This Is The Most Important Instrument In The World
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- Опубликовано: 21 окт 2021
- How voices work.
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Many instruments have defined many musical movements over the years, but there's one that's played a pivotal role in almost every one: The human voice. The way a singer uses their voice is one of the clearest ways of shaping a musical identity. Despite its clear significance, though, or perhaps because of it, the voice is notoriously hard to analyze. There's so many factors that it's hard to know where to begin, but hey, let's give it a shot.
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Some additional thoughts/corrections:
1) Thanks to Brian McManus and Laura Crone for lending me their voices here! Check out their channels:
Real Engineering: ruclips.net/user/RealEngineering
Laura Crone: ruclips.net/user/LauraCrone
2) If you're wondering what's up with the notation I used for the spoken/rapped vocals, I explain it in this video: ruclips.net/video/A9OwJvKV_9I/видео.html
3) On the Killer Mike verse, I should clarify what I meant about syncopation. it does have 8th-note pickups, which means it technically is syncopated, and he's also doing this metric displacement thing that's its own sort of rhythmic complexity, but if you quantized the whole performance, the emphases in his phrasing would mostly align with the beats. The reason they don't, and the reason it sounds so rhythmically intense, is primarily those microrhythmic adjustments.
4) An important thing to be clear about here is that this is a model, and all models make assumptions about priorities and values. For instance, rolling all those different kinds of motility into one parameter may underemphasize the importance of specific motilic behaviors in certain styles, so if you're working expressly within such a style, it may be worth separating that behavior out into its own parameter.
5) In retrospect, I maybe could've chosen a better example of clear, non-buzzy vocals than Taylor Swift. The problem is that some level of masky brightness is characteristic of most styles of popular music because it works really well in a microphone, so finding someone that has _none_ of it was difficult. Swift's soft head-voice tone in that passage does, I think, have relatively low buzziness, but there's definitely still some there.
6) I think it's worth noting that, while they're correlated, there's not a one-to-one relationship between register and pitch. Depending where you are in your range, you may have multiple register options for a single note. For example, later in All Of Me, Legend does go to some high notes with a fuller tone than that light falsetto he used earlier. In fact, he's singing the exact same notes (topping out around Ab) but the tone is still noticeably different from what he was doing down lower, with a more prominent masky brightness and overall louder volume as opposed to the thick, warm, gentle chest sound on the low notes.
7) When I said "Rob Zombie" you thought I was gonna play Dragula, didn't you? Come on, admit it. You did. You totally did. (Also I screwed up the notation there a bit, I got the rhythm from the wrong phrase. In that one he anticipates the word "rats" by an 8th before the downbeat of bar 2.)
8) I hope I don't have to clarify this, but just in case, the point of the example at the end wasn't to, like, make fun of Brian Aubert for sounding like a woman or whatever. I like his voice. The point was to demonstrate that vocal tones do not correlate one to one with gender, and male voices can have many of the qualities we've learned to associate with femininity without actually being female voices.
9) Also, I kinda danced around this a bit, but the discussion of how vocal characteristics are tied to culture is, of course, closely connected to the discussion of cultural appropriation. For instance, white artists in hip-hop will often adopt vocal characteristics associated with urban Black culture (Iggy Azalea is a commonly cited example of this) in order to sound more "legit" and connect their work to the primarily Black communities where hip-hop originated, often without having any real connection to those communities. It's an important thing to be aware of, so I wanted to at least acknowledge it, but I didn't want to get too deep into it in the video because I don't feel like I'm particularly well-qualified to speak on those issues.
10) One thing I worry about sometimes in videos like this is that it may all just seem obvious. Most of what I talked about here is stuff you could probably pretty quickly come up with if I asked you to describe distinguishing characteristics of voices, but that's kinda the point. A good theoretical model is a way to formalize your intuitions: That these feel obviously correct means the model is doing a good job and can meaningfully reflect listener experiences.
Why do you transcribe vocal melodies an octave higher than their sounding pitch?
I totally thought you were gonna play "Dragula." Besides that, great video!
Lol, all Aubert fans think he sounds like a lady anyway. No offense taken, as I'll probably be the only SSPU fan in the comments of this video 😢 (Go check them out, other people!!!)
oh i don't know about the other people but all of this is far from obvious for me
As a vocalist and a speaker, I've listened to, analyzed, experimented with, and practiced these concepts over the years, but I've never seen anyone pull it together as well as you have. This is not only a great public service, but a must-watch for anyone interested in singing at any level.
