Rough Vocal Effects 101 | #2 Creaking, Rasp & Fry Screaming

[@felipekobra]

Imagine your family is passing by your room and hear this 7:41

[@TheCharismaticVoice]

Absolutely love your content. Keep it up!

[@BrandonShere]

You are an expert!! I'm completely impressed!!! I've been practicing singing for years, but up until the last couple months I never learned anything technical. I can see you've been consciously studying for YEARS surely!! I just have a strong admiration for hours spent! Sorry to gawk!

[@PrisonMike-_-]

This right here is the definitive video on fry. My world is changed

[@ToniLinke]

Make sure to watch me update (Rough Vocal Effects Revisited episode #3), it's even more extensive! :)

[@tomasgonzales]

No Fucking Way... I just did a proper fry scream for the first time-not a perfect one, but I can tell I found it! I had always been confused by the language of other coaches, but your explanations are beyond better than anything else I've seen. Particularly I appreciate the more methodical discernment of similar but distinct sounds. You are a legend!

[@ToniLinke]

Wow! Thanks for sharing this!

[@eggboy6926]

this is fascinating but i'm way too eager to try all this out to be watching it at 00:20am. hope my neighbours dont call a priest

[@atelier9333]

7:42 shouldve put on my earphones. Also thanks for the video man

[@darkumar1681]

I just came across this channel in a comment section while looking into vocal fry, and my god the way you explained the different LVMs and their configurations was *chefs kiss*. The use of thin and thick voices and its relations was absolutely lost to me until I saw this video. The lil demonstrative seal claps definitely added to it, but the way you described it along with the rest of the video’s contents was so concise and understandable unlike so many videos, papers, and blogs I’ve looked through (though that‘s most likely just me being a very amateur vocal enthusiast lol). Hope to see and hear more of this and your lovely voice in the future after I finish this series. Have a lovely day. :D

[@ToniLinke]

Thank you for your kind words! I will continue to do more videos as soon as I've got time to! :)

[@HughesyTech]

Thanks for this really appreciate it. I'm a total beginner to screaming so this will help as a great starter and overview

[@molimba]

sehr sympathisches editing, gefällt mir gut deine selbstwahrnehmung ;)

[@vpsaxman]

@10:39 "like the buzzing of a guitar amplifier" - creepy sounding guitar amp lol!

[@blancat8465]

Extremely clear! Love you

[@DestroyerMariko]

Hmm... I'm still struggling with fry scream, and while this didn't really enlighten me on how to improve, somehow I feel like it's filling little gaps to help me keep moving forward on it? I'll keep trying ^_^ other problem I have though is even when I can get an okay sound, I just cannot get back to it after I've been false cord screaming for a while. More practice for me then lol.

[@ToniLinke]

I guess this video was more of an overview and explanation of the techniques than an actual tutorial, maybe I'm gonna make a more specific video that includes more exercises soon!

[@DestroyerMariko]

There's a few things in here though that kinda explain how to do it, a little different to how others describe it. I think those little variations are what help me piece things together, maybe subconsciously at least? But yeah anything to explain how to make it not suck is super helpful! I do worry though that coz I'm so physically small, maybe my vocal cords just won't get a nice fry scream, especially not lower ones. Hmm.

[@ToniLinke]

@@DestroyerMariko I think it's kind of hard to get super brutal lows in pure fry scream in general. The hyper-compressed false fold/fry scream combination can get much fuller down there, and it's also what I hear very often.

[@DestroyerMariko]

Ah man, the whole idea of combining false+fry confuses me too, some teachers describe fry as cords closed but false as cords open, which makes it sound like it's impossible to do both. Now I understand better that the false folds are a different thing, but I still can't get my head around what it should feel like lol. It's kinda exciting but also so frustrating XD

[@ToniLinke]

@@DestroyerMariko I think there are some sounds where the true folds are actually open, but that might result in a rather weak death growl, I think that, for example in your growling, the true folds are involved a bit (you can hear some higher pitches sneaking through sometimes), and that's what makes them sound fuller. It's true though that with every fry technique, the true folds are coming together, because that's part of the definition of fry :D

[@vladimiryakimenko2010]

OMG the part with creaking/rasp is just absolutely hilarious!!! XDDDDD

[@wanderershideout]

I actually use the regular creaking technique as a form of throat singing. I can project it too & with some mouth shapes it basically sounds like radar noises or stuff like that.

[@venet5024]

Regular creaking is especially interesting since it can have 2 other variations which I discovered accidentally while practicing scream and khoomei (assuming that my guess is correct). Namely, I noticed that when you do this regular creacking and add more support then the vibrations are higher, creating this throat singing technique mentioned by you which is very low, even lower than kargyyra. And If you add even more support and a bit more compression on vocal folds then you end up doing khoomei. Finally, substracting air support, but compressing even more than when doing khoomei, causes this regular creaking to be very "breathy", resembling low fry scream deprived of false vocal folds vibrations.

[@davidasmundsson4217]

Very thoghrouly and well explained. I can project creaking now and I'm almost there. Thanks for the awesome video! Really helpful!

[@paoloribaldini]

Nice video and a wide catalogue of effects, good job! I have two personal viewpoints for improvement: 1) you demonstrate the techniques but don't really explain how to find them, save for the fry scream. For you it is apparently easy to reproduce them but it isn't clear at all whether you practiced them through some exercises or you could just perform them off the bat (some people do that with some effects). 2) I think the division between head voice / falsetto and mixed could be switched to falsetto vs head voice. Falsetto clearly presents stiffened vocal folds and raised corniculate cartilages, Estill researched that in the '90s but there are also later studies about that. Head voice would be what you call 'mixed', so thin fold vibrating mass according to Hirano's body-cover -theory or Titze's attractor states -theory. Whether these studies are old, nowadays there hasn't been any new material providing a more solid division. I think it's more reasonable thinking of mixing as a technique to bridge the switch between attractor states instead of a register or LVM. Hope these help, we should have a Skype chat sometimes and discuss about these!

