Aaron Meyers

Aaron - I did do the backing vocals, but they were too low in the mix to hear properly.

I've bumped their levels up and refreshed the mix on the same link as in the OP, so anyone listening from now on will get the adjusted mix.

Thanks for your feedback.

Yeah, its a little better. You should go back and listen to the original track, those backing tracks were pretty damn loud lol.

After hearing your cover I went back and listened because I thought you were flat on one of your notes but I was just sharp in my memory but that is where i noticed the biggest difference.

Over all though it was really good. I might have to try to talk you out of the backing track to try it myself =p

Really solid. You should do the backing vocal tracks, it will help a lot with the chorus.

That scream in the middle that is ever so quiet, yeah that is a bitch to do lol.

I'd give ya 3.5-4 stars out of 5.

Nice songwriting. Singing is great also Ron, no criticism except I can hear little stumbles in places where I think you are probably distracted by also having a more difficult guitar chord change, such as at the start of the the "Thank your for.." line.

The recording/mix is a bit over-compressed in places, which is apparent from the level of background hiss going up and down which is a bit nasty.

If you a have a version with a gap where a guitar solo should go then throw it my way, and I'll see what I can do. For my first 30 years in music I played lead guitar, right up to when I discovered I could sing (LOL!)

I tried my best to get the best sound out of his original file. There was massive amount of background noise from his low budget recording set up. Then again I am not a trained recording engineer, just try to find what I think sounds the best with what I am working with.

As for the gap for the solo, it is still there at the 1min 19 second mark. He sent me the file for it but because its just a few second I could not get it to line up with the recording when I imported into Cubase 5.

Reminds of Erik A.K. from Flotsam and Jetsam.

I can not lie, I actually enjoyed this version better than Robert's and that says a lot as he was mentor for well over a year.

I like it, then again I did the final mix =p

Thanks though I can not get that damn song out of my head. :lol:

Hello, Mazzith!

That would be great and i am looking forward to hear it (your recording), i have the greatest respect for Robert Lunte as a vocal teacher.

I'll record it tomorrow (monday).

I wanted to add a few more kudos for Robert Lunte. I found this forum through a youtube video of Kevin Richards (rockthestageNYC.com). And consider myself fortunate to pick at the wisdom of Maestro Lunte. As it turns out, in his vocal education, he was a client of a vocal maestro who also coached Layne Staley and Geoffrey Tate, two voices I greatly admire. And I can hear that influence in his personal work, as well as some of the tutorials. In addition, he knows how to perform. Anyone can, with some training, hit a note. But he can also "perform" the song, emoting, without costume, standing in one spot. I am still, to this day, inspired by his performance of "Gethsemane." Even though I have sang that song a long time ago. The inspiration brought back to a place I needed to be.

And he usually gives more than he is contractually obligated to give. He walks the walk and his heart and soul is in this, 100 %.

Robert learned from David P Kyle. David is a legend in Seattle. He taught a good bit of the talent that was coming out late 70's early 80's. Anne Wilson of Heart, Geoff Tate of Queensryche, Chris Cornell Soundgarden and Layne Stanley of Alice in Chains. This is a major reason why I started my lessons with Robert. If his teacher was good enough for that all star lineup then it would be perfect for me.

On your comment about "performing" this is one thing Robert tries to use to separate himself from the crowd. When you go to a lesson in Seattle your on a stage with a PA and you get comfortable up there. He also picks are you for little things I hear all the time... "Get your hand out of that damn pocket!" "Open your eyes" "Pick a place in the back and focus on it, do not look down" haha. The one thing I loved is that no matter how bad your lesson goes he finds a way to instill confidence in you and want to come back for another lesson. I started out planning on doing once a week for 1-2 months to make sure I was not going to over practice something wrong from our lesson and here I am 6months later still doing a lesson every week haha.

I have nothing but love for my teacher Robert.

Thanx for your answers, Thanos and Mazzith, no offense taken. The pulling chest thing i am not familiar with . I think i will follow your advice there Thanos, start with a tiny voice and build my way up. The thing is, i know i have a problem with this (pulling chest). I am experimenting alot and try many different ways. When i am trying the softer relaxed approach, i record myself and then i hear FALSETTO. Ok, the solution is to add more twang, i do that but i still hear falsetto. Ok, maybe i can darken the tone just a little together with twang, i do that but still hear FALSETTO. Ok, then i try to add cry but then i hear and feel strain. This is what i often stick with anyway, to get that meaty sound, but i try to decrease the velocity as much as i can and to relax BUT THE THING IS I CAN´T REACH THE HIGH NOTES WITHOUT PUSHING. I know people here says that adding twang brings the meat out but i haven´t experienced that, not yet. I will post some examples later of what i am experiencing. Maybe i have some serious problems with my support, hahaha.

I think i have pulled chest for too long and now need a teacher to see what i am doing.

When you get to E4 you should be bridging into your head voice ( at least what Robert Lunte has taught me). At this point it sounds like it could be from your chest but it is not. So you get no constriction and you do not have to fight to get those notes. I sometimes find myself falling back to my old habits so I just do a quick octave siren of the high note I want and then I find the placement. I am sure a lot of this might be greek to you but I do not mind trying to help explain some of Robert's basic ideas studies are.

I struggled trying to get twang at first. Robert told me quack like a duck, then say quake, then Me-Eh. I'll do a rough record tomorrow on my day off of part of that song and give you an idea of what I mean.

It sounds like it could be a 80 pop song (the drum beat) at the beginning until the vocals move up into a higher range.

Very catchy, good job. :D

Well your higher notes sound like your struggling and trying pull from your chest voice. I'd suggest trying to cover your higher notes and try not to drive into them so hard. You can get a great sound still with out pushing for it.