And I didn't get the impression that you were diminishing Aubert in any way. You tapped into the psychology of perception and used it to illustrate your point beautifully. As someone who likes his voice, it was great to hear that clip!
Its amazing how the voice can sound like a flute, a violin, a whistle, and a dying bird depending on how its used
Yoko
@@scottmatznick3140 yo! Lol 😆 🤣 😂 too funny
Also courtney love and dying seagulls
@@navidson1290 you literally cannot prove that any human creation is "not true art". if you want to be taken seriously then you should simply argue why yoko ono makes BAD art, not that she isnt an artist at all
@@navidson1290 Maybe the fact that you're so invested in proving that yoko ono isnt really an artist is actually its own proof to the contrary. This discussion is probably the exact response she was hoping for, a discussion of the "true" nature of art, or whether such a thing even exists. Personally I only dislike Ono because shes unoriginal, many have made the same statement about art before her, albeit in a more subtle manner.
@@navidson1290 Your first comment was a challenge to "explain" why yoko onos art is actually art. i was simply telling you why this is impossible to do because art is inherently subjective. even the definition of art itself is inherently subjective because there is no single "true" definition. All you've really said in response is that there NEEDS to be some level of objectivity in art, without explaining why
2 years ago I had used a "pop punk voice" for years. I blew out my voice after a performance and realized I needed vocal help. I felt it was impossible to learn vocals and keep up with my life until March 2020. As the world grinded to a stop, I decided to learn. I found Jeff Rolka on RUclips (who I believed saved my voice.) The beautiful thing about Jeff was he makes videos highlighting abilities of every vocal range. I soon learned I was a lyric baritone and instead of running away from that to try to sound like a pop punk tenor I finally embraced it. I realized that Chris Martin from Coldplay had my vocal range and started shaping my voice around those with similar ranges. John Mayer, Julian Casablancas, and Gary Lightbody had a similar voice. Learning how voice worked turned me around. No longer was voice "just talking," but indeed my own instrument. I learned things I could do that nobody else could, and things other people could do that I could marvel at. The beautiful thing is if you compare your voice to anyone, chances are you can do a couple of things better than them (with training.) The voice is beautiful and every musican should learn thier own internal instrument.
I was in a band with Jeff Rolka for a very short time in Oakland years ago
Thank you for your story, I just subscribed to his channel. My voice still cracks and breaks and has a mind of its own, perhaps some of these videos can help
I’ll check him out, i’ve always hated how i can’t reach a high pitch as many of my idols do it perfectly, but I know that I have to embrace the voice I have and make it work for me and my music.
As much as we wanna be and sound like other people, at the end of the day we can Only be ourselves, and that’s how we can tell our story the best way.
Thanks for sharing!
Ok, I cant play an instrument, nor sing, but i do listen to a wide variety of music and have learned about vocals and instrumentation from different RUclips channels. So, since you have first hand experience with it, I'm going to ask: What is it like? Is there a moment in time that you feel something happen to your vocal chords, or just using improper techniques to achieve a desired tone or sound or rasp/growl and doing it for too long.
"That doesn't mean we can't try"
*shows Parker square* 😂
4:11
I thought there's no way he just drew a Parker square, but I looked a bit closer. Glad somebody else noticed it.
@@461weavile Considering all the other Easter Eggs there are in the drawings, I knew it had to be a Parker Square, but yeah, I'm right there with you!
That was perfect
@@rmdodsonbills yeah, I shouldn't be surprised. I mean, the icon for difficulty is a battletoad, lol
Not only is the voice the most important instrument in the world, it's also kind of the most underrated because a lot of people don't really think of it as an instrument at first. Some singers even take that fact for granted and end up not taking care of their voices like they would a piano or guitar.
As a musical theater/opera singer turned Singer songwriter, and just in general person who is always singing to himself, I can honestly say that my voice is one of the most important aspects of my person. The few times where I’ve lost my voice have been brutal. It’s almost like losing a hand. I don’t realize how often and for how many different things I use my voice for, and the range of expression that I utilize with my voice until it’s not there anymore
This may be a weird question to ask, but I am sincerely asking: how do you get over the feeling of hubris that you actually have a voice worth listening to? I'm trying to break into music in general, and have been playing guitar for a while, despite not knowing what I'm doing at all. Lol. I've considered karaoke, but times being what they are, that's not as much of an option, especially in rural America. Any advice would be helpful, I think.
