hey chris liepe here i've gotten a chance to do a lot of vocal recording myself lately and i've also
gotten many chances to help other students and vocalists work through their own vocal recordings
produce them through the process coach them through the process and as an aside i recently
stumbled upon this video of chester and mike going through the tedious process of recording
different parts of linkin park songs it's a compilation video on youtube and i found it as
i was just thumbing through videos one night and because of where i'm at working with students and
and uh of course always nice to find another video by by chester that are that includes
chester i thought it would be a really neat opportunity for me to react to and analyze
chester and mike's interaction and what chester does in the studio piecing these songs together
trying things having them not work trying other things needing breaks having discouragement having
victory there's all these things that happen in this video i'm surprised i hadn't seen this video
until now one of the main problems that people have when they're wanting to learn how to sing
but also when they're wanting to record their own voice is they listen to studio recordings of
guys like chester or other vocal idols and go man these guys are so good and my recordings
sound horrible and i'm never going to to get that far or i'm never going to be that good
but diving into in a certain way these types of experiences or being a fly on the wall and
watching as our idols and our the experts record vocals there's a lot to learn and there's a lot of
empowerment that comes from immersing yourself in this type of video if you know how to watch it so
we're going to go through most of this video the full video is available online if you want
to watch it without me yakking through it but we're going to go through and we're going to pull
out gems when it comes to the process that chester and mike have recording these vocals
and this process should encourage and empower you as a singer as a recording vocalist as you'll see
as this video develops it's not about knowing the song it's not about singing well right away it's
about grinding and troubleshooting and coming up with something and failing and trying again and
again and again and again and again how much of us ask this question after you've gone through
the video with me how much of us when we go into the studio to record expect to go in and lay down
some you know i practiced i've done this this take in it i should be i should be good right
and then you go in and you're discouraged because you're not performing well in the studio that's
not how these guys do it at all they don't go for a vocal take or a complete or perfect vocal take
they're in the minutia they're composing and there's ideas there's all sorts of wonderful
things going on but it's the amalgamation of all these ideas and all these little steps and a lot
of patience that gets the sounds that you and i know and love so let's get into this we'll
talk more about it if you'd like more help and more coaching with your own voice click the link
below and join my free voice course that's the best place to start with me and there's lots of
ways we can work together from there including me coaching you through your own recordings
you think we should be sitting again try that try that see how that goes
even in this in this brief exchange here yeah try that
they're working out melodies they're working out parts as they're making the recordings
that you and i know and love and this is the posture that the band and the collaborative
attitude that the band has it's not this way for every band but it's like this way it's this way
a lot and i've been in situations in spencer sotelo periphery recording vocal sessions in
in vail of maya recording sessions this is what they do this is very common
we need to adopt the same mentalities when we're writing when we're performing in the studio
no yeah there's a voice in there sorry let's do another one transmissions
three more notches and just let's see what happens when i close my eyes tonight too
[ __ ] another one it should sound like panic so i love that there's this this back and forth
you know i trust her try something and then i try that one more time amp it up a little bit
do this do that i love that he's got his lyric sheet there that are probably lyrics in process
uh because this stuff is so fresh and new exciting freeing to me
a little less of water in here russ is gonna bring it up in one second there he is chief chester of
water please that would be fantastic do that thing you're doing there at the end no do another one
like that keep going i don't think we've nailed it nailed it but it's like these are all good
i love that we get a chance to hear chester off mic in other words we're hearing the camera mic
we're not hearing the produced mic so you can hear what his voice is doing in the room there's an
extra rawness to that and then it's it's freeing for me to hear his voice in that context as well
between mike and chester and how mike being a you know a primary writer and having these ideas and
then passing what he has in his mind on to the angelic and devilish voice of chester it's it's
a really really cool collaborative relationship and it's fun for me to see that happening
as a vocalist producing myself sometimes i wish i had more of that and so when i'm
working with other vocalists or i have other vocalists in the room that are working together
it raises the game quite a bit to have other people who hear your voice
differently speak into things that you can do with your voice
pricing even watching chester work something into his voice you know that mike's there it is the
level of humanity there that we just don't think about often enough it's there right we know these
guys are humans but we tend to think oh they're so good oh chester can scream for 17 seconds live and
we don't see the struggle or we don't notice it or take time to internalize it that
this is normal when we're having to work a line over and over again our voice isn't doing what
it what we want it to be doing in the studio it's normal it's all a part of the process
and just so far away i think we're on something here uh
