Metal Vocalist, Novice, Critique My Singing

[Carpe Mortem]

Got a few different styles I've been experimenting with, I apologize for having almost no instrumental track but I'm still learning how programs work so it's basically me singing in a mic right next to speakers. Mainly vocal covers, one freestyle over Testament's Last Call that, aside from the atrocious lyrics, I'm pretty proud of.

I think they all sound pretty decent, aside from a few timing (*auto edit*)-ups here and there, curious what others think though. Which style suits my voice best, and any suggestions for songs you think I should give a try, much appreciated.

Testament- Last Call

Candlemass- Solitude

https://soundcloud.com/carpe_mortem/solitude

Clutch- Ghost

https://soundcloud.com/carpe_mortem/...s/vocal-covers

Moonspell- Sanguine

https://soundcloud.com/carpe_mortem/...s/vocal-covers

Iced Earth- Damien

https://soundcloud.com/carpe_mortem/...s/vocal-covers

(High notes here are laughable but it should help show my limits haha)

Iron Maiden- Hallowed be thy Name

https://soundcloud.com/carpe_mortem/...s/vocal-covers

[Keith]

I only listened to the first few minutes of Hollowed be Thy Name. You need to take a step back, stop trying to sing the most difficult songs (Maiden, ect.), get a coach / teacher / some form of lessons. Your pitch is way way off. Like you sang the song in a whole different key (or several different keys) . Start with the basics with a good coach and get your pitch fixed, learn how to breath, and all that. There are several coaches in here that can help you. Robert Lunte, Dan Formica, Kevin Richards, to name a few. Grab one of them. The more you sing with the mistakes you are making, the longer it will take to fix them, as singing depends in muscle memory, among other things.

[Carpe Mortem]

Maybe Iron Maiden isn't my style then. Mind listening to the others and offering advice such as make pitch higher, make pitch lower, etc?

[Keith]

Maybe Iron Maiden isn't my style then. Mind listening to the others and offering advice such as make pitch higher, make pitch lower, etc?

i listened to a few others. It isn't something that can be fixed by saying "a little higher or lower". You need to sit down at a piano, or with a guitar, and play a note, and sing the same note. Stuff like that.

[slstone]

Printing out a lyric sheet helps as well.:)

[Xamedhi]

Hey, man

Your voice sounds very childish yet... how old are you? Sorry 'bout that haha.. but that jumped to my attention.

Keith is very right. You should first learn how to support.

Well, you have all the errors of the very new to singing person. You are lowering the laryx on the lows and losing compression ( you seem to have a pretty high range, dunno how old are you ). Your voice sounds very shaky everywhere on your range, because of the lack of support and stability of the vocal muscles.

Pitch is all over the place, on all of the recordings. Learning how to identify tensions and how to relax and use particular muscles will help a lot with it, takes a lot of time though.

Freak on a Leash, being objective.. sounds pretty bad. Sounds like when someone is playing around making fun of a song or a singer's way of singing.

Damien is pretty low for you I think. That's what made it harder maybe. Now, pitch is all over the place again, and it sounds like playing around, just "marking" the parts, the grit and stuff, and not seriously singing.

Hallowed Be Thy Name. This song is quite tough. Pitch again, just like Keith said.

Sanguine... now here I have quite some things to say, that will also clarify soem things I said before.

As your voice seems pretty high, the notes of the vocals are very low for you on this one, I think at least.

So you compensate by lowering the larynx and singing like if you where constipated or something. That's ok, we all do those kind of things when something is difficult. I tend to rely on "the cry" too much when I lose support, and sounds awful.

Pitch is all over the place again. And volume overall, here and on the other songs feels pretty low. We can hear you breathing and tossing air, but we hear you very low.

The grit, or gutural, whatever parts are in a very low volume also.

Solitude. Sounds also like playing around. Not singing seriously and all over the place. Sounds very very novice

(being Novice->Amateur-->Proffessional )

You seem to have no conscious control over your pharyngeal/twang, compression, your larynx, your soft palate. No support and little pitch control, just a general perception of high and low frequencies.

The good things about your voice. You seem to have a very natural compression ( to me at least, as I work on it everyday to add edge and power ), that's why doing that grit/gutural stuff is easy for you. That's cool.

Now if you tried to do those things on a very high volume you will end up with problems probably, because of your lack of support, so be careful.

Same as Keith, I would advice you to contact one of the vocal coaches here. Phil, Kevin Richards, Dan, just to name a few, and ask them for some lessons and help.

