ronws

Great cover and I liked how you approached. Listening in my car, I thought the vocals had a bit too much sparkle in the EQ. Then, I remembered, I adjust the eq in my radio to deal with radio and if I had left it flat for USB media, it might sound more balanced. Because, at work, where I listened to it first on some fairly decent desk top speakers, it was alright.

I liked it a lot, too. In fact, I have d/l'd it to my flash drive so that I can hear it in my car on the flight home. Get on the tollway, set the cruise at 80, try stay awake, most times. But this should wake me up.

I really liked it. Like I said before, you should be recording, releasing, and touring and obviously, you already perform in public.

Isn't it funny how something that may seem counterintuitive is the solution, at least to a problem at the time? Just like using some nasalance or resonance in the nasal cavity actually can lead to a less "nasal" tone, even if you are feeling just about all of it there.

Well done. And I could see this also getting synchro licensing on this. If the show were still going, this could be on "How I Met your Mother." I could also see it in a John Cusack movie. He's got the right melancholy look. It's funny, really, he and I are about the same age but he still looks so young. Anyway, excellent song, excellent singing. Dude, you are pro. You are the next rock star people didn't know they were missing. I mean like how everyone is now going koo koo for 21 Pilots? That is you, next.

Short answer, yes. And I don' think it matters too much the word, though obviously, for any person, one vowel or another is going to be more stable, especially when beginning. But yes, you were mixing voice and even the high note, which some might consider head voice can still sound a little mixed and that is okay. In the end, does it sound good for the song, regardless of how people want to describe it?

Also well done. I think you have the right voice for these romantic ballads and adult contemporary. You should keep this one in your ready to go set list.

I had to listen, it is a song from my childhood. Pacific Ocean. Naval shipyard at the Port of Los Angeles. My first step-father, a boiler tech, seaman 2c aboard the USS Ogden. He had a Mercury Zephyr with the electric back window. His brother had a 69 Shovelhead built like "Captain America" with a diamond-shaped tank instead of teardrop. Anyway, hearing you sing this in your soft voice, you sounded a lot like Peter Cetera. That was cool.

I think you misunderstood Draven. What he means is that you are the greatest obstacle to what you want to achieve. I have found that improving on singing mainly involved getting out of my own way, to learn how to walk without stepping on my own feet, so to speak. You said if you had that range nothing will stop you. He said, you will. That means that you can often hinder yourself with preconceptions about what you can or cannot do, what you think is happening to make a sound, which may be different from reality. But can you sing that range? Yes, you will.

I really liked it. And I want to say that the folky rock and southern fried rock and assorted outlaw country and stuff is really good in your voice. side note: my wife and I know a guy in Austin who has been singing all over the state for decades. A guy named "Shake" Russell. He actually helped Clint Black craft "Nothing but the taillights" when Clint was unknown. Anyway. so Shake sounds just like Harry Chapin. I have expected him to sing this song. Another side note: I have been working on an original song for quite some time. And even have entertained the notion of making it a three-way singing thing between myself, you, and MDEW. We may not be able to get together for brisket but we can sing about it if I ever get it finished. Kind of medium shuffle with a ZZ Top kind of turn-around in the riff. And another side note: back in the 90's, I auditioned for as a singer for a band called XLR8, headed by a guy named George Chapin, one of Harry's nephews. I ended up not getting the gig. They took back their old singer because he coughed up some recording eqiupment they were needing. That band didn't go as far as the previous band George was in, which was called Silverado, a locally known band that was big around here for a while.

I agree with Gnee. And I, like you, Muffin, tend to play guitar and sing at the same time because it is what I have done since 1974, when I started learning guitar (teaching myself.) But Gnee is right, you will get better recording quality if you record the tracks separate. Also, it sounds like the G or D string is out of tune. Something mid-rangy. Also, I liked how you sounded on the high notes. You handled those better than I expected, considering you are a beginner. Though you have certainly been working on it. And this song is definitely in your wheel house, But I agree with Gnee, clean up your articulation and really make the song yours.

