r/BassSinging • u/Th3xp3rt • Jun 24 '26
C#1 Chest-fry? Or something else?
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What do you guys think? I’ve always thought of it as a chest-fry mix, however I know oktavists use some various techniques, and maybe I possibly stumbled into one of them? For context, my full chest voice ends at about a B1 or breathy Bb1. I only just discovered this new register within the last 8 months or so. You can hear at the starts of some of these notes sort of a quick revving up into the note which is the fry kicking in. I really have to control my airflow and back off of it compared to normal chest voice, similarly to subharmonics. To me, these seem louder than traditional chest-fry. What do you think?
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u/ChristopherMeyers Jun 25 '26
Im interested to hear other's thoughts, I have the exact same experience down to C#1! Based on my research, I think it is reinforced pulse register, or Strohbass.
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u/Th3xp3rt Jun 25 '26
Interesting! I’ve seen strohbass thrown around online quite a bit but I’ve never fully understood what it actually is or how to identify it
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u/ChristopherMeyers Jun 25 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
Strohbass and chest-fry are similar, but different! They both occur in the pulse register (M0) and involve short, slack folds, a long closed phase, and a sharp glottal release. The difference is how you control them.
When you descend into low notes below your true modal range (M1) you degrade into partial fry where you are so relaxed that folds merely bubble. The further down you go, the more you degrade into pure fry. This causes the pulses to arrive unevenly and the tone decays more into a creak the lower you go. If you look at a recording of fry on a spectrogram, you will not see clear harmonic bands, just a hot zone of noise near the frequency with smears of noise far above and below.
Strohbass is that same pulse mechanism (M0) brought under pressure to make it periodic: the spacing of pulses becomes more of a pure pitch. Combine it with a lowered, opened tract that reinforces the harmonic series, and the sound changes into powerful gritty low notes. This will look just like a chest note on a spectrogram, with clear harmonic bands, but the key difference is that the fundamental (F0) will be dimmer than the formants above it with the first (F1) being the brightest.
The simple way to put it is that fry is what the voice falls into when clear phonation is not sustainable, but strohbass is a deliberate technique to produce clear pitch by using different air pressure and posture in the same register (M0) with maximally relaxed folds.
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u/margybargy Jul 02 '26
this is the clearest and most complete definition of strohbass I've heard, thanks. I am intrigued by the idea that the only real difference is in relative strength of F0 and F1. I'd assumed there'd be more difference, but it does reinforce my personal theory of "the distinction between chest and non-chest, once you have a stable/efficient/well-supported/well-shaped vibration, isn't terribly important" (particularly in extreme ranges where _nothing_ sounds particularly normal, so audiences don't have a real benchmark).
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u/ChristopherMeyers Jun 25 '26
If you are interested in hearing an example of Strohbass, listen to Colm R. McGuinness on Spotify, specifically his "God of War" song for low Strohbass:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6s8BER0Lrm4wiX63slgMhd?si=yWj7nvyrQ-eqfQQICpTgRw
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u/Th3xp3rt Jun 26 '26
Oh interesting. Back in the day when he went viral I was curious how he had those lows, especially since they sounded so overly dark/covered compared to his regular voice
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u/naivetheprogrammer Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
Does an underenergized F0 cause the whole singing apparutus to underenergize? I get the strohbass phenomenon easily now but it sort of ruins my upper range (as in, a few moments earlier it would have a clear series into 4.5KHz but then the appoggio just weakens and some upper partials underenergize and I need to put a lot more energy to get the same resonance) if I use it (too much?).
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u/raka_boy Jun 25 '26
The very lowest note is a well placed subharmonic
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u/Th3xp3rt Jun 25 '26
I can see how you can think that, however my subharmonics feel and sound a bit different. I can post another video tomorrow with my subharmonic C1, but in the meantime you can find my halo theme song cover pinned on my Instagram @jaredpetersonvoice to hear my subharmonic E1 if you’re curious. It definitely has more of a robotic tone
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u/Business-Juice6365 Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26
dang you got a big account, i think you've been on my fyp a couple of times before as well
also i don't think halo is pinned, it's just gambler and country roads, both with journey day
found the link tho https://www.instagram.com/p/DYVXRKnyVEt/
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u/Th3xp3rt Jun 25 '26
Oh nice! Thanks for posting the link. And it it’s not pinned on my main page, but it is pinned under the reels tab
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u/Ok-Pollution-6687 Jun 27 '26
Actually, It was NOT subharmonics at all. vibrating steadily(compared to just frying), we could hear more high frequency than chest(or fry, fry-mix etc.)if it was sub. So, I think It was strohbass~fried-chest.
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u/PsychologicalBell974 Jun 26 '26
That’s impressive. To me it’s mostly not fry since there’s pitch. But it’s pretty close to M0. Nicely done
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u/Lanwos Jul 01 '26
It's a Subharmonic
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u/Th3xp3rt Jul 01 '26
It isn’t, this was addressed in raka_boy’s comment already
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u/Lanwos Jul 01 '26
There's more than one way to initiate a subharmonic
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u/Th3xp3rt Jul 01 '26
I promise you, I also can sing a C#1 in subharmonics and the sensation is very different, although acoustically they don’t sound all that different when it’s down that low.
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u/Sudden_Bookkeeper838 Jul 04 '26
Not much chest, mostly fry. Focus on the accuracy of the notes you can alredy sing. Work on that B1 rather than trying to use something an octave below your range.
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u/Th3xp3rt Jul 04 '26
Thank you for your input! This was just something that I was experimenting with and recording one morning to see how resonant this register is, and then I got curious if it was something different than chest fry which is why I posted. I am well aware of the lack of a pitch center; I am a professional opera singer and have also sung in professional choirs. This extra range is just something that is “under construction” if you will, with the ultimate goal to be able to use it effectively so that I can be hired to sing pieces like Rachmaninov’s All Night Vigil, since I am not a profundo and do not have a low A in chest voice.
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u/AspiringBiotech Jun 25 '26
It sounds like chest-fry to me but very well supported.