# Devin Townsend vocal technique



## The Spanish Inquisition (Feb 20, 2016)

Hey guys, I'm a huge fan of Devin Townsend, as is everyone and their mothers nowadays. But I'm really a fan of his high screams and range of harsh vocals. He has a huge range, most of it I can cover with my normal and falsetto voice. But what I'm wondering about is how he gets the scream out of him when he screams a, let's say, A5. Is it just pushing your voice to the point of breaking up? Is it a special technique? Has anyone cracked the code yet?


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## Spicypickles (Feb 25, 2016)

You have to be Canadian. I'm sorry bro, you just don't fit the bill.


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## TheKindred (Feb 25, 2016)




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## CapnForsaggio (Feb 25, 2016)

Read up on a technique called "Vocal Fry" - I don't really know what I'm talking about with regards to vocals, but I believe this is the technique that he uses for his growl.


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## randomdude (May 17, 2020)

A little while back i was searching for tips on how to do this style of vocals, but i found nothing. While experimenting with my voice I "cracked the code" so to say, at least partially. The way i did this, i squeezed the vocal cords, and let the air through. Best way to describe this is to compare it to pushing a huge turd out of your ass and making a sound while doing it (yeah, sound weird). The thing is, Devin squeezes his vocals so much, he can subsequently switch into the whistle register. Assuming your head voice is already in shape, just apply the "taking a shit" technique on top of it, and you'll figure it out eventually. And if it hurts, you're doing it wrong. Also don't do what some vocal coaches on youtube suggested-searching for the cracking point in your voice and then adding the fry over it, that's not what Devin does. He sings a high note and then compresses/squeezes it, so the vocal cords vibrate at a high speed. Adding too much pressure will move your voice into the whistle register, because the vocals cords won't vibrate anymore. That means you'll have to find the sweet spot. Take all this with a grain of salt, i'm not a vocal coach, neither am i a professional, i just sing in bands. That's just how i learnt how to scream the way devin does. Hope anyone finds this useful.


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## Antiproduct (May 31, 2020)

randomdude said:


> A little while back i was searching for tips on how to do this style of vocals, but i found nothing. While experimenting with my voice I "cracked the code" so to say, at least partially. The way i did this, i squeezed the vocal cords, and let the air through. Best way to describe this is to compare it to pushing a huge turd out of your ass and making a sound while doing it (yeah, sound weird). The thing is, Devin squeezes his vocals so much, he can subsequently switch into the whistle register. Assuming your head voice is already in shape, just apply the "taking a shit" technique on top of it, and you'll figure it out eventually. *And if it hurts, you're doing it wrong*. Also don't do what some vocal coaches on youtube suggested-searching for the cracking point in your voice and then adding the fry over it, that's not what Devin does. He sings a high note and then compresses/squeezes it, so the vocal cords vibrate at a high speed. Adding too much pressure will move your voice into the whistle register, because the vocals cords won't vibrate anymore. That means you'll have to find the sweet spot. Take all this with a grain of salt, i'm not a vocal coach, neither am i a professional, i just sing in bands. That's just how i learnt how to scream the way devin does. Hope anyone finds this useful.


I think what you write is true, all of it. But I think it is really easy to hurt your voice with that technique as even Devin hurts his. You can see it in some studio documentarys, especially on the long screams


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## randomdude (May 31, 2020)

Frostod said:


> I think what you write is true, all of it. But I think it is really easy to hurt your voice with that technique as even Devin hurts his. You can see it in some studio documentarys, especially on the long screams


Yes i agree, he said he loses a little bit of his vocal range every tour. there's a video of strapping young lad show at the download festival and you can hear devin's voice breaking when singing clean. i don't know if he hurts his voice doing the high pitch screaming or maybe doing the more of the growl kind of screams. one thing i found particularly hard when doing this myself is applying the harshness to the midrange vocals, i guess the way i scream is only applicable to the high register. it's probably time to learn another technique


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## Antiproduct (May 31, 2020)

Good example here
It looks like he sings clean, with a lot of power and then compresses the shit out of his vocal cords (that results in an "ouch" at the end)
I think in the transcendence documentary he said that he has no idea how to sing (among all the other stuff he does), he just does it out of pure willpower lol


