Karaoke Forums

Years ago, (get used to the name drop stuff - it isn't meant to be obnoxius) playing on a gig on the same bill as Metallica I became really intrigued by the chunka chunka chunka sound used in heavy metal. Since this is a vocal place (with mixing however) I will include voice stuff as well.

But first, besides using a Marshall stack - just using a POD six and either my Rick or if you can imagine and ovation combo strat, how do you create that sound. I was tweaking on a new Marshall yesterday with distortion up and can get the tone, but I know there must be a name for this characteristic metal sound.

Secondly, when seeing Plant perform, as well as other high pitch metal rockers, I have been trying to duplicate that sound with my voice. I cannot really go full bore on my voice because we have moved from where I had a sound studio and don't have a place to really crank up the PA and so forth. But I have heard one person on here, I should look up his name, who did Benatar pretty well, and that is no small feat.

So firstly, and there are many guitarists on here, what setting on my pod, or should I get a punch box if I want to do something like Unforgiven.
Also, sneaking this in for guitarists, how does Dire Straights get the way cool lead sound in The Sultans. I have a Fender Twin original 1970 whatever with tubes and have the classic vibrato - reverb but there is another part of the sound that is almost phased or choroused.

Finally, when you get to the real rip sound on the voice, what is happening with the vocal chords. I know several artists whose vocal chords have kinda blown up a few times as well as some who permanently have lost their voices - singer wise. If you are touring, is there a way to protect your vocal chords, some kind of something, like a a V-8 for a hangover.

-oh my misquote when Syber shows me how to put it in
I took the road less traveled and it has made all the difference int he world...

Wierd topic - but I want to do somemore push voice stuff. I can Tom Petty semi whine it, but it would be cool to use a new voice on Radar Love or soar in the heights of Freddy Mercury doing a Queen song.

What are the tricks they use, talking about Freddy now - to get that incredible vocal sound.

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There are no accidents in a perfect world   - Blondie

There was a thread recently on singing heavy metel that desribes a lot of this perfectly so I won't go into detail.

I've done some playing around and find that I have different 'voices'. By moving my singing to different parts of my head, chest or throat, I can reproduce different singing styles.

As for stress on the vocal chords, lots of water really helps, as does proper warm up, and cool down. Build the ability of the chords over time to make them more resilient to long sessions. You'll find that there aren't many opera singers under 35 because it takes them that long to build the stamina and accuracy required to sing opera well. Building ability over time is the key to all night 'belt sessions' and being able to talk the next day.

There are a number of singers who have torn vocal chords - probably the most well known for this injury was Meatloaf. He was able to recover from that and return with a voice just as strong if not stronger than before. If you do damage your chords professional help is almost a must. Recovery can only happen by not overly stressing the chords during the recovery (basically slowly pushing them after a proper healing period) which a busy touring schedule doesn't permit. BTW, you'll find that some of the best concerts are the first ones on a tour because the vocal chords aren't beat to hell and back. At the end of a tour the range and ability of the vocalist is shot and the vocals often sound muddied or inaccurate because of this.

That is unless you're Ashlee Simpson of course.... (or any of the other singers that 'forgot' to sing on tour).

Can't help you on the guitar stuff. I do know somebody that could probably help but I haven't talked with him in a number of years and he's 5000 miles way. In the meantime I'm sure someone else will drop in with some recommendations. There are lots of talented artists that can assist with your questions.

You are hearing a light stereo chorus. Also an analog delay on alot of his playing. Compression. and thumb-style picking too. Phase is the guitar setting. For "Sultans" try

Stratocaster
out-of-phase pickup position between bridge and middle position

AMP SETTINGS:
Fender Twin Reverb
Pre: 4
Treble, bass, and middle: all around half, or about 5
Reverb: 3 depending on room layout, 2-4
Master: CRANKED

no pick, little bit of chorus and compression, light reverb and of course a strat with the switch on the position 2 (bridge and mid PU's on) and i think you will have the sound. Of course Mark Knopfler's main skill is in his "touch". It's pretty light and very consistent. Some of his stuff, like Telegraph Road I used to use an analog tape delay. I actually played through a roto-vibe, and/or Maestro echoplex. I'm not familiar with the POD, yet I got a great Knopfler sound using the telecaster on the middle rhythm position, thru a marshall JCM-800 half-stack too. Playing with my thumb, again, no pick. Alot of his spanish type sound, and percussive playing is his finger giving him more control of his note attack than a pick. Play around with the compression on the POD too. He does have a compressed sound, and needs the light chorusing effect IMHO.