MDEW

Thanks guys. I thought this thread was dead. Olem, Analog. So far this is the only song that I can sing a G#4 with any kind of fullness. I tried this with a darker/wider tone but I was not happy with it. I think this is a good song to work through that area. Thanks for the advice.

I thought this one would generate a little more feed back. Either someone slamming me because I ruined their song or someone liking the flow of this. Tone is something that I struggle with and with this song the Tone can make or break the feel. Any thoughts or advice would be helpful. Opinions, good or bad, are welcomed. :cool:

FLAT! just kidding. Good call. I kept rocking between Matter and Mattah. I am surprised that I was not flat more often on that high note. It is a G#4 but most of the time I lose it on G4.

I had a few days to myself this week and thought I would try this. I am not trying to Copy 3 Dog Night. I am working on my passaggio. Any comments appreciated.

I like your sound. Sounds as if you do have pretty good control of your voice. The only tip I have is something you touched on yourself, lack of emotion but you explained that. I can tell the influence of musical theater and it sounds pretty cool on this. You say that you've never been that good. Maybe you are concentrating on the technique instead of presenting the song. Phrasing and timing are very important in "Selling" a song(expressing emotion). I know that this song was just used as an introductory to your voice so the emotional aspect was not top priority and should not be used for that type of judgement. But you have the technique and emotion was the only thing that I had to point out. When I mentioned Phrasing and timing I was not meaning musical phasing and timing but Phrasing and timing of words. Putting emphasis on certain words or grouping the words in such a way that adds to the meaning.

And I have ben compared to Willy more than once. That may have been because of my long Reddish brown hair and beard, plus the fact that in typical Hippy fashion I would wear a bandana as a headband. Not to mention my nasal twang. Just surprise me and send me something and I will try to add something to it.

Thanks agin for the comments and encouragement. Thank you Ronws for joining me on this little project. Slow Start, Thanks, I am aware of my nasal sound. Even pinching my nose while singing does not create much of a difference so I am at a loss as to why that sound is there unless it is too high a larynx mixed with twang. There are other aspects of my voice that I have become aware of recently. I think someone described it as a thin sharp sound. It ended up being a good contrast to Ronws warm low tones. I would not mind trying another collaboration with Ronws but I do not know if either one of us has the time to put a major effort into it. So it would be a few hours each and post the results and let the chips fall where they may.

I think it depends on Why you are recording or Why you are posting the song in the first place. If you are recording for public sale then I agree whole heartedly. If you are posting to impress then yes putting alot of effort into it is expected. If you are recording for fun, once you pass the point of fun and enter into work you are defeating the purpose. If you are asking for critique on vocals or suggestions for a songs direction then there is no need to over work the song. Lay down enough tracks to get the basic Idea and feel of the song across. I can understand taking 5 years to complete your own album. Especially when you are playing most, if not all, the parts yourself. Songs end up rewriting themselves after a while and take on a whole new sound or aspect that you may not have expected.

It would have been easier if I could have recorded on Audacity with seperate tracks and sent Ronws the Project file. We could have added tracks as needed and a few alternate leads/harmonies to choose from. He would have had an easier time of mixing also. One bad thing aboout that is Good enough is never good enough and one 3 minute song can end up taking months. I do not have an audio interface or a microphone that will connect to the computer and still give a decent sound so I could not use the computer for the initial recording. I guess it is time to invest some money into this little hobby of mine.

It is kind of ironic that I asked Ronws to join me on this because I wanted to hear his piercing high notes to my somewhat muddy lows. Ronws has warm full low notes. No, it does not have that baritone sound but it gives him a soft full sound that is very inviting. It works well with this type of song.

Thanks guys. We were not exactly using state of the art equipment. Thanks for not busting our chops for that. I separated my guitar and vocals by sending guitar on Left channel and vocals on right in a regular MP3 format. Ronws added his vocals to that. I don't know how Ronws managed his part but when I recieved his Guitar and lead vocals I had to transfer the file to my recorder through the headphone jack of my computer and into a new track on my recorder. Then transferred the results of my added harmony back to the computer and into Audacity to convert it back to MP3 to resend it to Ronws. Each of these steps make odd changes to the sound. It is a wonder that it didn't just sound like mush by the time it got to your ears. So the Kudos go to Ron for his mixing.