[@ToniLinke]

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, I guess talking about exercises to find them would require another video for specifically one effect at a time, I tried to give more of an overview here. I can try to give more practical tips in the next video if that's what you wish for though :) I just have to beware not to make them too long and complex, I'd rather tend to record a seperate tutorial once the whole series is online. Regarding falsetto: I know about that debate, I don't use the Estill definition though because they basically refer to every breathy sound while I'm specifically talking about M2 coordinations. The mixed one I did wasn't M2 though (although it does sound very heady), it's what CVT calls Curbing mode, so still on the metallic side (so not thin fold mass yet). I agree that including the colloquial terminology might potentially be confusing as people mean different things with them, but I still decided to do so because that's what I hear people call them very often and unfortunately, noone holds a patent on definitions :D In case of doubt, I mean whatever I describe and explain it to be (thin vocal fold contact, pulse phonation, partial vibration etc.), respectively what you would call that description.

[@paoloribaldini]

​@@ToniLinke I guess more detailed videos about one topic would be good! About the falsetto thing: Estill doesn't refer to all the breathy sounds, actually Estill's falsetto doesn't necessarily present breathiness in higher pitches. ATM it is definitely the most recurring in recent literature, and I think there's a good point why it is that: rising of the c.cartilages or not, stiffening of the tvf or not. I actually don't remember the sound you were producing so I don't know if it was in M1 or M2, but I think that is not relevant for this purpose. :) About CVT, I think it has a lot of very useful stuff in it, but as long as finding physiological bases for the classification of modes, there is very little. That's why I consider them a possibly good practical tool, but I has little to do with the actual physiology. Furthermore, metallic doesn't mean that it doesn't use thin folds. Edge for example - if we want to stay on this terminology which I don't particularly espouse, but anyways... - is the most metallic mode but in high pitches might as well go to thin folds. I totally agree that there is on patent on the terminology but this is exactly the problem: everybody comes up with its own and it messes up an already messy mess! :D That's why I mostly try to refer to clinical literature, because it has some kind of reliability (although it's constantly changing) and it's hopefully based on observations instead of attempts to consolidate a commercial method. Nice conversation!

[@ToniLinke]

I thought thick and thin folds was about M1 and M2, but if that's not the case I'll have to update my Estill knowledge a bit. I guess the mechanisms are the only thing that doesn't have several definitions already, if apparently even thick vs. thin are confusing :D I've made a chart of all the falsetto, head voice and mix definitions I've ever heard once, and there were, like, 11 (!) different definitions of falsetto (including "falsetto = M2 = head voice", "falsetto = breathy voice = Neutral with air", "falsetto = breathy M2 = VRD Neutral with air", "male falsetto = female head voice", "male falsetto = female whistle" and other obscure stuff), so I guess it really is a hard topic, even with clinical literature... would be fun to make a big chart where you compare all the terms and definitions to be able to say "I'm referring to this one right now". By metallic (e.g. for Edge mode), I mean M1 (although not every M1 is necessarily metallic...).

[@paoloribaldini]

​@@ToniLinke Both falsetto (in the Estill sense) and head voice/connected thin folds are in M2, although falsetto also partially overlaps with the upper end of M1. Of course Estill doesn't refer to any M, so it's kind of stretched to overlap the two categorizations. Fact is anyway, that M1 and M2 are related to pitch. In M1 the vibration involves more mass and there seems to be (clinical studies have been investigating these in the last few years) a higher TA muscle activity, whereas in M2 the vocal folds go to a different attractor state and vibrate with less mass. When it comes to CVT, you can't really combine this method's terminology with laryngeal vibratory mechanisms, because... well, CVT basically rejects the notion of registers (which are in practice the 'old way' to say mechanisms). So it doesn't make really sense to say that metallic is M1, because there is no relation between them: edge can be in the lower pitch range as well as the higher. I would say both in M1 and M2, but CVT people (and I heard this said by Catherine Sadoline herself) don't buy the mechanism-categories, even though it's been largely proven that there is a clear change related to pitch in the TVF configuration. This, of course, stands as long as you want to be true to CVT... If, on the contrary, you just want to borrow some terminology from it, then it's different, but again it messes up everything even more! :D The discriminatory element for being a metallic mode is the amount of twang, which has again been studied a lot and I don't think a connection has been established between the necessity to twang and the pitch. It is true that there are many different definitions of registers (e.g. falsetto, head voice etc.) but there are historical reasons for that. Nowadays, I think sticking with Estill's falsetto when using the term is the safest, because it has clearly recognizable characteristics that head voice doesn't have. The mechanisms don't have several definitions because they've been invented 11 years ago, exactly to try and put some order in the historically controversial terminology used for registers. I think they just shifted the focus on something else but haven't solved the problem yet. Thick vs thin is the only non-confusing thing :D because there's a ton of research demonstrating that at some point the TVF have to switch to a different configuration in their vibratory form and pattern. The big chart that you wish for already exists!