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## randomdude (May 31, 2020)

Frostod said:


> Good example here
> It looks like he sings clean, with a lot of power and then compresses the shit out of his vocal cords (that results in an "ouch" at the end)
> I think in the transcendence documentary he said that he has no idea how to sing (among all the other stuff he does), he just does it out of pure willpower lol



from what i've seen in the video, i think he doesn't position it like one would to prevent the pain, cuz he goes directly from the cleans to screams. but for instance, when he sang kingdom at emg thingy, he switched between the cleans and harsh vocals, but seemed to be in no pain. if you listen carefully, there's a second in between the cleans and screams. that was enough for him to sing it comfortably.  1:15 on. the guy is a fucking terminator, the stuff he sings is just amazing, and from what i've heard, his singing gets better every album. but to be frank, he does not do the whistle screams anymore, like when he was with steve vai or on syl's city. it's much more controlled
i admire him for the determination to sing something, no matter the cost. voice is a delicate thing, it can only endure so much. a while back, before i actually put time and effort into singing, i lost my head voice due to wrong screaming. took me a year to get it back + learning how to use diaphragm


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## TedEH (May 31, 2020)

I think it's important to remember that you're never going to sound exactly like another vocalist. You can end up adding a lot of strain if you focus too much on sounding like someone that you don't naturally sound like. It took me forever to sort of "find the place" I can yell/scream from and the end result is not quite what I has originally aimed for. Turns out that I don't quite have the same voice as the examples I was aiming for.

"Finding the place" is pretty accurate in terms of how I figured it out though (if it can be said I've figured anything out). Doing things properly and safely, IMO, is a matter of where in your throat or mouth the dirt element is coming from. I always try to aim so that the fry/dirt is generated from around the palate, almost feeling like it's a nasal thing. If that same thing happens in the back of the throat, like it would if you just thoughtlessly yelled, then this is when you're going to do the worst damage to your own voice. You don't want to fry your actual vocal cords, you want to move that fry to some place where it won't damage anything.

Makes me think of that "Zen of Screaming" video when they talk about "singing above the pencil". You might find a video of that somewhere if you search for it.


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## Kwert (Jun 11, 2020)

randomdude said:


> A little while back i was searching for tips on how to do this style of vocals, but i found nothing. While experimenting with my voice I "cracked the code" so to say, at least partially. The way i did this, i squeezed the vocal cords, and let the air through. Best way to describe this is to compare it to pushing a huge turd out of your ass and making a sound while doing it (yeah, sound weird). The thing is, Devin squeezes his vocals so much, he can subsequently switch into the whistle register. Assuming your head voice is already in shape, just apply the "taking a shit" technique on top of it, and you'll figure it out eventually. And if it hurts, you're doing it wrong. Also don't do what some vocal coaches on youtube suggested-searching for the cracking point in your voice and then adding the fry over it, that's not what Devin does. He sings a high note and then compresses/squeezes it, so the vocal cords vibrate at a high speed. Adding too much pressure will move your voice into the whistle register, because the vocals cords won't vibrate anymore. That means you'll have to find the sweet spot. Take all this with a grain of salt, i'm not a vocal coach, neither am i a professional, i just sing in bands. That's just how i learnt how to scream the way devin does. Hope anyone finds this useful.




While this isn't wrong, I would hesitate to use the word "squeeze" when describing this. Vocal compression, pushing a ton with the diaphragm, the "taking a shit" technique aren't bad descriptions. I'm not a singer, but I've found in teaching cello (my main instrument), verbiage when describing certain feelings is very important. "Squeeze" has all sorts of connotations of tension in the word, and while you are compressing things the last thing you want is to be tense or introduce unwanted tension in your technique when you're trying to sing those vocals. If you watch Devin do them he looks by and large relaxed an in control while singing that way. His range has definitely improved since the Strapping days, and if he was actually doing permanent, long-term damage to himself with his singing style he wouldn't be able to sing the way he does even today.

A long tour of singing like that (or long studio sessions) will wear your voice down temporarily, so it's important to let it rest and recover. Think of it like working out in that sense.


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