Gsoul82

On April 25, 2016 at 7:01 AM, MDEW said:

    Jeremy, Souded pretty good man. I would keep this in a list of songs to play out for a one man show. If you haven't already, MAKE that list and practice the songs often so you can just grab a guitar, keyboard or whatever and sing when the opportunity strikes.

      Killer, Good to see you back. I have been wondering about you. You should also keep that in a list. It is one of the songs I was going to record for this Challenge.

       I have sat down at the recorder several times over the past few months to record for this challenge and each time was struck by either Red Light syndrome or interuptions. I still plan for a recording but do not know when I will be able to. Until then I hope others will continue to post songs here. Looking forward to hearing more.

      G,  You still out there? I have not seen a post from you for awhile. Do not give up on us. These challenges are still a good idea. It is getting the time that is a problem.

I haven't given up on anything. Just got overrun with stuff. Full-time Grad School is no joke, LOL. That's ending now though. Yeah, it's the time. We'll have to find a way to fix that. Maybe longer deadlines.

On April 21, 2016 at 5:13 PM, ronws said:

Good job, Jeremy. Only thing I could suggest, as I really did not hear pitchiness but a few pitch scoops (where you ramp up to the note) and a few wobbles (which can cause the scoop) is your accent. Watch the vowels. My or eye should be mah or ah. And you suffer the southern man's curse on "love." Something that used to hobble me, too. For now, make it either lahv or loov. The southern US accent on that word is atrocious. But you got everything else right in there, as much as I could tell.

Yeah, pitch scoops. That's like exactly what I said, Ron

On April 14, 2016 at 0:20 AM, Jeremy Mohler said:

I tried multiple times for a cover and I was bad every cover haha... although I do have this one which is kinda alright but it's a pretty unknown tune: http://picosong.com/NAQD/  Kinda cheesy early 60s Bee Gees tune rather than the crazy disco stuff everyone knows.

LOL. It's like that sometimes. Doesn't sound bad to me, you know, just a little pitchy here and there. Still a nice recording. And the fact that this wasn't easy means you really challenged yourself, which is the point here.

I still want to throw one up, myself. Any suggestions?

Well, this one didn't go as expected, LOL. 

I know I got completely overrun with schoolwork. Not sure about anyone else.

This challenge won in voting. Is there anybody else still interested in doing this? If so, we can restart it. Otherwise, we should take a look at a new challenge.

22 hours ago, Collin571 said:

Who wants to challenge me to a friendly competition to see who can record a better version of Death of a Bachelor by Panic at the Disco!  This song has a killer chorus that is really fun to sing but easy to mess up so if anyones up to it this could be fun.  I'd also be happy to accept any challenges on members favorite songs!

 

Please read the pinned threads at the top of the forum. There is a certain way that things must go here.

Everyone is always welcome to propose a new challenge, but something like that would go in the thread that is titled "Discussion of the Addition of New Challenges".

We cannot come in and start challenges all willy nilly

Saw this one had no replies yet, so I took a listen.

It's pretty cool. Subtle vibrato. Builds up to a little intensity at the end. The emotion is there. All I would really say is maybe just work on holding those notes at those parts where you increase the volume a bit and hold the words at the end of some of the phrases, like at 2:59 and the couple places you do that kind of thing afterwards.

What do you think still needs to be changed?

One thing I admire about you is how you're able to convey the emotion. In all of the covers I've heard so far, you sound like you mean what you are singing. I'm still working on that.

Like Gnee said, when you go up there in full voice, the intensity is there, but the pitch is off here and there. Besides the pitch in a few places, not a bad attempt. Runs were okay. Sounds like the falsetto thing might still be there. Keep hammering it.

This is a Mariah Carey song. It's good that you're challenging yourself by choosing songs that are not easy and trying things like changing up the melody. That's how you're going to get better.

It's Bee Gees Challenge! Select a challenging Bee Gees song, of your choice, and cover that thing. Post your attempt in here! This one will go to March 17th.

We have a winner! Bee Gees, it is.

59 minutes ago, Jakita said:

Just want to know if I should keep singing or give it up?

 

 

(Singing) ----> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsbptdfKSFs

Having your singing reviewed here is actually a paid service, so you'll need to purchase a membership plan to get reviewed.

