Opera With Rock

[Isis]

To be honest, I sing in that opera-kind-of-way, the whole high voice thing, but the minute my band's leader tells me to apply this to a rock tune (Nightwish, "Amaranth" style) my voice fails miserably, and i can't even hold my voice in tune. Studio or just getting past my grade 4 (im nervous, cos of all this practice my throat is sore and my exam's on saturday). My teacher listened and said her voice was studio altered, but... really? I really want to know if it is or isn't and if not, how she does it, cos I have nuh clue.

[john]

hey

when you say "fails"... what happens?

You say you can't hold your voice in tune... from your perspective what stops you being in tune? Hearing yourself? too much noise going around?

Some singer's recordings do get tuning treatments in the studio but not all. There is no real reason why any given singer should need tuning treatments other than poor voice training or poor ear training... unless the studio engineer is not doing their job, including advising the singer... producers should at the very least be able to suggest a few tricks to help singers who are not used to studios. For example only wearing one of the earphones. Rehearsal studio wise you could try turning up the monitoring for yourself (the sound coming back at you from the singer's fold-back speaker) and/or cupping your fingers around the back of your ear with the heel of your hand towards your mouth like a "hand phone" lol This improves the perception of the sound coming out your mouth, making it louder in comparison to the sound that travels through your jaw.

Voice wise, try gargling with slightly salt, warm water to help soothe those chords. It sounds like you are either straining from over use or straining to be heard... the first should be treated with some rest, the latter being treated with either a) turning yourself up or turning everyone else down or c) either of a) or via the monitor mix.

hope this helps

Cheers

john

cheers

John