Olem

Thanx for listening, Ron!

Thanx, Geno, i am sure you can iwth some practise. And thanx again, Chavie :)

It sounds really great, Snejk. Considering you have only been together as a band for 8 months it sounds remarkably good. Keep up the good work and congratulations!

Yeah, i sensed that too about the chorus, it didn´t sound totally right. Thanx for listening, Jug!

Awesome first draft.

A comment about the song itself (not a critique on your singing); without the proper setup from the verse there is no need for the screams.

You have to choose a side whether you want to or not. Blind men are shooting in the street. You have to duck from the ricocheting bullets. You do not know what to do to get out of this situation.Terrible and desperate times. You need that feeling. The screaming is out of desperation.

The falsetto cries at first would be fine because it is the beginning of the emotional out burst. Fasetto(soft crying for the people being in this situation) next wails of desparation. next out and out screaming because you just can't take it anymore.

The verse explains the screaming otherwise the song does not make sense.

Exactly, MDEW! I think this is what Gillan and Deep Purple had in mind when they crafted this song.

Enander i am very impressed, i very much agree with the others about timing and that there was a little too much alteration of the first falsetto part in the chorus. But i must say that those high scream notes in the end were freakin awesome. There are not many top heavy metal singers that could scream such a beautiful C6 like you did! Congratulations!!!!! All in all it sounded very good. But beware, if you put more effort into your singing and publish it your phone will be occupied Please, don´t waste your talent, man!

Skål! (En annan svensk)

Listened to your Pantera, Metallica and Judas Priest covers. All very good but "Devil´s Child" stood out for me, i listened to this a couple of times. Your grit sounds great and adds a new dimension to your heavy metal singing, i think you should use it more than what you did in the past. Man, you are very productive and seem to have a great passion for singing, i admire that.

Rob, although I can resonate with Olem's points about the falsetto, I don't agree with his critique on the lack of dynamic at all. I really think you had plenty of dynamic increase in the scream portion, no doubt about it. The falsetto to overlay distortion to overlay distortion at a higher pitch, that's plenty of crescendo IMO, and a great creative way to do it. I almost prefer it to what Ian did because it's a more creative approach. The open vowel falsetto is less of an everyday sound, then you start at the same note with a beefier laryngeal configuration into this modal/ethnic thing, and then finally you overdrive the mic with that whistley overtone in your E5's...dude, it's totally badass. Just to throw in an opinion from someone who hasn't heard the original 5,000 times...

And I warned you, Manolito is not an amateur (although his avatar may suggest otherwise )...I'd invite him to do his version of Child in Time as I'm almost certain he could do it very well too. He has already led by example previously in this critique section though, I've heard his work, it's great.

I totally agree, Owen, there is a crescendo no doubt about it and there are dynamics of course in Roberts interpretation. I just think that it could have started off a little lighter. From Low to Medium to High sort of. In Rob´s interpretation i feel it starts off from Medium and then goes to High.

Olem you are dead wrong. The first part of the scream sequence is an open glottal position with a huge amount of respiratory escape. It is falsetto and is not an adducted tone. I find it curious that you can't recognize that, but I really don't care. You are listening for Ian Gillan's interpretation, not mine.

Manolito, are you done now with your little notes analysis?

Its a great performance and a great production...

Well, i will not start this debate falsetto vs head voice again, there are so many different opinions about this and it will lead us to nowhere. Maybe i wasn´t clear enough. In the first chorus - the falsetto/head voice part - i feel that you use too much volume and since there is no/ a little adduction it has a tiny bit of mickey mouse tone to it a sound i am very familiar with as i had this sound alot in my early Judas Priest covers. I prefer another type of sound. Also, Gillan uses a tiny falsetto/head voice in the beginning and raises in dynamics and volume as the song moves on. I also prefer this asthetic choice where you start off slowly and put more and more energy and dynamics into the song. That is my preference. And i wasn´t listening to Gillan´s interpretation i was listening to yours, and yours is a damn good interpretation. I just didn´t like one part of it.

And i will sing this song soon, i love this song, my favourite Deep Purple song along with "Perfect Strangers".

Fabolous, Lord! Everything is great IMO, video production, sound mixing, performance, your vocals and so on. Innovative and creative video concept. Congratulations!

You've got an interesting tone to your voice. At first I thought you were just trying to imitate Jon Bon Jovi and I think in parts you did but in others it sounded like your own voice.

There were a lot of very minor pitch issues i.e. slightly flat on a few notes but there were other parts where you didn't hit the same notes as the original and seemed to substitute rising riffs e.g. Like Frankie Said I Did It My Way and I Just Want to Live Forever - your starting notes on those are much lower than the original but you obviously can sing the notes - the Did and Live were at the right place.

Maybe that was a stylistic thing/your interpretation - only you could say - but just stood out for me because I think the original has more energy from staying up higher in those parts.

Good job though overall.

I agree, it was a joy to listen to. Keep up the good work.

I could not sing this if i tried.

This song is insane.....

I think the lowest note during the verses is like B4 lol...

Only thing i can critique is maybe the voice track being slightly louder then it should

Halford also used a lot more verb and delay... your take was rather dry in comparison

Awesome take man!!!

Yes, it is insane, hahhaha and the verses goes from B4 up to D5 but actually i think this is easier to sing than going from G4 to B4 for example. I think you are right about the mixing here i will try that. For your interest this performance is not made in one take, i can´t sing it in one take like this, it is very fatiguing. Sooner or later i totally crack, mostly when i reach the phrase "cromium plated...) and most certainly when i reach the insane high note in "Suuuuuuuuuuuuuunn" an A5 i think. Thanx for listening Chavie.

This is a great post, very interesting to read. First i must say that the music video and the production was excellent. Also the vocals sounded great for the most part.

