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Is this distortion ?


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I see what you mean. Well, I could be wrong about this being distortion, hence the post to get a 2nd opinion.

On the other hand I do not feel it above the vocal folds, or at least as distant as rattle is.

This one felt really close and tight - as opposed to rattle that feels like I have a set of bids rotating fast above the cord.

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Thanks man! I am constantly working on pitch, I think I need to get back to exercising and doing cardio to control air flow and pressure better.

When I listen to this clip I kinda think "does this guy sound like a pig dying or is it the beginning of some really angry sounding tenor singing ?"

If more people say it sounds kinda ok I'll know it's the 2nd (the beginning of some really angry...)

If people say it really sounds appalling and strained etc I know it's the 1st.

Thanks again Jug (what's your name?)!

Thanos

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Hey Igor, cardio is an abbreviation for cardiovascular exercise ; brisk walking, treadmill etc

It's been invaluable to me as far as breathing support is concerned but with greece being torn to pieces , the last thing I have time for or can think about is that...

but I try to take advantage of every minute I have and do sth

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Thanos, I've been following that story in the news, as well. I feel sorry for you and I see my country headed the same way if we don't change next year. We changed a little last year.

Anyway, the sound of this distortion sounded like a rattle to me, a la Brian Johnson. When they say twang is a narrowing of the epiglottic funnel, that still involves some tongue movement to the back, I think. Close enough, and the uvula can rattle against the tongue. That is the kind of rattle I have done. Could there be some other tissue free enough to flap at an asynchronous rate? Possibly so. At the very least, if the throat is relaxed.

Normally, in other instruments, such as electric guitar, distortion involves overdriving one stage into another. In pictures, distorted can be fuzzy, out-of-focus, contorted or malformed. As opposed to a rasp, which might come from the same definitions, or not. For example, Steven Tyler gets his rasp from something specific that his vocal folds do. He can have to apertures at the same time. One is producing the fundamental frequency and the other is producing a asynchronous, non-harmonic sound or pop that we hear as "noise" yet both are simultaneous and so it is a "raspy" but sung note. Even Tyler calls himself the king of scream but he is actually singing.

I don't know how much of Steven Tyler's uniqueness is genetic and whether or not one can train one's folds to do that.

And what you are doing, I think, can definitely be described as NOT creaking. The compression you have going on is the polar opposite of creak.

It's a cool sound you made, I just don't know how to define it other than it sounded like a rattle to me. However, you would know better how you felt when doing it.

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In addition, I've seen a lot about the false vocal folds used in distortion. What the FVF do is they are retracted except when you must swallow. Then, they extend over the true folds. So, the only way I can imagine is approaching the swallow configuration but not completely. And this will tend to raise the larynx, as it must do in the swallowing action. Which is the opposite of holding larynx down for some oscuro on a note.

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Speaking of Vocal Distortion, I just produced this demonstration for some French singers on a popular French vocal forum, in preparation for the TVS Master Class on November 4th in Paris:

https://thevocaliststudio.box.net/shared/static/ygzfgjhfsgupvbr17l8p.wma

Hope this helps...

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Akaward:

It sounds like it might hurt, but if you say it doesn't, I tend to believe you. I think it sounds cool, but I question if you need to drive it that hard. I think you may be driving a bit too hard. Just make it "fry"... make your distortion "bubble" or "fry"... not grind.

r

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Ron, I've been doing rattle as the only kind of "effect" for quite a while so I might constantly "slip" into that sound.

It will take a while before I can clear things up and separate one from the other.

Thanks man!

Rob, I shouldn't have driven my sound so hard , I actually wanted more of a clean voice in there but I went for it just to overemphasize the effect.

I'll be checking your file and post about distortion, thanks !

Geno, thanks man, it didn't hurt but as I mentioned earlier there was too much "effect" and not enough underlying voice.

Thanks for the input !

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Rob, that was a cool explanation and examples, thanks for sharing. It was especially interesting to listen to the husk distortion. I've noticed that many singers, like Tim Owens or Erc Adams are using this kind of 'windy' distortion screams, but I was never sure if it was a lack of compression or something else.. Now I see that you can have air in your tone while twagning hard, and that's really cool, I'll have to give it a try:)

Akarawd: very good singing, this is difficult stuff (at least for me:)) and you pulled it off nicely, so hands down! I think what you could improve are the onsets and the endings of the notes in the chorus (I have the same problems:)) Rock on!

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Thanos, it sounds like rattle to me. Not distortion. Note that I could be wrong. Rattle can be cool, but I'm personally a bigger fan of distortion (and creaking) because it's a more common effect for the greatest rock tenors out there. Do you have the cvt book? In the distortion section or the rattle section (can't remember which one), there is a paragraph that tells you what you can do if you're trying to do distortion but end up doing rattle.

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I agree Jonpall, it did sound a bit like rattle, but I think thanos had some twang properties in there too. I also agree that when I played around with the rattle I didn't like it... I think it has little application, is hard to articulate inside of and is just not that useful? Just because you can make a "distorted" phonation, it doesn't mean it will work inside of singing.

I truly believe the only kind of distortion that is actually realistic for singing and gives you maneuverability, is vocal tract effects like my overlay and husk ideas...

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DJ Thanks man, I know you've mastered a lot of these effects. Once you get in that "spot", it's just a matter of retaining it.

Jon, I was told the same thing by Ron so I'm beginning to see it as such. Thanks for the tip about the cvt book, I keep forgetting how many clarifications it has,

I'll look it up. One thing I remember is that if you push distortion too far it turns into rattle. Thanks for the reminder !

Rob, I don't like rattle much myself, I find it doesn't suit most music styles. Indeed, the overlay effects you demonstrated sound much better and certainly have a wider

range of application.

Ok people, I take it that the effect in that clip is rattle - it's just that I never applied it so low in my range to know what it sounds like.

On the positive side, I now know what rattle feels like all across the range so in theory I should be able to experiment with other effects without going there.

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