Author Topic: Is Labrie easy or hard to sing along to? Record yourself singing along to DT  (Read 3853 times)

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Offline npiazza91

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Record yourself and tell me how you sound.  It's really weird how you think you sound one way then when you listen to it, it's not at all the way you thought.

Obviously everything up to Awake is hard as shit.  Unless you have a phenomenal voice...you aren't hitting a lot of those notes.

But I do think that after the food poisoning he become much easier to sing along to.  Something I found out recently is that I have a much deeper voice than Labrie, even post food poisoning.  For the longest time I would sing in my car to Dream Theater thinking I was hitting the notes (I know, cringey as shit...sue me), and I was, but it was an octave lower and I didn't even know it.  I recorded my voice singing a few DT songs and some parts sound horrible, but the parts that sound good are actually an octave lower.  I'm not the greatest singer in the world, but I'm not the worst.  It's just kind of crazy how I thought I was hitting the notes perfectly on point and I listen back to it and it doesn't sound bad...it just sounds lower

Even Iron Maiden...I cannot hit those notes.  I recorded myself singing along to Revelations and the only part that sounded sexy was "The Light of the Blind".  Everything else was...either terrible or good, but lower.

My voice has no harmony to it.  It only sounds good when I get gritty with my voice.  Me trying to sing harmony is like watcing a cringe compilation on youtube.  To be fair though, I've recorded myself singing along to thrash metal, and it's pretty dope.

Offline Fritzinger

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Even if you don't sing in the same octave, Labries stuff is very hard at times in my opinion. DTs vocal lines are not basic stuff, they're (often) very well thought through and unconventional.
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Offline The Walrus

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I have a pretty deep voice. Singing is not my strength, but singing DT in any form is difficult to me. We're talking at least one full octave lower, sometimes more, and I still can't do it.

When I nitpick James and his live performance, it's always in the context of him singing very difficult parts. That's why I've strongly advocated for the band changing their live set in a big way and ditching the metullll songwriting.
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Offline Evai

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It's really difficult to sing that high with power. I'll usually sing along an octave lower, unless it's a ballad. Space Dye Vest is probably the only DT song an untrained male singer could attempt  :lol
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Offline MirrorMask

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There's also Wait for Sleep, which is tricky but still never going high, I sang it when I was taking singing lessons...
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Offline The Walrus

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It's really difficult to sing that high with power. I'll usually sing along an octave lower, unless it's a ballad. Space Dye Vest is probably the only DT song an untrained male singer could attempt  :lol

Pretty much, that or Vacant  :lol
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Offline MirrorMask

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Vacant has many long notes, they can be tricky!
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Offline The Walrus

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No smokers allowed!  :lol
From a Mega Man Legends island jamming power metal to a Walrus listening to black metal, I like your story arc.
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Offline Lethean

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I'm not a singer, and in fact I'm one of those people who do not sing in front of other people. :) So the car is the only place I do sing, and on occasions where I really try to sing loud and hit the notes for DT, I can actually give myself a headache. (Clearly, I don't really know how to sing).  I can handle Katatonia, not that I sound good doing it. :)

Offline ZachAnsley

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James is not a singer who should be replicated.  His timbre when he sings is very unnatural and distinct.

Offline pg1067

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Record yourself and tell me how you sound.

With the exception of voice memos on a smart phone, I'm guessing most folks don't have voice recording capabilities.  And, if I'm just going to tell you how I sound, do I really need to make a recording?  I'll tell you that I sound absolutely fabulous!!!   :metal :metal

Seriously, though, it obviously depends on the song.  Most of songs like Surrounded, Metropolis and Learning to Live are pretty easy, but each of them has a couple parts that are really tough (the part immediately after the guitar solo in Surrounded, the end of Metropolis, and the end of LtL, along with the infamous F# and the second half of the second verse).  I ended up in a karaoke place a few years ago that had Surrounded.  It was a little tougher than I expected without having James's vocals as a reference point.

I also sound great singing Ytse Jam, Erotomania, Hell's Kitchen, The Dance of Eternity, Stream of Consciousness and Enigma Machine!
« Last Edit: May 11, 2018, 11:48:28 AM by pg1067 »
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Offline Nekov

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Trust me, you don't want me to record myself singing DT. Nothing good will come out of that
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Offline MirrorMask

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I ended up in a karaoke place a few years ago that had Surrounded.  It was a little tougher than I expected without having James's vocals as a reference point.

