KillerKu

  I realized 90 percent of my favorite singers double track or stereo widened in 'some' way upon inspecting closely. I played around with some delay settings and I was convinced relatively quickly I like the sound of stereo widening in my voice too.   Whether that is 'fake or not' is tough to say. In real life you don't hear a mono voice from a microphone. You'll hear some 'width' of the room. Real live is definitely in stereo.    Anyway, I'm sold on this now for my voice. But still not sold on how to best go about it.

She has a great timbre. I like the song too. But basically I love that bit of warmth and lack of shrillness or quackiness.

Talk singing is a good style though and for country it's really relatable and has a lot of character. I think character voices are really valuable in music and maybe you should just develop your character voice by extending some of your speech.   If you're still interested in more mid ranged resonance how's that thing with the pharynx opening going? If you take kind of an owl sound in the back of your throat, a very big 'hoo' and make it really big and weighty, that's one way of describing it. If it helps you could make it dopey or yawny at first, but if you don't want the dopey sound you can let the larynx come up.   I think of singing in some ways like painting. Like you lay down shades of sound color on the canvas. You still want it to be you, but it can be you shading colors. That might help you extend things at least psychologically. 

  'No' Is very chesty and that is very good advice for Bono. Just be prepared that it will be very loud. If you try to hold back too much of that volume, you'll likely end up squeezing. The way you described that is perfect, spontaneous, natural, and emotional. Like conviction. So yeah, don't be timid on that one.

You look awesome on video so you don't need to worry about that. I think my basic my impression is you're holding back in a way that makes things harder than they need to be.   You don't need to squeeze or push, but if you embrace a bit more hmm... Your first language isn't English, but you know the short u vowel like in 'up?' Try taking that up and chesty a bit. Not really dopey or low larynx, but just a bit of that vowel. I find that vowel works good for engaging some chestiness into this kind of singing (Stevie Wonder kind of thing).   You could try this sound:   Nyum   https://app.box.com/s/egigtwu8ffl8kxvpx7lkj7er8yf5z0vi

    You're right about that. My sound card is this old internal M audio audio interface combination. It started making weird hissing noises when combined with my video card, and I started getting huge sync issues.   http://www.amazon.com/M-Audio-Delta-1010-LT-Digital-System/dp/B000085ZKX/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top   If I can't fix the thing and get it running like it used to (might swap video card) I'm definitely going to go with an external solution. Right now I have E drums, but if I move to a place where live drums are feasible I'd definitely want more inputs.     Yeah, I know what you mean. When I first heard Lou Reed I wasn't much of a fan. But there is something infectious and interesting about the way he uses pitch. I don't know how much is intentional and how much isn't, but sometimes it just gels for me perfectly.   It is phrased very melodically, yet frequently off key in a way that is rebellious, endearing, and very independent. About 60 percent of his work I can't get that into because he was willing to do anything he set his mind to and would conform to no one's expectations, but there is maybe a 40 percent margin that has the perfect blend of charm, and idiosyncratic, and musicality, that I can just fall in love with.   There's something intentional about the way he places notes. If you kind of 'talk' into music and really emphasize different syllables it can kind of come out. I'm interested in mastering this skill. I've heard Bowie adopt it a few times.   Listening back to my cover, I unintentionally got more in tune in quite a few places where I meant to mimic his pitching. So in a way, I didn't stay maybe as true to the composition as I could have. Subconsciously I often convert things back to the closest pitch. Being able to mimmick Lou's pitching would actually be a pretty tough nut to crack requiring a lot of study and precision. Cause you would have to learn each shade and couldn't just go to the nearest note that is in key.

  Yes, the track alignment thing is a pretty huge problem, not just for the guitar, but for everything. I had to slide every single track which I never used to have to do. There have been serious latency issues on my recording computer and I might need to upgrade to a new sound card and new setup completely.   As for the pitch, it's the composition of the song. I like the way Lou composed this song. I transposed a few melodies higher than the original to give it a new spin, but it wouldn't be the same composition if the pitches weren't similar. It's like Mary Had a Little Lamb needs some of the same pitches to function as a composition.   It's microtonal composition:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microtonal_music

This is definitely a smoother ride than the first time around. It's less eccentric, but that's been part of the goal. The less pulled chest does sound better too and the verses are more consistent. It's more cohesive without being characterless.   You've improved a lot in proficiency at singing in a short time. Nice job.