[@ToniLinke]

@Paolo Ribaldini Well, I've had Estill people tell me that their breathy chest C3 was "falsetto", I think it's pretty easy to tell apart M1 and M2 by the good old break (I know there's more possible breaks, but it's easy to determine this one). Obviously, the mechanisms are related to pitch, but I can do an E5 in M1, M2 and M3 for example, so it's not as easy as that. CVT doesn't officially refer to mechanisms, but having talked about that to multiple CVT coaches, it's clear that Fuller Density and Reduced Density are parts of what the LVM theory would label M1, whereas Very Reduced Density (now called Falsetto) is M2. Also, the parameter of Metal is related to twang, but not synonymous to it. It can be viewed as a "chesty" sound quality (probably a strong H2/F1 coupling), which is only possible in M1, so Curbing, Overdrive and Edge mode can never be M2, while Neutral mode ranges over all the mechanisms. If you just do a twangy sound in M2, it's called "Metal-like" instead of "metallic". I agree that the mechanism theory doesn't solve the problem because it doesn't account for the acoustical part, but this again is covered very well by CVT (even if they don't talk about formants and H/F-crossing a lot, that's exactly what the modes are based on). The thick/thin VFC thing seemed quite clear to me too until I remembered that the voice figure of "Sob" was considered thin vocal fold contact, although that can be done in M1 too... In teaching (or explaining vocal effects in KZbin videos hehe) I mostly decide individually which terminology I use, with a preference for CVT though because using the modes has been much more successful than the chest/head or M1/M2 stuff for most of my students, but for my own singing I also orient at what breaks I'm able to produce. I've found that it's possible to provoke (or disguise) at least one break WITHIN each mechanism, from more intuitive breaks like the FD (chest) to RD (mix) break or the Lower Head Voice to Higher Head Voice (or Flageolet, Second Falsetto, whatever you call it) break to even crazier stuff - none of those breaks being random but very reliable. This is kind of too complex for teaching, but gives me great certainty with what coordination I'm doing, because there's always multiple indicators or attributes to those "gears" (in addition to the muscle memory of course). I'd totally be up to video chat about this!

[@LuisOpcional-c1f]

Gracias por la información, ahora sé que tipo de raspado hago y para que puede servir . Fue de mucha ayuda

[@Max-ip8oe]

7:42 oh....so sweet

[@ToniLinke]

...so soft...so fresh...

[@KpushoSuave]

Man i love u, for u i realize what´s the way

[@lavendergilly5843]

can you please do more on the fry scream? or fry yell? i like to cover rock songs acoustically and im tired of having to sing clean on areas where the singer really goes at it

[@jfklmk13447]

Yes please !

[@KindOldRaven]

Omg! Finally! Projected Creaking/Rasp. I've had this weird thing where I do this automatically when singing at a certain pitch and loudness and I couldn't get anyone to mimic it or tell me what it was that I was doing. I actually just posted to reddit asking about this where someone directed me to your videos. Thanks for the explanation! I accidentally kept doing something like this when trying to sing 3DG - Time of Dying (of which I'd uploaded a sample to reddit - don't worry, it's bad). This is really cool

[@ToniLinke]

Nice! I guess it's something you hear more often in indie rock than Metal, but it's one of my favourite effects!

[@JoyboysDream]

Not even kidding, i watch tons of tutorials like this to get every kind of information i can get to do this right. But this one is by far one of the best, if not THE best tutorial. Also because i always wondered how the anatomy looks like. The only thing i am missing now is, how to "scream" or add solid fry-like distortion into pitched singing (does that make sense? xD) I'm thinking of Oli Sykes, Sam Carter or my personal favorite : Noah Sebastien from Bad Omens. Are there any good Videos that you could share?

[@ToniLinke]

I talk a bit more about pitched fry screaming in episode 2 of my "Collected Monologues" series. I can also recommend Chris Liepe's tutorials, he's demonstrating roughly the same techniques there but explaining it in a slightly different way.

[@JoyboysDream]

@@ToniLinke Hey man! Thanks for the ultra-fast answer. Appreciated

[@giorgiobertoldo]

I keep trying but I can't do the irregular creaking. To me it just goes to regular creaking no matter how much I try to relax my voice, and if I try to move it to falsetto it leaves the pitch underlying through it. Also I feel like my throat is compressing even though I consciously try to make it not do that 😓

[@ToniLinke]

Sounds like a tricky situation! In a lesson, we could probably find a way to access irregular creaking, but if your main goal is fry scream, you could also try one of the alternative approaches that I show in episode 3 of my new 2023 "Rough Vocal Effects Revisited" series. Good luck!

[@DaxHamel]

Excellent, know sans fluff!

[@itrololo194]

Hey! I've been having a problem of finding that high fat fry. Most of the times I just switch to a falsetto subharmonic when trying to find fry. Or on a rare occasions, when i finally find that cool fat sound, while trying to project it a little, it just switches to a high subharmonic. And then, after a few tries, I lose the feeling completely and can't replicate it again. I've been strugling with this for a while and would really appreciate some advice to finally progress. Thx, love what you're doing

[@ToniLinke]

I'd have to hear it to be sure, but I can imagine that the twang itself is not right. Sometimes people think they're using twang (epilaryngeal narrowing) when actually they're using some other bright sound (for example, high larynx, spread mouth etc.)

[@fancythebold]

I would love another vid on fry scream ! Maybe with exercises for different levels of expierence. Also maybe demonstrate the sound of how your scream may sound as it slowly gets better?

[@ToniLinke]

If everything goes right, I'm gonna do one on Fry Scream specifically once I've finished this series! This one's more of an overview than a detailed tutorial, I know... :)

[@fancythebold]

@@ToniLinke Awesome can't wait!

[@launtschuannfoa9122]

Your videos are FANTASTIC 👍👍👍👍👍👍 (also love the funny nuances like DAD JOKE ALARM😅)

[@jopjopjop]

Very interesting! Thank you!

