Screaming live

[Omar Rodriguez-Mopez]

How the hell does Maynard do the 20 second scream live? I've seen it on youtube and I'm kinda thinking "there's no way..."

I heard something about cycle breathing?

[justify_denials]

is'nt cycle breathing where you still breathe in while breathing out?I just tried do a quiet scream while just breathing out and I started to loose my voice at about 15 seconds. As for on the record, if I remember correctly, I think I timed the scream at 27 seconds? or 24?

[lighterbandit]

27 seconds?! God damn!

[guttersnipe]

I heard him do this on the opiate scream at a concert: He ran his voice through a delay unit (a device that repeats whatever you feed into it). This allows him to scream for a while, then as he takes a quick breath the delay unit keeps repeating the scream for him and then he can start screaming again and if he does it right it will sound pretty much seamless. The reason I picked it out that night was because he lowered the pich of the scream towards the end which created a pronounced pitch shifting effect in the delay unit. If he alters his pitch and it doesn't sound really warped/ chaotic then chances are he pulled off the scream naturally.

[Omar Rodriguez-Mopez]

Very interesting. Thanks for the info.

[Æsahættr]

I heard him do this on the opiate scream at a concert: He ran his voice through a delay unit (a device that repeats whatever you feed into it). This allows him to scream for a while, then as he takes a quick breath the delay unit keeps repeating the scream for him and then he can start screaming again and if he does it right it will sound pretty much seamless. The reason I picked it out that night was because he lowered the pich of the scream towards the end which created a pronounced pitch shifting effect in the delay unit. If he alters his pitch and it doesn't sound really warped/ chaotic then chances are he pulled off the scream naturally.
Exactly.

[kites in knots]

Yep delay is how it's typically done.

Cycle breathing puts far greater strain on the vocal cords...so when on tour, the delay is what'll usually be done.

Not in all cases, though.

[Rogue Diabetic]

So then may I ask - is it known how the scream is achieved in the studio recording?

I guess what I really want to know is just how natural is that scream?
I have little doubt that *some* level of studio trickery is used, even if it's just a matter of increasing the volume of the scream towards the end, because it would have only sounded like a whisper after 25 seconds.

I just listened to it with some shitty headphones and timed it from roughly the 7 minute mark to 7:25. I felt as though I heard an increase in the strength of it at a few points when it should have been continually fading, in the last 10 seconds when listening very carefully. This may be evidence of some boosting of some sort.

Has this been discussed? Anyone know the answer? Thanks.

[AMF]

Very interesting stuff!

[kites in knots]

It's entirely possible that they boosted it.

It could also be the cycle breathing thing discussed earlier...?

[Faltering]

I heard him do this on the opiate scream at a concert: He ran his voice through a delay unit (a device that repeats whatever you feed into it). This allows him to scream for a while, then as he takes a quick breath the delay unit keeps repeating the scream for him and then he can start screaming again and if he does it right it will sound pretty much seamless. The reason I picked it out that night was because he lowered the pich of the scream towards the end which created a pronounced pitch shifting effect in the delay unit. If he alters his pitch and it doesn't sound really warped/ chaotic then chances are he pulled off the scream naturally.

I just knew it was something like that. Because the tone to the scream sounds really perpetuated in a lot of the live videos I've seen. Not like a consistent tone that one might hold, supported by his own breath alone. It just kind of had this echo effect, with, like some other people mentioned, spontaneous increases/decreases in strength throughout the scream part.