@@codyramsey7217 Record yourself, listen, practice, record, listen, practice...
As a guitarist and bassist who tries to sing his own work, and hates his voice; that's how I have managed at least to level, where I find my singing "acceptable"
Recording gear for computer isn't expensive these days. And smartphone is plenty enough for practice. My wife actually made pretty damn good sounding song recorded completely by phone... I have no idea how she did that...
BTW, theres a lot of karaoke in youtube for practice material!
Literally nothing frustrates me as much as getting sick, because my voice is super sensitive to it. Usually takes me weeks to get my full voice back after a cold or something. I seriously can't stand even that few weeks.
@@ossiehalvorson7702 Imagine never liking your own voice to begin with.
I started to deliberately trying to keep my voice low as teenager. Later on I just gave up and learned to accent my voice so it won't annoy people too much.
Even in my 30's If I speak "loud and clear" I sound like scrawny teenager. That's why, when singing, it's usually inbetween punk rock like shout, Dave Mustaines sneer and classic metal growl. That's type of singing I can do.
@@jhutt8002 Oh, I never meant to imply that I like my voice by any stretch. I guess it has its moments, but I just enjoy the act of singing and creating. I think I have good control, good technique, great range, I can do a lot of styles, etc., but no matter what I do differently, I really dislike the actual underlying timbre of my voice, which really isn't something that can be fixed.
As someone with autism, visualizing the voice mechanisms through metaphors never helped me and I couldn't understand why. It wasn't until I saw x-rays and vocal diagrams that it all started to click. It's certainly a difficult instrument to learn (moreso to self-teach) because of exactly how you phrased it: "I can't show you how to do it properly or what you're doing wrong."
I also have autism and it kinda sucks not understanding how metaphors correlate with how I can sing. I guess that's why I have more of a James hetfield voice because people describe it as quiet yelling while clenching your stomach. Wich sounds more doable than "growl with passion"
3:05 - "You can think of it like the resonance chamber of an acoustic guitar, but gross." I laughed way too hard at that!
😁 Me too! And the deadpan delivery was perfect
I just want to say how I love how around 6:58 when you mentioned stylistic appropriateness you drew a more photorealistic elephant. Thing like that I feel are a lot of what I generally like these videos.
Thank you for pointing that out lol that's amazing
I had to think about that for a moment, and yeah it was good.
As someone who was often told I "couldn't" sing and then found artists like Sade and Macy Gray (which lead me to find out I'm just mezzo or tenor), this. This whole video. Thanks.
Finding good songs when you have a range that's unusual for your preferred styles is a bitch XD I never really got accused of being unable to sing in general, but a lot of factors went into that. Being unable to properly sing a lot of the music I love, on the other hand... soooo many songs have bits that are just a bit too high, or a bit too low.
"Here's Angela Gossow"
Well, you couldn't get me with that one. 🤘
Technically it's Alissa White-Gluz, the singer who replaced Angela in the same band
@@coalesced_ True. And fwiw, I still find that they sound fairly "feminine" when they do screaming vocals. Unlike Tatiana Shmaylyuk from Jinjer... she doesn't even sound like the same person when she shifts between screaming and clear singing.
@@coalesced_ Wait was it Alissa White-Gluz? That's who I thought was before he said Gossow (who I had not heard of until now), and also the first person that popped into my head when asked to imagine a female vocalist singing
As a singer with a very buzzy voice but a resonant lower range, this is the kind of viewpoint that fascinates me!
I've got the same thing going on, I'm wondering if I have a deviated septum type situation
@@davidjairala69 what is that?
Smashing pumpkins. Great for buzzy vocal warmups
When you were talking about the different kinds of microphone and stuff I was reminded of how Gorillaz uses that old gritty radio mic for 2-D's voice sometimes (and the famous impactful switch to a smoother, cleaner mic for the chorus in Feel Good, Inc)
This may be one of the first music theory videos with a shoutout to theremin players
Using a Parker square to symbolise giving it a go and failing was perfect
Wow, this video is a masterpiece. The comics are on point, the examples are all over the place in a very good way (I wish I had half Cory's musical vocabulary), and there were several terms I'd never heard before (motility in particular).