[@julienvaz4800]

Hey, Toni. Can you tell me what effects are they using in Monolith - Byakuya? Here's the link to it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mqCxeGCEgtKdg7csi=LXkbKDxqYuppzbWh I can only tell that in the two bridges before the chorus it's a fry scream, right? It sounds like they approach from M3 or M2. But what about the other subtle effects the darker voice vocalist uses in the beginning and the ending? Thanks to you, I'm feeling progress on rough vocal effects! Thank you so much!

[@ToniLinke]

I hear basic fry scream between M2 and M3 too on the atonal screams. Doesn't really matter where he approaches it from, the sound is almost the same, except for maybe the onsets. The darker, less atonal scream is a medium fry scream, so in between of M2 and M1 (or more precisely, a heady and a chesty mix), maybe with a bit of distortion mixed in.

[@julienvaz4800]

​@@ToniLinke thank you so much for replying! I'll keep practicing it!

[@NATmusic27]

Amazing wow, you're very knowledgable :)

[@davidphilipsmusic]

Good stuff. Thanks for this.

[@djabthrash]

Great explanation.

[@yungwildfuego]

Any advice for accessing irregular creaking besides "just relaxing"? I can consistently do regular creaking in m1/m2 (feels like a slight compression to get there), but I'm realizing I can't consistently do irregular creaking, any alternative strategies on going from regular creaking to irregular creaking or just in general?

[@ToniLinke]

@@yungwildfuego I feel like regular creaking is in between of clean phonation and irregular creaking. So whatever it is that you do to get regular creaking, you need more of it - and the more ways you can find towards regular creaking (instead of under-energizing, you can also over-resist - for example by twanging more, closing the vowels or changing the posture), the higher the chance is that you can just go one of these paths further until it gets irregular!

[@JZ1917]

Your videos seem superb so far. I have seen a ton of youtube material on this and everything feels as you mention on your first video "unstructured". You are methodical on your approach, and I love it. Do you have any advice on how to learn how to project? On this video, everything up to there seems easy to do (after seeing you explain), but when it comes to projection I feel I am at zero, I can't even find how to progress.

[@ToniLinke]

Projection is tricky because once we have found the right sound in a quiet manner we have to bulk up all the variables of the equation but maintain the same overall balance. So one way of learning projection is to successively increase airflow and resistance in order to get louder without falling back into clean voice, and another way could be to start from an already projected point (for example a clean yell) and then adjust the level of glottal resistance to a slightly lower amount to let the clean pitch break up into a scream. It's kind of hard to isolate these aspects, but with lots of trial and error we can get better at projecting fry screams over time (usually it takes a couple of weeks).

[@JZ1917]

@@ToniLinke Thank you for the answer Toni! Will try that. Thank you for making these videos once more.

[@Chamaenerion-angustifolium]

You are awesome!!!!!

[@faselblaDer3te]

Ich schon wieder :D The scream you're doing in the intro music is a fry scream, right? It sounds super high, similar to this vocalist's style which I really like: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jl7EiqVpjMxmbdUsi=Zh5vKMiJiqTRkkRR&t=32 Is it a matter of resonance, or possibly more of a whistle scream? Whenever I try to get into that pitch range, I end up with a slightly hurt/fatigued voice shortly after a couple minutes of practice/experimentation. I guess I slip into that constriction from overprojection that you mention in the video. Or I'm just wanting too much at once ;-) Thanks again for this invaluable resource!

[@ToniLinke]

In my case it's mostly a matter of resonance, my underlying pitch is something like a G4 but the vowel is very open and bright

[@faselblaDer3te]

@@ToniLinkeAwesome, thank you, I'm slowly getting there! 💙

[@faselblaDer3te]

Pretty much got the hang of it now 🥰

[@distortionto1066]

For finding that fry sound in a high placement, would leaning into twanging create the same sound? I find using vocal fry and bringing it up really difficult, but if I do like a twangy sound(evil witch) and try to add volume whilst keeping everything the same, eventually I can create a similar sound but I don't know if it's the same as the one you created here

[@ToniLinke]

Yes, that can work as well!

[@distortionto1066]

would doing the witch sound make it false cord distortion? I was under the impression that for fry scream it's done from creaking, sorry I'm a bit confused by the terminology@@ToniLinke

[@ToniLinke]

@@distortionto1066 twang can do several things! It can help stabilizing creaking/fry, but it can also help adding false fold distortion, which in combination with creaking/fry can produce a fuller fry scream.

[@vichoapaleado2116]

​​​​@@ToniLinkeWould that be like what I do here? kzbin.infoskWU1ft144U?si=rr5h2WZuftHupEl7 I am just experimenting with the fry scream, I don't know how safe I am doing it, it doesn't hurt, but I do get tired after a while or I don't get it every day. And unlike your video, here I can hear the sound more broken. Not as fluid and elegant 😢😅

[@saminstrumentals]

dude these videos are super helpful. Thank you so much for making theses. Where did you learn all this stuff?

[@ToniLinke]

Most of it on my own by just experimenting :) and then studying Complete Vocal Technique as well as talking to other vocalists helped a lot with refining some of the basics.

[@-xlntc91x-]

Do you have a tip on how to shift the resonance? Whenever I try, I tense up in my throat. When I really focus on not straining, I get into head voice but lose the fry entirely, unfortunately. When going from a soft chest voice to a soft head voice I imagine my voice rising in the back of my throat. My larynx is rising if I do it, is this supposed to happen?

[@ToniLinke]

The head voice that you find is good, even if you lose the fry. Try practicing that chest to head transition more, and watch out for breathiness: your head voice at the moment likely has more airflow than your chest even though it doesn't need it, so you could try to keep it low for both registers. Maybe the image of pulling in the sound helps? Once that works easily, you can go back to searching for creaking in head voice, but this step seems necessarily to ensure efficiency in the register :)

[@-xlntc91x-]

@@ToniLinke thanks a lot for the extensive answer! Since I usually belt and like to engage false folds by quite a lot of compression, these super gentle coordinations like creaking and easing into head voice feel totally unfamiliar and are a pain in the ass :D

[@Chamaenerion-angustifolium]

i love you!

