Nik

I can second what SingASong18 said Chorus is alright, but I'd either would skip the versus harmonies, or maybe you could sing ahhhhs instead I think the versus harmonies distract a bit from the lead vocals and singing aaaahs might add more focus on them hmm, I've no idea, that's just a suggestion :)

Hey all thanks for your words I took some time off from singing, I really needed this. I guess my biggest problem is that I'm on my own and all I do is what I discovered myself and that there's nobody who can tell me what's wrong at the same time I try something. and also the "I try to mix myself" problem What akarawd wrote is what I heard a long time ago: some singers like their voice, some don't, some can work with it, others need another person for that. But most of the time I have the feeling that time runs out and I'm not progressing ... I guess it's a mental thing which limits myself more or less ... I just started singing again (trying the not easy to sing Tears and rain by James Blunt, lol) but it's 30°C in my room and now I have a heat problem ... lol anyway I'll continue oh, and kalapoka: only a very few people said that my voice is crap, but my parents for example hear me sing now and then and well, through walls it often sounds bad, especially high notes like in this James Blunt song, so they made some comments about it. But I reacted very pissed and told them that they don't know anything and should keep quiet about it. I needed that ;D

hey kalapoka! sorry for late reply, I was taking some time off from singing and all that stuff, trying to get my mood back don't take it too serious, but I think you lied at us! this doesn't seem like it's your 1st gig as a singer, the 1st thing I thought was "his stage presence got my attention", so while listening I read the postings other people here wrote and it seems I'm not the only one who noticed this I don't know the 1st song, so it's hard for me to tell if there are any mistakes but then I watched Summer of 69 and well, you shouldn't worry about anything but continue singing and since you had fun on stage it would be a waste not doing this noticed the crowd? they were not bored but sang along and I guess that's the best thing that can happen! I'm no vocal pro as you might know but I didn't hear anything odd or something that would have hurt my ears, so yeah, do more like that at least you're on a stage in front of people and not hiding in a room behind a microphone like me :D

it's hard to explain ... I believe my voice is not bad and I always tell myself that but then again now and then I can't stand what I hear after recording, I guess it's not my own fault but also due do wrong settings ^^; right now I don't sing, though I "playing siren" now and then while working on something that's nothing to do with music. pitch up, pitch down and so on ...

Hey ronws and Jens thanks first I'll reply to your postings. The noise I mean is in my voice, it sounds like a chhhhh or some kind of fizzle. I guess something's up with my voice right now. I don't feel sick but singing is really straining at the moment and after I sang some time I can't hit any high notes unless I use a lot of pressure, I got a little hoarse. Which I think also causes this noise I hear. My throat itches back where you feel the "impact" while trying to cough with your mouth closed. There's also some mucus (?) and I took acetylcysteine every day now. I guess I'll stop singing for a few days completely. Beside that, I still lack this special rasp that some singers have. I'd really like to sing "Nothing else matters" but it sounds not good enough with my voice. I've read that this will come with time and I notice that I sometimes can sing like this, but only sporadic. :/ Jens, I know what you mean though it was my first try I already thought about singing it like I did because I didn't like to combine the words while I recorded it. Don't ask me why, I don't know ... lol ... but I will try and see how it sounds, but first I have to rest my voice for a bit ok, now there's something I also have to mention: I just experimented a bit. Let's call it karaoke. I switched on my studio monitors. I'm in a kinda small room and I guess the setup (placement of monitors, room size, space between monitors and walls, sound settings on my monitors etc) and is not very good but this time I really had trouble hearing myself or sounding like I wanted. In my ears it sounded different with every song I tried. kinda flat, or too much bass, or too much treble, I don't know why or what it was, but I could say it made me want to get an axe and kill it ... lol then I listened to different song tries I recorded. NOT ONE sounded good to me. I've mentioned I mix using headphones. I guess using headphones not kills the feeling of "room" (3D) it also makes reverb sound not as strong as it sounds on monitors. I also didn't like my voice while listening to it using my monitors. I can say I currently HATE it. I wished I could make the mixes sound like what I hear during recording. I sometimes have goose bumps caused by the sound of my voice during recording but when I listen to it afterwards I don't get the same feeling because something's missing or killed by a filter. I won't stop singing, I never will but right now I have a feeling that makes me run away or break out from something, I wished there was some kind of reset button that helps me out of the deadlock I'm currently in. hmm, so if there's anyone out there, please tell me if I'm right or tell me what I do wrong. I think my filter settings are completely overdone or something. Though people say it sounds good I have problems believing it more than ever before D:

Hey ronws thank you right now I'm back in that "hole" (I wrote about that in my hello post). I control my tone pitch now and then. I can say I hit more tones recently, that's good and it gives me some self confidence boost, but I have a different problem right now. I still have troubles hearing myself and I'm sure it's not my ears (as in permanent damage). When I sing hallelujah I notice that it somehow sounds hoarse, I hear noice when I use my headphones. If I don't use my headphones and just sing I don't hear that noise, it sounds like the high frequencies don't exist - until I sing into my hands and try to direct the sound to my ears. Then I also hear this noise. Singing also is a bit straining, it doesn't hurt or anything but I have to use more power to sing some notes. I would say it's because of the heat in my room, but not sure, I don't think I caught a cold. That's really frustrating because I don't know what's up :| (I must sound like some diva right now lol)

Hey all alright, since I just signed on here a few hours ago I won't waste time with pondering, I'll directly ask for opinions and reviews. I have some covers on youtube, most of them are 1st tries (means I didn't sing the song 50 times or more and practice them) I usually hear a song, decide, that I could try singing it, look for a backing and sing it. If I'm happy with a try I release that version and after some weeks I might try singing it again and release a new try. (just to explain what I mean with 'try' in the song description) I post the link to my youtube channel instead of one or 2 videos, so you can decide yourself what to watch http://www.youtube.com/user/NikArcherTH I just read a view posts here in this part of the forum and will read some more, but I saw someone singing Hallelujah, that song triggered my attention edit: ok, I'll add another song test. As I wrote before, Hallelujah triggered my attention and I tried it the 1st time today. for some reason (maybe it's the heat, 31°C is not good for singing I guess or I sang James Blunt covers too often the past 3 days) my voice sounds hoarse, though I'm not, but I hear some kind of noise don't hit me if I didn't hit the right notes or rhythm, I'm still working me into the song another thing I noticed while singing it: if I don't record it and just sing (without facing the microphone) it sounds better than during and after recording, I don't know why yet ... lol http://ul.to/2vhj61/hallelujah_nik_test0.mp3