just note how pieced together some of these things are you've got chester over there
doing something and it's short and then there's the engineer and there's this like oh okay i
think that'll work or that might not work or okay then we skip to a different part and we're
piecing things in we're arranging we're painting with vocals and chester chester's voice is is a
color or multiple colors this is not get in the booth and sing a song from start to finish or hey
hit record start singing the song okay we'll punch here and here when you make a mistake that's not
how these songs are made and that's not how most songs that are recorded these days are
produced either they are produced more like this here here here here here comping saving editing
sorry i was gloating
whoa is that right the night vines on you happy to see it that high the night winds on
waiting for the night waiting for the light that never the setting here they're clearly in like
a house with acoustic treatment on the walls and stuff like that a nice desk over there but
you know it's home studio and he's just he's just out there doing it up like how empowering
is that and and asking questions and going back and forth and interacting uh in this hallway
it's like either hard or weird let me do it again get a little water what's that get a little water
it's lovely to see you can you hear yourself
hello love it's lovely to see you hello love it's a lovely day
i think it's also really neat to hear chester's voice in this setting you know on camera mics and
all that stuff because you are not hearing production in any way right you're you're
hearing isolated vocals but you're not even hearing them affected like they would be
in an actual production you're not hearing them live with other things around them
you're hearing the way his voice sounds in a room in a house singing and it sounds great but it also
all the you know if there's pitch correction or compression or doubling or delays or any of
those things that we hear even when we listen to produced isolated vocals from linkin park all that
stuff is stripped away and you really get a sense of his vocal timbre which is really really neat
i laughed because i'm i'm sure that he's not discouraged but i've been in in these
situations where you've got the vocalist over there and you're you're doing this and
you're concentrating but there is this sense of like oh man this is getting long
i wonder what's going through his head i wonder how much of it's just concentrating just really
being into it and really listening intently and or how much he's like ready to go grab some tacos
looking at chester's posture when he's recording and he's got these his lyrics in one hand and
i do the same thing even before i knew that guys like this did this i have to have like
my notebook with written words or um uh actual piece of paper like a tablet in my hand or
the piece of paper on a music stand far away when i'm recording it that doesn't work for me i've got
to have a piece of paper in front of me looking at the words even if i wrote the words even if i know
the words and i've sung the song a bunch of times i've got to have that in my hand it's a really
huge help when i'm tracking it's like a blanket security blanket it keeps us kind yeah it's great
chester ignore brad real quick also notice he's waving his arms too and he's he's getting into
the this character that he's in while he's singing if you're not into it even in the studio you're
that's not going to come out in your recording let it flow don't try and sing the song just
fantastic i think that's the one dude where he stops right seriously so dope chester sing
whatever you want just sing whatever you want let's do another times that was so [ __ ] awesome
camaraderie in relationship and mutual respect and encouragement that it look
looks like they have in settings like that ugh
it inside heartbreaking push it back down you push it back down
now here listening to him scream right there
i've talked about this a lot in other videos and i want to i want to bring this out especially off
mic or off the the production mic when it's not all encompassed in other things did you
hear how his voice was cracking did you hear how there was this voice that he abandoned into the
that's what's going on it's not this static like super controlled scream it's abandonment and what
i've talked about about accessing accessing your bro vocal break about letting your voice crack
he's doing that and a lot of that stuff ends up on the recording in layers but we don't hear that
but a lot of what happens when we listen to a final recording and
then we try to start screaming and creating these perfect vocal takes
we don't hear the the warts and so we try to make our voice too perfect and then we end up getting
tense and discouraged and we're not as far off as we think from a lot of this type of vocals
trading roles for just a second let me let me work something out here real quick and
then i'll show you i've been in recording sessions like that too matter of fact uh
one of the recording sessions i was just in with uh spencer and johnny craig uh that was happening
you know we'd have an idea and we'd go on mike and we would say oh try this johnny and johnny would
uh but we couldn't really articulate the idea until we actually went in the booth and on mic
you can't expect to get good vocal takes if you're not willing to go to
or and let other people around you notice oh try this try that cadence try going on that word this
way and you're being really considerate about how every detail of your vocal performance is
you can't do that if you're just plowing through vocal take after vocal tape
notice the pitch in his screams victimize victimize this is not fry screaming
this is not a voiceless scream that's why chester's screams are so juicy and textured
thanks so much for watching this with me and tolerating my pauses and insights
i hope you found them helpful again if you'd like more help with your own voice
and particularly in the area of creating great recordings the best place to start with me still
is by clicking the link below and joining my free course also if you'd like to watch this video
without interruption i've left the full link below in the description as well we'll see for more