What I will say is you should never give up singing. Your voice is a wind-instrument, and you take it with you everywhere. Practice it. Learn it. Go frequent the vocal technique section so you can learn about how it works, and how to exercise it so that you can develop the sound and techniques that you want. And two more very important things: if it feels uncomfortable or hurts, stop. Last, but not least, sing lots of songs

Voting is open for 5 days. Here we go!

On 2/4/2016 at 7:58 PM, ronws said:

 

 

WOW. I had no idea.

Going to leave one more day to suggest, and then it looks like I'll be putting up the poll.

My second suggestion is Frank Sinatra.

The epicness is there, man. This sounds like it could be on the soundtrack for an adventure/action film. And on that note, you know exactly how I feel about the quality of this.

On January 31, 2016 at 4:01 PM, Rosa said:

Oh I missed this thread. And you have missed lots of them saying they'd do a Bee Gees challenge.  It is in Jon's thread about Belting and Bridging.

Interesting. I'll check it out.

On January 31, 2016 at 5:44 PM, Jarom said:

I nominate jeff buckley

Anybody else? You can pick 2

20 hours ago, Jeremy Mohler said:

Beatles or Bee Gees.   Would be cool to do a 60s challenge period.  

Don't think I've heard one Bee Gees song, but I'm probably completely wrong, lol. 60's challenge is a great idea in my mind. I'll get a few more people in here and see what the people say before we vote.

This one seems to have slipped under the radar. A humble bump.

Also, feel free to suggest challenges here:

On 1/28/2016 at 5:53 AM, ellise k said:

i enjoyed the rich tone in your voice and the low notes were great

Thank you, Ell.

Everybody isn't going to like your voice, no matter who you are. If you go on to become a millionaire off of this stuff, there will still be people you haven't won over. Some will be negative and it won't even be because your technique is off, but because you're not doing what they like to hear. Either way, you can always improve your voice.

I'm wondering what kind of voice expert can't get any more descriptive with their feedback than telling you something like "the top and bottom halves of your voice are crap "...

18 hours ago, MDEW said:

I only knew of him from 1960s American Bandstand where he was one of the original Teen Idols singing love songs.

Eventually he sang for Black Sabbath. He went on to become the Ultimate Metal Rock God.

 

14 hours ago, ronws said:

All hail the late, great saint, Ronnie James Dio.

 

 

14 hours ago, ronws said:

And here is, among the peasants, offering sage advice.

 

 

14 hours ago, ronws said:

And when he was with Black Sabbath, this was a big hit for them.

 

 

Watched all of these videos. I can't believe I never heard of this guy.

1 hour ago, ronws said:

I like that you do things your way. Dio did it.

Led Zep did covers so different you almost didn't recognize the song.

And there was quite a sonic difference between Joan Baez's original of "Diamonds And Rust" the fast metal cover by Judas Priest, who later, revamped it to be an acoustic ballad, closer to what Joan had originally done, but still different.

Thank you. I don't consider myself an artist, in the least, but I believe in artistry. You should insert some of yourself in each song.

Who's this Dio guy? He's mentioned in like 75% of the threads.

On 1/20/2016 at 11:24 AM, Gneetapp said:

Very nice timbre Gsoul! I agree with the sound engineering/recording/producing tips people gave you. I think it will make your vocals sit better in the mix. Also, if you recorded this with a headset mic, as ronws mentioned, you would benefit immensely from a condenser mic. Cheers

Thanks for listening, Gnee.

On 1/20/2016 at 0:09 PM, MDEW said:

     I have a general observation Gsoul, I have noticed that most of your singing is either between E2 and C3 or between E4 and C5 with falsetto. Do you hear your voice as being the same pitch with the songs you are singing or do you realise that you are singing an Octave lower in the Low parts of a song? Nothing wrong with singing an octave lower. It sounds pretty cool with your voice and you handle it well.

     On some songs you may want to change the key a little to see how your voice responds between C3 and D4.

 

As a personal thing, I don't try to sing the covers like the original, so I'll end up doing things like that. I do that all the time, so it's not something I think about often, but I do know when I'm not singing note-for-note.

I had done the first one this way and Jens thought it sounded cool, so I kept doing things like that. Before that, I didn't really like using the lower parts of my range.