My favorite singer (R.I.P.) was Chester Bennington of Linkin Park. He and Mike had a really great synergy, and he's one of the few who could do the scream voice without losing most of the pitch/clarity.
Late to the party, but I've recently listened to a lot of his performances, and actually, he DOES lose a bunch of his clarity from his screams. I even listened to a performance of With You back from 2001, and even then, you can hear the damage his screams have done. By the 2nd chorus, he was already losing pitch and clarity when it came to the clean parts.(could've also been his bad habits back then, he did have some problems with alcoholism). And I've found some of the post 2010 performances of the early songs that he's tensing up so much to even do just the clean parts.
At 21:03, that is Arch Enemy, but it is Alyssa White-Gluz doing the vocals on the song War Eternal.
I'm glad someone else caught that
“But that doesn’t mean we can’t try”
Me: wait, is that..?? THE PARKER SQUARE!!!
This reference made my day. Thank you
I came over from Curiosity Stream just to comment on the Parker Square. I love you for that, thank you.
He did that twice!
Small detail, but at 21:02 when you use the example of Angela Gossow, that particular song isn't her, it's actually Alyssa White-Gluz, Arch Enemy switched vocalists, and it is nitpicky, but great video overall.
I often feel like singing isn't important enough, this is so inspirational 💖 Also I didn't expect that Dave drawing 😂🤣😂
14:28 These sentences change everything for me. I will never listen to Bob Dylan the same again.
When you asked what I imagined a woman’s singing voice sounded like, I immediately thought of an operatic low alto-type voice, so I don’t actually know which example is closer.
Dang, I kind of wish you would have mentioned resonance shifting in more detail. imo it's one of my most underdiscussed aspects of voice. Like how it changes based on laryngeal height or lip and tongue positioning and what kind of qualities it can be used to produce. Otherwise this was a great video!! Thoroughly enjoyed it 😊
That's what I've been learning about in my voice lessons (as a vocal music major) for the first time and it's kind of blowing my mind. I've only begun to discover what that means in my voice and I know I have a loooong way to go figuring it out and applying to my own vocal study. All the other voice majors and teachers talk about resonance all the time and as a long time choral singer it is a whole new world.
There's lots of voice science studies on that currently! If you're interested in the scientific side of it, look up Dr. Sundberg
@@isabelamoschkovich3208 Oh thank you for the recommendation!
1:28 DAVE IS THAT YOU- WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY 12TONE VIDEO
yo what the heck you cited victoria malawey and she’s my musicianship teacher rn
0:46 Is Real Engineering now getting into music theory? 😍
I can hear the similarity! But Tantacrul would be more likely, both because he makes music theory videos and because he’s been known to reference poststructuralist theory, so he’d be a natural choice to quote Barthes.
It’s Tantacrul
When I was in university studying linguistics, I remember my professor describing the vocal chords as "a ball of lips"
Great video! Not all buzz is nasal, though. There are acoustic modifications we can achieve just changing slightly the position/tension level of our tongues and the shape of our lips.
I love the Parker Square reference
I smiled widely when I saw it :D
This was great! I appreciate you explaining these concepts and giving so many excellent examples, while also emphasizing that how we feel about different vocals is subjective.
A related video I'd love to see if the use of mouth effects (beatboxing etc.) in music, and/or acapella groups. I'm thinking specifically of Pentatonix here because the way they use vocal effects, not just beatboxing but mimicking electronic effects etc., is really unique and fascinating.
Also mimicking instruments! Kevin has done whole saxophone solos with just his voice.
Or Adam from Home Free -- who not only does vocal percussion, but plays a mean harmonica with only his voice.
Thank you so much for your videos, I always find them so inspiring when I hit a creative slump. Sharing your knowledge as you do is such a gift, and we are so lucky to be here.
This video is absolutely fantastic. It's a tall order explaining such complex and nuanced topics of musical anatomy and analysis in a such a basic and easy to digest format, and you're really good at it.
I refer all my friends who are less musically literate than myself to your videos, and I get really excited whenever you publish a new one.
