DJDeth

It should work now:)

Hi, Sorry for copying Olem's thread;] This is me trying to sing Painkiller. This kind of vocals is definitely the most difficult stuff for me. It's a real struggle. Keeping it light, bright, distorted and resonant at the same time is the hardest thing, especially in the last part (around E5-F#5). Please critique - I'd apreciate all tips:) Need to be able to sing this song well one day! https://www.box.com/s/367cbafee54162b65746

Hey Olem, good work on this tune. The latest attempt was definitely your best. One thing I would recommend is to pay more attention to the melody of the chorus. Notice how it almost strictly follows the guitar chords. It's a tuff songs, I tried to pull it off a few times , but always give up. I've just had another take and realised again how difficult it is, that's why I came here to give you thumbs up:)

Thanks Daug! I think he does - especially on the Astral Doors tune, not so much on this Civil War clip. Here's another Astral Doors in the vein of Rainbow and Dio band's songs: You are right, Russell Allen was close do Dio, and he admitted on many occasions that he taught himself to sing emulating Ronnie. Looks like it's a good way to learn:)

Ron, you're 100% right. His tone is unbelievable. Many have tried to copy Dio's style, and I think that the one who's gotten nearest is Nils Patrik Johansson - he's sometimes even called "the Swedish Dio":). He's definitely worth checking out. Here's his new band Civil War - a clip with some acapella singing at 0:56 Notice how his voice sounds a bit funny, when unprocessed and without the background music, almost like an old man, but as soon as they add some reverb and the music kicks in, it starts to sound just awesome. And here's his main band Astral Doors: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVH8RtB8X54

Max, this is really awesome... waiting for more Dio songs from you!

Ronws, Olem, Mr_pink_77_it, thanks for the comments! It's very motivating. I'd love to be able to sing those songs with the ease Ronnie used to have - I'm still struggling with pulling too much weight, but it's getting better:) Olem, I'll upload the full and corrected version soon:)

Stargazer is definitely one of the best compositions in rock music. Can't wait to hear you sing it! In the meantime, here are my friends from the band Darkmere with Tomek Struszczyk from Turbo, performing the song on a charity gig that I've organized a while ago. I consider him the best metal singer in Poland:)

Makes perfect sense:) That's what I'm aiming for!

Last week it was 2 years since RJD passed away... The world of music will never be the same without him! Here's my little tribute. Difficult stuff:/ C&C welcome as always. https://www.box.com/s/7abde3b9759855b9058c

Sure thing Adolph! Here is the link for download of two high quality mp3's: https://www.box.com/s/6087cdabffffc2b3eae6

Hey everyone! I wasn't sure if I'm allowed to post it here, but Adolph said I should go for it, so here we go! I'm proud to present the debut album of my band Hateseed entitled "Hate Comes Crawling", recorded in 2011 in Wejherowo, Poland. The album consists of 8 tracks (including intro) which accounts for over 40 minutes of melodic, dark power metal in the vein of Blind Guardian, Gamma Ray, Iron Maiden and Manowar. If you are interested in getting one of those, please drop us a line on hateseed@wp.pl. The members of this forum will get a considerable discount concerning all the help I have received from you guys over the past few years! Thanks for making a dream come true:) Łukasz

Hey! I've seen this singer live with Axel Rudi Pell. The guy is incredible. He's also a great drummer:) Alessandro - great production on this one!

Jens, Devaitis, Ronws, Olem, thanks a lot! Jens: Can't really tell, I was pretty surprised myself haha. Anyway, a big smile, some twang and a lot of support helped a great deal, that's for sure!

LoL:D Thanks Keith. So either Halford's straight or Alanis' a dude :)

The first (and probably the last:D) pop song that I 've ever posted here. Just playing around. Tell me what you think! https://www.box.com/s/8d835ee5d7426836e939 Cheers, Luke

Jugulator, the Kiske tune is awesome, I really like the tone of your voice here. If I have to write a critique (as that's the name of this forum after all:), I'll say that you slide down at the end of your last notes in some phrases and it's a little distracting. Fix that and thus become the Russian Kiske :D

