How to Do a Monster Voice

pitch

Low, near the bottom of your comfortable range, with sudden rises into roars.

pace

Slow and heavy, with dragged vowels and long breaths between phrases.

resonance

Huge and dark: relaxed lowered larynx, open throat and a wide mouth space.

texture

A growl or rumble over the tone, plus wet breath sounds and snarls.

signature

A rumbling growl underneath the words and heavy, stretched vowels.

1. Warm up first. Spend a few minutes on humming, lip trills and gentle sirens before any growling. Monster sounds are hard work for a cold voice.
2. Open the throat. Start a gentle yawn and notice the space at the back of your mouth. Speak from that position with a slightly lowered larynx. This creates a big, dark resonance without pushing.
3. Find the growl safely. Begin with a relaxed, breathy 'hhhh' and gradually let a rattle come in, like a very gentle throat-clear with no force. This is false-fold distortion: the folds above your vocal folds rattle while the true folds stay relaxed. If it scratches, back off and rely on low pitch and breath instead.
4. Layer words on the growl. Speak slowly on top of the rumble. Stretch the vowels ('Whooo dares...') and keep consonants simple and clear so the audience still understands every word.
5. Use the mic, not volume. Get close to the microphone. The proximity effect boosts low frequencies, so you sound bigger without straining. Save your loudest roars for one or two key moments and back away from the mic for those.
6. Add size in post. Record a clean, controlled take, then pitch it down a few semitones or add a voice changer effect. A modest growl plus processing sounds bigger and costs your voice far less than a huge natural one.

Read these with the voice, then record yourself and listen back. The teleprompter below scrolls through all of them.

• Who woke me? Who dared to knock on my mountain?
• Leave the bridge. This crossing belongs to me, and I am very hungry.
• I can smell your fear. It smells like lunch.
• Three hundred years asleep, and the first thing I see is you. Disappointing.
• Run, little one. I like it better when they run.
• The forest is quiet because I am awake.
• Bring me the lantern. I want to see the face of the one who stole my egg.
• Grrrr... no. No more knights. They crunch.
• Under your bed? Please. I'm much too big for that. I'm under your house.
• Close the door softly. I have a headache, and I have teeth.

• Growling from a squeezed, pressed throat. It sounds thin on recordings and can injure the voice.
• Roaring every line at full volume. A monster that speaks quietly is often scarier.
• Burying the words. If the line can't be understood, the growl is too heavy.
• Recording long sessions without breaks. Monster voices belong in short bursts.

Growls and gravel should come from false-fold distortion with an open throat and steady breath support. Never force a growl by squeezing or pressing your true vocal folds together. Warm up first, record in short bursts, sip water between takes and stop immediately if you feel pain, burning or hoarseness. Avoid growling on the in-breath, which dries and irritates the folds quickly. If you plan to do this often, a session with a coach who teaches extreme vocal effects is worth it.

Try the voice in a dubbing scene, roll a random prompt, or warm up first with the vocal warm-up.