That's true! It's funny how you can know a song inside out, but lose yourself the moment the vocals are no longer there to guide you.
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Offline bosk1

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Yup.  Doing covers with a band really trained me to either count and/or focus more on specific instrumental cues rather than the more natural tendency of letting my mind follow the vocal cues that I was familiar with.
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Offline Dublagent66

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Used to be relatively easy, now most of the higher notes are hard cause I'm old. :lol
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Offline Renzo

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Offline rumborak

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Yup.  Doing covers with a band really trained me to either count and/or focus more on specific instrumental cues rather than the more natural tendency of letting my mind follow the vocal cues that I was familiar with.

We cycled through so many otherwise perfect singers with my DT tribute band back in the day, for exactly that reason. They had all practiced alongside the CD, and they didn't realize they were using JLB as their cue. The moment that was gone they just stood there, helpless. Was kinda brutal to watch actually, many of them thought they were gonna rock the audition. One of them was a good sport though, after 3 songs he just flat-out said "well, I believe I embarrassed myself enough for one day, so why don't we call it a night".

So yeah, one of the most underrated aspects of James is his ability to sing all those lines on time.
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Offline bosk1

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I can believe it.  I don't know if you remember a long time ago when the Ytsejam releases were gradually coming out, and I posted a recording I did of myself singing over the Metropolis instrumental demo.  Just recording that was an experience in that very thing.  And what made it even trickier was the fact that the arrangement was slightly different on that than from the final studio version, and there was one part that they later ended up elongating.  The first take, I realized it was off because that section would end before I was singing the verse, so we had to back up.  I had to listen to it several times to figure out where to start so that it would end on time.  But that whole exercise forced me to count and to really listen to the instrumental cues rather than just trying to imagine the vocals and go off of that.
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Offline npiazza91

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No smokers allowed!  :lol
Haha I've been a smoker since I was 19.  I'm 26 now...maybe it's part of the reason why I sing more gritty than usual.  Something like Megadeth, Kreator (late Kreator, not early Kreator) or Sodom is more my voice.

Offline npiazza91

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No smokers allowed!  :lol
Double post, my bad.

Offline IDontNotDoThings

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I can sing the nomac tracks pretty well :neverusethis:
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Offline rumborak

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Proof or it didn't happen.
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Offline James Mypetgiress

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Wasn't this a thing like a year or 2 ago where we had to record us singing DT one-liners and then the best (worst) one would win and pick the next line to be sung? That was great fun.

I think generally LaBrie is quite difficult to sing along to, I find he's often very difficult to understand, but my English is pretty terrible, lol

Offline MirrorMask

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By now I guess that my english skills are good enough to not really notice the difference, but back in 1999 when I certainly wasn't as skilled as today I don't remember having too many difficulties in understanding James. Usually american singers are more difficult than english ones for a non native speakers, I started out as a teen with Bon Jovi and Guns n' Roses and then moved to Iron Maiden and Bruce Dickinson was always easier for me to understand than Axl or Bon Jovi.
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Offline IDontNotDoThings

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Wasn't this a thing like a year or 2 ago where we had to record us singing DT one-liners and then the best (worst) one would win and pick the next line to be sung? That was great fun.

I think generally LaBrie is quite difficult to sing along to, I find he's often very difficult to understand, but my English is pretty terrible, lol

I found it: https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=39778.0
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Offline James Mypetgiress

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Wasn't this a thing like a year or 2 ago where we had to record us singing DT one-liners and then the best (worst) one would win and pick the next line to be sung? That was great fun.

I think generally LaBrie is quite difficult to sing along to, I find he's often very difficult to understand, but my English is pretty terrible, lol

I found it: https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=39778.0

Awwww man that's a throwback, shame most of the links are dead

Offline Lethean

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By now I guess that my english skills are good enough to not really notice the difference, but back in 1999 when I certainly wasn't as skilled as today I don't remember having too many difficulties in understanding James. Usually american singers are more difficult than english ones for a non native speakers, I started out as a teen with Bon Jovi and Guns n' Roses and then moved to Iron Maiden and Bruce Dickinson was always easier for me to understand than Axl or Bon Jovi.

Really?  That's interesting and I never thought about it.  What about Canadian singers? :)

Offline Cool Chris

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DTs vocal lines are not basic stuff, they're (often) very well thought through and unconventional.