That should set you on the right track. :)

[Carpe Mortem]

Thank you all for your help, hearing what I'm doing wrong is especially helpful as I can't afford a coach right now. I will keep practicing and maybe watch some youtube videos. I definitely have to stop using so much vibrato, but its so damn fun haha. And one of my favorite vocalists, Messiah of Candlemass, uses it pretty frequently pretty successfully.

I am 23 years old but female so that may explain the higher pitches. I'm trying to avoid sounding female if at all possible. I'm not a fan of womanly voices. I will keep practicing though and post an update when I've gotten better, I look forward to your future help in these endeavors.

[RockNSoulLover]

Thank you all for your help, hearing what I'm doing wrong is especially helpful as I can't afford a coach right now. I will keep practicing and maybe watch some youtube videos. I definitely have to stop using so much vibrato, but its so damn fun haha. And one of my favorite vocalists, Messiah of Candlemass, uses it pretty frequently pretty successfully.

I am 23 years old but female so that may explain the higher pitches. I'm trying to avoid sounding female if at all possible. I'm not a fan of womanly voices. I will keep practicing though and post an update when I've gotten better, I look forward to your future help in these endeavors.

Well, here may be the problem.

I'm a male, but I always loved Mariah Carey and such as a child. I could sing soprano then, up to about a C7 (those whistles she does).

Then I turned 12, and my voice got deep as shit. It was pretty abrupt. I was in the 8th grade and couldn't get away with talking in class because my voice was very distinct among other 12 yr olds. I also had to learn my voice over, which is closer to a lowish-baritone--but definitely not a coloratura soprano.

Unless you are a very low alto (Toni Braxton, Annie Lennox), your lows will probably never sound very male at all. Even though Mariah (a soprano) can get into baritone range, she does not sound male.

Why not sing womanly? It doesn't mean you have to throw in all sorts of runs and crazy embellishments. Or at least wait until you have the support to sing lower. Can you try an evanescence song? Just for kicks? It's hard to really judge people when they are singing out of their range. If I tried to sing like Mariah Carey now, most people would say I could not sing at all,

[Xamedhi]

Well.. that might explain a lot of things.

I could have sworn that you where a 12 year old kid ( obviously not like you @RockNSoulLover haha! )

You could try singing some Evanescence stuff, or if you don't like her voice try with some Within Temptation or Epica stuff. They have solid technique ( Simone is excelent) so there you will have some good examples. Other singers like Tarja (ex-Nightwish) is full lyric and operatic foundation, so it will be a lot harder to understand what they are doing, but for listening it helps a lot. It trains your ear and helps building "neuronal memory" as you hear.

Those are the few metal bands I know who have female vocalists, I am not really into women voices. I will gladly help you with anything you need I am not an expert or a pro on this matter, but I love to share what I have learned along the way. :P

[ronws]

Yeah - what's wrong with sounding like a woman? I do. :lol:

[Carpe Mortem]

Been awhile since I posted! But I have found a female-fronted band I actually really dig, so I'm happy to sing her lyrics. I've also been working on minimizing my overuse of vibrato and think I've made some progress.

All recorded with a generic microphone, through Audacity. Don't really know how the program works so I basically 'added new track', recorded, exported as mp3, uploaded to soundcloud

Jex Thoth- Stone Evil

https://soundcloud.com/carpe_mortem/stone-evil-less-vib

Jex Thoth- Obsidian Night

https://soundcloud.com/carpe_mortem/obsidian-night-vocal-cover

Jex Thoth- Seperated at Birth

https://soundcloud.com/carpe_mortem/seperated-at-birth-less-vib

Iced Earth- Damien (See note on link)

https://soundcloud.com/carpe_mortem/iced-earth-damien-vocal-cover

Still working on finding a coach in my area. I'm pretty hellbent on getting good, I may not have natural talent but most people don't. I'm really just looking to learn to sing as a platform for my poetry, just be good enough to work with musicians who can create a score for my words.

[Carpe Mortem]

Also just curious... would you say Lemmy of Motorhead is a good singer? I think he is. Just kinda thinkin about what constitutes good vocals and how subjective it can really be, I think classically people would say he sucks.

I definitely wanna improve but I think the most important thing is that I truly think I have potential. I like the changes I've been seeing with better exercise, generally enjoy my tone, and have the drive. Interesting how many people are discouraged because others don't like their singing.