I love your content and I just wanted to shout that into the ever expanding void that is RUclips. In regards to the "imagine a woman's voice" exercise towards the end, I politely nod to you in metalhead.
I enjoy all of your videos, but this one is particularly excellent. It must have taken forever to pick out so many different examples (and insert just enough that it clearly makes the point without setting you up for a copyright strike), but they really elevate the video. A sample is worth a thousand words. Great stuff.
Love your videos, insights, voice, everything! Please go on!
Wonderful work, as always. Thanks for the tools.
Cory, this is one of my favourite of your videos. Super interesting. Awesome job!
10:49
"can take so many different forms"
draws Andalite
Ah, a cultured person.
The amount of attention to detail you have is mind blowing!!
This was a fascinating video to watch. It's easy to tell a good singer from a bad one, but it's not easy to tell why one is better than the other. The fact you just laid out everything that makes singing work is awesome. I feel like a better singer already!
This is a genuinely great analysis and explanation of vocal technique, and I love that you hear the musical value in all the different styles of vocalizing. While you were talking about prosody, I was sure I could hear Amy Winehouse getting ready to jump into the lesson as an extreme example of phrasing that is way behind the beat, especially in "Rehab", but maybe there's so much to discuss there that Rehab gets a video of its own...or maybe this is such a great lesson that my brain tried to piece together everything from every voice I've ever heard.
Also, I want to hear YOU sing. I've already decided that I will like it, unless...nope, there's no "unless". Anything you sing, I will listen, appreciate, and respect.
I love all your videos and you inspired me to take up doodling 😍❤️✨
I think the best pieces of vocal advise I have ever gotten have been very picturesque. My current vocal teacher told me at one of our first lessons to, "Sing like a Russian choir" on the song Impossible Year. (The song is a low, baritone song, at least in the beginning.) This advice actually worked quite nicely after I listened to a bit of the choir, because a vocalist that knows how to harmonize is prepared to pick up on those intricacies and add them into their arsenal. What a vocal coach is is basically someone who figured out what needed to be emulated, where, and why, so their job is to impart that on a student. At times, they need to focus on specific techniques that are used all around, and that's where conversations about mouth positions and the ever feared breath support discussions come in. (Sidenote: breath support is by far the most important thing for a starting singer to grasp, as it ties into all music going forward and is such an asset in every way.)
I love so many of your videos, but this one is SO useful for my students. I teach music at a community college (including classes in classical and popular voice), and so many of my students' expectations are completely unexamined. This video is a great place to start examining those expectations, and has some excellent information and examples that I don't often have time to share. I'm sending the link to all of my students today. Thank you again for your amazing work.
I LOVE your examples for extreme voices... (and have known probably 70% from my own playlists)
lazere tuka tuak lazere tuka tuka
yeeeeeah I'm so glad you put Mystery of Bulgarian Voices' Moma Houbava there
ever since adam neely briefly mentioned that genre I was hooked
I was waiting for this type of video!
Another excellent video! thank you for the wonderful and always very informative and cohesive content. Really loved the Parker square at 4:15 :) Take care.
And 12:03
This one was amazing. Thank you so much
4:13
Amazing use of the Parker square
I don't comment often, but I wanted to mention a couple of points.
First, I think that you could do a whole video on Serj Tankian's voice in general. He does some very...unique things with it.
But also, I found it very interesting in a cosmic coincidence sense that this video comes out as I'm finally getting things together for my second channel, which could be described as "What is 12Tone listened to Vocaloid?"
I love your channel. I really like how you have slowed down a bit over the last few years.
Those of us that are interested will definitely listen to ANOTHER 5 to 10 minutes of you, so we can have time to think about what you say. Lol
LETS GOOO thanks for the shout out 😌
As a choir singer, there's nothing else as breathtaking as a whole collage of different voices learning to sing as the same voice
Few years ago I listened to Heart Shaped Box by Nirvana, and I noticed that x-Cobain raised his voice pitch a little at the end of some notes.
Raising the end of the note is actually a good way to make your overall tone sound deeper. As making your tone sound higher than it actually is by lowering the ending of the note. And it's pretty easy to do as well!
A good example of this is Balls Deep in Love sung by Junior, Scottie Pippen and Cleveland in The Cleveland Show - The higher vocals end in a down swing, the lower vocals end in an up swing and Cleveland is flat as ever.