Nick_D, Jugulator, thanks for your words, it means a lot. Nick, basing on this particular song I'd say he bridges around G4, but as you've noticed, his head tones are so meaty that it's often hard to tell the difference. It get's more obvious when he get's higher, like around D5, then it becomes less 'operatic', and starts to sound more like a primal scream, very bright and distorted. It's like a totally different approach for him I suppose. But for the normal high singing in his style the crucial thing, besides bridging, is the correct choice of vowels. At least that's my experience. One thing I've noticed about his screams is that they are almost speech level when it comes to volume! Jugulator, come on, upload a cover of "Jugulator":cool:

Jonpall, Akarawd and others, thanks for the comments. Such a positive feedback is very motivating for me and really keeps me going! You can be sure that I'll be posting more clips... and it will be pretty soon actially;] The guy from the link is really good, I loved his Mick Jagger and Steven Tyler:D

Ronws, one more thing! You asked what would happen if Ronnie James Dio wanted to sound like some other singer. I think it's a great question, I don't really know what his inspirations were and how far away he moved from them (probably you can tell me?). But on the other hand there's another question: how would Eric Adams sound if he haven't emulated Gillan. Would he be able to scream like this? Would Dickinson belt all those notes if it weren't for Gillan? How about Scheepers. How would he sound (would he sing at all!) if it weren't for Halford? Same thing goes for Ripper (also very much influenced by Dio, and perfect at emulating him). Would there be Kiske and Cyriis without Tate? Or Sammet without Kiske and Dickinson? My answer is: I don't know.

Ronws, I wasn't refering much to my beliefs, I was rather refering to what I experience and what other seem to experience when listening to my efforts. Experience in not based on a belief system. I don't know what scientific statements you are refering to, but if they really contradict what I get to know empirically, then maybe it would be worth reconsidering them:) And I don't think I stated that I sound like any of the singers I mentioned. What I said was that I am able of sounding similar (or am able to getting to the point of sounding similar by practicing). If it's done well enough that it can trick the listener into thinking it's the original singer and not me - I would consider it somehow an objective 'achievement', showing that I really changed the esthetics of the sound. In other words, the feedback I get, also what you called your 'objective' (though I hope you ment 'subjective';)) opinion is an objective sign of the results my efforts bring. But believe me, in my case it's all about streching my voice and finding it's limits, when it comes to searching for a unique sound, I prefer to do it in my own stuff rather than in cover songs. Byron was the Man. Akarawd: I only like the early speed metal Pantera:) Cheers!

Then your study of evolution stands in contradiction to what I'm experiencing in my little 'evolution' as a singing person:) Let's get back to that Eric Adams sound - I don't look anything like him when it comes to facial features, so I assume the resonators in my face are different than his. I'm a lot taller than him, so I suppose the lenght of our vocal tracts are different. I'm not saying that you should sound like Ronnie, or that anyone should sound in any particular way. What I am saying is that trying to emulate different singers can be a great practice, it can give a wide range of expression forms that one can use in his/her own singing, and most of all, It helps to get to know one's own voice better.

Thanos: The two videos finally made me realise how essential is a well balanced, light mix tone. When i get on the right spot with a light tone, it feels like I can build it up to whatever i want, put more chest in it, shift the placement of the voice very easily, darken the tone, brighten it, add grit and so on. When it clicked, it worked instantly for me. GIve it a try, maybe it will work for you too. Answering your questions: when I first got into singing I couldn't sing a note higher than G4, I couldn't stay on pitch and the tone of my voice was nothing but funny. I think most of my friends could sing better than me (maybe I'll upload some of my earliest recordings so you can have some fun). But I always thought: 'What one man can do, another can do'. I'm still pretty sure about that and that keeps me going:) I had 2 or 3 lessons with a guy who had a kind of SLS/SS approach, but I wasn't too happy with it - he didn't pay any attention to my diaphram, and from some conversations I had had with some of my favourite singers I knew that the proper support is essential. So I thought that the guy doesn't know a shit:) Then I had maybe 5-6 lesson with a lady from music theatre, we did some air support exercise and she helped me a lot with placing my voice in the right spot and singing on the mask. She also polished my vowels a bit. I was happy with the lessons but it was too far away from where I lived. Then I had 2 lessons with a jazz singer with rock/metal past, but she was talking way too much and there was little time left for the excercises. And her approach wasn't working for me, and I got really irritated sometimes because I hate when something goes wrong and I don't know how to fix it:) Some teachers say that if a technique or a hint is good, than it should work instantly. Well, it didn't work instantly when I was practising with this teacher:) I don't have any daily regime (although I know it would help). I'm just recording a lot, singing whenever I can, and when I can't sing then I'm humming some melodies with a very light, quiet voice. If someone would hear me on the street he would think there's something wrong with me (and he would probably be right:) Goofying arond with your voice, having fun with it, taking it all the way up and all the way down, experimenting with placement and configurations - that's what I do. I'll try and work on the clip you asked for later in the week. Ronws: Thanks for the comment:) But I have to disagree with you. I don't think that it's genetics in my case. These are all vocal effects i put on my 'normal' voice to get the desired sound. Look how many singers here on the forum can emulate Axl or Johnson. I think I could do it too one day if I was heading that direction, but I prefer other kind of vocals. I've already heard people saying I have a timbre similar to Bruce, to Hansen, to Hansi (look just few threads ago:), and now, for the first time, I hear that it's close to Adams. I know I can also sound close to King Diamond, Jaymz, sometimes I can get a timbre similar to Kiske in his headvoice. Just recently I discovered my Barlow voice (both the low one and the violent mid-range one) And those are all completely different singers I mention here, each of them is just so unique! Of course I'm not close to them when it comes to the awesomeness of their singing, I'm talking about emulating them, getting a similar tone. If I can do it, anyone can. The question is, does it make any sense to do it? My anser is: yes:D