Thanks Ronws for agreeing to sing this with me. I must admit that I played with this harmony for a good while. I wanted to hear what the two of us sounded like together and think we blend well in our singing.

I would welcome critique from any one of you. Nothing wrong with doing a good job and expecting some kind of acknowledgement for it. At the same time on a critique forum you should expect someone to point out that one note that was half a cent off. Some of you would not dream of posting a song that you did not believe was one hundred percent perfect and others would post the first draft and let chips fall where they may. If you are making a recording for sale then it may be appropriate to nitpick on different things like starting lines at the same moment, keeping exact meter and vowel modifications between singers, but a collaboration between singers from different backgrounds ( musical and geographical ) just for fun and to see how they may or may not mesh it is not necessary. That is part of the charm of it. For the critique part, Do opinions matter? I would have loved to hear someone tell Celine Dion that her tone sucks even though her technique and pitch may be flawless. Just once I would have loved to hear someone tell Bob Dylan that he needs vocal lessons or tell Whitney Houston that those embellishments are annoying and that whistle thing gives them a headache. But those are just opinions and it means nothing as long as people still buy their CDs

For being bored and picking up the guitar and recording a track not too bad. :cool: The pronunciation of the words sound a little funny and the Melody was changed a little bit but your pitch was good and I like your tone. I think you could own this song if put some real effort into it.

Sound pretty good. If your goal was to achieve a lighter, softer sound then I think you accomplished that. This sounds ever lighter than Steves version. I don't have any ideas to make it better other than keep singing this and sing it like you wrote it.

Coming to Rons defence..(although not needed) "Have you ever seen the Rain" does not have a harmony line to sing. At least not in the version by CCR. and if he had added a harmony line he would have been blasted because it sounds different from CCR.

The guitar lead did sound like something you would play. It also sounded like it was added after the rest of the instruments even maybe recorded on a totaly different recorder.

I kind of like the RnB sound with this song. I could not hear Ronws enough to really tell what he was singing. It sounded more like he was singing the lead line instead of a harmony. Again it may just be my failing ears I barely heard him.(I have tinnitis and fans are turned to high in my room. plus I am using outdated, cheap in ear headphones.) Did one of you record the instuments or did you find a backing track to sing to?

Sorry I missed this one till now. I have never heard this before. I liked both your version and Michaels'. For some reason this was not released as a single in the U.S. and I never baught any of his Albums. Now I have to scour the internet for Michael Jackson songs that I don't know about, looking for more gems like this one.

I do not know either language but I liked the sound of your voice on each of these. :)

What you wish to do with this track is ultimately your decision. After all it is your expression here not mine. As a writer it is hard to step back and listen to our own creation as just another listener, but that is what we must do. Listen to it as just a fan of music. The good thing about it is that if we do not like something we have the right to change it. Sometimes a song will go through many incarnations before the final production.

I kind of like the idea of mixing Rap with rock that way instead of having a verse in rock style and then having a rap either over some beat or rapping over a sung chorus. But I do have a few points of suggestion. Merely my own opinions not facts. If you had to sing the verses seperately on different tracks at different times others will have just as much of a hard time singing this straight through as you did. Leave some gaps between verses. Give yourself and others listening a mental break. I like the grit in your voice and it is cool that you can do that, but it should be used to give certain words more power and meaning and it takes away from the effect if used too much. Other wise I have no tips or views about singing technique or pitch control. That sounded fine to me.

I think you need to slow the tempo a little bit. :cool: The Bass part was pretty cool. :)

You sound pretty good but I think you went a little too strong with the fancy stuff and effects. Get a good handle on the singing stuff first and after you have better control start adding some of the extra runs. Singing is not about the fancy runs. If not handled correctly they just take away from the singing. Your voice sounded really good and you do not seem to have a trouble with pitch. My advice is to concentrate on the song not the effects.