  Yeah I had a medication change which has let me train a lot harder and use my full voice every day.   As for pitchiness I can hear at least two significantly flat notes, which I debate whether to keep, cause I like the loose rock n roll. but I definitely reinterpeted the original:     I'll be looking to add some of the backing harmonies and hooks into the complete version.   What abut you. It's been a long time since you posted anything. I might have to make us a project to get you singing.

  And you should. You got cool timbre.   I wonder if there Is there an agreed upon 'good enough' cheap USB mic we could just have the go to thing for you guys? I have a condensor mic so I have no need for it, but I bet there is probably some 'good enough' mic for folks who aren't ready to splurge on pro gear yet.   Edit:   http://www.quepublishing.com/articles/article.aspx?p=2246801   Looks like entry level is about 50 dollars for something 'maybe good enough.' I can see why people hold onto their laptop mics a bit longer.

You're up to an octave down, but I don't blame you. Hahaha.The weirdest thing is I think you are harmonizing with him sometimes. Normally someone either mimmicks a pitch and or ends up musically... Just completely out of tune. But you're mostly in tune it's almost like a low harmony is getting turned up.   The sound quality is really weird though. What kind of mic setup are you using? Any weird effects cause it is pretty fuzzed? If you are going to use the original track you might be able to take out a bit of the EQ spectrum to poke the spectrum where your voice sits forward.   Do you have a small acapella sample of your timbre? It's fascinating me. Anyway, i'm not the go to Dio guy. I can't even get this voice working right. Robert, Jens, Feilpe, and a few others might have more help with getting you into Dio zone. The way I hear it, it sounds really twanged with kind of a 'ehrrr' vowel mod, but I'm sure it's a lot more complex than that. I've never been down this path, but you're in the right place.   Good luck climbing the Dio mountain. Guy was a beast at singing this style.

It's giving me a file not found. Might be weird internet stuff but check your link to be sure.

This is really good. I prefer your voice over the original singer. Somehow you going whyeee aieee Eyeeeeeee is less annoying with your less nasal voice.   Anyway, you're more technically proficient at this so I got nothing productive, but stick around and keep posting. I'd also be interested in how you record.   I also agree the video is eye catching, with you super imposed above other scenes. Green screen? If anyone is interested in this stuff you can build a home setup to do things like that:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_key   My brother and I were experimenting with it for awhile but were struggling with cheap efficient software. I might make a video of me in a crazy place sometime if I can figure out the right software and settings to extra it properly.

  Ha. they should be functioning now. I think you were writing while I was editing. Let me know if they don't work. I'm getting pretty excited about this approach. I'm a slow songwriter and am not productive enough, so when it comes time to record my songs I suck at the technical stuff. Covering stuff should allow continual work on other areas while also being fun.

That's some pretty deep and interesting growling.   It's not really my genre but you're doing it well. I particularly like the genre blend, particularly the soft section about halfway in.   It has a bit of Mr Bungle sound in its genre jumping qualities, but more like California era Bungle which is the kind I prefer where they were a bit more coherent.

It's good. It's a little frantic, but with the right backing, maybe a bit more up beat than the original it'd work.    Bono has the wink though, don't you go deleting that one.   Stevie Wonder is my favorite of the forum's beloved high pitched singers. mainly because he is a fantastic songwriter and musician but I do like his voice too. I tend to prefer the way soul singers hit high notes than the heavy metal way per tastes, so most likely I'll be singing more like Stevie if and when I increase my range. .    I suspect I'm a bit heavier of a voice type than you two, but I can do a few. I was working on You and I awhile back, but this song sounds interesting as it's a similar kind of ballad.

So my bass should get fixed soon and I want to start recording one man band cover songs so I can get more experience with mixing before putting together my album.    I threw this together today in a couple hours.  Pretty much everything was first take and I haven't drummed in maybe half a year.   Bass isn't in there yet, but if anyone has any advice, I'm curious. It's Lou Reed so how does the pitch sound?   Edit Weird: track wasn't here   https://soundcloud.com/killerku/lou-reed-crazy-feeling-cover-beginnings   Here's bonus Clash  

It sounds good to me. I can hear the slight variations in the piano's rhythm that often come when trying to sing and play at same time but didn't hear any beats lost. You should keep working on these skills.