[@ecogrief9936]

Jinjer Shirt ❤

[@TylerHamiltonMusic]

Fantastic series!! When I try for subharmonic undertones, I don't often get a true harmonic, instead I get a dissonant interval that sounds ugly. Sometimes the subharmonic even takes over the original pitch and I struggle to get the original higher pitch back. Is this due to inflamed/damaged vocal folds perhaps?

[@ToniLinke]

Could be! But it's hard to say without hearing it :) Creaking tends to be the least reliable of all effects though, in my opinion.

[@TylerHamiltonMusic]

@@ToniLinke fair enough, hard to tell without listening. I’ve just been trying to get the throat singing concept down but my subharmonics are never octaves or fifths yet! Thanks again for all your work sharing your wisdom!

[@roccot3872]

Can you give me abit of information on Casey Calvert scream from Hawthorne heights. He overdosed back in 07,but had a incredible scream.

[@ToniLinke]

Just listening to a compilation and I hear mostly the typical fry scream!

[@roccot3872]

@@ToniLinke thanks Toni, I’m going to sub and enjoy some more videos, cheers

[@heartherainsing]

Hey Toni, I stumbled across a singer who uses a weird type of moderate distortion on their cleans and I'm not sure which type it is. And before you say it yeah I watched your newer vocal effects videos (been subbed to you from my other account for a year or so), can I ask your opinion? It translates well from his chest stuff like c4-g4 to super highs like D5 and above, so it's very interesting it's on KZbin, EMO SHENSEI channel, My First Story - Reviver Vocal Cover, the vocals are very loud so I hope it's clear enough which type it is. So far it sounds very close to your Pojected Creaking technique maybe? It also sounds like he's holding back air a lot?

[@ToniLinke]

It's either projected Creaking or a subtle twangy distortion!

[@johnnyh64]

Fantastic! Subbed!

[@asolez3272]

Great video, do you know what type of distortion Corey Taylor uses on "Snuff" performance?

[@ToniLinke]

I hear twang-based distortion with a bit of compression and a bit of pushing :D it's kind of a mixture of everything, sounds safe though!

[@arnauburguera257]

Could it be that my fry scream has high overtones to it? I have tried to find my fry scream for years and the only thing that resembles your and the comunity's definition is when I take my irregular creacking and let the resonace go to my head. The sound that comes out is fairly similar to what I've heard people call "Witches cackle". It is harmless, I can go REALLY loud with it and I can sustain it long periods of time and that fits the definition more or less but the sound that actually comes out is diferent. It is distortion for sure but with a clear overtone to it. It trully sounds like a damned pterodactyl. The sound cannot be treated seriously, is more like a "look whart I can do with my voice" rather than a scream. I have been able to do this sound almost for two years and there's no way out of that overtone (and even without it I'd say that it is not exactly like a fry scream: That cracking is so fast that it almost gets another hue). I have never ever seen nor heard anyone make this sound quite the same way, It is like irregular creacking on top of a constricted head voice. I'va had periods of "This is not fry scream at all" and tried to go other ways but always came back in doubt. The last thing I've found out is pushing through my break (a tortured man scream) and take down the resonance engaging my false chords and having an strange air leak that feals on my soft palatte achieveng longer "false chord" screams that in my head sound with that awful tortured man overtone but outside sounds like a mix between Behemtoh and Vitja's Heavy Rain(after the first chorus) growl/scream. Anyway, could you tell me which approach is better to find the Fry scream and if that pterodactyl sound is my fry scream or is something strange? Thank you

[@ToniLinke]

Both sound like different variations of it, but I would have to hear a clip of it to really say something substantial. You can hit me up on Facebook if you want. :)

[@mackenlyparmelee5440]

I would really like to learn more about doing the projected creaking/rasp technique. Are there more resources you could point me to for learning this? Thank you!

[@ToniLinke]

Can't think of any right now, but I will get back to you as soon as something comes to mind!

[@therealmanuelbauer]

Love your videos and explanations but like in many other fry scream tutorials you're kinda skipping a step that seems to be crucial. You first demonstrate the relaxed fry-sound from the grudge, which I can easily reproduce. Then you add a vowel and demonstrate a sound that already sounds compressed and screamlike. When I add a vowelshape to the relaxed frysound it sounds completely different.Could you maybe give a clearer explanation of the transition from relaxed creaking to this noisy compressed sound? Thank you so much in advance.

[@ToniLinke]

Can you do the heady version of that grudge noise? So, irregular creaking in falsetto? If yes, the next step is really just going for a twangy AH shape. That is, you might actually lose the creaking if you change the shape, so you might have to search for the right amount of support that this AH vowel needs in order to stay atonal. I'm also starting with a hard onset in the examples I gave here, which might help adding a bit of compression - maybe that's the missing link? I didn't mention it because if you use twang correctly, it kind of leads to a hard onset automatically, but maybe you can try the hard onset thing even before you change the vowel, so a possible recipe could be: 1. Irregular creaking in falsetto; 2. The same thing with a hard onset; 3. The same thing on a twangy AH vowel shape. When I did the OO vowel in this video, I also started with a hard onset, but it probably didn't sound as "screamy" as the AH, just because the shape doesn't amplify the relevant frequencies as much. Hope this helps! If it doesn't, you can attempt some other approaches to fry screaming, like the Chris Liepe style yodelling thing that leads to Medium Fry (I've made a video about the different kinds of fry scream a month ago, so that might be useful too?). Good luck!