I listened to this again and liked it even more and I can hear now that this song really suits your voice and vice versa. And you may find, as I have found for myself, with any given singer, covering some songs works out good and others not so much. For example, I think I sounded good on Dio's "Holy Diver" but kind of weak on "Rainbow in the Dark."

I am with you, Bzean. It is also a continuing journey for me. Both from the wisdom of the two dozen or so books I have read and my own adventures, sometimes with great results, sometimes with horrible results. The nice thing about a really big mistake is that you clearly know what NOT to do again. When I get something right, usually by accident, I cannot always replicate that. Although I must say that my greatest successes were not about equipment but about really knowing the song like it was the back of my hand. And some of my most strongly critiqued recordings were often one-off shots, usually experimenting with something new. For example, first time I turned on and tried my Zoom H1 portable, I decided to do a song I have never played before. "Everybody Talks" by the Neon Trees. First and only take, me literally sight-reading and singing at the same time, though I had heard the song plenty of times before (one of the secrets of sight-reading.) But, just about everyone gave me pointers on that. So, I realized, this is not the place to present sight singing and new experimental steps with a new piece of gear. This the place to put forward the best recording you can, as if it was something you would hear on the radio. But I still had fun. And while we are on the subject of recordings being anything but an actual live event, something we can do with vocals that pros do all the time. You have one chorus that really shines. Another one, not so much. So, don't use the bad one. Copy and paste the good one where you need it. A recording is all "fake." Now, if this was a campfire, I could get away with a sight-read. As long as you have had enough beer, it should sound good .... Now, have I done that? Pasted a good chorus in place of a not good one? No. I do the Ryan Strain method, sort of. I sing and go. And when I get a section I like, I drag the item down (in Reaper) to a keeper track that is not armed. "Keeper" means I am keeping what is on that track. Point being, I go ahead and sing each chorus, though I may sing it more than once to get what I like. That is what I did with "Highway Star" by Deep Purple. You can also do this while singing through one time. You are going along and mess up at a certain point. Snip off the screw-up. Drag down the good part. Then start back up just before the mess-up, not at the beginning. And keep going until you mess up again. Maybe you won't. But I find this a very relaxing work flow. It doesn't matter if I screwed up, you won't hear it. I will just keep doing that part until it sounds right. This takes the pressure off of me trying to do the whole thing just perfect. Because you will not sing perfect. One thing some engineers know, as much or more than some vocal specialists, is that you never sing the same way twice. edited to add: one cheat I will admit to for "Highway Star." Two instances of the chorus were in the wrong point in time. So, I moved them to line up where they should be. Color me bad, I am on the highway to Hell.

Ecxellent job, Jeremy. You sound uncannily similar to John on this one. Including some of the same mixing values. John Lennon - "I don't care! Put some ketchup on it!"

More tricks and hacks in our production thread. For this, I need to use Felipe as an example, at least of end product, regardless of what he may be actually doing. When he does a recording, he treats the whole recording. Here is what I mean by that. Say you are buying a karaoke track from the link supplied here. Don't assume that you cannot do stuff to that backing track, Go ahead and do stuff. And run a compressor on your master track to glue everything together. Treat the result of your singing with the backing track as a whole new product. Really be the producer. Use auto-ducking compression to lower track volume of the music when your singing appears. Put some EQ plug-in on the backing track and notch down a decibel or two around 2 kHz. The human voice sits in that area and you can give it prominence that way while having it sound like it is in the mix, as a whole. You can also do a high-pass filter at a low point. Because if you dip the backing track at 2 kHz, you may make it bottom-heavy unless you take off some bottom end. And if you are like me and like to record stuff, even covers, playing your own instruments, realize some things that can make mixing easier. An output from a keyboard, or outboard guitar modeler, like the Line 6 Pod or my Roland GS-6, is already providing some compression. The quietest and loudest notes are not that far apart. So, don't apply extra compression on that track. You can fatten rhythm guitar with layers. Either double track playing the guitar part again, or duplicate the one that you have and give it different eq, effects, pan, etcetera. Lead Guitar should not be doubled but you can fatten it with chorus and delay, either with your effects unit before input or with plug-ins on the track. Bass guitar should be direct inject and you can mutilate the stuffing out of it, later, if you want. Unless you are an awesome drummer in an awesome room with a plethora of mics and a tuned set, stick with either MIDI or keyboard drums. Worst case scenario, it may sound "programmed" but at least the timing is correct. (Thinking of Glen Fricker's t-shirt "1 2 3 4 this shirt is already smarter than your drummer.")