Hey guys, thanks for the positive feedback:D Thanos, there are few things that helped me greatly in the last few days/weeks in getting these tones. I'll try to point them out here. - Adams has a very dark sound colour and quite a lot of grit going on in the chest voice (at least in this song, he had a lighter timbre in the 80'), so I had to work on these two aspects. The rasp I used here is a mixture of some vocal fry/growl that sits at the level of vocal cords and the distortion that comes from a high placement of the voice. I aim it at the ceiling of the mouth, supposingly soft palate. Sometimes it feels like it's even higher, like the top of the head. - as for the dark sound colour i suppose it's about a relatively low larynx on one hand and low tongue/high palate position on the other. But it wasn't a concious effort, just 'be Eric Adams' kind of mental approach - singing above F#4 with this type of sound ('thorn assunder' words in the chorus) was a bit more demanding and required some special attention, because I was getting too thin or too shouty on this part. So I tried to isolate the tones and work just on them. And that's where 2 YT videos helped me:) One from Kevin Richards, where he shows a light mix excercise (actually I don't think this one is on YT, you'd have to register on his website to get access). The other one is a Singing Success vocal tip of the week:) Here's the link: So the thing was to find a well balanced pure head tone on the particular note to make sure that there is no strain in the voice, not too much weight. When I was there, everything else came pretty easy. I had to let the tone grow, expand, become meaty, then change it to the right vowel, and finally ad some grit to it by activating the roof of my head/mouth. With the high screams (which I'm still not happy with), above D5, it was the same matter with finding the balanced tone first, but to add the brightness and agresion of Adams' voice I experimented with a higher tongue position and wide mouth (look at him on pictures, he looks like a freakin frog when he's screaming:). I just checked and the larynx stays in a rather normal position. In the slow part i think it's CVT's curbing mostly, so there is a lot going on with vowel modification on the highest notes, f.ex. tilting the "oh' towards 'ah' in "Kingdom of". But my biggest advice would be: listen to Manowar as much as possible:) When I was doing this cover I could hear Eric's voice in one channel all the time, that's why I could pay much attention to the vowels he chooses to use (again - especially important in the curbing parts). Hope this helps! Jens: Do you happen to have a backing track for Master f the Wind? I'm still waiting for some Lost Horizon and Outworld tunes from you:)

Have anybody ever posted a Manowar song here? I don't think so! I'm trying to come as close to Adams' voice as I can in this one, but there are some really tricky moments, like the E4 - G#4 - A4 in the chorus (it's hard to bridge with this kind of tone, but when you listen to Adams live, he does it every time so seemlesly, that I would swear that he stays in chest - but now I think he doesn't:)), or the high notes in the slow part. One more difficult thing about Manowar songs is that the guy has the most violent high screams in metal music, so I struggle pretty much to get anywhere near with mine:/ I'm in the right channel and in the center when I layer the vocals. C&C more than welcome! http://www.box.net/shared/a7nzh91b70 Heavy!