Marcus

Here's the second cover of this weeks recordings. One of my all time favourite rock ballads. I'd like to thank Jens here on the forum for teaching me distortion. Without him I'd never have been able to sing this the way I wanted.

Validar thank you! It's a maybe on making more Evergrey covers, we are planning a bunch of songs from different rock and metal bands. Want to have some diversity on the covers right now, but it sure was fun to sing Evergrey. Last album I got with Evergrey was Glorious Collision I think, I still think Recreation Day was the peak of their career. Glorious Collision was a step back towards the sound I like with them though.

Hey bono, this was real good! Very nice timbre. I like the jazz approach on this one. If you want anything to improve (this is just a minor thing though), it's that you at some places kinda "slide around" a bit too much before hitting the notes spot on. Nothing gamebreaking, just a detail :)

Wow what nice feedback! Thanks a million guys! bono1982 thanks for the feedback on Umbrella as well! Nice you took the time to check out some live stuff Thanks Jens, you're the one who thaught me distortion mate! ronws thanks for rocking out man, always appreciate your feedback. We've already had some snow and ice here, but then we had a few warmer days so all snow melted. They expect a cold winter here though (as always...) Gneetapp thanks a lot, and I'll be sure to tell my friend too This song was my favourite track off that album (Recreation Day) and had a major impact on my music taste and writing way back when (2003 I think)

Recorded this one together with my good friend as a long distance recording project. I did the drums and keyboards (programmed) in my home studio in Finland, and he laid down the guitars and bass in Sweden. I recorded the singing yesterday and did the mixing and producing here. All cred to Kristoffer for the guitar solo (original song have a female vocalist singing that part). Some feedback is welcome! Feels nice to sing some heavy stuff! :D

I really like your tone and the dynamics here. But this one have some pitch problems throughout the whole song, especially in the lower parts. That kinda ruins it for me, and I think you can do this one better. Very good match for your voice otherwise!

Singing sounds really great. There's some evil clipping sound though (on the bass track I think), especially in the beginning and end. But I think someone else recorded the music, right? I listened a lot to Alice In Chains way back when. I think you've got spot on technique. Very impressive. I like it.

Thanks Ron! I think I've heard the song a few times. It was better than I remember, might have to give that Slash album another go :)

Generally I like it. I like the clean approach you have, nice timbre. Some shaky high notes, but not all of them so I think you can do it even better. Haven't heard the original song, never been big on Judas Priest, but may have to check them out again! Cool idea about the echo creating, I've never thought of that. I'm usually using plugs in Cubase trial and error style until I get the results. Gonna have to look at that technique I think! :cool:

Thanks Ron, always nice to hear (or read?) from you! Thanks for the nice words. I think I've always been able to add a lot of weight to my lower registers but it's lately I feel like I'm getting a vocal colour there that I actually like myself. Still hard to make it blend with the top though, that's what I really wanna work on. Wanna keep some of that weight when going for the top notes, so I'll have a more even voice. "one voice", you know. I love the first two albums with Alter Bridge. Haven't listened as much to the new ones, or the stuff with Slash. It's not bad, but haven't really caught my attention as the first albums did.

Gneetapp, thanks for your feedback. I actually liked the pre-chorus the least in this recording. Felt I couldn't get it like I wanted it, sort of strained. And I was really happy with the chorus and the distortion I managed. Maybe cause I've had massive problems to initiate distortion earlier. Now it's getting a lot easier. People like different stuff though, and I really appreciate your input! mccallanan2007, would be nice to hear your opinion since you like the original song. It's definitely not easy material to sing. I wouldn't wanna do this live on stage (at least not yet), but was a nice practice and workout. Especially since it moves from low to high notes. Quite a span.

I listened to two tracks, Use Somebody and Wake Me Up. Your singing sounds really good. Very professional, great tone, nice feeling. The recording quality may not be top notch, but it doesn't take away from your talent as a singer. If you want to improve on something, it would be the quality of mic and other recording equipment and the mixing and producing. Very nice singing though.

Thanks a lot for the honest input! I see what you mean with different voices. At the moment I feel it's hard to make my belting and mixed voice (or curbing) blend. I think I can keep my belting pretty open and chesty if I stay there, but if I want it to blend with upper registers I gotta lighten it up. This song moves a lot between lower and higher registers. I might still be twanging too much I guess. Trying to tone that down at the moment. I'll take a look at the melody lines again! Thank you for your time!

