hobbit rock

Got it. Thanks again, man.

Thanks Draven! What do you mean by "dynamics in power"?

Anyone else care to weigh in?

Thanks for the reply Robert. Those are really helpful comments. The breathy tone is definitely my default and while it has it's place, I agree that I should have transitioned into a more present, assertive tone midway through the song. I used to only have a breathy tone and it has always been a "safe" place to sing from. There's something stabilizing about that posture for me. I have, over time, managed to cultivate other tones with more closure and resonance but they are less familiar so I rarely reach for those levers. As for the cues- I think you're right about the one at :51. I think the delivery was just late and that could be seen as an oversight. Having said that, I do have a tendency to let my phrasing sit a little bit behind the beat. It might be from years of listening to Zeppelin but it's definitely something I do a lot. Sometimes I think I should try to be more deliberate about my phrasing...kind of along the lines of Liam Gallagher or something. That would probably help contribute to an overall sense of assertiveness. The main source of paranoia/self consciousness for me over the past few years has been pitch/intonation. I know there was a time when I couldn't hear when I was a little under/over a note. I think I do now, but I don't always trust my ear. There are a couple of spots in this tune that sound a little out to me. Nothing crazy but still...... I did play the melody on a piano along with the finished vocal and there were definitely some areas that rubbed a little. Sometimes I wonder if doing that sort of thing is too stiff of a measure. Since I've gotten into some ear training I've realized that a lot of my favorite music from the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's have vocals with less than perfect intonation. Anyway.... Yes...it's an original. I appreciate the supportive comments.

I already know what I think of this performance....I'd like to hear what others think. Referring to the timeline of the track would be helpful (example- "the sustained note at 2:21 needs work.") Thanks in advance.

Hey man. This is cool. Exciting stuff. First question....are you in or near a major city? If so, it's going to be easier to find a studio that can deliver the goods so to speak. Typically it can go like this......you find a studio that has recorded/mixed songs/albums that sound good to you and you contact them. Tell them a little about your project and then go to the studio for a quick tour. Meet the engineer(s). This would be the one key "fancy person" without whom you will have no recording. Generally speaking, a good artist or band who are well rehearsed and have thought things through can book studio time at a good facility with a capable engineer at the helm and walk out with a great sounding product. This would be assuming that the same engineer who was recording you (miking everything, pressing record etc.) would be the same one mixing the song. Some people like to have different sets of ears on the project so they will have one person record the session and another mix it. This wouldn't make sense for one song because it would be more efficient for the engineer to "mix as you go". In other words, instead of just listening back to raw tracks as you layer and overdub on top of them, the engineer would sort of be cleaning things up, tweaking and EQing during the process of overdubbing. This is a cool way to work. It's actually what I aspire to do when I get back in the studio. Singles used to be recorded this way all the time. A song in a day. There's something really great about just focusing on one thing and not leaving decisions on the back burner. That's what kills recording projects. Example- We don't know what sound we want for this guitar or that guitar, or how we want to pan them, so let's just record them dry as a bone and make a decision later..........as opposed to.........we all have ears, and we're committed to tracking and mixing this thing right now, so if there's a decision to be made, let's make it. What sounds good? Analog delay? Great let's track that guitar with a delay pedal so the guitarist can be inspired by the sonic quality of it. It's a more live kind of an approach even if you are overdubbing one thing at a time, brick by brick which it sounds like you would be. And you could do it over the course of a few days....don't let that song in a day thing scare you. I was talking about the early days....fifties, sixties etc. ....4 or 8 tracks....monster session players. They'd just bang it out and mix it on the spot. As far as mastering.....you probably would get a third party to do this. This is different than mixing. Mixing is taking all of the tracks..... 16, 24, 48 or however many tracks you have (a drum set can easily account for 10 tracks with all the mikes people put on them. That's not my style but whatever) and mixing them down to 2 tracks...left and right. Mastering is taking that 2 track stereo mix and making it "pop" which is what you want. That's probably all you should know about the mastering process. Let it remain mysterious. A good studio could tell you whether they have a mastering engineer they work with or whether they would do it there. Mastering one song might be worth just doing at the same facility. It would only take a fraction of the time that tracking and mixing would take so don't be scared off by the mastering process. It's the final step. The other "fancy person" that you might want to strongly consider is a producer. If cost isn't too much of an issue and you're really gunning for a stellar result AND you have no recording experience it might be something to think about. It's real easy to get bogged down in minutia during the course of a tracking session and at the same time miss some other crucial detail. A producer has an objectivity that an artist ( especially a singer ) often can't have. Many engineers are comfortable wearing the producer hat for a session because they do it so often by default. A lot of people think a producer is the person who puts their sonic imprint on something and often that's true. But he/she can also just be the person who sort of moves the session along, keeps the momentum going, keeps the energy up, listens for mundane stuff like a stray snare hit so the singer/ songwriter doesn't have to. Performers need to be able to be in performing mode on tracking day. And professionals need to be there to capture the great performance when it happens. You could also ask a musician friend to produce the session for you. But it would have to be someone who had their act together and had a fair amount of session experience.

The way I read this song, it seemed to me that the woman was gone forever....either she's left the narrator for good or she's left this world entirely. So that's the way I went with things. These are live takes with no editing, comping or tuning. Honest feedback is welcome ........

Good tunes in both genres. That worked out nicely

I love Willie. The album "Red Headed Stranger" is in my top ten of all time....any genre.

Jazz- And my other country selection

@Bzean- Yeah, I've heard the Neville version. He's another monster vocalist imo. The Grand Tour is definitely the quintessential "my woman left me" song. Neville really makes you feel his pain.

Merle Haggard said "His voice was like a Stradivarius violin: one of the greatest instruments ever made." ....talking of course about the great George Jones. RIP If any of you have never heard this song, do yourself a favor and listen to the whole thing. His tone and control are really amazing. And the lyrics are classic.

I also meant to say....the high falsetto part in the post chorus had a really nice tone. That sort of finesse is worth cultivating......

Nice. So that's where the bluegrass slant comes from. It's in the DNA. Have you ever heard of the Easter Brothers? They're from that neck of the woods I believe. They're pretty great.     "All of me" is a tough song. I messed around with it today for the first time. It only felt good if I sang it from a real restrained heady kind of place. My only criticism of your version would have to do with the pre choruses. "My head's under water" etc. The high note on each of those passages sounds like it's being reached for. Regardless of the word being sung because I believe it's a different word each time.    Now let me just pause to say.....I AM NOT AN EXPERT AND CANNOT DO IT ANY BETTER .......that's a fact. And it's the reason that I zeroed in on the reached/pulled tendency. It's exactly what I do in a lot of songs and what I'm trying to fix. I'm trying all kinds of things.....leaving my mouth narrow and loose. Slightly modifying vowels in that area (E4 etc) to possibly headier shadings instead of more open shadings. And not doing a big applebite emboucher to grab at the high note. Holding the sound in a restrained position which for me often improves the tone. That has nothing to do with holding back air.   I try to think about the sound instead of the air. The sound travels on the air so if I focus on the sound not exploding out of my mouth then the air probably won't either. That's something I noticed that I do when I record myself....I spill out tons of air at the end of phrases. I had a teacher once who called it "gushing". I'm trying to get the whole thing to live in a more "back" kind of position. Maybe this is the inhale sensation people talk about though I wouldn't describe it that way. Or maybe the "yawn"...?     Anyway...good job man. I always like hearing your covers.

Just curious....what parts of Va and NC? That's where I'm from. Deep family roots in Eastern NC