I lost my perspective, need some reference

[akarawd]

Hi,

I'd be grateful if you let me know what you think about my singing in the 2 following areas :

1. Straining

2. Pronunciation

http://www.box.net/shared/t0oy6nyx4k

I tried to push intentionally to get a feel of how much I can push and now it's hard for me to distinguish how bad it sounds.

Thanks in advance,

Thanos

PS. I've posted this in one more forum so if you've answered there...

[akarawd]

And while we're at it, it'd be great if you checked this one too :

http://www.box.net/shared/amlbffk68m

I know the last note sucks balls 'cause I run out of breath but I'd like to know how bad the rest of it sounds.

Strain and overall pronunciation I'm really concerned with.

[jonpall]

The pronounciation sounds good to me, considering how high most of the notes are. It doesn't really sound strainy except maybe occasionally where you might be overdoing the hold/cry. You seem to favor a relatively high palate and then rattle for distortion (rattle sounds a bit like gargling). If that's not what you're going for, then you may simply need to experiment with lowering your palate and use the minimum amount of effort in your throat and support muscles you can get away with. But then you'd probably get a more thinner sound and switch from rattle to distortion, which might not be what you want. It's totally your choice.

I may be totally wrong with my assumptions, though, so take them with a grain of salt. But those were still some kickass metal vocals, man . Great sense of pitch, great power and great emotion.

[akarawd]

Referring to the 2nd clip, right ? I agree with you Jon, lowering the palate it sth I'm working on along with the 3 positions of closure of the nasal passage.

If pronunciation is not terrible then it's at least 1 winning battle !

I was amazed at how "safe" it felt singing this way... I just avoid it to work on the underlying voice

Thanks a lot man !

Thanos

[ronws]

I agree with jonpall on the first selection. With "Narcosynthesis", you were going for a dark tone and achieved it but perhaps you felt strained using that much hold when tightening and brightening up might have been easier. But man, what a lovely dark tone you did, anyway.

"Painkiller" (Halford's personal favorite) you sound more relaxed, even though it is technically more distortion than anything you did on "Narcosynthesis." Your pronunciation is fine.

What's neat about these two samples (correct me if am wrong) is that they represent two ends of a spectrum involving of twang-involved distortion and brightness.

[akarawd]

Ron, you're so right. On "Narco" I tried to see how much throat muscle use I can get away with and you know how it is ...

in the beginning you think "wow, what a meaty sound" but knowing how our senses cloud our perception I started wondering, hence the

point of that clip. Now, a week or so later, I can clearly hear myself straining - or at least trying to sound a certain way, so I will avoid this approach as much as possible.

In the 2nd clip, I mostly used Lugo's "cackle" and I swore that if any note felt like I can't reach without pushing I'd leave alone and it worked pretty much ok from what it seems

by your and Jon's comments. Especially the fact that the pronunciation in this clip is ok means the world to me, it really does. I'm self conscious about my "s", "ch" and "r" but I still

haven't found specific ways of correcting those, maybe a post in the technique section would grab Steven's attention and help me out.

Yes, you're right about these clips representing 2 ends of the spectrum involving twang-involved distortion and brightness ; it's the "cackle", that's what I used.

(Only the 1st one has the wrong approach from the "regular" voice and thus it sounds weird)

Thanks a bunch Ron, that was a great - and informative - comment !

Thanos

PS. J.Lugo explicitly says "do not overdo the cackle" but it comes so easy I did the whole painkiller album using that sound and it was so much fun...

having the huge tonsils that I have, it's a blessing to hear such a piercingly resonant sound coming out of my mouth. And the best part is that I don't feel any strain

and it's helped the rest of my voice too, like it's helping everything connect just a bit more.

[ronws]

And thank you, Thanos, for replying to my thoughts. It let's me know that my ears are still good and can discern a few things. That's important to me as much as anything I might sing. For, we have to hear ourselves in order to sing.