[@therealmanuelbauer]

@@ToniLinke Thank you so much for the explanation, I will try this tomorrow (as I dont wanna wake up my family right now :D) Yes, I can do the heady version of the grudge noise, I can also kinda reproduce your compressed sound but it comes with pushing and tension so I guess its wrong. Your explanation might help, thank you! I've been trying to get a hold of Chris Liepes screaming-approach for years but I dont get it. He helped me with a lot of things, but his screaming advice just doesnt work for me. When I push into my break, all I get is an airy and rattley hoooooht-Sound. I cant find a point of resistance there, the air just swooshes out. Saw your demonstration of it, it sounds great, but I dont get it. Im not a big screamer, I mostly sing clean or with a little grit, but am trying to add some screams to the songs for my band and am trying hard to find a healthy and good sounding way of doing so, but have been failing for over a year so far. Will keep on trying though :)

[@ToniLinke]

@@therealmanuelbauer what you describe sounds like it could maybe be solved in a lesson. Of course I don't want to make promises, but often just a couple of tweaks can already lead to a breakthrough! So if you're really interested in fry screaming, one real-time 1:1 lesson could be worth it :)

[@therealmanuelbauer]

@@ToniLinke Already thought about that. I just dont like Video-Call-Lessons so much. But I will be coming back to you about it!

[@therealmanuelbauer]

Hi Toni, the tip about using twang and hard onset helped a lot, thank you. I just realized that I have never really experimented with this properly, it opens up completely new sounds. I kinda manage to do a fry(ish) screamy noise at a usable volume now, although I'm not sure if there's some false cord involvement going on there. The problem now is, that although this doesn't seem to be very exhausting, after I'm done my voice sounds and feels like I just woke up. Especially in the lower range I can't seem to get the fry noise out of my voice for a while. Any idea, where that might come from? Again, thanks a million for your help!

[@MishiaEatingUnicorn]

That was an amazing video! After months of practising I can do pretty decent fry screams, though I do struggle with making a distorted voice, I mean clean voice + fry distortion. Sometime I can do that, but most of the time I end up doing either just fry scream or just clean vocals. Any tips on that? How to "glue" the fry scream to my clean voice?

[@ToniLinke]

This is an advanced thing that probably takes a lesson or two to even discover, but generally I'd say for semi-clean fry screams one would start from a chestier place, try to find the same balance that we have for irregular creaking at higher pressure and constriction levels and finally play around with leaning more or less into the clean sound again. I can recommend Chris Liepe's videos on that topic, he gets his grit by a similar approach (what he calls "break-up" is basically loud irregular creaking)!

[@MishiaEatingUnicorn]

@@ToniLinke Thanks so much for the reply, I know Chris, his videos are very helpful as well!

[@rafa-lk6lf]

will i sound like Kurr Cobane technique practicing this? :>

[@ToniLinke]

@@rafa-lk6lf Kurt Cobain has used several different techniques (like creaking, distortion, fry screams) and there's many other aspects to his technique that make his sound recognizable (for example his articulation, phrasing, and sound colour choices).

[@mikestckl6939]

hey man ! this is by far the best series i found :D specially that you show and explain how to use all the specific parts of the voicebox , all the others mostly say its the falsechords but dont say anything on how to feel if you really use the right part when doing it , that really helps to understand and learn . atleast it did for me haha what i didnt get was the over the pencil thing but i think i will figure it out over time xD do you by any chance know what kind of scream phil anselmo (pantera , but especially in the superjoint stuff) and seth putnam (from anal cunt) are using ? it kinda sounds like fry but i´m not sure , would be cool if you could help me out with that one :D

[@ToniLinke]

I hear it as fry-based in both! With Phil Anselmo it's always a combination with false fold distortion, but I'm not sure whether it's twang-based or hyper-compressed. Sounds both very bright and very compressed so it could be both.

[@mikestckl6939]

@@ToniLinke thank you very much ! i allways thought the way they scream is in any case anything but good for your vocal chords and didnt wanna try to learn it just in case . but now i will try until i get it right :D thank you veryvery much for the fast response and again for that awesome series ! you´re the best :D

[@faselblaDer3te]

Hey Toni, can I ask you for another vocal technique analysis? I've been trying to figure out, what the vocalist of Real Friends is doing on Late nights in my car: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qavRXp6eq9CCjdU The effect mainly appears in the bridge section. I originally thought he was using fry distortion (thus asking here), but after re-listening a couple times I'm not so sure, maybe he's actually just screaming relentlessly? XD The rest is mostly clean, I'm thinking mixed voice with a lot of projection - or ist belting? Thanks again for all your work!

[@ToniLinke]

I hear what I'd call "loud fry" or "pushed fry", so making the voice "break up" from a belty point. It fits the fry category, but probably other tissues are randomly vibrating too.

[@faselblaDer3te]

@@ToniLinke Thank youuuu

[@christopher5981]

Hey, can you explain how to make Michael jackson rasp, or bruno mars rasp, is a sutil rasp

[@ToniLinke]

I think with those two you often hear twangy false fold distortion (as explained in episode #3) - you basically have to learn to make a less subtle false fold distortion first and then you can find the sweet spot where it just comes in very subtly.

[@potaty7318]

I really want to learn how to scream like chester bennington.

[@ToniLinke]

Who doesn't? :D In Chester Bennington I hear distortion and creaking, like in the medium fry scream technique I explain in episode 2 of my Collected Monologues series.

