# Metal Vocals



## vigil785 (Mar 28, 2009)

Is it common for a metal vocalist to use a distortion pedal to get a heavier sound? Or are they just sol if they cant naturally sound like that. I am just wondering because I met a vocalist that is really good but I want him to have a more brutal sound. Like the vocalist from Carnifex or Suicide Silence. Is there any hope? I really think this guy could be amazing.


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## SleepingSymphon (Mar 28, 2009)

Well it doesn't matter if it's common or not but it could be a good sound. I love distorted vocals, personally. There's no harm trying it.


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## Seebu (Mar 28, 2009)

I personally hate distorted or pitch-shifted vocals. The "brutality" comes from the fact that a human can control his voice and manipulate it to change its very being so that it doesn't sound like a human anymore.


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## vontetzianos (Mar 28, 2009)

^ +1

I don't know any vocalists that use a distortion pedal to get a heavier sound, but if it works it works, i guess.


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## Demeyes (Mar 28, 2009)

I wouldn't mind a vocalist using effects live. If it gets you the sound you want then who cares?


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## harkonnen8 (Mar 28, 2009)

everything except distortion


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## TomAwesome (Mar 29, 2009)

I don't think a distortion pedal will do what you want it to. It can add a little grit to the sound, but cranking the gain isn't going to have nearly the same sound as a vocalist who has a good growl to begin with. If this vocalist can't do aggressive enough vocals on his own, a pedal isn't going to help.


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## vigil785 (Mar 30, 2009)

Well, I have heard a song from his old band and he sounded good. He has a good growl and scream. But his old band is not as heavy as ours is. And his vocals are a good match for that sound. I havent been able to personally try him out yet but didnt know if effects could change or help. Thanks for the input, I guess I will just have to try him out and see!


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## All_¥our_Bass (Mar 30, 2009)

Distorted vocals are cool as an effect, but they cannot make a bad growl/scream into a good one.


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## AeonSolus (Mar 30, 2009)

as everyone said above, brutality sometimes isn't equal'd to distortion, although, dialing a bit of drive to the voice is good for some situations, like bridge passages, or off voices, stuff like that, but for your main vocals you want them to come as clear as possible, because the point of having a vocalist in a band is that the message and lyrics are understood? or not..?

also, the voice can be trained to do pretty much what you want, example this guy, javi perera he doesn't look like he can do guttural singing, right?



Now.



After a long intro he gets to the singing, but you get the point, don'cha?

Some times it works, some times it doesn't, but hey! thin gutturals are not a bad thing in some cases.


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## Scar Symmetry (Mar 30, 2009)

Seebu said:


> I personally hate distorted or pitch-shifted vocals. The "brutality" comes from the fact that a human can control his voice and manipulate it to change its very being so that it doesn't sound like a human anymore.



+1 

personally I wouldn't use distorted vocals unless you want to sound like Ill Nino?


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## Jason (Mar 30, 2009)

Scar Symmetry said:


> +1
> 
> personally I wouldn't use distorted vocals unless you want to sound like Ill Nino?



 I was thinking the same thing


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## Sang-Drax (Mar 30, 2009)

All_&#165;our_Bass;1438198 said:


> Distorted vocals are cool as an effect, but they cannot make a bad growl/scream into a good one.





Two different kinds of animals.


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## Konfyouzd (Mar 30, 2009)

i knew a guy who put a little distortion on his voice when he sang live but i heard him at the band's rehearsals and he had a pretty damn good growl anyway so im not sure what the distortion was actually for... he just sounded louder really...


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## Scarpie (Mar 30, 2009)

Scar Symmetry said:


> +1
> 
> personally I wouldn't use distorted vocals unless you want to sound like Ill Nino?



i used to work with ill nino, and sadly i still can't defend his vocals despite the befriending him.  suprisingly guys them screams weren't distorted. his screams were cupped so badly with both palms at all times that it sounded as if he was screaming through a roll of paper towels. but the irony is that when he didn't cup he screamed amazing but it wasn't something christian wanted to do, hence the more melodic direction they went after their first cd.

but anyway back on topic, i wouldn't use any distortion. it's killing the beauty of screaming which is an outburst of intense feeling. by distorting a voice you are trying to manipulate that sound for the sake of doing it and defeating the purpose of a scream. i always grew an appreciation and respect for vocalists that did it with their throats and not effects because it was in their destiny to do it hence why it came naturally. it's called talent. cheating just takes part in the death of it. 

but the flipside of it is do what sounds good. just my two cents. hahah cheers fellow screamers!!


