ronws

On ‎1‎/‎27‎/‎2016 at 5:51 PM, Mike Lowrey said:

 

Having the Vowel you're meant to pronounce + a/ae in the forward palate + that Uh in the backward soft palate must feel like a kinda stretch, right ?

Thanx  a lot !!! 

Sounds right to me and the way I have understood. It's like using a vowel shape for a formant while articulating a word in the lyric that actually has another vowel.

Awesome. Perfect, absolutely perfect match of voice and song. I did not realize how similar you and Adam Levine sound. Your whole voice works for this song and vice versa. I don't know if every Maroon 5 song will work out for you like this but you could also work this genre quite well.

I agree with musikman. You need to get out there and strike while the iron is hot. Please, please, trust me, life passes by in the blink of an eye.

7 hours ago, Adolph Namlik said:

I wrote Aucka as well and offered the 50% discount. I also added some other kind words and am awaiting a reply...... (?)

@Aucka 

I did the conversion from U.S. Dollars to Australian currency for you and here's the cost(s) of a membership :

1 month - $ 5.64 Australian currency
1 year - $35.25 Australian currency

Not a bad deal

Less than the price of one lesson. Less than the price of one beer per month.

As it says at the top of the page, you need to link to a streaming player or player page. Box dot com gives you the player page link.

Many people here, such as myself, as well as the owner of the forum and others don't want to have to download a file to hear it. So, please, re-post them as player pages and if you have not paid the premium, there is a premium charge to have singing reviewed here. A single song fee and a yearly fee. The yearly fee is less than the price of one lesson. It averages out to the cost of 1 beer a month.

You started out in what sounds like mix to me. Who told you not to sing this way and why would they tell you that? Also, it is also kind of hard to hear the different qualities of your voice with all the reverb and delay on this. Is it possible you could post a different version with the voice a little more plain or without effects?

1 hour ago, Musikman7002 said:

I like both ideas. I have a home recording setup but when I am in "Idea Collection" mode I tend to just turn on a mic or a guitar etc and lay down the ideas quick and dirty lol. I will often do this until I have maybe a half hour or more of song ideas. I wrote a song the other day when I went back to the beginning of a 45 min doodle location and had forgot all about the ideas I put down at the beginning of the song location! I refined it etc. but I think trying to capture the vibe is the most important thing when trying to archive an ideas to develop later.

 

Dude, that is the way to go. If you get a chance, read the book "Guerilla Home Recording." That guy belongs to a group that does that exact thing, the goal being 20 songs amongst them in a 12 hour period. There will be some dogs. And there will be a few gems that are worth polishing. Like a creative writer, just write something, even if you don't use it. It will lead to other ideas that do work.

I just had a flash of insight for a song I am trying to write and stumbling. I have some lyrics and a vocal melody but was stumped trying to figure out the right guitar part. Then, I realized, why not let the vocal melody define the guitar riff? It doesn't matter how you get there, as long as you get there.

Softiey, the reason that people want to hear you is that you cannot just type voice from reading printed words about your stated range.

For example, I am a light tenor but this was actually named for me by a classical coach I had consulted with. He had to hear me singing to make such a determination. No amount of written words on my part would help anything. 

But hearing me and hearing some of my more theatrical pieces, like "Heaven on their Minds," he could determine tenor and a light one, if he was casting me for a show. His creds? He has been teaching voice for as long as I have been alive and I am an old guy.

And when he was with Black Sabbath, this was a big hit for them.

And here is, among the peasants, offering sage advice.

All hail the late, great saint, Ronnie James Dio.

I like that you do things your way. Dio did it.

Led Zep did covers so different you almost didn't recognize the song.

And there was quite a sonic difference between Joan Baez's original of "Diamonds And Rust" the fast metal cover by Judas Priest, who later, revamped it to be an acoustic ballad, closer to what Joan had originally done, but still different.

Good ideas, you should develope those. Make the most of your studio time when you get there.

I think we are all going to sound different live in a room than we do on any mic. In a room, you and others are hearing you in a room of reflections. Singing into a mic is a close proximity thing. Also, mics act as filters, of a sort. A dynamic mic, while able to handle high spl (sound pressure level, loud sounds) it does tend to filter off the highs. In fact, Shure mics like the 57 and 58 have kind of a box of full response in the mid and lose a lot on the low end, really fast, some in the high end.

Also, you will sound different if you use a large diaphragm condenser mic. It is more sensitive to subtle variations and has a broader response curve than a dynamic. When you mix and adjust eq, use a parametric form, narrow the Q and sweep back and forth. It can be better than just setting values some other guy has mentioned. You always have to mix by ear, not numbers. And it is totally okay to reduce a lot through EQ. For example, especially with your voice, do a high pass filter at about 80 Hz. This will roll of that and get rid of some room sound that you don't need because you are not producing sound down there. You can bring back room presence with reverb plug-ins.