Attempting some Alter Bridge. I know it's not perfect, but I was pretty happy with the distortion parts at least. I'm trying to work with my voice to get less narrow on the top right now. Would like to be able to sing it more open. (Btw. I haven't made the music for this backtrack.) https://www.dropbox.com/s/ng0zbmpfvv84hiq/Marcus%20-%20Open%20Your%20Eyes%20cover-01.mp3?dl=0

Damn you've got a great voice! Loved both songs. Total vocal control in Open Arms, I really like the softness of the song, and those slightly edgy highs were total perfection in my ears. I don't think you should do it any different. Awesome distorsion in Eternal World too. Love the aggression! You've got a super connected voice all the way. Congrats!

Thanks. My avatar pic is pretty old, about 5 years or so :)

Had a gig with my band last friday (finally). Only playing our own stuff. Some feedback on the singing would be welcome. Fun to play live, I've been missing the stage lately!

Awesome voice! I like your grit and the energy you bring to your singing. I think I preferred Don't Talk To Strangers, but both songs were awesome. Keep em coming! And I doubt your neighbors will hate you. If they complain they are lame and you have to keep singing to teach them what good music is (btw. I actually got an angry note from my neighbor in my old apartment. She had two dogs constantly barking whenever she left her place, but still complained about me singing maybe an hour a day. Some people are strange)

Verses sound absolutely perfect, chorus slightly strained. You got an awesome voice, congrats! I'd buy your album.

Thanks for the kind words about arrangement and production Keith - in what way could I improve the vocal mix? ronws - if you mean the "video" Vocal Dominance I think it should still be on youtube. Just hope no one takes it too seriously. And about the TMV Forum song, we didn't get as many contributions from the forum as we'd hoped. Maybe we should try again some day?

You've seen such a crazy development as a singer these past years, I'm so impressed and proud! Was glad to help out with the music and recording on this one!

Thanks for the nice comments! Max - I've been trying to get a grip on distortion that isn't way too taxing for my voice, and previously I could only go full out "screaming" distortion or nothing at all. I still feel this in the same place as my full out distortion, it feels like it sits above my vocal cords, sort of in the back of my mouth actually. To get to it I feel like I'm pulling my tounge slightly backwards, raising the back of my tounge towards the roof of my mouth. When I heard this described before (Complete Vocal Technique have a good take on it) I was trying and trying, sometimes getting it "sort of" and sometimes just wrecking havoc on my cords. Now when I finally got it right it felt so easy and I can't see how I couldn't find the proper configuration before. Also I use a lot of twang when doing this. Jens described this to me as tounge anchoring, pulling the tounge backwards to create the distortion. It was the key for me, made a huge difference in my control over distortion. It's a lot about daring to go for it as well - if I start to chicken out and hold back on it, not really daring the distortion to happen - that's when I go wrong. Mivke - thanks for pointing it out (Jonpall said the same as well, but not here in this thread). I think it stems from me using a lot of twang, and I don't back off on the twang enough when doing the more clean stuff. I'll try to get the clean stuff less nasal further on!

Thanks a lot for the replies guys! I realize I might have gone a little bit overboard with distortion here (maybe especially considering the song in question) - guess I was just so happy to finally be able to sing like this. I'll see if I redo this one, or try out some other songs instead The guys in my band really liked some distortion I did in a song I've been writing, so I have got to get this thing really solid so I can sing like this live - consistently.

I think it's really hard to mix in vocals on a produced backing track, so can't really tell you what you should do to make it sit better with the mix (I'm not an engineer though, and it's just my own opinion here). Right now it sort of sits a little bit on top of the music. I'd try adding some delay or more reverb (not too much though) to the vocals and try if a compressor on the whole thing will smooth it out. And it was the vowel I was thinking about in "wisdom", not the s (didn't even notice anything about the s, I'm from Sweden myself). I don't know if I have a better way of describing it than getting "splatty", but you sing everything else so damn good. That was the only thing sounding a little strained, to my ears.

It sometimes sounds a bit like you're changing placement, from far back in you mouth on the lower parts to very far in front on the high notes. First verse "spinning cards that look the same" stands out from the rest of the phrases, seems like the placement is different. Nothing wrong with that, but something to keep in mind maybe? Overall I think you did a good job on this one! The passagio area still needs a little more work so it sounds as good as the lower part of your voice. I get the feeling you sound a bit hoarse (do you spell it like that?) in the passagio. I think it'll settle with some more practice in that area. In the lower parts you sometimes sound strikingly much like Roy Kahn (and yes, I know this song is sung by Karevik, but you still sound more like Kahn). I can hear you've been listning a bit to him :)