#473724 - 07/30/1911:16 PMRe: The best way to simulate a woman's voice?
[Re: Mark79100]
DonM
Senior Member
Registered: 06/25/99
Posts: 16735
Loc: Benton, LA, USA
I sometimes shift pitch up an octave and do "Crazy" for comic effect. Better than most of the bimbo female girl would-be singers that I hear. I also use it to do the high voice in "Bread and Butter", when working with my friend Dean Mathis, one of the original Newbeats.
#473729 - 07/30/1911:43 PMRe: The best way to simulate a woman's voice?
[Re: DonM]
Mark79100
Senior Member
Registered: 10/23/06
Posts: 1661
Loc: USA
Don....an interesting appraisal of female wannabe singers!
That's a good idea though right there...the Bread and Butter Song for variety. Since it's not going to happen in my lifetime (finding a female vocalist), I might just start working with a voice processor and do songs like that and songs like Don't You Just Know it (Huey Smith). You can sing unprocessed and immediately bring in the "chorus repeats" as a group. I think! I haven't worked with a harmonizer.
I gave you some tips about lifting the thyroid and a video about various techniques. I would appreciate some short comment about that. If you intend to approach a more female singing, you shouldn’t solely rely on digital processing.
#473739 - 07/31/1908:20 AMRe: The best way to simulate a woman's voice?
[Re: Mark79100]
DonM
Senior Member
Registered: 06/25/99
Posts: 16735
Loc: Benton, LA, USA
I thought that was quite interesting when I first read it. I'm content with my own scraggly voice these days, although it took years before I could stand to listen to it. I don't even have a falsetto but wish I could develop it for songs like "Runaway", "Crying", etc. Larry Henley, who did the high voice in the Newbeats' songs, couldn't explain how he did it; it was just there, but may have indeed been related to a technique such as you describe.
#473740 - 07/31/1909:09 AMRe: The best way to simulate a woman's voice?
[Re: Mark79100]
montunoman
Senior Member
Registered: 10/20/09
Posts: 3233
Loc: Dallas, Texas
A guitar/singer colleague of mine uses a vocal processor to bring his voice up or down an octave, usually for comic effect but it actually works quite well on some more modern dance/ hip hop that he sometimes does. I don’t think those effects would work well with Great American Songbook material though, but who knows?
_________________________
It not the keyboard, it's the keyboardist.
I thought that was quite interesting when I first read it. I'm content with my own scraggly voice these days, although it took years before I could stand to listen to it. I don't even have a falsetto but wish I could develop it for songs like "Runaway", "Crying", etc. Larry Henley, who did the high voice in the Newbeats' songs, couldn't explain how he did it; it was just there, but may have indeed been related to a technique such as you describe.
The technique with the thyroid lifting doesn't even deal with a "higher" pitch of the voice, that's often overestimated to make a voice more female. Resonance and overtones are equally important. This woman born with male body characteristics manages the technique extraordinarily well, but I think she had good prerequisites and not an extremely male voice in the beginning... I admit, probably too much hard training necessary just for the purpose in question here...