[@djabthrash]

@toni : on Machine Head's "Davidian", do you think Robb Flynn is doing mostly fry scream ? Or false cord scream ? Or singing with distortion ? I think you did mostly fry scream when doing your cover, and it sounds a bit different than Robb's (you sound more like Randy Blythe Lamb Of God). On the other hand, i mostly do false cord and singing with distortion (because my fry scream is still shot), but when i listen to various live versions of the song throughout the years, some things tell me he could be using fry scream ... NB : if someday you happen to (re ?) join VCH rooms 1 and 4 (the new one, which used to be room 8, since old room 4 got cancelled), i would be glad to talk more in depth about this there :) NB 2 : did a lot of progress with my screaming (mostly false cord) in the past months, mostly due to being in VCH rooms

[@ToniLinke]

I think Rob Flynn uses false fold distortion with a bit of occasional extra creaking, so it approaches fry scream on some of his heavier lines. In Davidian, I hear little to no fry scream and the whole thing sounds a bit pushier than his later stuff, but I think it's essentially variants of the same technique over all of Machine Head's discography. I was doing my cover in hyper-compressed distortion bordering on hyper-compressed screaming sometimes, and I'm not sure whether that is how Rob Flynn does it, but it's the most intuitive way for me.

[@djabthrash]

@@ToniLinke Thanks for the reply ! On the original studio version it sounds rougher (and pushier like you said) than how he did it later on (later live versions, and the re-recording they did in the studio recently with the original lineup reunion), which i think was more towards fry scream. I need to go back to your 101 videos because you often mention "hyper-compressed distortion" and "hyper-compressed screaming", but i don't know what it is compared to singing with distortion and false cord screaming.

[@djabthrash]

@@ToniLinke By the way, in which video/part of the 101 series do you talk about the "hyper-compressed distortion" and "hyper-compressed screaming" ?

[@ToniLinke]

@@djabthrash I mention hyper-compression in my distortion video (episode 3), it's just an alternative way of compression if you don't want to use twang. CVT would still classify the effects as distortion and creaking.

[@djabthrash]

@@ToniLinke Danke schön !

[@richardtheloxlie]

Hi buddy, your are the master!!!! :D, thanks so much for your videos, i really wanted to know all about of vocal distortions and literally you are the one that explain quite specific the topics, Where can i download the pdf?

[@ToniLinke]

Thanks! You can download it here: www.dropbox.com/sh/k44cpamhmnkd0pq/AAAe2UIMDzAiFgMpwwoYo7t8a?dl=0

[@richardtheloxlie]

@@ToniLinke thanks so much buddy, i was wondering what kind of distort use lacrimosa singer tilo wolf, do you know?

[@ToniLinke]

@@richardtheloxlie I'm not very familiar with him. I just skipped through a couple Lacrimosa songs and couldn't find any effects, maybe you have an example?

[@richardtheloxlie]

@@ToniLinke it could be “sapphire” or “siehst du mich im licht?” He doesn’t the effect always but in certain parts of the song :)

[@ToniLinke]

@@richardtheloxlie in "Sapphire", the gravelly parts around 2 and 6 minutes are a very relaxed rattle, and the screamy stuff around 5 minutes seems to be some kind of fry scream. It's hard to hear though because it's pretty far back in the mix with a lot of layering going on. At the end of "Siehst du mich im Licht" I hear mostly fry scream too, I would classify this sound as "medium fry scream" specifically, which I explain somewhere in episode 2 of my Collected Monologues series.

[@Bad_Phil]

Toni, very informative so far! I can get creaking in my lowest register, and can flip between regular creaking and clean up to mid 4th octave. I have noticed that when I do this allot, it’s hard to go back to clean voice. When I go into the 5th octave many times I struggle to thin out the folds and I drag too much weight up there, which feels like my throat expands horizontally before splatting out in loss of closure. On a good day this happens at about E5, on a bad day, considerably sooner. Is there anything I can do to train myself to thin out the voice up there (probably starting far earlier than the 5th octave) to help me achieve some consistency? Thanks mate!

[@ToniLinke]

Hey, that sounds familiar, it's a very good description of my own problems in falsetto! I think what has helped me was using twang in falsetto, but instead of "reinforcing it" or making it thicker, you'd just use it to maintain good closure while staying relatively light. The twang approach probably works best on vowels like AH, EH and IH first, but alternatively you could try relying on whoop timbre (if you don't know what that is, I explain that in episode 3 of my "Collected Monologues" series) which works well on "classical" OO and EE vowels. Whoop timbre also allows for a lot of volume and weight in falsetto, but resisting the urge to exploit those efficient strategies to their maximum and establishing an easy medium volume falsetto first seems smart to me, at least that's what I had to practice myself. I feel that in falsetto we tire out much more quickly from inefficient usage than in lower registers, or at least we can muscle our way through belting and mixing longer than in falsetto.

[@Bad_Phil]

@@ToniLinke That sounds spot on to what I’m experiencing. I’m going to hunt through your videos to find ep3 of your collected monologues 👍🏻

[@Bad_Phil]

@@ToniLinke just listened to it, and I’m going to start working on that. One last question… do you have a video where you go into and describe “twang”? I see that term thrown around allot, but was hoping you had something on it as your descriptions and demos are stellar

[@ToniLinke]

@@Bad_Phil by twang, I mean a constriction of the vocal tract right above the vocal folds. Some people describe it as aryepiglottic sphincter narrowing, others as epilaryngeal funnel narrowing, others as hypopharyngeal narrowing, but they all mean this sharp, bratty, nasty sound that you'd get from imitating a duck, a cackling witch, a crying baby etc.

