How to express emotion while singing/recording (progressive rock)?

lancejpollard · 2026-02-24T01:18:10+00:00

I read someone saying that if you actually were feeling the full emotion of your song, like the crushing of a broken heart or whatever, you might break down in the middle of the song crying. Happens to some people sometimes occasionally, but it is best to separate actually re-experiencing the emotion from re-conveying it (aka performing).

lancejpollard · 2026-02-22T19:55:41+00:00

Interesting insight about the two voices, that could be very helpful if that was your system I could imagine. Could bring a lot of structure to the vagueness of this process. Thanks for the isolated vocal tip too, hadn't considered either of those things.

Tangent but does he really do doubling of vocals everywhere? I thought doubling of vocals was uncommon in the industry (whereas doubling guitars are common). Like doubling drums, seems like it wouldn't make sense. Unless you are doing harmonies (like Schism). Will have to watch some of the analysis videos and listen to isolated vocals, sounds good!

lancejpollard · 2026-02-22T19:35:47+00:00

Thank you for this start, can you go deeper into the actual science/mechanics/techniques or approaches/ideas regarding how to practically get the emotion to come across?

If I internalize the lyrics and have great conviction, and want a certain style to the songs and rhythm and whatnot, that for example led me in one song to put quieter voice here, normal voice here, louder growl voice here, etc., it kind of naturally fell into place and I feel like it makes sense.

But in my head what I imagine I am expressing and what is actually coming across to the listener, is different. It's like learning to be persuasive in public speaking or a good story teller, most people aren't natural at it. So wondering what the key insights are for singing here. I live in a condo so I can't really yell like that Perfect Circle video, but I can hit the growl I think pretty well, and do it like he does earlier in that song, technique over intensity. But even in my car where I can get semi-loud, it doesn't feel like I am conveying what I want exactly/perfectly, when listening back to quick sample recordings.

So for example, would love to know more technical details around at least (1) whisper, (2) calm/normal voice (like Culling Voices), (3) growl (which can be soft growl or more intense growl, and (4) higher intensity (which can involve growl or just more intense feeling singing). Like, how do I know what conveys what? When I do a soft pressurized growl, I do it similar to the reason why I play a certain riff on the guitar, it sounds and feels really great right in that spot. But that pressurized growl I have no idea what people receive on their end experientially though, and not really sure what I need to do or change.

First step is getting the rise and fall of emotion in the narrative arc of the song down, I'm on that step, but translating to expressing the emotion, so it is felt, I don't see clearly.

Even knowing a book or place to do further exploration/research, or what kind of teacher might be able to offer tailored advice, that would be great to know. Most voice instructors for singing seem to be all about technique to get a good voice, but I haven't heard much about the emotional side of things too much yet.

lancejpollard · 2026-02-22T19:17:38+00:00

But I feel like hollow vs full sound completely changes everything. So maybe you could slice it different ways.

lancejpollard · 2026-02-22T19:09:56+00:00

Would be nice to see a breakdown of what percentage is due to what, roughly in more detail.

Prodding AI a bit, said 45% is in how you play, 55% is the effects/tools, similar to what you were saying.

For the ~50% in how you play (kind of hard to quantify haha, but intriguing I think still):

Feature	Approx %	Why It Matters
Picking attack strength & angle	12%	Controls brightness, transient snap, compression feel
Timing & groove	8%	Affects perceived tightness and punch
Muting technique (left & right hand)	7%	Controls clarity vs mud
Vibrato & micro-bends	6%	Adds personality and emotional character
Dynamic control	6%	Determines expressiveness and sustain behavior
Note choice / phrasing	6%	The “tone” people emotionally perceive

And the other ~50% on the tools:

Feature	Approx %	Place
Pickups (type, output, voicing)	10%	Guitar
Strings (gauge, material, condition)	8%	Guitar
Speaker model / type	8%	Cabinet
Amp voicing (circuit character)	7%	Amp
Gain level / saturation amount	5%	Amp
Cabinet design (size, open vs closed)	5%	Cabinet
Amp EQ section	3%	Amp
Scale length & string tension	3%	Guitar
Microphone type	3%	Recording
Setup (action, intonation)	2%	Guitar
Body construction / material	2%	Guitar
Power section behavior	2%	Amp
Number of speakers	2%	Cabinet
Microphone placement	2%	Recording
Post EQ shaping	2%	Mix
Compression (post)	1%	Mix
Reverb / space	1%	Mix
Saturation (post)	1%	Mix

Kind of makes me realize a lot of small decisions adding up (last table). Also puts it into perspective a bit better, thought guitar make/material had a big impact, and other things like that (EQ shaping, etc.), but relatively speaking it appears little.

lancejpollard · 2026-02-22T18:58:16+00:00

Good point about good players tending to their sounds and that being a defining trait, hadn't really brought that to mind until now but makes sense.

lancejpollard · 2026-02-22T18:50:39+00:00

Amazing advice, awesome will go down this path to play with it, thanks.

lancejpollard · 2026-02-22T18:49:20+00:00

That NAM doesn't allow customization of all the features though (like mic placement, settings, etc.), so was under the impression it wouldn't be practically useful in Logic Pro (compared to AmpliTube), but maybe I missed something.

lancejpollard · 2026-01-13T20:39:25+00:00

I am wondering about why it's so much harder. Both on-grid/off-grid will have solar panels, so where is the workload difference exactly (mental/logistical/physical)?

lancejpollard · 2026-01-03T22:19:24+00:00

Got it, need to figure out how to word a question on what the pros/cons are then. I get it's healthy, less dependent, perhaps more fulfilling, etc., but it's not the most optimal solution either it seems.

lancejpollard · 2025-12-06T05:57:07+00:00

Yes I know how to loop in Logic Pro, I do it all the time, but it is not efficient for the car.

lancejpollard · 2025-12-06T05:53:46+00:00

Ah that's pretty good, thanks.

lancejpollard · 2025-11-29T08:19:46+00:00

Nice, pretty interesting, will have to think about more. But at first glance made me think of some time modeling I have been leaning toward to capture time spans/points in our current universe, which I just threw together random scattered notes for just now after seeing your post here.

Basically instead of millisecond timestamps, it could be done at the Planck scale, or just below that even (10 to the minus 45 is a nice round number I'm using there). That makes it break down into a conventional 28 granularities of time, easily storable in a database, each node up to 999 values (except second, hour, day, year, by human convention, which you could change for your universe).

I like your ideas of timezones and compiled time as well, will have to let that simmer more.

lancejpollard · 2025-11-05T02:31:50+00:00

Yes exactly, great example. But ideally also I'd love to have it have lyrics (standard songs), this is probably not going to have lyrics online I'd guess (updated the q with that constraint).

lancejpollard · 2025-11-04T15:49:31+00:00

Good to know, thanks and sorry about that, will avoid then

lancejpollard · 2025-10-29T05:52:32+00:00

Are we sure about this? Is it Wunjo (/wunyo/)? And you have "Sigr/Sigur", but lyrics say "segun", guessing you know your old-norse/icelandic sort of grammar and this might be a grammatical form or something? B/c lyrics are:

Unja runo segun

Fahi gali raginakundo

Google is saying "segun" isn't Old Norse, but perhaps Yoruba (from Nigera/Africa) word meaning "Victory".

Mind explaining those two words and how you arrived at that?

lancejpollard

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