The Vocal Range of Mike Patton 

I agree that a lot of these notes do sound an octave above what I have them listed as, and it was my opinion for years that those notes were indeed 6th and 7th octave as you described. But the thing about the whistle register is that it has a very particular sound. It’s either a thin, clean sound, like Mariah Carey. Or it has a fuller, screechier sound, like a toddler throwing a tantrum (try Mistress of Pain by Death Angel for a relevant musical example). If note has a full, clean sound (15:55 is a good example), then it most likely isn’t a whistle note, but rather an illusion created by overtones. I don’t have any biological backing for this, but in my experience, listening to and analyzing as much experimental vocal bullshit as I have, that has been my working theory. One example that I like to use is John Zorn’s "616", specifically the scream at the 3:46 mark. That scream starts off sounding like 7th octave, but as the scream goes on, the 6th octave fundamental becomes more apparent. Edit: I should specify, these are moreso observations about the whistle register in males.

@@platypusjohnson9244 I...would respectfully disagree. Many men use whistle register that sounds clean. The bigger difference is that pop singers will try to make it more airy and "pretty" sounding while metal singers will tend to push whatever noise they can make into a huge scream, but the middle ground is often unexplored. Intent is the bigger difference imo. I agree overtones can sometimes occur in recordings and in some of those clips I'm not confident either if it's 6th or 7th octave but in a clearer recording like 15:55, I don't think there's a doubt. For the John Zorn example, there are a few spots where it seems like there are 2 lines of vocals, including halfway through the linked scream itself (and not like overtones and undertones, but actually 2 separate vocals). The whistle note seems to last through the whole scream and at around the later end of the 3:53 mark, another note very clearly starts in the background. I'm fairly sure the scream there might just be layered, I can quite fine hear the whistle note persist through the whole scream. Not like it matters, there are also other 7th octave squeaks in that song that are much less debatable. Brief F7-ish one at 0:53 although very weak and 2 more E7s at 2:06. Even if those overtone screams are a thing (idk, I couldn't find ANYONE teaching whistle overtone screams nor any kind of literature on such a technique) AND that scream was really overtones, just because they MAY be overtones once it doesn't mean they ALWAYS are.

@@fearofthedoge9990I agree with you and have pushed this point to the community who help pitch these notes. Bizarrely, no one has explained why suddenly seventh octave is considered sixth. This “overtone” chat has become a veil for being wrong imo

@@AmadeusD I mean I tried looking for any kind of literature on that topic and I could find 0. The whole overtone thing seems to be literally invented by TRP (probably so they can sound more "educated"). Even more funnily, the forum counts subharmonic bass notes for acapella singers just fine and those ARE undertones. Somehow one works while the other doesn't lmao. I get it, sometimes shit recording quality can make something sound weird and it's possible to digitally edit something in a way that makes it sound an octave higher, but EVERY TIME? Come on now. Some of this video is 110% 7th octave.