It's quite good, imo. I like the move towards live stuff. I've been recording more and more often live. Hoping to get my stuff up to snuff, it's just in my situation sometimes live needs to stop, but it's gotten less often on new med combinations.   As for the pulling of the high notes, in my experience you have to sing them a bit louder if you want to keep this kind of tone and you need to support more in this area.   Now I'm not saying you need to shout with a pure chest, but the way the voice works it pretty much is going to get louder on ascending pitches 'if you don't change coordinations.' One way to get quieter would be to lighten the tone and shade towards headier tones it, but if you want this strong connected cry sound to have some beef like Stevie, there are limitations in volume. Trying to strangle down a full voice in volume has always been more constricting for me than letting a comfortable volume happen. Listen to Stevie on a G#4 and how full this sound is:   1:31     It's still compressed (all pop music is in all circumstances) but if you could be in that room with him, it would be really quite loud. That 'hu' vowel is my easiest vowel to do this on. I can siren easily on it.   Anyway, what most singers do is lean off the mic, and/or use compression. You're kind of gobbling the mic the entire performance (my favorite pass time), so leaning back just a bit on those high bridge notes (G4 through C5 or so), supporting more, and let the note ring out fully. If someone has a technique for full quiet, bridge notes, It'd be useful, but I've never found it and it might not physiologically exist. For me it's lighter or louder. Heavier and quieter... Would be very good for any neighbors.   Anyway, the performance is very good, d likely better than I can do at this point for a live on camera performance. You look great, passsionate, and into it on camera. I'd say keep it up. We can always go back and edit tracks, but it's not always the best measurement of where we are really at.

That song has a really natural flow to the melody and a nice progression. You sang it really well too. I agree, ultimately we have to sing with our own voices. We might as well sing with our own personalities. Whoever it is we admire already exists or at least existed, in the case of people like myself who tend to admire older music.   Wanting to duplicate other people is less valuable than wanting to offer something unique to the table. Nice job on the remaster as well. Professional radio musicians have remasters of music all of the time (sometimes in excess), but I think it is even more important for those of us who weren't working with million dollar studio contracts to try to keep our content as timeless as possible.   Keep training Rob and I hope you find a good balance of working on your program and students with channeling the inner artist and singing. Sing in the shower, in the car, take time to sing just for you. That's really important too, no matter how much you train others.

Sounds good to me. But it doesn't sound like a purely twanged head voice in places. Now I'm not a vocal scientist, but the loosest jargon I've got to work with in what a 'mix voice' would potentially mean, would be the   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thyroarytenoid_muscle   and   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricothyroid_muscle   Achieve a certain balance that allows the passaggio to to be controlled in volume without straining or shouting. One way of activating the cricothyroid is crying, while twang involves more thryoartenoid activity.   1:52 to 2:00 has a plaintive (cry) sound that sounds like it is gluing the sound together and sounds like there is more closure. Another section is 2:06 - 2:08 sounds like a purely twanged head voice to me.   So you would have fooled me into thinking you had a balance in on those sections as the timbre is plaintive, not airy, clearly defined, and not strained or pushed. But 'mix voice' is a really vague term. Of the various singing philosophies I've encountered, Speech Level Singing seems by far the least least interested in physiology and scientific measurements of the body. They were talking about 'zipping up vocal folds' and all sorts of crazy stuff with literally no evidence to back up this stuff back when I was reading the material.   If you're interested in obtaining this mixed sound, it can be found on a very soft moan or whine. It feels plaintive and a bit restrained like you're withholding bit of the sound, but definitely not like holding your breath. Imo, it's the trickiest thing about singing I've found, cause the minute someone hears 'restrained' they want to hold their breath. It feels comfortable and good when done right. The most important thing, is if it feels trained or like you're holding your breath, rest, don't do that, go back to a comfortable head voice and relax. Try again from a different approach later.

I love old school soul jams. I agree, not to offend but the female voice on the right side is having a few pitch issues. She can definitely train this to improve it.   Something I can spot already is that I really like your tone. It has a rich and beautiful timbre. Would blend really well into a soul group as it has that classic velvet, dark, yet clear enough timbre that is part of what gave the Temptations harmonies so much beauty.    Another thing I really love about your voice is your vibrato. Especially on Ooh Baby Baby. It has that spot in between the quiver and vibrato. It's one of my favorite kinds of vibrato. I picked up something a bit similar from Nina Simone, David Bowie, and Smokey, but yours is a bit more polished.   Something I'd suggest is thinking about finding a way to record with better sound quality. Like a better USB mic. The better the context you can put your voice in, the more opportunities you'll have as a vocalist. Someone might hear you and have an interesting context like Session Work, or be part of a group, or who knows. My favorite singer (David Ruffin) started as a backing singer in the Temptations before he broke out as a lead with My Girl. So yeah, keep your options open, I think you could go somewhere cool with this voice.   Keep training it. If you want more a bit more punch in the mix cut you could try to increase the twang a bit (tip of tongue resting at the bottom row of teeth, while the rest of the tongue arches up and back, pressing wide up against the top molars). In classic soul groups, I can often hear the background singers 'toning it down' to blend into the mix when singing harmonies (a softer rounder tone blends better), and amping it up when they step in for the leads. So it might be worth toying with.

