Wanted: Cookie Monster recipe
October 3, 2011 12:37 PM Subscribe
What vocal effects do current metal bands commonly use?
When I listen to bands like Liturgy or Wolves in the Throne Room, and others, it sounds like the distortion in their voices (whether 'cookie monster' or 'bird-like' screaming) is partly produced by a combination of effects. Which ones are commonly used, in what combination? Or are singers just doing it themselves a la Melissa Cross?
When I listen to bands like Liturgy or Wolves in the Throne Room, and others, it sounds like the distortion in their voices (whether 'cookie monster' or 'bird-like' screaming) is partly produced by a combination of effects. Which ones are commonly used, in what combination? Or are singers just doing it themselves a la Melissa Cross?
Delay, chorus, reverb, guitar amp plug ins, overdrive, compression, pitch correction, etc.. You'd be surprised how much vocal processing gets done on the simplest vocals.
posted by empath at 1:26 PM on October 3, 2011
posted by empath at 1:26 PM on October 3, 2011
Best answer: My husband runs a small metal label. In serious black metal (think Funeral Mist) bands don't use effects, unless it's more like layering of different voices that already sound the way they're supposed to. I have seen several of his bands playing live and sounding exactly the way they sound in the recording.
I should add, my husband and most metalheads I know consider Liturgy and WitTR to be what Twilight is to Dracula (YMMV), and he's positive their voices are heavily processed.
posted by Tarumba at 2:29 PM on October 4, 2011
I should add, my husband and most metalheads I know consider Liturgy and WitTR to be what Twilight is to Dracula (YMMV), and he's positive their voices are heavily processed.
posted by Tarumba at 2:29 PM on October 4, 2011
Response by poster: Thanks, Tarumba. I was wondering about that kind of split (as an interested outsider who doesn't claim to know anything about the terrain). I almost wrote "metal/metalish" in the post, not knowing how to categorize them.
If anyone out there knows, I'm still curious about the exact combination of harmonizers, distortion and other stuff thrown in the mix by the bands that do do it, even if in makes them suspect in some quarters.
posted by umbú at 9:26 AM on October 5, 2011
If anyone out there knows, I'm still curious about the exact combination of harmonizers, distortion and other stuff thrown in the mix by the bands that do do it, even if in makes them suspect in some quarters.
posted by umbú at 9:26 AM on October 5, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
You might find them using a harmonizer or octave effect to thicken the sound of the vocal on a recording, but it's not going to 'make or break' the sound. They're also probably using a slight overdrive to grit up the vocal a bit. But, in a live setting, most vocalists just really sound like that.
posted by chrisfromthelc at 1:01 PM on October 3, 2011