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## Scar Symmetry (Mar 30, 2009)

Scarpie said:


> his screams were cupped so badly with both palms at all times that it sounded as if he was screaming through a roll of paper towels.



yeah I know, cupping was the 'in' thing to do back then, because it sounds distorted and everyone knows that MOAR DISTORTZ = NU METAL LAWLZ  



Scarpie said:


> but the irony is that when he didn't cup he screamed amazing but it wasn't something christian wanted to do, hence the more melodic direction they went after their first cd.



that's a shame, he should've tried it at least on a few songs?


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## Scarpie (Mar 30, 2009)

well the digipak of the first cd had bonus tracks. one of which was them playing "god save us" live from england, and there was no cupping there and he sounded like a fucking monster on the verses.


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## synrgy (Mar 30, 2009)

Chino from the Deftones has done it on a few of their songs, to great effect.

It depends on the song. If there were a vocalist that used distortion as a crutch to make 'his' vocal style, I'd find that laughable. If an already great vocalist uses one to put a slightly different spin on his/her voice to better suit the song in question, .


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## Thin_Ice_77 (Mar 30, 2009)

Seebu said:


> I personally hate distorted or pitch-shifted vocals. The "brutality" comes from the fact that a human can control his voice and manipulate it to change its very being so that it doesn't sound like a human anymore.


I have to disagree. The voice is an instrument just like guitar, so why not use effects to get a better/different sound? 

I don't know about distortion, but I know Alexi Laiho used to use delay on his voice when he played live and that sounded pretty cool. I think it's definitely feasible if you do it properly.


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## Misanthropy (Apr 1, 2009)

Scar Symmetry said:


> +1
> 
> personally I wouldn't use distorted vocals unless you want to sound like Ill Nino?



Bad example, Singer from Ill nino doesn't use much distortion

These guys come to mind when i think of distorted vocals, this vocalist anyway, not the new one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP-jYCES0wE


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## Krankguitarist (Apr 1, 2009)

Speaking as a vocalist:

FX on the voice = all cool by me. But in order to get a good tone when moving into the whole gritty scream and growl thing, you gotta know how to do it properly. 

It's kinda like if you had a guitar, wired the pickup out of phase, and put it through a boogie. No matter what you put on it, it's not gonna sound as brutal as if the pickup was wired in series . That doesn't mean that it wouldn't make for a cool effect, though.

Likewise, if your vocalist is squeezing the hell out of his throat and forcing out his screams and growls, he's not gonna sound very good (and probably won't be able to speak...much less sing...the next day if he goes on for long enough). No amount of distortion will make that sound br00tal.

Get a guy who knows what he's doing, though, and lets his shit flow naturally, then you shouldn't need any sort of added grit. Though it might be cool...who knows!

Though, there is some studio magic you can pull on this sort of stuff...I was in the studio a few weeks ago tracking vocals for my bands upcoming EP, and the engineer put his "Articulator" plugin on my vocals...pure...liquid...satan. You could tell it was artificial, but it made me wanna murder goats. Honestly.


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## phantom911 (Apr 1, 2009)

Misanthropy said:


> Bad example, Singer from Ill nino doesn't use much distortion
> 
> These guys come to mind when i think of distorted vocals, this vocalist anyway, not the new one.




So he can't really scream that good? What do they do to his vocals to make them sound like that?


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## ReSiDeNt JoKeR (Apr 1, 2009)

Are there any good metal/hard rock vocalists on here by any chance ?. I have a few tunes that are crying out for a Russel Allen/Jorn Lande type singer to add their magic to.

As for topic, this has oddly never occured to me, but I imagine if you use the right level of dist it could add a lil something cool to vox.


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## All_¥our_Bass (Apr 4, 2009)

There's some Mesh and Tool songs that use distorted vocals, it's used to get that hard-clipped radio sound, which is pretty cool and wierd.


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## troyguitar (Apr 4, 2009)

I don't know why anyone would have a problem with distorted vocals but not distorted guitars...

Yeah it sounds weird, but people probably had similar thoughts about the first few guys using distortion on guitar.

(That being said, I think distortion on vocals sounds terrible but think the same about growling/screaming in general...)


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## h8leech (Apr 4, 2009)

been doing "metal vocals" for awhile, i use a POD X3 with the prog vocal preset then i put the EQ booster mod on that , works fine for me. already posted these on the recording studio section but here are the same song , one with my normal vocal style and one with a lower style

normal SoundClick artist: The Valkyrie Treaty - Heavy Metal

low SoundClick artist: The Valkyrie Treaty - Heavy Metal


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## darbdavys (Apr 11, 2009)

Thin_Ice_77 said:


> I have to disagree. The voice is an instrument just like guitar, so why not use effects to get a better/different sound?
> 
> I don't know about distortion, but I know Alexi Laiho used to use delay on his voice when he played live and that sounded pretty cool. I think it's definitely feasible if you do it properly.


 best use of effects on vocals imo. just don't know what effect that is, i always mix them up  anybody care to help?


