Need emergency feedback/advice on vocals for my album

[Erkan]

Listen:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/585020/CoolDude Vocals clip.mp3
(not mixed or panned or anything, raw as fuck and dirty as shit)

That guy is only 17 but he is really really good. I know he can get some AWESOME fucking screams but for some reason he sticks with this "desperate" "scream" for the main part of his vocal style throughout the song. That clip is a section of the song "CoolDude". Listen to the word "cigarettes" where there are overdubs and shit. It sounds quite huge and awesome but the rest... I don't know what the fuck is going on.

I spoke to Gareth earlier and cleared my mind a bit but I'm still confused of what to do. His vocals don't seem to fit my music very well but I KNOW he can do better. I just don't want to nag at him and make him change his style... I hate when people do that to others too so. Anyway, just throw your feedback at me, I'm sure it'll help me in some way.

Thanks guys.

 

[Nuno Filipe]

I think he is ruining your music.

 

[~BURNY~]

He sounds like he's thirteen...

 

[BrettT]

He's trying to hard to do the Sikth thing, and is doing it rather poorly.

 

[Erik Monsonis]

When he sings clean sounds pretty decent. He shouldn't do any screaming... also, some autotuning would help.

 

[ahjteam]

beginning like oldschool deftones-ish and sikth, plus gay cleans... very good singer, but a bit offkey sometimes. how about grittyness variation, best one to final version?

 

[Deofig]

It seems like he's trying to put emotion into the screams without that emotion actually being there. If he wants that desperate sound, I think you'll have to force it out of him to get it to sound good.

And don't worry about nagging him, you're the one doing the recording, work them to fit what you want to mix. Push them, hard, to their limits. That's my theory.

Also, When I got to track "emotional" vox, I tend to just kinda meditate on negative thoughts until I get that bit of a hole in my gut. This tends to help me hit that emotional part when recording vocals. Just don't over do it and end up cryin, because real men don't cry.

Another idea is to get that desperate sound, make him run around the block a couple of times. They did that with Randy Blythe of Lamb of God to get a more "I'm on the stage workin my ass off runnin around and shit" sound.

 

[Mago]

cleans are good
those kind of screams suck.
make him scream different and with more variation...i guess talking to him honest would be the best thing.
i mean its your song, you can tell him how you would like it to sound.
without telling him what to do of course...cause singers are "different"
if hes not willed just take his cleans and let someone else do the screams.
good luck bro!

 

[dani]

the screams could work, they need compression, and some mixing..

i kind of like his vocal style, and his singing is pretty strong.

in my experience, vocalists are ok with asking them to change their style.. you should just sit him down and tell him what you think!

honestly though, i could see (hear?) this working..

thanks,

EDIT: oh yea, fucking sick song. i'm so jealous of your playing!! D:

 

[gabriel g.]

I think it works for the music, but this is your music, your ART, you have to judge!!!
If your guts say no, then fire him

 

[Felix Neumann]

Screaming isn´t that bad imo..(although he could do it A LOT better) Reminds me of Kreator a bit. IF then, he should do it permanently. With some nice delay/reverb and compression this should work.

 

[Dalinkwent48@aim.com]

As weird as this is gonna sound...to me it seems like he kinda sounds like daryl palumbo...which could be a cool thing

 

[Petrocker]

You should definitely not satisfy yourself with something you think is medoicre.
You are doing a great job and are working hard on this thing, that it just wouldnt be right if you let the vocals ruin the great music.

 

[Morgan C]

There are much more talented dudes on this forum alone, both for screams and for cleans :/

Also, perhaps consider releasing a version with the vocals muted.. whatever direction you end up going with the singer.

 

[Metaltastic]

Well the recording quality of the vox isn't too hot, so that certainly doesn't help (sounds like a $20 Radio Shack mic) - but yeah, not a big fan :/

 

[Erkan]

Thanks for some seriously well placed feedback everyone. Trust me, it does help a great deal even if it means I'll be going through quite some trouble the following week(s) figuring out how to deal with this. Too many of you did not like the current vocals and I value the opinion of this forum pretty highly. The fact that I'm in doubt myself only adds to the conclusion that something has to be changed. Man I wish I could do the vox myself... :|

There are much more talented dudes on this forum alone, both for screams and for cleans :/

Also, perhaps consider releasing a version with the vocals muted.. whatever direction you end up going with the singer.

I have thought about that actually but it seems so wrong to release an "album" in 2 versions where one is instrumental and the other is not. I really want to take this as far as I can and I need vocals for that. This project/album wasn't ever meant to be instrumental

Well the recording quality of the vox isn't too hot, so that certainly doesn't help (sounds like a $20 Radio Shack mic) - but yeah, not a big fan :/

Oww that's not good. Maybe it's due to the lack of compression and EQ/Saturation and yada yada? The vocals are recorded with an AKG Perception 100 and an SM58. I left them both on in the "mix" so they're both mixed in with each other which might also be the cause of the cheap sound... there might be some slightly frequency cancellation and what not. They're in phase with each other though but I guess I'll be ending up using mostly the AKG Perception 100 anyway. Hmm anyhow, I'm not too worried about the recording quality right now. Got some serious shit to deal with first

More help/feedback would be awesome dudes. If anyone wants to have a go at the vocals, clean or screams, drop me a PM and I'll render the same clip without vox for you and send it over.

 

[Josh Burgess]

He's very obviously mimicing Sikth. But it doesn't sound that horrible at all... it just needs a lot of compression + some EQing + delays/reverb.

Honestly, that's pretty much what I would expect it to sound like totally raw for the most part... will probably sound loads better after processing

I actually find his vocals less annoying than those of Sikth (never liked their vocal style, although I love their music), but definitely needs processing and mixing...

 

[Zombietakeover]

Think the Dudes Vocal are really cool and unique .....My problem is the mix....He could sound way better......His patterns and the shit he is doing is cool.....I would have got some better takes from him.....and then tune, align whatever you got to do......but i think he could sound awesome , i would love to record him

the music goes off quite a bit also at times

 

[corellia_guitar]

Clean vox definitly light years ahead of screams. Needs to work a lot on them. And honestly theres nothing wrong with telling him what you want outta him and what you think your music needs. And if he agrees and is interested in learning the style your interested in then you may want to go further with him.

 

[Charles J]

As weird as this is gonna sound...to me it seems like he kinda sounds like daryl palumbo...which could be a cool thing

That's the exact same thing I thought!!!!!!!! For raw vocal takes, this is fucking good!

I actually dig this emotional style a LOT, you just need to get better takes out of him. Have him do a couple passes through and make a comp of all the good bits.

Slam his voice through an 1176 and I guarantee you it'll sound sick.

Also, my favorite new plug for helping out vocals is Soundtoys Decapitator. Dial in a real nice, dark distortion and set the mix knob WAYYY back. The way the mix knob works on that thing is amazing....