While it definitely could be that, we did clean vocals without a hitch and have recorded screams without any issues previously. Just wondering if there were any vocal warm ups that are counter productive for screaming technique that he may be doing.
He has improved his singing range by about two or three semi tones, could this effect it? I hope we go into the studio tomorrow ad things just happen!
Cheers for everything said so far.
If:
He could scream before,
It's only been in the last couple of weeks that he's had problems,
He's doesn't have any symptoms of anything being wrong
Then it's almost certainly psychological and not physical. Get everyone else to leave the studio (if you can help it, don't let the singer know they're leaving because of him - tell them to go have lunch or something), get him relaxed (not with alcohol or drugs, both of which will fuck his throat up - make him laugh, tell him a stupid story about another recording session or something). Put on a CD he likes with some screaming and get him to scream along in the control room - join in if needs be so he doesn't feel under the spotlight.
If it was asthma, it would affect his singing as well - singing moves just as much air as screaming, which is what causes the problems. It has no effect on your voice, it's an issue with the airways behind your vocal chords - so he'd be able to sing/scream fine to start with, but would become breathless etc.
Warm-ups are exactly that - they get the blood flowing to the relevant bits so they're ready to work. It's not like the wrong set of warm ups at the gym mean you can jump but your walking goes to shit.
Same thing with improving your range - that comes as a result of better technique and stronger vocal chords, neither of which would hinder you screaming.
The
only way that his newly improved singing voice would affect his screaming is if his screaming technique was terrible to begin with, and the improved singing has removed bad habits that he used when screaming - in which case it's a good thing in the long run.
Honestly, some of you people talk like screaming is some incredibly precious, difficult, painful talent. It's not.
You can't magically lose the ability to scream unless there's an underlying medical cause (polyps and oedema are the common ones) - in which case, you speaking voice will be affected if it's a vocal chord problem, or your general health will be affected if it's something else (asthma, lung conditions, muscle strains).
If it causes you to become light-headed/blackout, it means you're really bad at it - you're forcing airflow and making yourself hypoxic. Essentially, you're vocalising a panic attack.
If it makes you stomach feel tense/tight afterwards, you're technique is bad and you're forcing it. You should be using your diaphragm, not your abdominals.
It shouldn't hurt, you shouldn't lose your voice after a couple of takes, and you shouldn't need to get tanked to do it. All of those imply you have to push hard to do it, which all mean your technique is bad. It shouldn't be significantly harder than singing or even speaking.
Steve