Ok, as i understood it this was a demonstration of a certain vocal technique. but then i am curious to know, Robert: would this kind of vocal technique and asthetic choice be something you would choose first and foremost if you would make a record and perhaps go on tour? I am asking this because to my ears this performance sounded good, mostly great, but to me it was not totally convincing and know you certainly will think of me being on that burning stake the next time you sing this song

I am no expert of vocal technique i just follow my ears, a funny statement from someone that can´t be on pitch, hahahha. But here is what i think about this:

TO ME, this song is like a crescendo, it builds up slowly. That tiny beautiful falsetto in the beginning of the song in the chorus you skipped and started "screaming" right away, I didn´t like that so much.

There also, around the 2 minute mark the higher notes sounded a little mickey mouse-ish (breathy), the sound colour i didn´t like so much. From the 3 minute mark and onwards i loved the higher notes, when there is more "effort" and distortion/rasp behind. More compression there behind the higher notes? I wouldn´t agree with others that you didn´t put emotion behind, the end is very emotional and i adore it.

But TO ME, all in all an impressive performance, Robert, especially if you did it in one take. Sorry if i am one of those nitpicky guys but my intention is to help. Maybe i am totally wrong about all of this, it is just a subjective feeling, not facts. My honest opinion.

Another thing i would like to add is that if all of you singers really search for honest opinions about your work, don´t ask colleges and friends if you don´t really know that they are truly honest. Some people are just afraid of stepping on the other ones toes and are afraid of hurting the other one if they say they don´t like something you did. A good way to find out what people think about your work is to put it into forums or platforms where people don´t know you, sure some people maybe will be jealous and write negative things about it but the majority is not like that.

Rock on you guys.

Ok, here it is again. A year ago since my last practise of this song. I still have alot of work to do but i think i have made some progress. Any critique is welcome.

And here a different kind of mix as suggested by Chavie:

I made another version yesterday 20130822 where i practised the choruses and the phrase "faster than a lazer bullet...." where i could hit the A5 for the first time with a compressed note. Also i did the long note in the end:

As always - any critique is welcome

Hi, David, nice to see you here. Congratulations to a very nice voice. How long have you been practicing with Robert? What is your background, could you tell us a little about yourself? Keep up the good work, David!

Vowel modification is good and makes a tone more resonant but if it means that you hear different words than what are supposed to be then it becomes comedy, such that was not the intention.

Thanx for taking your time guys. Yeah, i guess it is due to tiredness, i feel after awhile that my support weakens. Get´s better with pracitse i guess.

A good attempt, Manolito. In some places your high notes sound a little squeezed and it also seems as if you stand a little too close to the mic on some high notes.

Fantastic, Geno, and congratulations! I can´t hear anything odd with this interpretation. I think Steve Perry would have been proud listening to this.

Comeon! He's singing dreamtheatre if you Pronounce the words your doing it wrong

Hehe, valid point Jens.

Very nice he is a great singer. The higher tones sounds more meaty than LaBries and i like that. I am a little disturbed though by one phrase that sounds a bit odd to me. Where he should sing "One less to my last" it sounds as if he is singing "one less time i last". Is it on purpose or did he learn the lyrics wrong?

Practising my higher range the other day and for that i love to sing "Painkiller" by Judas Priest. When i was listening to my samples i was noticing one thing. Though i didn´t change on purpose my setup (trying to have the equal sound) it sounded differently. The first part that ends with "soaring high" sound in one way, the second part that ends with "deadly wheels" sound in one way and then the last part also sound different. Why is that? Is it because of warm-up, tiredness in the voice or maybe i use a different set up without noicing it myself. I hope you understand what i mean. Thanx in advance/ Ola

https://www.box.com/s/7ahe6j36u9jlk3qly751

Great job, Chavie, you are "almost" there if you want to capture the Dio sound - a really tough task. It sounds fabulous of course and you do capture the Dio sound in some places. If you really want to capture the Dio sound fully throughout this song you need a tiny bit more rasp and "meanness". If that was not your goal, well, then leave it as it is - it sounds fantastic.

Very nice videos, Igor, "I´m Alive" is my favourite among the latest.

I was never exposed to this type of music. The hardest metal that I heard was Black Sabbath with Ozzy.

When growing up if you had a KISS album you had to hide it.

But yes that sounded gritty and mean and cool all at the same time.

"When growing up if you had a KISS album you had to hide it." Well, i never did. I remember back in the 80´s here in Sweden when i first started to buy vinyls, there were two camps - the ones that liked synth-oriented music like Pet Shop Boys and then there were hard rockers and of course i belonged to the latter . I bought my first record in 1984 (i was 11). That record was a metal compilation and i only bought it because the cover was so cool, it had Dee Snider on it eating meat, hahaha, i had to buy it. On that record there was a song that got me completely sold - "Bark At The Moon" by Ozzy. I got totally obsessed and had to buy more records and chose "Powerslave" by Iron Maiden and "Stay Hungry" with Twisted Sister. There was no stop and i wanted to work after school as much as i could to be able to buy more records. handing out commercials and collecting currant for my mum so she could make juice for example, hahaha. Thanx, mum, for making so much Juice and thanx Dee Snider, hahahaha...

...and thanx for your reply, MDEW.

Sounds really good to me. Nice control. I can't do that technique at all so I can't really tell anything except you must be doing it well because the pitch and phrasing is right on. Does it hurt to do this?

Thanx, Geno. No, it doesn´t hurt, if it would i would have stopped immediately, there is a bit of a tickling feeling but hurt, no.

Thanx, Enander (i am a big fan), Analog and Keith for listening. Enander: I have heard this before that i sound a little like Udo, i think Igor said this too if i am not wrong, and i love Accept so maybe i will try one of their songs in the future.