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## TomAwesome (Apr 11, 2009)

^ What, you mean Autotune?


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## estabon37 (Apr 11, 2009)

As a big fan of At The Drive-In and Mars Volta, I can't help appreciating all kinds of vocal FX. If it adds to a song, do it.

But believe it or not, I'll also defend using vocal distortion in a live setting to 'fill in' for fucking up your voice. Nothing beats the real thing (and having a technique that doesn't hurt), but asking a vocalist to fuck up their voices for the sake of one night's gig isn't cool IMO. I believe Maynard uses vocal distortion when Tool play "Ticks and Leeches" because the end of the song fucks up his voice enough that he's screwed for the rest of the show if he does it FX free like the recording.

In short: if you wanna use distortion all the time of vocals to add to the song, cool. If you use it to save a good singer from destroying themselves, cool. If you're using it to hide a bad singer (the way some guitarists use wah to hide bad playing), not cool.


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## Harry (Apr 11, 2009)

estabon37 said:


> As a big fan of At The Drive-In and Mars Volta, I can't help appreciating all kinds of vocal FX. If it adds to a song, do it.
> 
> But believe it or not, I'll also defend using vocal distortion in a live setting to 'fill in' for fucking up your voice. Nothing beats the real thing (and having a technique that doesn't hurt), but asking a vocalist to fuck up their voices for the sake of one night's gig isn't cool IMO. I believe Maynard uses vocal distortion when Tool play "Ticks and Leeches" because the end of the song fucks up his voice enough that he's screwed for the rest of the show if he does it FX free like the recording.
> 
> In short: if you wanna use distortion all the time of vocals to add to the song, cool. If you use it to save a good singer from destroying themselves, cool. If you're using it to hide a bad singer (the way some guitarists use wah to hide bad playing), not cool.




Very good post.
Also as a big fan of ATDI and TMV (I listen to both pretty much daily, although I slightly prefer ATDI to TMV) it's good hearing how vocal effects are applied to add to sections of their songs, because it works well because Cedric is a talented vocalist in the first place.


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## darbdavys (Apr 11, 2009)

TomAwesome said:


> ^ What, you mean Autotune?


might be. I have absolutely no idea, but it sounds great to me. and it would be nice to know, because I want to play and sing this song at school next year


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## Meldville (Apr 15, 2009)

Scar Symmetry said:


> yeah I know, cupping was the 'in' thing to do back then, because it sounds distorted and everyone knows that MOAR DISTORTZ = NU METAL LAWLZ
> 
> 
> 
> that's a shame, he should've tried it at least on a few songs?



Cupped vocals are even more prominent in the deathcore trend. Vocalists who can't get deep/gutteral enough and have to cup on all their vocals to make up for their weak voice.


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## MTech (Apr 16, 2009)

vigil785 said:


> Is it common for a metal vocalist to use a distortion pedal to get a heavier sound? Or are they just sol if they cant naturally sound like that. I am just wondering because I met a vocalist that is really good but I want him to have a more brutal sound. Like the vocalist from Carnifex or Suicide Silence. Is there any hope? I really think this guy could be amazing.




It's done with good vocals/vocalist who knows what he/she is doing to start with, and a sound guy that knows what he's doing. You shouldn't cup the mic to get that sound for for one, and aside from it being poor technique it's a good way to blow the capsule on your mic. sound guys help by running it through more stages on the board as well as using slight delay. I have seen some singers use effects like Otep's singer uses a rack effect called a distressor which is compression/gain control in a rackmount unit.


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## Varcolac (May 16, 2009)

Distortion pedal plus microphone.



It's almost brutal metal vocals, in 1969!


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## Meldville (May 18, 2009)

darbdavys said:


> might be. I have absolutely no idea, but it sounds great to me. and it would be nice to know, because I want to play and sing this song at school next year



It's a vocoder, not autotune. I don't know what model(s) he uses, but I know that he changed the one he used to use when he became more confident in his singing voice. It might be in the interview they did for this site.



Misanthropy said:


> Bad example, Singer from Ill nino doesn't use much distortion
> 
> These guys come to mind when i think of distorted vocals, this vocalist anyway, not the new one.




AKA the worst vocalist ever. God, that guy was horrible beyond words. Check out live vids of them when he was in the band, it's embarassingly bad.


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