hey chris liepe here with the isolated vocal tracks for green day 21 guns billy joe armstrong
i chose this song because there's a lot going on from a production standpoint and
all the billy-isms are present here in a pretty melodic and upfront way
but i really wanted to go over both his singing style
and this particular production and arrangement so i'm excited to get into this
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but if you'd like to work directly with me go there do you know what's worth fighting for
when it's not worth dying for all right let's talk about a few things right off the bat first of all
let's talk about the production do you know what's worth fighting for
we've got a bit of reverb and a bit of delay it's a room reverb you can hear that if you're
listening to headphones do you know and then we've got some delay ah do you know and when
he holds out those notes and zeros in on him it creates this nice chorusing effect doubling almost
let's look at the reverb first i'm using the manny m stuff from waves medium room reverb
nothing special 100 wet on ascend the delay is a bit more interesting we are not synced to the
tempo of the song instead we're providing a long slap feeling but it's a stereo delay
and we have one set at 230 milliseconds and one set at 238. this is creating a widening
even though it's if i if i bring this up more hey ah now it sounds more like a ping pong
but if i bring them closer together it just widens so i have the lead vocal
in place let me go like this 240. hey hey hey hey and then i have one of them
with a bit more feedback that's probably a bit too much for what he's doing
one you barely hear the other one trail off
i've got a little higher than he does but oh and then one more thing we are band limiting the delay
we don't want the s's to be as prominent and we don't want the low frequencies
we don't want that do you know what you're fighting for that sounds too high-five we
want this where the lead vocal is in the center and we want the other stuff to trail behind and
be placed behind in the mix all right listening on and we'll talk more about his tone in a minute
do you know what's worth fighting for sorry about the words do you know what's worth do you
does it take your breath away and you feel yourself suffocating
does the pain weigh out the pride
and you look for a place to hide all right let's talk about his placement with his voice
he would be one person that you would call nasal just by the way he sounds but calling him a nasal
singer is really oversimplifying and kind of not a smart thing to say let's unpack it a bit more
so we can understand how to use some of this in our own singing and you look for a place to hide
let's go let's plug our nose entirely uh i'd you look for a place to hide
you actually hear a bit of what he's doing when i plug off my nasal passage so
he's anti-nasal if we're really talking about you know a lot of people say someone sounds too nasal
when it's not about actually being too nasal it's about not being nasal that's
why that term is so dumb and you look for place to huh but he's really good and you can hear it
about bringing in nasality but keeping nasality out doing both strategically i think that he
didn't start off to you know oh i'm going to be nasal sometimes and not nasal other times
he didn't start off saying that but he has a very good way and you if you listen to these lines you
really can hear nasality going in and out listen for that and we'll call it out more as we go
for on place to hide
no-no's then he brings in the nose
and that creates this neat transfer of resonance and it really helps his voice dive out into the
mic you hear this all over basket case as well that transference of resonance between full nasal
engagement and not and it's someone right another sorry to stop it so soon but did some nitza
and then he he brings it back
i'm one break your heart inside your ruins you're in ruins you're in ruins
subtle transference 1 21 guns lay down your arms give up the [ __ ] love that
give up and you can hear there's a double going on now 21 guns this is great transferring from
his chest resonance to head resonance 21 21 guns 21 guns 21 guns he leaves that open
guns i love how it's thin and smooth at the same time 21
21 and that doubling helps with that 21 gun guns no vibrato lay down your arms give up
the [ __ ] so something that billy does all the time he'll start a word before he starts the word
start singing before he starts the word would be a better way to say that give up
really a neat thing to do again that's part of transferring that nasal resonance around
1 21 guns now this little section here it didn't make it to the isolated vocal tracks but there's
this neat background harmony thing going on this this group of harmonies that's really compelling
listen to the lead vocal with the background vocals in there from the original recording
we've got
going over that progression and we've also got a lower harmony in there
and the lower one is more open on an awe and it's really really neat the way it layers in
with his voice and they're also caked in reverb really neat sound throw up your arms into the sky
throw up your arms into the sky
arms into the sky
you and i
when you're at the end of the road
and you lost a sense of control you can hear some pitch correction going on there
and that's fine this is something that is being used to enhance the emotional connection
with the song brings the singer and the music together i know a lot of people don't use it a
lot of people don't like it but the fact is it's here embrace it and your thoughts have
taken their toll when your mind breaks the spirit of your soul
there he they let him go flat it's it's being used to taste
it's cool your faith walks and broken glass and the hang hangover doesn't pass
nothing's ever built to last you're a ruin i love this line here
right the beginning of it nothing's ever how it there's that round note nothing
nothing's there he goes up to it and it it's as clear as a bell nothing
nothing so nice and then listen to the ruins
that need articulation and he cracks into
again fully embracing that nasal resonance there
and you can hear that sibilance arms in that delay i think that's fine it works in the mix
really really well sometimes when we're adding delays we tend to want to get that all the way
out because we get paranoid about oh we don't want duplicate sibilance which is something to consider
but always test it to the mix they left it in for a reason it wasn't just careless you don't
always need to get rid of all the sibilance one 21 guns throw up your arms into the sky
you and i
i like the way the delay folds over on that note and
you hear it layering with the original note really great with this mid bright sound that he's got
did you try to live on your own when you burned down the housing home now they've got a lot more
delay on that they have they've taken what we had and turned up the feedback it sounds very similar
but is it tempo locked did you try to live on it is tempo locked did you try to live on your own
did you try let's
that's the tempo that's what we've got dialed in we've got the width we've got
a little bit of a displaced groove causing that width and we're synced to an eighth note delay
and we've turned the feed to back up quite a bit did you try to
did you try did you try to live on your own
cool sounds
did you stand too close to the fire
like a liar looking for forgiveness i like this part right here
stand too close close using a bit of compression there you don't
hear him do that that often like a liar looking for forgiveness from the stone
such a wonderful open bellish note i love the bout i love that about his voice
when it's time to i also like how he moves between notes
when it's time he closes the vowel a bit when it's time to time time it's very subtle it's not time
but it's subtle enough and with that nasal adjustment so neat
what a great line something goes into his head voice there something ends
so subtle the way he does it something something new it's not something if you
aren't listening too closely you won't even notice when he drops into head voice
raises something
so cool
ah that is subtle delay that's cool
that's awesome never
give up the fight
this is something that uh the guys from oasis do too they they blur the t a little bit
no fight it's almost a t and an s fight
fight fight it's a softer tea a more sibilant tea in some ways 8 1
21 guns throw up your arms into the sky into the sky subtle crack there being awareness
of your sin of singing in your mask is going to be the key to getting that rich sound that he gets 1
21 guns throw up your arms into the sky you and i
he gets a bit more up front you and i
a bit more open there at the end i love this articulation here a one a one one
twenty one twenty twenty twenty one girl 21 guns that e very very open and nasal there
good and then getting into his head voice so neat thanks so much for watching and
leaving comments and enjoying these isolated vocal tracks with me we'll see you for more