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Music Dorkery

DEVIN TOWNSEND, OPERA KING

 Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 at 12:30pm by

We all know Mr. Townsend as a top-notch writer, producer, guitarist and all around weird/awesome dude. But did you know the guy can fucking sing his balls off?? His vocal performances on all of the SYL records were always great, no disrespect meant there, but his vocals on the 4-album Devin Townsend Project suite show a whole new side of his musical abilities. Check out this self-recorded video, below, of Devin tracking his own vocals for the 2nd record, Addicted (out November 17th), which Devin posted on his MySpace page.

First thing you notice is how strong, steady and accurate his voice is. Then you notice that he’s holding the mic, as opposed to it being on a mic stand, and he’s getting perfect-sounding takes despite any potential variance in distance from his mouth and the lack of a popper stopper. This is obviously a man who records vocals this way quite often. Then you think… wait a minute… he’s not wearing headphones… isn’t he worried about bleed? To which the answer, I guess, would be “no, he doesn’t give a shit” which is quite curious to me. Maybe all the extra noise from the speakers makes the final product sound bigger, or maybe it’s insignificant. Then you realize the fluidity with which he records each take, and the attention to detail that he puts into every single word of his performance. Then you realize, once again, what a talented vocalist he is.

It’s quite impressive, really. I can see why bands seem to have a love/hate relationship with his production methods and why someone like Speed Strid of Soilwork insists on producing vocals with him. On one hand it’s got to be quite a grueling process, but on the other hand he’s quite obviously super-skilled and is definitely going to get the best result possible.

-VN

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  • Sammy

    Yeah, but why does his satchel have to keep swaying into the camera?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Hulsey/653830783 David Hulsey

    The dude has pipes. He is basically good at every music oriented thing.

  • Kuranes

    One of my favorite Devin Townsend vocal performances is the end of “Namaste” on Physicist. It’s the most powerful, controlled screaming I’ve ever heard.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mathew-James-Saunders/1153389571 Mathew James Saunders

    Even with Ziltoid, he does so many different voices for a variety of characters…I bet he even shits vibrant sounds with rhythmic patterns lol

  • http://dancontogiannis.wordpress.com Dan Contogiannis

    Dude is a legend.

  • http://infinitybasement.wordpress.com Jon Lewis

    pretty sure you can eq it or gate it to remove bleed for the most part, a mic with a muff on it works just as good as a pop filter. Oh also, Devin rules.

  • http://Hue-music.com Classy Metal

    His first gig was singing for Steve Vai. If you’ve even listened to “the new black” this shouldn’t be surprising at all. It’s like saying; I knew Frost wore corpsepaint and leather jackets, but did anyone know he could play blast beats?…

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-Guzmn/570745539 Daniel Guzmán

    That video was amazing, he looks like he’s in his comfort zone. And what a voice.

  • Gaia

    COMING TO FUCKING BLOODSTOCK! Oh yes!

  • audecide

    To get all geeky audio engineer on you…

    He’s using a Shure SM7 there (or so it looks like) which doesn’t really NEED a pop filter given its built-in windscreen (see Mastodon’s Making of Crack the Skye – same vocal mic Troy Sanders uses, also sans pop filter).

    The bleed could either be killed by the mic’s pickup pattern, or it’s something Devin just doesn’t care about. I doubt it’s fixed through EQ or gating – it’s most likely just not a big deal at placement or volume. Given Devin’s studio knowledge, he probably just doesn’t stress over said mess anymore.

    • http://www.briangrosz.com Brian Grosz

      feh – audecide beat me to it.

      looks like an SM7 to me, too. it’s an insanely versatile vocal mic used primarily for broadcasting/voiceover, but it’s gotten adopted by a large swath of metal producers over the years because it can handle the large range of tones generated by “extreme vocals.” engineering nerdery aside, a lot of metal vocalists like it because you can get right up on the windscreen as if it were a stage mic, making the sterile recording process a little more organic.

      • Aaron R A

        Umm…. Shure SM57s are a lot smaller than whatever he’s using.

        • Aaron

          Which is why everyone said SM7, not 57 you fucking dink.

  • deanerhead

    Pre-order at cmdistro: http://www.hevydevy.com/news/

  • Justin Sane

    i’m pretty sure i said all this about this video in a reply about a week ago, with less dick sucking, when you guys were linking to his myspace for the new album sampler track.

  • CYN1C

    This guy is weird, but fucking brilliant. Can’t wait for Addicted.

  • Malacoda

    Great operatic stuff on Ki too, glad to see it’s still there.

  • myke

    cant wait for this, i even did the pre order for this!, i cant wait to hear. devin i know you read this please play nyc!!!!

  • King Cheezit

    I can’t wait for the freaking box set!

  • Ender^Wiggin

    I think anyone who actually listened to Devin’s solo work is well aware the dude has amazing singing capability. But thanks for another obvious tip.

    Next on MetalSucks: Did you know Devin Townsend shaved his head?

  • MightierBlue

    So this is your big news, that the guy who broke into the music business as the singer for Steve Vai, who called him “One of the best vocalist I ever heard” is in fact, a really good vocalist?

    I’ll just sit back and await the ground breaking 3,000 word post telling everyone that besides being a dick, Yngwie Malmsteen plays arpeggios very fast on the guitar.

    *sits back, taps fingers

    • Chris

      My point exactly. Who the fuck didn’t know he could sing?

  • Chris

    God dude. What the fuck is wrong with MS lately. You keep posting shit that’s either a) well known, or b) old. This video’s been out for at LEAST 3 months now. And he’s always been able to sing. He’s done like 6 solo albums besides DTP, and only a few of those have been as heavy as SYL.

  • Jules

    Devins vocals can as everyone be off live, but if you wanna looks up his best live vocal performance imo looks up ” Devin townsend deadhead live sydney” he does the vocals just as good as on the record. But another singer with pipes who allso sings on allmost all of his records are “the heathen” chris volagao from zimmers hole, does the low growl ect. on planet smasher i think and backing vocals, maybe allso some screaming cause listen to “when you where shouting at the devil” that´s pipes! but i def like deve a billion times more.

  • SomethingAnonymous

    I listen to the selftitled SYL album now, and the vocals are terrifying! Then you hear some of the “KI” type stuff where he doesn´t use vibrato and controls the straight notes to perfection aswell f.eks on a song like “Terminal” his voice just has that quality of guys like Åkerfeldt, Renkse and Wilson for that matter, not the greatest singers technically, just great voices! Townsend those, has some of the most terrifying screams i´ve heard aswell! Seriously, the vocals on a song like Bring on the young fucking RIPS! Imo, it´s one of the best metalbands throughout the time, Townsend added something special to the table imo, one of my favorite singers and composers in metal, even guys like Bowie would dig some of the guys stuff imo.
    But “The Heathen” from Zimmers Hole are technically just as good as Devin, but his vocals lacks the emotional abilities of Devins and comes off even much more goofy than Devins which is allso the intention, hence the band lol! :P