This was a really neat video! And I think it made me realise some things about myself? I used to have a really clear, well-trained soprano voice, but due to some slight thyroid shenanigans I've now got something more like a lower soprano/tip of alto range (not quite sure what it's doing tbh), and I fell out of practice because for a while it hurt my throat to sing. Now I'm trying to get back in practice, and it almost feels like I fell asleep and woke up with a different body. It's very disorienting!!! But knowing some of these tricks, as I rebuild my vocal strength hopefully I can more mindfully go for certain sounds to evoke moods I used to be able to convey just through pitch.
Oh my god! That's my music professor! I go to the school that Victoria Malawey teaches at and I've taken a class with her! It is honestly so unreal to see someone I personally know cited by you for an entire video! I've watched you for so many years and to hear you say my teacher's name is a crazy clash of worlds! By the way, with regard to pronouncing her last name, the first syllable is stressed so the second "a" is a schwa. But anyway, I just read her book over winter break and this was an excellent summary of it. Always love your videos, keep up the good work!
This video was exceptionally entertaining. That Andalite was quite the deep dive. I wonder how many people even know what I'm referring to.
Love all your videos❤️
Definitely makes me want to take better care of my voice. Such a cool video!
Excellent explanation of the framework.
Wow. Now that's an analysis! 20-odd parameters of a voice, probably giving more combinations than any individual can hear in a lifetime. And that's before we even get to the song, which add at least as many more metrics again. This is why music is the finest artform, and I will never come close to understanding it all.
Awesome information! Thank you!
This was a very nice, uh, summary of what you would have loved to make a 3 hour video about. I particularly like how objective you keep it.
A little before the 4 minute mark you talk about how you can’t see your instructors/your own vocal mechanisms, and it got me thinking... What if a vocal coach used ultrasound imaging in their class? They could visually demonstrate what exactly their internal bits are doing, and the student could replicate it accurately! I wonder if any studies/practices have been done with imaging equipment before. It’d be cool.
The problem is all those mechanisms can't be controlled directly, you can only learn how good singing sounds and even more importantly how it FEELS like to you. Great teachers will help you recognise, understand and control the feeling rather than just the sound. To your other point, there are in fact vocal techniques that teach and demonstrate the voice anatomy claiming that will help you sing better. I won't make names but it's all nonsense, it gives you false perspective and takes the focus away from the really important aspects of singing like breath control, projection, resonance, phrasing, etc.
I’m not a huge fan of The Doors but “Cars Hiss by My Window” has this great outro where Jim Morrison starts warbling and it sounds somewhere between a Strat with humbuckers and possessed cat shrieks, it’s fantastic
I love all of this. Thanks so much.
14:10 I wish I could have said I liked for this example but I already liked the video for the presentation and clear breakdown of ideas
the transition to ''this is me on my gaming headset'' has me in tears, i don't know if it was an intentional joke but it did send me to orbit @ 18:16
2:00 Honestly, there's so much processing on those three voices I can't tell they're not the same guy.
Amazing video!!
I've been listening to you and Neely promoting Nebula for the past couple years now. And I feel like I'm finally ready to pull the trigger and get a subscription. Question though, is there an app/way to watch on a smart TV? (A Samsung TV if that makes a difference.) That is how I watch 90% of what I watch on RUclips and it would be essential to me wanting to have that resource. Thanks for any insights!
I just want to say when you hit me with that super high James Labrie line it was like a hit of ecstasy.
Fantastic video!
Wonderful video, thank you very much.
I am happy to see this, as it allows me to explain what bothers me about many uses of Auto-Tune as an effect. So often it seems to take away or overshadow these aspects of the voice. It may smooth it out, or it may just add a bunch of harmonics that overpower it. And that's when I find it unpleasant to listen to.
I don't mind it being used judiciously for pitch correction, as long as it isn't noticeable. Sometimes you need that pitch to be perfect. And I'm fine with how it was used in, say, those PBS Digital videos of Mr. Rogers or Bob Ross, because they kept their vocal characteristics intact most of the time. (Though you did lose it a bit on the higher notes.) You didn't completely remove what makes the voice sound good, and you could understand it.