And yes, it helps to remember that the average backing track is basically a pre-master stem. That is, while it is not run through a compressor or limiter, all the sounds have already been mixed by someone else who does not know your voice at all. I am so glad, really, that Robert linked in the backing track site that allows you to order the track WITHOUT backing vocals because they are often odd sounding, to me, and usually auto-tuned. You can do a few different things. You can notch the backing track with EQ by making a dip with a medium wide Q at about 2.5 kHz.

The other thing is to auto-duck. Put a compressor on the backing track and have it controlled by the signal from the vocal track. That is how I did "Highway Star." When the vocal is present, the compressor slightly reduces the backing track.

I think, in general, yes, the horizontal embouchre reveals brightness more than other formations. But I also think you have a bright voice, to begin with. You can achieve darkness buy what vowels you choose, even as a general shape, regardless of lyrics. You can also change mics. For example, I sound kind of bright with my Fame CM-1. But my MXL V67G darkens it a little bit. It was designed to mimick vintage tube mics, which would roll of the highs a little and create a "warmer" sound. And it is now my preferred mic for vocals. 

I still have my Sennheiser e835 dynamic and I have used it on vocals in the past but I would now use it mostly for mic'ing my Fender 85 Combo amp.

So, generally, unless you are just screaming bloody murder, a condenser mic is better for vocals. And some compression, and some eq.

4 hours ago, VSingV said:

Maybe... But i know what's the difference between falsetto and head voice and my head voice is not so "airy".

resonance. Falsetto as a rule, is lacking in ringing resonance or "ping."

I liked it. And knowing you have done a number of songs in the past with lots of grit, it was also nice to hear you singing clean. Good, either way.

Bravo, Viktor.

Right off the bat, I like the first song more. If you are just asking for personal preferences, that's it. Though I would like to hear your voice better. Is there some religious reason for having the recorder so far away? It doesn't make sense from a recording standpoint and I don't want to step on religion but I was wondering if it was possible to get the mic a little closer.

I am in the process of re-vamping my Reaper thread to not just be about that software, of which I am a fanboy, but recording and mixing in general, so that you can apply concepts, whether that software, or Garageband, or Logic Pro, or Cubase. Ideas about why you mix something a certain way. Why just about any vocal needs a compressor and yes, plug-in compressors are perfectly fine to do this.

That way, even if someone busy a recording bundle in the gear store, here, there is still some help and guidance on how to do it. As I want to come from the viewpoint of someone who is NOT a recording whiz because we all start somewhere.

Something that Robert, my brother Scott, and others have said, we really do ourselves better by making better recordings.

I liked it, Ellise. Jon's advice was good. A good example I can think of is to listen to anything Barry Manilow did. He made a career off the aaba format and build, build, crescendo, denoument thing. So, watch that to get a visual and audio example of what Jon is talking about.

I was talking with G about this and what he needs is a real mic and an interface with direct monitor. That will clean up the recordings, a lot, just doing that.

Gear does make a difference at some levels. He has been using a headset mic, which is extremely limited in dB width.

On 1/18/2016 at 7:49 PM, Javastorm said:

I'm pretty late [last day of challenge lol] but I did Kiss From a Rose by Seal. Couldn't find a backing track that didn't have backup vox so I did it a cappella.

https://app.box.com/s/24nttrom5mqewn4k0ab747k0x1pmytxg

 

Re: Gsoul - I never heard this song before but you definitely emoted well, and got the theme of unconditional love across really well in my opinion. I like the phrasing and riffs after the 2:00 mark- they sounded the most controlled and like ron said, something from the 70s, slow and sensual.

Re; Slow Start - I wish I had the ability to play and sing at the same time, if that's what you're doing! "How Long Will I Love You" sat in a nice part of your range and definitely fit the lover's theme both lyrically and in your smooth delivery. Really nice. My sentiments are the same about the second song also.

 

I just now saw this and listened, Java. I got chills. Even more proof that you have a lot of Seal's sound and this is definitely your thing.

I didn't bother listening to the older recording. And I really liked this one. In some ways, better than Smoky's because you got some low overtones in there that add some great depth and you have this cry sound in your voice that is both demanding and soothing. If you ever decide to make an album and put a cover on there, you need to include this one.

It was a bit of a surprise and a compliment to me when more than once person, including my wife, thought I sound like Glenn Hughes.

to illustrate that you do not hear yourself as others hear you: