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zijin_cheng

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Everything posted by zijin_cheng

  1. Interesting, many (if not all) of you seem to agree that those emotion exercises are weird and that finding a new teacher is the next step. I also like MDEW's explanations about emotions in singing, much more transparent and logical than what my now previous teacher used to say, whether out of habit or pure snake oil. Finally, I went for a trial lesson with a new singing teacher, and it was a bit scary. I felt like I was walking into a russian mafia den straight out of the movies, replete with heavy double curtains, a dark room with orthodox style candlesticks, and a teacher who wouldn't look out of place as a russian thug fighting Jason Bourne. Lol. The teacher is a belcanto opera singer from Moscow, and the first thing he did was check my range, and immediately start talking about head voice, chest voice, and told me that he heard some notes where I had a good mix of both, and he knew what to do. I"m excited to start, and would like to thank you all for being involved in this conversation. If you have any tips or things I should look out for when starting with this new teacher, I would appreciate it!
  2. Haha thanks for all your replies. In fact, the reason why I asked this question is because I told her I was uncomfortable about those emotion exercises, and she told me that she would not teach me as this was "part of the package". She also said that I would have to find a new teacher if I didn't accept, which I won't. I'm currently searching for singing teachers near my house and have found someone else and will start lessons in about 2 weeks (also half price of the previous one!). The weird thing was that she wouldn't give me any recommendations for any other teachers.
  3. Hey Felipe, thanks for the reply. Seems like you hit one of the nails on the head, breaking stuff down just seems like the logical thing to do. However, what you say does jive with what my instructor says, don't think too much when singing, aim for 75% output, and she will trick me into doing the correct thing instead of just telling me because that would be worse. Also, please see the reply I give Robert below for more info. I agree, even as a layman I can tell that emotions are an integral part of singing. However, the instructor is giving me exercises to get more in touch with my emotions that have nothing to do with singing and I'm uncomfortable doing that with anyone but a family member or close friend. I asked whether I could just focus on vocal technique first, then do the emotional stuff later and she said it comes hand in hand. ??? Side note, she does give me exercises like "sing this line happy", "sing this line sad" and these exercise I practice and agree with as being part of the training. But getting in touch with my feelings? Dunno, seems weird to me.
  4. Hello all, I am currently taking Bel Canto singing lessons with an instructor, and she has been teaching me vocal technique and giving me exercises to get more in touch with my emotions so I can draw them out and use them in singing. Learning Vocal Technique and Adding Emotions Separately? I originally wanted lessons so I could improve my vocal technique and use my vocal organs to their maximum ability (and sing healthily) so I was a little surprised by the addition of emotion, as I had thought that adding emotion comes after you learn how to sing properly. The instructor trains all her students with stardom as the goal, and says that learning vocal technique and emotion go hand in hand, you cannot learn one first then the other if you want to be a good singer. She said that if I wanted to learn technique first then emotion, she is not the teacher for me as in her opinion that just doesn’t work (or is a rather half-assed attempt at becoming a singer). What's your Opinion? I have zero experience with singing and don’t even know anyone I could ask about this (cept for the internet), and to a layman’s mind, it seems logical that you could learn vocal technique first then learn how to sing with emotion later just like learning an instrument. So, is she right? Side Question Let’s say that my interest in singing ranges from singing broadway like Les Mis, Chinese pop songs, and Oratorios like Handel’s Messiah. Can I train to sing all those genres in their appropriate styles, or is it impossible to do that?
  5. Thanks Draven. Does Reaper or Audacity have a bigger 3rd party plugin library (paid and free) for basic stuff like compressors, reverb, equalizers etc. And does that matter for an amateur like me? Thanks I'll try that.
  6. Thanks for introducing me to this, I've listened to all 3 videos, and to be honest this is exactly what I'm looking for, I appreciate it. Its time for me to start learning more about audio processing so that I can do this. However I'm using Audacity (or Audition if needed), and the default compressor even to my untrained ears is pretty rough. I'm not ready to pay for compressors yet and wondering if you have any recommendations for free compressor plugins. I've heard good things about Chris' Dynamic Compressor.
  7. Thanks Felipe I do remember that. I recognize that the farther away I am from the mic the more room sound I introduce, my question has evolved somewhat. The question is more along the lines of: "If I sing close to the mic to eliminate room sound and get a more true to life recording of my voice so its more flexible in post, is it possible to edit this audio to make it sound closer to what it sounds in the room?" I'm trying to do that with limited knowledge and having no success. Is this because its very difficult for an amateur or do I just need to learn more and practice more audio post processing?
  8. Actually your reply to my reply is exactly what I meant, I'm still new at this audio stuff so I'm still not in with the up to date jargon or descriptions, but that answer is what I'm asking, thanks.
  9. So that means that the less room sound there is in the recording (e.g. closer ot the mic), it will sound worse unedited but its easier it is to EQ? And thanks, will check that out.
  10. Ah you might have misunderstood me, what I was trying to say was that the recording sounds dull, boring, lifeless next to my voice in person. And thank you for the kind words. However, as someone on a budget (the very nice way of saying I'm a cheapskate), I don't think I could do much better than the MXL V67G below $100USD, so I'll most likely stick with this for now. My singing teacher has the MXL 770 which sounds a bit different but not that much better. Ninja EDIT: I have more recordings on my channel using the older mic which recorded a lot of room sound as I had to sit 2-3 feet away, otherwise I would clip the mic even with gain turned all the way down. I'm guessing in those older clips the room sound gave my voice more character than this new mic where I'm 7" at most from the mic proper.
  11. Now that's the word I'm looking for, lifeless. My recording wasn't dull or boring, it was lifeless. As opposed to singing in the car, bathroom, living room where the echo gives it character. Thanks again for your help and prompt replies.
  12. Thanks again, this raises more questions than it answers, but I think its good as it gives me a good picture of what I need to do and what I need to expect. Very quickly, I'm using the Scarlett 2i2 interface with drivers and recording in Audacity. I have audition as well but I really dislike the interface so I stick with Audacity. However, what I'm interested in is you saying that I probably unconsciously trained to overcome the mic's shortcomings, and I do remember doing that on the old mic. However, I've been trying to do that on this mic and it seems like I've hit a wall that I thought was my vocal genetics, but turns out its as you said, lots of EQing and software tweaks to do to the audio file itself!
  13. Thanks for your reply, I'm currently not looking to record professionally, I just had the amateur perception that a better mic would bring a recording closer to what my voice sounded like in person (not just to me, but to others). And I was surprised to find that the recording sounded very dead and boring (while being clean and crisp at the same time). However, I'm guessing the audio recorded on this better mic is infinitely more flexible than on a bad mic, so I can play with it to make it sound better?
  14. Hello all, I used to use a crappy USB Art M-one condenser mic but after doing much research have upgraded to a Scarlett 2i2 combined with an MXL V67G. Problem I recorded myself and to be honest, while the recording is clean and clear (at least compared to my crappy USB condenser mic), it sounds so different from when I sing in person. This recording lacks power, and it just has this really dampened feeling, and sounds so boring compared to myself singing in person (friends who I show this to agree also). I'm wondering if this can be fixed just through software like EQ-ing and compressing, reverb etc, or do I need a better mic? If I do, I would preferably like to spend below $100. Recording Info The recording I have below is just noise reduction and normalize, no compression, reverb, equalizer nothing. I have tried some basic compression & reverb on another recording and while it improves the output (have not uploaded this MP3 yet), still doesn't sound the same as in person. Am I just a newb at EQ-ing? Or is this a microphone limitation? Recording below EDIT: If this is the wrong forum, mods please move to correct one
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