This is also why I hate overly cleaned vocals, even without Auto-Tune, when used by a capella groups. It's why I don't like Pentatonix at all. They might as well use instruments for as much as they sound like synths.
Eyyy 12tone made a video about my favorite instrument!
The synthesizer rains supreme in the ability to make the widest variety of sounds WAY beyond what a human voice can do. Thank you.
i've been developing synths for twenty years. and no, you haven't heard them.
take up overtone singing.
(agreeing, but disagreeing)
Generally not, actually. Synthesizers *as they're actually used by most musicians* are pretty limited by their tone/patch based timbres and the nature of equal-tempered keyboards, and the sort of subtle, impromptu expression available to a singer or even an acoustic instrumentalist is far beyond the limits of modern synth technology. Synths tend to make a "mosaic" sort of music made of very discrete pre-planned elements.
@@tankermottind in other words, you never saw police academy. considering the potential of the lyre birds syrinx to not only reproduce the sound of a chainsaw cutting down trees but also the reverberation within the forest, don't you think that the potential of the larynx is likely to parallel any synthesis architecture excepting one specifically designed for the timbral event series? good overtone singers can do a resonant sample and hold series on par with M - pop music.
i mean, i've developed synths for twenty years. i've used several architectures that require about a week full time editing to render eight measures (voice synthesis, modeled trumpet performance). voice isn't anything to sneeze at.
@@tankermottind Then I guess I'm not most people, I use modular synths and create harmonic overtones with my qpas filter and wavefolder. I also use an unquantized analog sequencer.. so am not limited to equal temperament. All sounds in the universe can be made by adding sign waves... That is synthesis at its core.
Synths can go way beyond pre planned music, in the world of modular and in vst's you can do generative music that is in no way pre planned. This is an extensive line of musical history mainly focused under the name "west coast synthesis".
Good synth music can be any style and sound like any instrument or sound imaginable. :)
@@tankermottind as someone interested in both I would like to add a few things in defence of the expressiveness of synths, though I agree many people stick to presets and familiar sounds. With even an entry level setup (Microbrute + keystep) you have pitch bend, mod wheel, lfo, and aftertouch(via keystep to Microbrute patch bay). 4 layers of modulation that can be occuring *simultaneously*. Taking these away, a skilled player could be improvising melodic lines with one hand, while altering the timbres expressively via knobs alone- or letting a sequence run and adding harmonic interest though such modulation as a form of "tone-color" painting (there's a very long German word related to this but I can't spell it). There are also many advancements being made towards opening synths to a wider range of tunings and expressive capabilities. Then there's the whole field of generative modular..
Edit: granular sampling is pretty insane too!
Edit2: Klangfarbenmelodie was the word I was thinking of
Tom Waits is my favorite, I would love to hear a breakdown using this framework of him.
10:52 Nice Andalite. I wonder how many people will get that?
I bet a lot more than I expect, actually. lol
One of my favorite singers is Tim Booth of James, and I’m impressed by the ways he uses microtonality to suggest mood. In a song like “Someone’s Got It In For Me” you can hear him smoothly shift intonation between verse and chorus etc.
like rappers
1:07 Farts.
He said, "...one of the few musical sounds produced entirely by the human body..."
Love your content, 12tone. You just triggered my inner Beavis though. 🤘
"I'm not the boss of you" made me think of the Johns from They Might Be Giants.
I have no idea how to analyze their voices, they've kinda been all over vocally.
I really hope he covers TMBG at some point but on the other hand there just simply isn't any one song he could do that is actually representative, so I don't know which I'd pick. I mean, first of all, there are two of them and their songs are a bit different.
I have found that when singing John Linnell's parts the way he sings them, I end up making some of the same strange expressions he makes in the videos--like the shape of the face is necessary for the sound.
They Might Be Giants is such an underrated band.
Worthy of analysis:
“Nothing’s Gonna Change My Clothes”
“She’s an Angel”
“Birdhouse in Your Soul”
“Dead”
“Whistling in the Dark”
@@samlasley798 all those would be great, but it'd also be cool to see an analysis of something more modern like This Microphone. Or something from Nanobots like The Darlings of Lumberland
In the last two years, I've really gotten into Sturgill Simpson, so it's always refreshing to see people mention him in things.
Great video!
