Screamed/growled vocals - how do you mix them?

[Morgan C]

I'm asking not so much 'how do mix vocals', but rather 'what is important in metal vocals'. I often add some saturation and distortion, dirty up the tracks to get them sounding nasty and mean, especially if the singer isn't great to begin with. However this results in it being quite hard to understand what they're saying.

Is it more important to have vocals that sound badass, or that you can actually tell what they're saying?

 

[vespiz]

Really depends on the band/singer and if they have anything worthwhile to say!

Have you tried parallel distortion? That keeps the original clarity intact - such as there is - but adds the nastiness.

 

[Morgan C]

Really depends on the band/singer and if they have anything worthwhile to say!

Have you tried parallel distortion? That keeps the original clarity intact - such as there is - but adds the nastiness.

Yeah I usually use distortion in parallel. But still, if I take multitracks that are posted up here.. my vocals SOUND good but they're much less intelligible than others.

 

[vespiz]

It might be that guitars or drums are masking the vocals?

One mix I did I recently, I had to boost the very top end of the growls about 9-10dBs and upper mids about 3dB in order for them to start making any sense. Otherwise it was just mumbling along happily. It happens.

A small(short) room/plate verb could also separate the vocals a bit from the rest of the band.

 

[Headof75]

A lot of the time this should be an artistic/production/creative decision I think.
Obviously it depends on the ability of the vocalist, but if you think about Obituary's Slowly We Rot for instance you've got nicely recorded and mixed unintelligible vocal noise done on purpose. This would be the same on most brutal death metal/deathcore, extreme hardcore and grind. Anybody who expects to make guttural puking noises and have the kids dig their message is perhaps being a bit unrealistic...

 

[Morgan C]

It might be that guitars or drums are masking the vocals?

One mix I did I recently, I had to boost the very top end of the growls about 9-10dBs and upper mids about 3dB in order for them to start making any sense. Otherwise it was just mumbling along happily. It happens.

A small(short) room/plate verb could also separate the vocals a bit from the rest of the band.

It's more that making the vocals more intelligible usually also makes them less aggressive, and vice versa.

A lot of the time this should be an artistic/production/creative decision I think.
Obviously it depends on the ability of the vocalist, but if you think about Obituary's Slowly We Rot for instance you've got nicely recorded and mixed unintelligible vocal noise done on purpose. This would be the same on most brutal death metal/deathcore, extreme hardcore and grind. Anybody who expects to make guttural puking noises and have the kids dig their message is perhaps being a bit unrealistic...

This.
But I rarely pay much attention to vocals, especially in metal music. For a normal metal band, let's say Chimaira, how important is it to you guys (asking as fans, not as AE's) to be able to understand the vocals, or are most of you just headbanging to the guitars?

 

[Skinny Viking]

I think it's mostly important for certain parts, like a chorus or the song's tag line or whatever

For instance something like a Slayer tune ... No one gave a shit about knowing the words or singing along when we would play "Postmortem" but they were all waiting for the spot to scream along with "do you wanna DIE"

 

[Headof75]

I think it's mostly important for certain parts, like a chorus or the song's tag line or whatever

For instance something like a Slayer tune ... No one gave a shit about knowing the words or singing along when we would play "Postmortem" but they were all waiting for the spot to scream along with "do you wanna DIE"

I agree with you, but I guess (unfortunately) it depends on the audiences tastes. I'm 36 and progressed over my teens from listening to Maiden and Sabbath, to American and European Thrash, to Death Metal, Doom and more experimental stuff like Voivod, Celtic Frost and Godflesh. The reason why I didn't get into Napalm Death in their earliest grind incarnations was because there wasn't really anything to fix on in the music, no hooks, no strong vocals, no (recognisable) riffs - just a blur. So having a strong, memorable something in a song or production is really important to me as a listener.

BTW I know ALL the words to Angel of Death and Altar of Sacrifice, but yeah ENTER TO THE REALM OF SATAN!

 

[Skinny Viking]

^ all fine and good and true ... but the original question was mainly about screamed / growled vocals

 

[Headof75]

Absolutely, but the post prior to mine, by the OP, asked this:

For a normal metal band, let's say Chimaira, how important is it to you guys (asking as fans, not as AE's) to be able to understand the vocals, or are most of you just headbanging to the guitars?

 

[Skinny Viking]

I thought Chimaira was in that whole "screamed / growled vocal" genre?

I might have fucked up though .... because that was the point I was responding to in his post above my 1st one as well

 

[Chris Lucas]

Wait....you're supposed to be able to understand growly vocals?

 

[RedDog]

Here's what you do:


Learn the lyrics.
Headbang to the lyrics.
Feel dumb?
Crank the guitars.

 

[ahjteam]

Is it more important to have vocals that sound badass, or that you can actually tell what they're saying?

Both, since articulation vs sound quality is not "one or the other" kinda deal.