| .com> To: "'vocalist'" <vocalist> Subject: FW: QUESTION Date sent: Wed, 26 Jan 2000 12:59:42 +0100 Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>
-----Original Message----- From: CAIO ROSSI DE OLIVEIRA [mailto:caioross-at-zip.net] Sent: 25 January 1999 22:17 To: vocalist Subject: QUESTION
> According to a friend of mine who is an experienced musician, there's no way to enhance someone's voice in live performance, although there's a gadget named > >Vocalist ( oops!! ) that can double, or maybe triple your voice at a higher or lower octave in order to produce backing vocals.
Your friend is quite wrong. If the voice is reaching the audience through = a sound system, the signal (i.e. the voice) can be manipulated, indeed the sound system is itself manipulation. His statement is only correct if the singer is not using a microphone.
> Regarding the quality of voices, like Mariah's, Houston's and the like,= I really like them,
The discussion surrounded the technique with which they sang, not the quality of their voices
> though they don't really sing the kind of music I like ( prog metal, melodic heavy, etc ). It seems to me you shouldn't be so demanding regardi= ng their live performances,
> Why on earth not? As a rule you pay more to hear someone live than you d= o for their CD.
> since they must sing much more often and with much more stress than mos= t opera singers.
Untrue. A contract soloist in Germany sings about 100 performances a year. Many sing more - I did. Things are more variable on the international circuit, but 100 to 150 performances seems the usual range. Some do 200 - = 4 performances a week. The chorus singers at the ENO do 11 sessions a week, = of which 5 are normally performances. A Mariah or Whitney would be unlikely t= o do more than 50 perormances a year at the very most unless they had a heav= y tour on (I think Celine said that she doesn't like doing more than 2 performances a month or 30 in the year because her voice needs so much res= t before and after). If the CD sings well they don't have to do more.
Not sure I understand your comment about stress. Do you mean that they run= a greater risk of hurting their voices in the course of a performance than opera singers? That's probably true: it is one of the things an opera singers trains to avoid. It's much more difficult for an opera singer to adapt the repertoire to their vocal deficiencies; such adaptation is the stock in trade of the popular singer. Often the deficiency ends up being sold as a strength: a voice in tatters can easily sound like raw passion.
> And they can't stay motionless in the middle of the stage like most ope= ra divas do.
Do they? Could've fooled me. Sure there are a few, but then you don't see Alison Moyet turning cartwheels on stage either. Maybe the one's you've seen have been following the thread on indulging before a performance.
> I have many bootleg cds from my favorite band, Dream Theater, and their vocalist, James LaBrie, an incredible singer, doesn't sing in them as well as on the studio > cds I have. However, when they came down to Brazil, his voice had studio-like quality. another example is Andr=E9 Mattos, from Angra, a Brazilian melodic heavy . >metal band singing in English. He sings pretty high ( in their first cd they covered Kate Bush's 'Wuthering Heights' and = he sang just as high as she did ), but I've b e en to many of their concerts and in only one his voice was as amazing as it is in the cds.
> As I don't want to mix up topics, I'll be writing more on immediately forthcoming e-mails.
Interesting note, and a good debut. Welcome aboard.
Best Regards, Caio
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