I think you could do great with a Bowie song. True story. At work, we have builder's client who has that last name (no relation.) On the work order I put the first line, full electrical install. Second line, put on your red shoes and dance the blues. Just to see if anyone catches it.

I like this mix better. It sounds cleaner.

So, I gather. Whereas, I learned a few times that it does no good to complain. Like one friend said, "no one listens, anyway." And I have had great recordings using a cheap mic and Audacity, before. So, I know Reaper and my other mics do just as well or better. But in either case, it boils down to what I do with it. And I have had a few people tell me I could not do a particular thing. And I would prove them wrong, which can be a delicious feeling, at times. A co-worker and friend of mine said I would not be able to get a master electrician license because the test is just so hard, blah, blah, and blah. And so, that year, I took the test twice and passed the second time. First time, I use a study guide all summer. Didn't pass. Second time, waiting for the testing date, I did word search puzzles and passed. And let him know I did word search puzzles. So, not only did I get to prove him wrong, but rub it in a little. The object of a word search puzzle and code book test is the same. The answer is right in front of your eyeballs, literally. You just have to allow yourself to see it. And, I finished the exam before anyone else. 100 questions, 5 hours, open book. Even after re-checking all of my answers, I was finished at 4 hours and 25 minutes. I made sure my friend knew that, too. And the next time I got a word search puzzle book, I wrote on the cover, "Ron's Master Electrician Study Guide" and took it to work. It's how I was raised. My mother had a saying, "May God have mercy on your soul, because I won't." Which was awfully close to the motto of the Outlaws MC - "God forgives, Brotherhood doesn't." And I was still his friend but there are things I cannot forget. So, take the things you feel you cannot accomplish and then prove yourself wrong.

Same here. It was built to look and sound like a vintage tube driven mic and it does just that, warms and darkens. For I also have a bright voice.

I'll ease off now. I will say this, though, if you spend the effort to state why something cannot be done, it will be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Yeah, send me your address so I can fed-ex you a box of tissues for your tears. Finish the song, anyway. You already have more than the Beatles had when they started out. Take advice from David Lee Roth from the song "Crazy from the Heat." "I ain't complaining, you do the best with what you've got. I know you're laughing 'cause it's easy to tell I'm going crazy ...."

Yeah, look, I know, you are proud of how old and stubborn you are. And I am older, with more practice being stubborn. Finish the production, secure copyright, get it released. Then, get ahold of JJ Abrams and / or who ever his music person is and get it synchro-licensed to the next Star Trek movie. This would be awesome in that sound track, with Chris Pine doing all kinds of daring-do. But I know you want rear back and prove how stubborn you are and dismiss my advice. Well, come at me bro ...

I also like your version. And, I think, between you and Felipe, you have more of the compressed sound that Bruce has. Your articulation is spot on and with no accent. Brilliant. I noticed that you have an MXL in the stand, just like the one I have. How are you liking it?

Well done, Felipe. And I don't expect you to sound like Bruce. For one thing, you have a voice that sounds more operatic, any given day, than his. But this is still a great version.

Good timing and good expression, still off pitch or not in tune with the song pretty much everywhere. Also, you can clean up the vocal track by deleting the sounds you clearing your throat and smacking your lips. Good song and I think it is the right range for your voice.