hey chris liepe here with the isolated vocals for even flow eddie vedder pearl jam
these are really fun to listen to because in addition to his vocal performance there are all
sorts of subtle effects that you know when i was younger and listening to this song i just thought
he had a really bellish cool voice but when you listen closely especially in this isolated fashion
you hear delays you hear subtle preverbs i'll call them so we're going to unpack his vocal
performance but we're also going to unpack some of the recording techniques or ideas that went into
this vocal performance or the vocal mix and i know that eddie has said
multiple times that he didn't really prefer the mix of 10 and that he was much happier when they
went to remix it and remastered if you haven't checked out the remix of 10 definitely do that
it's amazing i prefer it to the original but i still like there's something nostalgic about this
this song in general and the way it was produced the way the the effects work together with the
vocal performance is awesome and it creates a lot of opportunity for us to be inspired in how
we not only perform but produce our own vocals if you'd like help with your vocals in general and
you'd like my help in particular you want me to come alongside you and become your vocal coach
click the link below and join my free voice course that's the best place to start and
there are a lot of paths including private lessons that you can go down from there
maybe he'll see a little better saturday first of all i love hearing the headphone bleed and
for those of you joining me for maybe the first isolated vocal analysis that i've done i've got
a stop at frequent intervals so that i can keep the video up copyrights and google algorithms
make it so that i can't play long sections of each song but i really love hearing the
headphone bleed and i notice here maybe he'll see a little better it sounds like that was a
quick mute punch sort of thing going on there it's neat to hear those things
never would have heard it had i not done the isolated vocals listen to the delay on his vocals
how it comes in on the freezing
resist and then the the delay comes out it's an automated delay up i'm going to show you how
to create that in a little bit here but for now just take note of it and listen to this
looks insane and you hear it you hear the oh in a very drenched reverb thing before
he actually says it but it's the same track it's super cool at first i thought that it was reversed
and put in and after experimenting with it a little bit i think there might be
some instances in other especially this era of recordings where they do reverse
but this sounds like it's they've they've taken the original vocal track and they've moved it
forward and then cross-faded in and out of this extremely wet verb like i said we'll set
that up a little bit later here but i want to get you into the whole vibe of the song
and he can't help when he's happy he looks insane
that's cool there so when you listen to this ending here
you get uh a good sense of the the room reverb that's on his voice as well
delay on the whole time and that neat harmony underneath oh we don't know so he chases them away
or something yet he'll begin his life again life again
so the delay comes in more prominently he gets a bit more aggressive and
into it and then all these things work together with the performance with that harmony and
everything to create a really compelling overall sound and this is one of my favorite pearl jam
songs largely because i think of the way the vocals were performed and presented
let's go ahead and set some things up and work with the balance of these effects and my voice
and see what happens this isn't what they did because they were recording to tape but we can
use the tools available to us to get close and at least experiment and be inspired by it let's give
it a try freezing rest his head on a pillow made of concrete again now we're going to bring in a
delay and i've just got a real simple uh quarter note synced to the tempo which is roughly 102
we're going to bring in this delay and it's going to be really annoying when we first put it on
uh but when we bring it in and out in the correct places it's gonna be perfect
again
we're gonna automate the send to the reverb the level going to the reverb we're doing
this instead of just uh worrying about the level of the reverb track itself because
we want to be able to have me sing and have portions of
the delay delay over what is being sung presently let me demonstrate for you here
we want it to be out here you can do this with mutes too free rests his freezing on a pillow
made of concrete bring it like this down just a little bit we want that percussion of the delay
but we want to sense it we don't necessarily want to hear it as much freeze and rest his
head on a pillow made of concrete again now if i do it this way you can hear the delay of the z
coming over the top of res his head on a pillow so freeze it and rest his head on a pillow made
of concrete the rest his head on a pillow made of concrete is clean if we leave this like this and
simply mute the delay or automate the delay down the after it has already been sent to the delay
here's what we get free freezes and rests his head on a pillow made of concrete
it's a subtle difference but it sounds cooler to have the send automated and let that delay
be wide open so that information can trail over what's being sung this is a key way to do a neat
delay or automated delay throw free freezes and rest his head on a pillow made of concrete
so he is them
he'll begin his life again
is life again
there's delay on the lead vocal this whole time in the original
and there's that preverb thing happening so i'm going to take the master track now that i have
the background vocals recorded i'm going gonna i'm gonna slide it over and blend it into taste
fading it in and out here and there and we're gonna see this come together in a really cool way
maybe like like this
see what happens when we do that it's more than they did but it's fun to experiment with
yeah pretty nerdy but pretty fun too to experiment with all right listening on
and keep those effects in mind as we continue here live again
looking through the paper though it doesn't know to read
now there was a reverse delay it was the same sort of thing except it was panned out did you hear it
looking through the paper though it doesn't know to read they took that one little section
without the vocal crack in there but going over and over again and then panning it out
same idea band limited too like we did
there it is on its way
like the how the reverb catches that the preverb catches that part
it's cool it's so that's so wet so diffuse the reverb that they use there
now listen here or the way he says life he does this a lot
this kind of this is a very eddie vetterish thing to do
again let's talk about that throne note he'll begin his life again
he can totally do that where life is a actual note but he breaks up so uh obviously there
right this is not he'll begin his life again it starts to sound like a clown if you do that
there's this extra manliness that happens when you break into that note he'll begin his life again
now it takes i said manliness on purpose because in order to get there and practice getting there
you have to kind of go the opposite direction and i sort of just did it we don't want to
shy away from our voice completely falling apart he'll begin his life again we have to get to the
point where we're willing and able to do that first total horribleness shall begin his life
life life and then rest in that in between i've talked about this in a lot of my other videos if
you can't do the goofy yodeling thing you can't do this kind of abandon because you don't know where
to rest when you feel that crack coming on or that break so we are able to abandon into this note
his life again his life again or oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah where we have a clean note followed by
a really broken up note that's how we do it we push our voice to the breaking point let it crack
and lean in lots more information on how to do that effectively and habitually in my course
the aggressive vocalist master plan of attack which you'll find a link in
the video information below on that video on that lesson series as well here we go
i love the the delay panned over to the right that they do there now one of my favorite eddie
vedder moments of all time is coming up and i just want to prepare you for it it's it's
the last sort of improv interaction he has with the band so listen for it i'll point
i like how the the reverb or preverb picked up
this uh improv thing he was doing here this isn't the one buttons
here we go yes this section right here just love it oh
yeah the way the guitars and the way this you know he fills the holes with his vocals
i love the tone of that mixed note it's a fun note just to go for hard onset yeah compression
and then he lightens it up with the oh his tone is unmatched but going back and forth between
that hard onset yeah it's really good for your voice and it's fun to feel what it does as you
vacillate between and then go into a nice uh improvisational chest thing you know hum
you're incorporating all your resonances you're practicing blending yeah
oh yeah
oh the point isn't to do exactly what he's doing the point is to get into a groove yourself
in those different areas of your voice
i also want to point out the letdowns
there's there's a follow through with his notes
that he does really well chris cornell does this really well as well thanks so much for joining
me for this isolated vocal breakdown again if you'd like more help with your voice the best
place to start is by clicking the link below and joining my free voice course be sure to like and
subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already so that you're made aware of each
video as they come out and be sure to leave a comment and a like let's get a dialogue going
about some of these cool effects and the way this song was performed all right we'll see for more