That was on the Live at the Fillmore documentary from early 2001, and the footage was a soundcheck of High Voltage. That was when LP first started experimenting with using echo/delay on some of their live vocals, up until that point Chester had always sung all of his own echo fades by repeating the echoed parts and gradually moving the microphone farther away from his mouth.
Chester does use voice effects on record. This is obvious by the sudden pitch changes that can be heard if you listen very closely to the chorus of Shadow of The Day ("...and the su-UN-NN"), but it is very clear that aside from echos/delay he does not use effects on his voice live. You can tell this is the case seeing as he still has yet to totally master some songs live, due to their tricky pitch changes (namely the very song I just mentioned for example).
Why would Chester not be able to use effects live? Is Brad cheating when he turns distortion on his amp, to make it sound better than it actually is? Or when his amp makes his guitar sound louder than it really is. Better just do everything acoustic, and get rid of those damn turntables too; they aren't real instruments. Also, microphones are a no-no. Chester better be able to scream loud enough for everyone to hear. Please. I think most people have heard of delay and echo.
Rightio then. Turntables are an integral part of LP's music, and not using microphones is just plain stupid. That's pretty awesome how Chester used to do the echoes with moving away from the microphone. It's fun listening to their older live songs and comparing them with those of 2008 and 2007. Pretty big differences in the same songs I think.
Sorry if this doesn't have anything to do with Chester using certain effects for his voice, but has anyone noticed that Chesters voice got higher live? Or is it just that way cause of the songs now. I was watching my live videos I recorded from when I saw them back in July, and I noticed that Chesters voice was really high, even with their old songs. Is it just how he sings now?
Well, "higher" probably isn't the right word to describe it, because he sings the same notes as he always has. But what's happened is he's lost a lot of the raspyness that his voice used to have, and his tone is a lot more nasal than it used to be for some reason. Your voice is constantly changing throughout your entire life, so people who sing have to constantly make adjustments for it. In particular, a lot of guys go through almost a "second puberty" when they're in their mid-late 20s, where their voice changes pretty significantly. I've seen it happen to several singers, Claudio Sanchez from Coheed and Cambria comes to mind. He's 30 years old now, and his voice did essentially the opposite of what Chester's did in about 2005, it got a lot lower and darker-sounding. Coheed and Cambria actually play all of their old songs a half step lower than they used to just to compensate for Claudio's voice now. And back on topic, I think this will pretty much clear up the discussion of Chester/voice modulation. This is an interview with LP's former sound engineer (before Pooch), Brad Divens: http://onstagemag.com/ar/performance_mixing_linkin_park/index.htm A 9-cent interval, musically speaking, is less than 1/10th of a semitone. The distance between a white and a black key on a piano is 100 cents, for comparison. That's a tiny, barely perceptible interval. Applying it to vocals is essentially the same thing as a chorus effect on a guitar, you're copying the signal and changing the pitch VERY slightly, then layering it on top of the original signal, which gives it a thicker sound with more presence.
Ah, thats what it was! It doesnt sound as raspy, as it use to. Aw poor chester. Oh well, at least he still sounds good :]