The release of this video could've not be timed better. I watched TwelveTone's video basically immediately before watching the live feed of Grand Beatbox Battle where the (contrasting) characteristics of the human voice is the very essence of the signature that differentiates one artist from another. I used to watch GBBB highlights for their loop station videos but this time around I can really appreciate how real the solo artists (without the aid of any loop stations and special effects) are able to perform their songs and showcase the "real unedited version of themselves", naked in a way.
ruclips.net/video/dMHxrZOyMyQ/видео.html
Thank you for highlighting James LaBrie in a video about vocal techniques. Everyone, even Dream Theater fans, give him so much crap, but forget that he blew his vocal chords out after vomiting from food poisoning and he couldn’t take time to properly heal as the band was about to go back on the road. And before the food poisoning incident, he was an absolute powerhouse of a singer. He doesn’t get nearly enough credit for how much control he has over his instrument, a virtuoso just like his bandmates who unfortunately had his prime years taken away by a freak incident that he never fully recovered from.
IMO, it also doesn't help that at one point, Portnoy was trying to make him sound like Hetfield lmao!!
5:52 I can't find anything regarding this question: What makes some atonal sound completely natural, when others sound completely out of place? It seems so nebulous to me. This is definitely one of my less confident areas, sometimes I kinda like the sound of something atonal, then I move my head a bit and a different frequency hits me harder while others go lower, and it sounds completely weird. I think we all kinda have a subjective threshold regarding what blends into the music seamlessly and what sticks out terribly.
I liked the channel before the Neutral Planet Ambassador Futurama reference. Now I am a fan!
“Your exploration and analysis of the voice is impressive... most impressive.” - Darth Vader
Excellent.. thank you
The quote at 3:44 just makes me think that the cenobites from Hellraiser would make good vocal coaches.
You should check out complete vocal technique! It’s goal is to define every part of the voice and every sound the human voice can make and how to produce in a healthy way and categorise it in very precise systems so there won’t be any confusions when you try to teach or talk about singing. It’s also completely scientifically based and they constantly do studies on the voice to learn more!
I’m extremely nerdy about singing techniques and find that this is the easiest system to really understand the voice and all the possibilities we have with it!
17:47 finally, a dream theater sound clip
I absolutely love vocalists that seem to act out their singing and vocalists that can do multiple kinds of singing well. I always loved singing but it wasn't until I started to learn growling (which actually uses similar techniques to Mongolian throat singers, it uses the same anatomy that triggers coughing) that I became very confident in my voice and hearing vocalists who were more focused on conveying an emotion of tone than hitting the right notes made me realize that singing was more than understanding a tone or being able to hit a note.
My sister constantly called me "tone deaf" and a "bad singer" when I was growing up and singing, if she caught me, and my parents never outright said I had good qualities in my voice (nevermind being a good singer), so my confidence in my voice was always relatively low but learning about different vocal techniques and styles that aren't concerned with perfection gave my enough confidence to want to continue learning to sing my favorite songs. My speaking voice is naturally very sharp and so I sing a little sharper than some people even though I am also frequently softspoken, which I guess is unattractive to many people. When I tried to learn music in high school (one choir class and two guitar classes), music theory didn't help me much. The choir teacher assumed we had music theory knowledge under our belt and that we could do everything by ear, and that we already knew our vocal range, which I didn't. I just got by being an alto but I most likely had either a larger range or leaned towards the lower registers (which could be because I usually imitated male singers as a female-born person singing to the recordings but it could also just be because of my sharp vocal quality).
I ended up deciding to focus on other thing in my singing voice and learning other styles of vocal performance, like rapping and growling. It was mostly self-taught, I picked up rapping rather naturally but for growling I looked up RUclips tutorials by vocal coaches and succeeded, I even accidently throat-sang once following one tutorial. You can do a lot with your voice easily and the mechanisms around those vocal chords are also not that hard to manipulate. But do take care of your voice - it's harder to sing at all with damaged vocal chords.
You're gonna go far kid, my favourite song!
Love the Parker Square at 12:02-12:03: "We're going to try anyway..."
Especially after this video, i'd love to see you dive into some wacky vocal stuff like "By Your Command" by Devin Townsend or "Got Money" by Lil Wayne ft T-Pain
4:15 I see that Parker Square. I appreciate you.
Love hearing people acknowledge Serj outside just the fact he's the lead vocal for SOAD