[Darth-Apple]

I hurt my voice several years back. I was very sick for several months straight, and even after getting well, it almost a year for my voice to fully recover. 

Ever since, I've had some trouble. I've become good at working around it and it has improved over time. However, just a few weeks back, it has taken a turn for the worse. It hurts to talk. I've lost range and stamina. I do singing lessons for hours at a time, and I've had to reschedule them and haven't been able to teach them because of my voice problems. 

Not really sure what it could be.

They're saying it could be a vocal cord hemorrhage (rupturing a blood vessel on the vocal cords), but healing these either requires surgery or weeks of complete, total silence. Neither of which is really an option. In which case, I'll be having issues for months before I'll even be close to being back to normal. If it's not a hemorrhage, it could be nodules or otherwise, but that's unlikely given that I am very careful to avoid techniques that cause those.

I talk heavily for my job, so hopefully it's able to hold up. I'll find out in a couple weeks I suppose.

[Thomas]

I hurt my voice several years back. I was very sick for several months straight, and even after getting well, it almost a year for my voice to fully recover. 

Ever since, I've had some trouble. I've become good at working around it and it has improved over time. However, just a few weeks back, it has taken a turn for the worse. It hurts to talk. I've lost range and stamina. I do singing lessons for hours at a time, and I've had to reschedule them and haven't been able to teach them because of my voice problems. 

Not really sure what it could be.

They're saying it could be a vocal cord hemorrhage (rupturing a blood vessel on the vocal cords), but healing these either requires surgery or weeks of complete, total silence. Neither of which is really an option. In which case, I'll be having issues for months before I'll even be close to being back to normal. If it's not a hemorrhage, it could be nodules or otherwise, but that's unlikely given that I am very careful to avoid techniques that cause those.

I talk heavily for my job, so hopefully it's able to hold up. I'll find out in a couple weeks I suppose.

I never knew you did singing lessons! That's cool!
Good luck! I hope everything works out for the best.

[Darth-Apple]

Sure do! It's a well kept secret.

I did a Shinedown cover here and a Rush cover (distant early warning) here if you want to get an idea of what I sound like. Ignore about the first 20 seconds of both, they were below my range and didn't sound as good as I would have liked.

The shinedown one was just a karaoke track from online. The Rush cover was a team of us, and we recorded the entire project fully. I did the guitars and the vocals, the other guys did the drums, bass, and keyboards.

[Guardian]

That sounds terrible. I hope it heals quickly for you.

[Darth-Apple]

It has shown signs of improvement this week. It's likely going to take months, but I've been using my voice as little as possible. On the weekends where I'm not using it at all, it is better.

Completely unsure what it is. It's been hard to find an ENT. Whatever is going on likely isn't permanent (this has happened before), but it's still concerning. I've put all lessons on hold, likely for several more weeks.

Vocal damage isn't usually permanent if you catch it early. I've likely been pushing through it for a while and it's just now becoming noticeable. I generally teach people how to vastly expand their vocal range (and also how to push the voice very hard), but there are always limits. This is one of those times where I've hit mine.

[Kyng]

Sorry to hear that - and, I hope it doesn't prove to be serious in the long term.

Glad it's been improving lately, though .

[Darth-Apple]

Another week has past. It's definitely doing better. I no longer feel that there are gaps in my voice, weird holes in my range, or entire octaves where I cannot avoid rasp. It's definitely getting stronger.

I'm very curious what exactly it is, but it appears that me taking a serious break was very important. I still have a ways to go, but I had definitely messed something up. It's improving now.

[Darth-Apple]

I went back into the home studio last night to record another one. This time it was a cover of "Red Sector A" (I'm a rush fan, in case you can't tell). I haven't been singing much for several weeks, so I had a particarly rough time last night. I had to combine the best part of 8 takes, and pitch correction came in handy for the first time ever to this extent. I literally had one of the worst studio sessions of my entire life.

Mixed it down to be much better than the individual takes. We ended up making it workable and have a great mix so far, aside from the vocals. https://www.dropbox.com/s/wh1pv69x0mm2es...l.mp3?dl=0

I'm going to redo the vocals. The timing especially was absolutely horrendous. Otherwise, the song is shaping up very nicely for us!

[Guardian]

This sounds awesome! Nice work. Good song!

[Darth-Apple]

Thank you @Guardian!

I re-recorded the vocals after that mix was posted last night. We have a new mix, and it's quite a bit better than the original (in terms of the vocals at least). My voice held up much better, with about a dozen takes (literally)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u4p2uebrqx6msc...2.mp3?dl=0

[Guardian]

I re-recorded the vocals after that mix was posted last night. We have a new mix, and it's quite a bit better than the original (in terms of the vocals at least). My voice held up much better, with about a dozen takes (literally)

Awesome work! Sounds great.

Do ya'll just record for fun, do gigs, etc?

[Darth-Apple]

We record for fun. We have done gigs before, but it’s with different musicians and usually nothing serious and not with the same people. Some of the other people do gigs pretty religiously, but not all of us do.

I want to get a band started up with a solid lineup again. It’s been a long time, I’m having the itch to do it again.

[Guardian]

Well you have the sound for it!

[Darth-Apple]

Thank you @Guardian!

I've been talking to a number of people about it and have been trying to rest my vocal cords as much as possible. After talking to a number of people about it, it seems to not necessarily be permanent damage so much as it's normal physiological change. I tend to scream at my absolute physical limits, and that has wear and tear that I cannot handle as easily as I could before. I have been changing my technique and working on new ways to use my voice, which has helped me not to shoot it out and has kept me from experiencing as many problems.

This is more or less what I sound like (at my absolute limits) now. It's a completely unedited vocal take (a Rush cover of Tom Sawyer, on a dare), so there are a few things here and there that aren't perfect, but I'm okay with it. It seems to be recovering nicely so far.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kcut3zmyrvqcmn...2.mp3?dl=0

[Lain]

Thank you @Guardian!

I've been talking to a number of people about it and have been trying to rest my vocal cords as much as possible. After talking to a number of people about it, it seems to not necessarily be permanent damage so much as it's normal physiological change. I tend to scream at my absolute physical limits, and that has wear and tear that I cannot handle as easily as I could before. I have been changing my technique and working on new ways to use my voice, which has helped me not to shoot it out and has kept me from experiencing as many problems.

This is more or less what I sound like (at my absolute limits) now. It's a completely unedited vocal take (a Rush cover of Tom Sawyer, on a dare), so there are a few things here and there that aren't perfect, but I'm okay with it. It seems to be recovering nicely so far.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kcut3zmyrvqcmn...2.mp3?dl=0

im pretty sure thats just the anthem of fkn alberta here
calgary (cow town) vibes

[Darth-Apple]

They have good musical taste then @Lain

[Megan]

Eek, sounds rather awful. I'm glad you seem to be improving!

[Darth-Apple]

We did a final mix and pushed it forward. This one is a much better mix. It includes the redone vocals, which (in my opinion at least) were much better. https://www.dropbox.com/s/bnzcycj4r5cuk5...l.mp3?dl=0

I tend to practice a lot of music that is at the extreme ends of my range. The voice is elastic in the sense that if you don't push yourself, you'll lose part of your ability. Rush music is a bit of an acquired taste. Geddy's vocal style is difficult to imitate and is naturally very shrill. Very few people can pull it off as well as he can, and I know I certainly can't.

We're about to start doing some more covers soon. But I'm far more excited about some of the originals that are in the pipeline. I'm rewriting some segments to be a little easier to play and record, and it's all coming along very nicely.

Eek, sounds rather awful. I'm glad you seem to be improving!

I agree.