  To be tidy I'm moving this quote here. I don't think you have many genre limitations. When I preferred At Last it is partly dynamics in the voice and might be influenced by my own preference for for jazz.   But I tend to enjoy dynamics in singing, with a bit more soar and roar here and there, so it's a tastes thing. I can't usually listen to say, a whole Nora Jones album as she is so low key, although her voice is nice in lower doses. She's really successful however so there are plenty of people that do. That said your cover here, I like, as it sounds like there is just a bit more oomph or engagement which I can relate to.   Again, John Mayer isn't one I can listen to that often cause he is often near whispering a lot of times, I don't get much 'tension, unpredictability or excitement' in his singing style. I like his guitar playing and have more interest in that, but as a singer he lacks dynamics and a rousing quality that excites me as a listener. You do sound good singing those songs here though. All of these genres you are doing pretty well as best as I can tell.   To try to get some perspective, on the far end of the musical spectrum there is a guy that is always low key. Always gives a soft, delicate, fairly predictable performance. Always uses the same tone. He's the best selling instrumentalist of the modern age: his name is Kenny G. Listening to his music is nearly torturous, and I'd take John Coltrane with his roaring fire, dynamics, unpredictable musicality, boundary pushing adventuresome free spirit, his willingness to break free from conventions, societal expectations, and so forth on the same instrument any day. But most people wouldn't. Kenny G outsells Coltrane on such an astronomical level it's impressive.    To be clear I'm not saying when I hear you, it's unpleasant, cause you aren't 1/10th as bothersome as Kenny G. You sound good, your voice has a nice timbre, you don't sound like you're phoning it in. But you need to think of the big picture, I have minority tastes in music. Your most successful genre may not even connect with me much. Nora Jones and John Mayor outsell a lot of artists I'd prefer to listen to so if you follow your heart and sing what you really believe in as best as you can, it's better than boxing yourself into something that just doesn't fit for you. Only you can really answer what your genre(s) will be. If there is a technical hurdle in any of them, you can train your voice to overcome them. Voices can be pretty flexible in my experience.

  It's basically the pharynx (back wall of the throat above the larynx and behind the tongue). Ronws talks about a 'cavernous' feeling back there as a visualization. I've heard him get some richness and vibrato on some low notes in spite of him having a pretty light voice type. Some mention a swelling feeling like a balloon, SickXamedhi talked about feeling a cushy pillow shape there. I got a friend to find this sound by imagining almost like a 'hoo' shape in the back of the throat. Like a round open space in the pharynx.   You can feel some of motion with yawning but goes very dopey (larynx depresses big time) and engages too much muscle. The very beginning of a yawn (first 5-10 percent) might help some. When you get the sensation right you can isolate it, it will feel relaxed, and 'cushy' and it goes on auto pilot once you know how to control it. Like Ronws I don't think about anything physical when I sing, but I do think about sounds I"m trying to express and if I want a low mid swell (think like  Frank Sinatra, he is the one that taught me intuitively) or richness I can find some there.

I like the lower range of your voice. Instead of going dopey (larynx low) have you tried going wider with resonance?   This is one of the hardest things I can explain, but if you imagine a balloon inflating slightly in the back of your throat you can open up that resonator a bit more. Instead of thinking 'down' you think 'round' and open back there. If you can hit a D#2 on a regular basis, you might be closer to a baritone than you think if you use all of your resonators. That is a morning note without fry for me and you're hitting it pretty solid here.   You usually have a more forward twangy, nasal placement. Which is cool. But it can thin out and lack mid range frequencies if you don't have this resonator open.   Anyway, this and Sister Golden Hair sound like strong performances to me. You'll get the upper range down in time, but don't hesitate to exploit this range here and the one around  Sister Golden Hair, but not super up there.