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Another " What are those singers doing " thread


Ronron

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Hello everyone,

I have been wondering for some time what a few singers are doing, because I admire them (obviously I'm not gonna ask what singers I hate are doing :P), especially 3 of them whom I would like to kinda, capture the essence, so to speak. Well, once I have figured a few other things of course, but it doesn't hurt to think about it, does it ? :)

I) First we have John Cooper from Skiller singing Monster :

What I'd like to know is how the hell does he get that rasp (singing starts at à:15, and rasp's pretty much rampant throughout the song) ? 'Cause I can "rasp" things to hell and back in low to mid range seemseemingly forever, but not as high as him in the chorus (I guess I'm just frying, though I recognize I haven't recorded myself trying this to compare)

II) Second we have Adam Gontier from Three Days Grace singing Animal I have become :

Again, I'm more interested in how he gets his rasp than anything else (0:44 to 0:55 for example). Is it the same as Skillet's singer ? Because it seems that it is not always the same (like he uses two different techniques).

III) And finally, Brandon Flowers singing Helter Skelter (by the Beatles) :

Here I have a problem, because, mostly, I can't figure the mode(s) he's singing with. Is it really curbing ? There's an awful lot of "oe" (herb) for it to be a pure curbing thing, insn't there ? Also, there is a something I can't really describe in his voice that I find very interesting here, a bit like something's buzzing/raspy/whatever the name behind the voice ? Is it some kind of creaking (like between Curbing and Edge (thinking of Edge because of the vowels)) ? How could I achieve something similar ? 'Cause that very thing is drawing me like moth to a flame and I can't stop listening to this one (I know I'm weird :P).

And yes, I'd give my... Something... To sing like Mr Flowers here, despite the breaks (that could be controlled for all I know).

Thank you in advance for your help :)

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Wow - great music guys. I really like John Cooper's voice. Not sure that it's a healthy rasp technique but it sure sounds cool. I don't know how he gets that rasp. It seems pretty low like it could be irritating the folds, but only he knows if it is unhealthy. If he is able to sing like this all the time with no degredation then it's probably healthy.

I think Adam is modifying is vowels and has nice technique up high. His rasp is different - at a higher level - or vibrating faster, and I think once in a while he combines with a low larynx to get a boomier rasp.

I really like both those guys.

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The subject of rasp on top of high notes (at and above the passagio) has been one of the things I've thought about the most regarding singing techniques. I had the same issue once of being able to put rasp on top of low notes easily but not high ones. I'm pretty sure that the reason behind it is fairly simple: Your high CLEAN notes aren't produced as well as your low CLEAN notes. Your high notes probably have some throat tension and too much air, which is probably not the case with your low notes. So since the underlying clean tone for your high notes isn't that great, putting a vocal effect such as rasp, distortion, creaking, or whatever you wanna call it, on TOP of the clean note, is going to fail or not sound great or strain your throat because of sub-optimal foundation in your singing technique.

So I suggest that you start singing a CLEAN high note (I like sirening up to them from an octave below when I'm warming up), sustain the note for as long as you comfortably can, reduce as much throat tension as you can, reduce as much breathyness as you can (really listen for excessive wind coming out of your mouth), make the tone very resonant in your soft palate without pushing at all, and only then gradually "think more intense" until you hear a slight rasp coming out. But you need to KEEP that throat configuration or relaxed throat, etc., while you have rasp on.

That's all I have time to type right now but I've actually developed a series of vocal exercises solely devoted to rasp that have helped me a lot. I've found out that the occasional vocal program out there shows how to sing with rasp but I haven't seen any that has shows more than one or two actual rasp exercises. CVT comes fairly close but I didn't find the distortion exercises that helpful. That could have been just me. Anyway, have a nice one, mate.

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The subject of rasp on top of high notes (at and above the passagio) has been one of the things I've thought about the most regarding singing techniques. I had the same issue once of being able to put rasp on top of low notes easily but not high ones. I'm pretty sure that the reason behind it is fairly simple: Your high CLEAN notes aren't produced as well as your low CLEAN notes. Your high notes probably have some throat tension and too much air, which is probably not the case with your low notes. So since the underlying clean tone for your high notes isn't that great, putting a vocal effect such as rasp, distortion, creaking, or whatever you wanna call it, on TOP of the clean note, is going to fail or not sound great or strain your throat because of sub-optimal foundation in your singing technique.

So I suggest that you start singing a CLEAN high note (I like sirening up to them from an octave below when I'm warming up), sustain the note for as long as you comfortably can, reduce as much throat tension as you can, reduce as much breathyness as you can (really listen for excessive wind coming out of your mouth), make the tone very resonant in your soft palate without pushing at all, and only then gradually "think more intense" until you hear a slight rasp coming out. But you need to KEEP that throat configuration or relaxed throat, etc., while you have rasp on.

That's all I have time to type right now but I've actually developed a series of vocal exercises solely devoted to rasp that have helped me a lot. I've found out that the occasional vocal program out there shows how to sing with rasp but I haven't seen any that has shows more than one or two actual rasp exercises. CVT comes fairly close but I didn't find the distortion exercises that helpful. That could have been just me. Anyway, have a nice one, mate.

jaime vendera has a new "extreme singing" program out there now.

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I'm very glad you like them ;)

Also, neither my rasps nor my high notes are good so I don't expect to be able to go in and out at will right now anyway. It's more of a " hey, one day, I want to be able to that " than a " hey, I want it now !"

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The subject of rasp on top of high notes (at and above the passagio) has been one of the things I've thought about the most regarding singing techniques. I had the same issue once of being able to put rasp on top of low notes easily but not high ones. I'm pretty sure that the reason behind it is fairly simple: Your high CLEAN notes aren't produced as well as your low CLEAN notes. Your high notes probably have some throat tension and too much air, which is probably not the case with your low notes. So since the underlying clean tone for your high notes isn't that great, putting a vocal effect such as rasp, distortion, creaking, or whatever you wanna call it, on TOP of the clean note, is going to fail or not sound great or strain your throat because of sub-optimal foundation in your singing technique.

I agree with this. I don't practice rasp exercises yet, I only do it when I'm recording. But what I've found is that I can now do rasp pretty high - C5 and a little above that. Whereas in the past I really couldn't do it much above G4 without it hurting. It is much easier now that I've gained more of a relaxed technique up high.

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