[@WavesOfDMusic]

Hey bro please make a video on how to scream like chester benington

[@ToniLinke]

Sadly, Chester isn't alive anymore so we can only guess how exactly he screamed. From what I hear, I assume he's either using medium fry screams (which I explain in episode #2 of my Collected Monologues series) or hyper-compressed screams (which I explain in episode #3 of my Rough Vocal Effects series). Good luck! :)

[@WavesOfDMusic]

@@ToniLinke thank you for d response bro. I have been trying to do fry screm since a year. But still i am unable to figure it out. I m a tenor but whenever i try to scream i messed up with my clean voice or i need to push to hard dat i tend to lose control. And i feel this the problem of most of singers who want to scream and sing clean both at d same time. Kindly help me out if u like to bro😊 love from india💓

[@jazn271]

Hey Toni great videos ! I'm currently training my mixed voice and there's unvolontary regular creaking all around it, particularly around my break, do you know anything about this ?

[@ToniLinke]

Creaking is usually a sign that there's either too little support energy or too much resistance at the vocal fold level for a clean sound. You might also get a more stable pressure balance by modifying the vowels, usually a more open mouth will have less back pressure than a more closed mouth, and the rest of your body always has to adjust to that.

[@jazn271]

@@ToniLinke Ok thanks i'll explore that, what do you mean by too much resistance at the vocal fold level ?

[@ToniLinke]

@@jazn271 when we exhale without noise, there's no resistance against the airstream. When we whisper or speak breathily, there's a little resistance, but still most of the air is going through unused. When we sing or speak a clear tone, we have a very efficient resistance in terms of phonation, so all of the air is used to produce sound and it might feel like a very natural "flow". When we resist even more (for example by using "twang", or "cry", or "grandpa voice", which are all different kinds of compression), we can get even louder or more dense sounds than in normal phonation, but it might be a bit more physical effort. When we resist more than the support energy that our body provides, we have an imbalance between the pressure levels below and above the vocal folds, which causes them to vibrate more chaotically in order to compensate for the imbalance. This chaotic vibration is called creaking, and if it happens regularily with you that is a sign that you're setting your voice up PERFECTLY for this vocal effect, but not very precisely for normal clean singing.

[@jazn271]

@@ToniLinke Ok perfect I get it, thank you for your time Toni !

[@amirrjk6934]

Rasp is the same thing Ed Sheeran uses in "make it rain" right?

[@ToniLinke]

I hear more of a false fold distortion in some parts. They can sound pretty similar though!

[@zacharyketcham9244]

Will frying hurt you if you're trying for true operatic singing

[@ToniLinke]

Not if done right :) especially just pulse register and relaxed creaking aren't risky at all. A good rule of thumb is: if it feels good, it is good, if it feels uncomfortable, it's not 100% the right thing yet :)

[@donclarence3644]

Thanks for the great content! Can you identify what kind of distortion Nils K. Rue of Pagans Mind is using in this video? kzbin.info/www/bejne/eJOWqJ1pm7SZhJYsi=BUr0yeF1IpVT0x35 Here are some timestamps of what I'm reffering to: 51:09 52:57 42:24 20:16

[@ToniLinke]

A combination of Twangy Distortion and Creaking in falsetto! Really cool!

[@donclarence3644]

@@ToniLinkeis it the same thing you demonstrate 7:57 in this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJConXZviZemiJYsi=6nZa_RFEIwvF8R9z ?

[@katiebosco6547]

Do you do lessons?

[@ToniLinke]

Yes! You can reserve a slot in October here: www.supersaas.de/schedule/Toni_Linke/Lessons

[@levii4748]

Can i use this technique to get fry rasp ?

[@ToniLinke]

Yes! If you want a dirtier rasp than the projected creaking, I can recommend Chris Liepe's videos on gritty vocals, he's basically teaching fry too even if he calls it something different!

[@levii4748]

@@ToniLinke can you do a tutorial on this?

[@ToniLinke]

@@levii4748 at the moment I'm pretty busy, but I give skype and zoom lessons!

[@levii4748]

@@ToniLinke how much for the lesson?

[@ToniLinke]

@@levii4748 40€ for 60 minutes :)

[@AsRaTCW]

i don't know how to resonate in my head

[@ToniLinke]

It's just a metaphor so if it doesn't work for you, no problem! Maybe you can try starting on a falsetto note and invite creaking there?

[@LuisOpcional-c1f]

Crack

[@Bararaian]

Thank you for this content! Haven't found anyone that explains it as well as you do. 😄 I am having an issue with my fry scream, which is that when I try and increase the volume, I transition into the regular creaking and can't get back into the irregular creaking. What should I do?? I find myself going into a regular creaking quite frequently whenever I am trying to do any fry based stuff. Also can you identify the techniques that the two vocalists of ERRA use in this song? kzbin.info/www/bejne/qKGpnWCPjtxoeKc I really want to learn how to do this techniques myself but I really don't know what to search. Once again, Thank you!!!

[@ToniLinke]

Some of it sounds like pitched fry screams, but you can also get close to this by doing false fold distortion in falsetto! The more atonal stuff is clearly fry scream, but you can get it with different fry techniques (look at episode 3 of my Rough Vocal Effects Revisited series for that!), not sure which singer does which sounds.

[@Bararaian]

@@ToniLinke ohhh I see. Thank you! And how can I avoid getting into the regular creaking when increasing the volume with the fry??

[@ToniLinke]

@@Bararaian whether the creaking is regular or irregular seems to be about a very specific balance of pressure and flow. It seems that when you increase the volume, you lose that balance, so either the flow gets too big or the pressure gets too low. You can also use some tricks to "grip" the irregular creaking a bit more, like adding false fold distortion or raising the tongue.

[@Bararaian]

@@ToniLinke woah it actually kind of worked haha, now I gotta practice Thank you for the advice!!! I wish you a very great day :)

[@rafa-lk6lf]

7:46

[@ToniLinke]

I'm still waiting for memes!