I'd rather say they are more often poorly thought out, especially in the earlier days, considering how difficult they can be for vocalists to perform them. 
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Offline MirrorMask

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By now I guess that my english skills are good enough to not really notice the difference, but back in 1999 when I certainly wasn't as skilled as today I don't remember having too many difficulties in understanding James. Usually american singers are more difficult than english ones for a non native speakers, I started out as a teen with Bon Jovi and Guns n' Roses and then moved to Iron Maiden and Bruce Dickinson was always easier for me to understand than Axl or Bon Jovi.

Really?  That's interesting and I never thought about it.  What about Canadian singers? :)

I don't know how canadian learn their english, but as I said, I recall James having always been more understandable than Bon Jovi or Axl Rose  :D it must also be a genre thing, maybe rock n' roll-ish stuff lends itself to be sung more "freestyle" and with attitude and therefore with a pronunciation more slang-ish and more difficult to get for a non native speaker.
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Offline Cyclopssss

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Well, I am a singer, and from what I tried, Labrie is DAMNED hard to sing along to. Especially in the higher regions and off course the faster parts. All I say is I don't envy the guy having to do those parts night after night.
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Offline MirrorMask

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All I say is I don't envy the guy having to do those parts night after night.

And also day after day.

 ;D
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Online mikeyd23

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Yup.  Doing covers with a band really trained me to either count and/or focus more on specific instrumental cues rather than the more natural tendency of letting my mind follow the vocal cues that I was familiar with.

We cycled through so many otherwise perfect singers with my DT tribute band back in the day, for exactly that reason. They had all practiced alongside the CD, and they didn't realize they were using JLB as their cue. The moment that was gone they just stood there, helpless. Was kinda brutal to watch actually, many of them thought they were gonna rock the audition. One of them was a good sport though, after 3 songs he just flat-out said "well, I believe I embarrassed myself enough for one day, so why don't we call it a night".

So yeah, one of the most underrated aspects of James is his ability to sing all those lines on time.

Good post, I totally agree. I think because James sings so high often, people react to the pitch he has to sing at and often forget that nailing the timing of those parts might be tougher than nailing the pitch sometimes.

Offline Bertielee

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Yup.  Doing covers with a band really trained me to either count and/or focus more on specific instrumental cues rather than the more natural tendency of letting my mind follow the vocal cues that I was familiar with.

We cycled through so many otherwise perfect singers with my DT tribute band back in the day, for exactly that reason. They had all practiced alongside the CD, and they didn't realize they were using JLB as their cue. The moment that was gone they just stood there, helpless. Was kinda brutal to watch actually, many of them thought they were gonna rock the audition. One of them was a good sport though, after 3 songs he just flat-out said "well, I believe I embarrassed myself enough for one day, so why don't we call it a night".

So yeah, one of the most underrated aspects of James is his ability to sing all those lines on time.

Good post, I totally agree. I think because James sings so high often, people react to the pitch he has to sing at and often forget that nailing the timing of those parts might be tougher than nailing the pitch sometimes.

Totally agree with that. And that's why when people say Russell Allen is a better singer, I always say to myself :"yes, but has RA ever had to sing songs with timing as difficult as some of DT songs?"

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« Last Edit: May 20, 2018, 02:50:19 PM by Bertielee »
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Offline Stewie

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I’ve always, always said and thought - LaBrie has the most demanding, difficult, and taxing job in DT.
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Offline Architeuthis

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Yup.  Doing covers with a band really trained me to either count and/or focus more on specific instrumental cues rather than the more natural tendency of letting my mind follow the vocal cues that I was familiar with.

We cycled through so many otherwise perfect singers with my DT tribute band back in the day, for exactly that reason. They had all practiced alongside the CD, and they didn't realize they were using JLB as their cue. The moment that was gone they just stood there, helpless. Was kinda brutal to watch actually, many of them thought they were gonna rock the audition. One of them was a good sport though, after 3 songs he just flat-out said "well, I believe I embarrassed myself enough for one day, so why don't we call it a night".

So yeah, one of the most underrated aspects of James is his ability to sing all those lines on time.

Good post, I totally agree. I think because James sings so high often, people react to the pitch he has to sing at and often forget that nailing the timing of those parts might be tougher than nailing the pitch sometimes.

Totally agree with that. And that's why when people say Russell Allen is a better singer, I always say to myself :"yes, but has RA ever had to sing songs with timing as difficult as some of DT songs?"

B.Lee
Uh, Russel Allen has to sing for Symphony X, which is extremely difficult and with the odd time signatures..  So yeah, I think he is more than capable of singing DT songs and would sound good doing so.  JLB would still be my #1 choice though..
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