Its the way of the world, I need Ian Gilan or Graham Bonnet to join my band but they are both busy at the moment. I wonder if Dio has any spare time?

We see it in the studio all the time... Most people think they can sing. They can't. Most are offended if you suggest they take lessons. Like it's something natural we should all be able to do.

Plain fact of the matter is, a good vocalist spends as much time practicing their singing as a good guitarist spends practicing his instrument.

Of all the groups we've ever had in the studio only a handful have singers that are better than average. The rest have singers that are below average. A vocalists in this case can be melodic, grunters, screamers, falsettos, whatever. There are qualities to screaming or yelling and you can tell if the vocalist is any good at it. Most aren't.

Vocalists are even more "prima donna" than guitar players. (And we get plenty of bad guitarists too!)

Toughest thing in the studio is getting a good sounding vocal track. The right mic, and the right pre can help it sound better, but it won't overcome someone's inability to hold a tune.

Yeah Xark look at David Coverdale and DLR. Ego city aint in it, if I was that good id be like that I spose.

It's also been coming for quite a while. Blame "autotune" for it. We refuse to use one in the studio! It should be used to fix a note here and there, not to make sure the whole vocal track is in tune. If that's the case, the band should be looking for another vocalist.

It's not just vocals though. There's bad musician's everywhere! We sometimes wonder why some groups have the bass player they do, or the drummer. Usually it's because they have the transportation the rest of the group needs, so they suffer through bad playing by bandmembers as a result.

Had a group in Sunday. Couldn't find out much about them as their Myspace page had the music taken down. Most of the comments were, "YOU GUYS SUCK! THE BASS PLAYER SUCKS. THE DRUMMER SUCKS." OK... They were right. The bass player REALLY sucked. My chief engineer likened it to an epileptic monkey playing bass. It just amazes me that something so important can be so overlooked and tolerated. Then again, it's not MY band and as long as they're paying me, they get the respect any musician gets in my studio. It takes some gumption to decide to record and if it's for the purpose of getting better, then I'm going to respect those who make the effort. (Don't have to like what they play or how they play it. Though it would be nice!)

We turn it down in the control room. "The suck fader." We don't have to listen if we choose not to. Usually, a group that bad is just doing a demo or something. If they're tracking and we have to do post processing, owning the studio becomes MY advantage as I can walk away and leave it to the chief to suffer through! (And often do!)

well we had a dude try out that was in the vien of pantera, he was fitting the patterns but he backed out due to a 45 minute drive to the practice spot and he said he didn't like the lead player, but i think he was more of a go to practice and drink kinda guy so i don't think he woulda worked out anyway, so the search is on again.

I know a few go to practice and drink blokes and they always f**ck gigs up and are unreliable. ive seen lots of good players sink to drink, eventhough when sober they are excellent. best avoided mate,

When it comes to vocal it really depends on whether u like his voice or not....other instruments can learn to play as you'd like them to play. but vocalist can't. that's the voice they got, and there's nothing they can do to change what's already there. guitar players can change tones with touch of knobs, drummers can play in different groove, but vocalist can't. you can't ask baritone guy to sing like steve perry from journey - you can't ask super high tenor to sing low C. so you become super picky when it comes to hiring a good vocalist.

also when vocalist fucks it up, its so easier to notice it since vocal cord is an instrument that almost everyone is born with...it's hard to notice drummer or guitar player's mistake when you don't play an instrument or not musically trained.

I guess it really depends what you are looking for. I just moved to a new city and am putting a new band together. I placed a few ads and have a ton of auditions being set. I guess it is possible they all suck - although at least one already has a gold record to her credit so I am thinking she can probably hold a tune.

Well i took it on my part to learn to sing, with lessons from my brother and other sources, i am glad to say i am a good singer(much room for improvement)

My band has had a hard time finding a bassist. We have been playing shows with out one :/


its all about where you look i guess, and what the "In" thing is in the culture there. Try to post some ads and stuff. Works sometimes.

maybe the rhythm guitarist could try the vocals. i mean James Hetfield didn't want to do any lead singing before, but as he did , it grew on him, and look at him now.....but mainly look at him in the 80s/90s era lol. his voice was great. it may be suffering a bit now, but back in the day, he was amazing. and to think he hated it at first...