this sound. It's a very complicated sound that Dio was lucky to stumble upon healthily, but for others to try to reproduce this sound they have to usually make a pretty calculated effort that involves some risk or have a LOT of experience and luck.

Above all, remember that Dio did not START with this sound. No one does. He spent many years cultivating his unique voice, and singing comfortably in less extreme styles, finding out what were comfortable and normal ways of using his voice healthily. As he gradually pushed, explored, and expanded his vocal boundaries, he eventually found the sound you now know Dio for today and produced it healthily until his death. This is perhaps the best advice I have for any singer. There is absolutely no replacing comfortable singing and I still remain unconvinced starting with the most extreme sounds is the best way to learn, even if in the end you eventually sing extreme styles.

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Geez, Mike. Now I am officially green with envy.

Then, again, I've met share of stars, too. But way cool. It would have been nice to meet Mr. Dio, just once.

It was a moment I cherish for sure! I also met the rest of his band that night which included AC/DC's drummer Simon Wright!

Honestly I think that Ronnie had an unusual ability to sing with that certain rasp and introduce it at will. It's a very tricky vocal effect and while I can "sort of" do it, I'm not able to do it so freely and I really need to work hard to make it sound like it's just a part of my own normal voice.

When i'm singing in "Dio-Mode" it feels like I am having to transition from a controlled push type of feeling to a more relaxed throaty growl here and there. It's REALLY damn hard to do and Dio made it sound absolutely effortless and natural. I'm pretty sure that some of his vocal abilities were based on his physical make up and particular unique vocal tract. Tom Jones is similar in that he can also sing through his entire range in a full powerful tone and never seem to change from chest to head. Just one connected BIG voice! Must be nice! ;)

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Yeah Snax, but Ronnie probably got more practise than you, since he was always in bands and started with good technique. If I remember correctly, you were in bands for a long time but pushed your voice a bit too much, and recently you learned how to do it with much better technique - however, you're not playing as much live now as you used to. If you were playing live or at band rehearsals several times per week, you might find that to be the missing ingredient. Please correct me if I'm wrong :)

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Yeah Snax, but Ronnie probably got more practise than you, since he was always in bands and started with good technique. If I remember correctly, you were in bands for a long time but pushed your voice a bit too much, and recently you learned how to do it with much better technique - however, you're not playing as much live now as you used to. If you were playing live or at band rehearsals several times per week, you might find that to be the missing ingredient. Please correct me if I'm wrong :)

I sang in a couple of bar bands and then hosted a karaoke show and sang at private functions a few times. I had never taken a lesson in my life and suffered a lot of throat problems through the years. As it turned out, it was my tonsils that were the cause of my grief and I had them removed along with my adenoids last year. ( I think?) Since then, I have had to learn to sing again from scratch as all my previous muscle memory went out the window. My tonsils were unusually large. So large in fact that the surgeon had them sent for biopsy which fortunately didn't show anything wrong. He told me that mine were the biggest tonsils he'd ever seen!!! It's a wonder I could ever sing at all let alone front a rock band. Since learning to sing again I haven't sang live at all but I'm itching to do it again.

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Im sorry to tell you that there is no secret script to achieve this. You will need a coach, a very good one. Lots of dedication, patience and a few years. The tracks are absolutelly amazing. Backing vocals, doubling, tons of interpretative choices, and a precision thats close to perfection.

If after 3 years of trainning you can come up with something close to this in terms of quality/performance, consider yourself very, very lucky. But to sound like him you would need his voice in the frist place.

That said, most of the times he used very pronounced EE forward focus, he used both head and chest voice like this. Usefull information if you already undergone trainning and know what I am talking about, if want to do some covers. It will sound somewhat close to what he did.

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Since learning to sing again I haven't sang live at all but I'm itching to do it again.

Something I have been hoping you would do. And wishing you could swing a tour through the southern half of North America. Tell ya what ... I would settle for a podcast or at least of snippet of video from whatever show you do wrangle, even if it's a karaoke. Your demanding public awaits. Sorry to derail the thread, just a bit.

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