"Pull Me Under", by Dream Theater - TVS Student

[Robert Lunte]

Hello TMV World Forum Athletes,

This is David Lyon, my student from Seattle. He actually has a LOT of videos of him singing all kinds of songs. A very talented and capable singer. Enjoy and be sure to give David a thumbs up if you like it.

[ronws]

Excellent job. And I have heard his other covers. In fact, hearing him do "Hurt" by NIN inspired me to get off my duff and do a cover of that song. I thought it would be such a challenge for me. Then, when I was singing along with him, I found I was singing lower and knew I found the timbre and range to do that song, and I had wanted to do it for such a long time,

Anyway, tell Dave that I found him to be inspiring. And it's good to know other cat people. I have a dog AND a cat.

Life is interesting.

[Olem]

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?

[Validar]

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?

I would guess the latter, but I could be wrong. Still a bad ass cover nonetheless.

[Robert Lunte]

I don't know Olem, you should ask him... Glad you guys like it. I think he is saying, "One less to my last", but you will notice the vowel modification on "to", has been modified to "Tuh".

[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?

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

[Manolito Mystiq]

Fair point. I discovered DT after Queensrÿche, so obviously I noticed how extreme he does his vowel modification. Geoff Tate was a master in being understandable all throughout his range. LaBrie is quite the opposite.

[Olem]

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

Hehe, valid point Jens.

[Robert Lunte]

Fair point. I discovered DT after Queensrÿche, so obviously I noticed how extreme he does his vowel modification. Geoff Tate was a master in being understandable all throughout his range. LaBrie is quite the opposite.

Its interesting to discover that people seem to have an issue with LeBrie's vowel modifications... It doesn't bother me in the slightest... I think vowel modifications warm up the formant tuning, and make a vocal more sonorous sometimes. What you may loose in articulation, you gain in harmonic color.

[Owen Korzec]

People will always nag singers for modifying vowels. So many people seem to put diction as the highest priority at assessing a singer's worth. You can't please everybody.

Somehow, a guy like Steve Perry totally got away with his modifications. I was watching some live vids of him recently and on the high notes of open arms there is zero intelligibility, almost all constant f1/h2 tuning. Yet he is still "the voice" because he didn't just modify vowels, he tuned formants.

If it sounds cool, some people will let it go. I haven't heard LaBrie much but maybe he's only modifying and not tuning. Or doing what Dante would call a vowel distortion...changing to an ugly vowel shade far away from the intended vowel, as a crutch.

[Jens]

I agree with you rob i think it sounds cool, however with labrie in mind i sometimes feel like they write very advanced and hard words that are to be sung very high up and thus there is no way it's possible to hear what words he sings at certain passages.

My favourite singer daniel heiman also has some of those passages. Double edged sword :p

[Jugulator]

Great cover! The cat was very nice, too :)

[Olem]

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.

[Manolito Mystiq]

I wasn’t saying it was bothering me, it’s only a clear observation.

[ronws]

So, David used vowel mods? Which means he sang it like LaBrie? Who cares?

You don't sing it enough like the original? Slam. You sing it too much like the original? Slam.

I thought it was a great cover.

I should apologize, I left my "grumpy old man" switch turned on.

Dave, by means of Robert Lunte, good job, I liked it. I hope Robert can pass that along for me.

[DavidLyon]

Hi guys,

This is my first post on the forums. Thanks for checking out my cover of Pull Me Under. I have a ton of other fun stuff up on Facebook and YouTube as well, so feel free to check them out too if you have time.

Answers to a few questions:

Excellent job. And I have heard his other covers. In fact, hearing him do "Hurt" by NIN inspired me to get off my duff and do a cover of that song. I thought it would be such a challenge for me. Then, when I was singing along with him, I found I was singing lower and knew I found the timbre and range to do that song, and I had wanted to do it for such a long time,

Anyway, tell Dave that I found him to be inspiring. And it's good to know other cat people. I have a dog AND a cat.

Thank you ronws! Much appreciated, and I'm honored that you found my singing to be helpful and inspiring! That means a lot to me. And Sam, my cat, says "hi", but he won't admit it...

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?

Hi Olem! Thank you for the kind compliments and the helpful critique! I am singing "One less to my last", but am modifying the vowels pretty heavily there. (w-UH-n l-EH-ss t-UH-oo m-AH l-AH-st) In a few places I cut off "t-UH-oo" a little bit too early and basically end up with just a "t-UH". So I can see how it would sound like "time I" instead of "to my".

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.

I couldn't agree more! I think there needs to be a fine balance between tonal resonance and vowel modification. If someone sings perfectly on pitch, but sounds like they have a mouth full of marbles, I don't think that adds to the performance.

Thanks guys!

[Olem]

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!

[Sethis21]

Its interesting to discover that people seem to have an issue with LeBrie's vowel modifications... It doesn't bother me in the slightest... I think vowel modifications warm up the formant tuning, and make a vocal more sonorous sometimes. What you may loose in articulation, you gain in harmonic color.

Totally agree, I prefer it like this too. It's a badass cover. The most interesting thing to me is that people only noticed it in this cover when it's everywhere. The only occassion imo where it would be advised to avoid modifying would be when the modified word resembles too much another non-modified one.

[Luna33]

Love your voice and cover of this song, love Dream Theater and I am SOOOOOO in love your cat...adorable!!

[Robert Lunte]

More Sam appearances!

[Keith]

Still waiting for a queesryche song Robert! :)

[DavidLyon]

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!

I've been singing and performing my entire life. Formally trained in vocals since birth, and performing since childhood. I started out as a classical and opera vocalist, but switched to rock in my teen years because that's what excited me most. I've been in and out of many bands, and have participated in many projects and collaborations over the years.

I've been working with Robert for about 9 months to help tweak and extra polish. He's a great coach. I'm a strong proponent that nobody is ever "done" or "good enough", there's always room for improvement and new learning - forever continue improving.

[Robert Lunte]

Cool, yes, David is one of my strongest students... has a voice made of titanium... can sing just about anything really and is a great lyricist. What he may not be telling you is that he has original tunes as well that are very cool... We have a good time... David and I like to get that "Yarl" in there at the bottom of our sirens for a laugh during our training... :lol:

[Robert Lunte]

Still waiting for a queesryche song Robert!

Fair enough Keith, Ill do it... I have a priority list Im working through. I will be uploading a "Child in Time" video any day now... then a final redo of "Souls of Silence", then some new original content, a country song and when I look back to more tributes, Ill do a QR tune... I just only have so many hours to do this stuff...

[Adolph Namlik]

More Sam appearances!

Congratulations David ---- "Pull Me Under" (cover) - The Modern Vocalist World Spotlight Video of the Week >> July 13 ~ July 20, 2013

"THUMBS UP"

David,

Kindly check out The Modern Vocalist World "Social Home Page" >> http://www.themodernvocalist.com/

Warmest Regards,

Adolph