17 hours ago, KillerKu said:

That will do it, for a good condenser, 4 to 6 inches is considered close miking and you need a good pop shield for plosives. A lot of vocals are recorded further away. The closer you are to the mic, the larger the dynamic range of volumes too. For the dynamic range in general you'll want to use some kind of compressor. We've been long due for an explanation of how compressors work so I'll drop this here:

Overall Goal For a Compressor: Reduce the dynamic range between high volume and low volumes so the overall volume levels are closer

Features of a Compressor:

Threshold: At what volume/decibel should it begin compressing the sound. 

Ratio: How much to compress/divide the signal by. A ratio of 2 would divide the volume by 2, a ratio of 3 would divide by 3 and so forth. 

Attack: How many milliseconds the compressor should wait before it begins compressing the volume (this can be useful for drums or allowing louder consonants through)

Release: How many milliseconds it takes for the compressor to release the compression and begin the attack again 

Knee: How immediate the compressor will reach peak compression. (A softer number will ramp up to the max ratio slower, a harder number will instantly compress)

At some point I think you should get your recording stuff setup cause in my mind you owe it to yourself. For your singing and your studying. It will help you hear better what you're doing and what others are doing which can help progress, but it will also improve the quality of the recordings.

Don't know anything about anything recorded related, so I guess I'll keep a note of this. Thank you for sharing.

21 hours ago, Javastorm said:

I agree with ron's notes about the low overtones and the cry that's happening at the same time, as well as Killer's mixing suggestions. You seem slightly behind the beat in some parts of the song, but it doesn't really detract from the song for me, and I'm not sure if it was intentional or not.

I love the way you end the falsetto phrases with vibrato, and each note in the riffs  have their own weight and duration - they are done thoughtfully instead of haphazardly. There's also this subtle, almost not-even-there slide into the beginning of those higher notes that is really cool stylistically instead of hitting the note straight on, that I'm hearing. I didn't know I knew this song until the chorus, and the title "baby, baby" parts, so it was nice actually paying attention to the lyrics and what was being sung this time, which I think you captured really well, with the familiar old-timey feel.

Thanks for all that, Java. It's funny we were talking about your falsetto getting a little quiet sometimes. Here, my falsetto had too much punch, for how close to my face the mic was. Ended up too loud, so I tried to lower things, but it lowered the lows a bit too.

18 hours ago, Jeremy Mohler said:

Really cool song choice man!  Definitely a favorite of mine.  Smokey is the true master in the soulful light head voice field.

So I heard the original and the new one and here are the improvements I can hear musically speaking:

+ Improved pitch on your vocal runs, and in general.

+ Rhythm is more on beat, the first one had a lot of rushing particularly on the second line in the original.

+ Better sound quality

+ Nicer feel for the song.

Only negative criticism I have is that the last falsetto run at the end of the second one was a bit out of place.  Other than that, only other thing is the fact that most is an octave below the Smokey version, which isn't necessarily a negative but does kinda feel underwhelming at times. 

I'm sure if you keep up what you are doing in another year you will really be looking good.  

Thanks for listening to both, man. I know this is more involved than a regular review.

I understand what you're saying about the last run. I did the one before it a certain way, and for the last one, I ended up just deciding to run until the end of the song. Also noted what you're saying about octaves.

21 hours ago, ronws said:

I didn't bother listening to the older recording. And I really liked this one. In some ways, better than Smoky's because you got some low overtones in there that add some great depth and you have this cry sound in your voice that is both demanding and soothing. If you ever decide to make an album and put a cover on there, you need to include this one.

Thanks for checking it out, Ron. You were actually one of the people that responded to the original cover. I'm starting to lean towards looking at the rest of Smokey's catalog. Cruisin' is one of my favorite songs, and I just recently found out it was his song.

19 hours ago, KillerKu said:

I'm digging this. I always knew I'd appreciate where your voice was gonna be going.

I got a question though, how close is the mic? If I were to EQ this track I'd roll off the section below 60 hz (possibly higher) and possibly lean a bit towards some treble frequencies. Your voice is really rich which is awesome, but there is a bit of a plosive quality to it and a little shimmer would do it nicely.

A lot of your heroes who use a windier phonation are EQed that way and a long with compression it can help this kind of vocal sit in a mix. A good step might be to toy with some production at some point here cause the singing is soulful and on a good path.

It was like 1-2 inches from my mouth. Actually ended up with an issue, because some of it was too loud, so I decreased the vocal volume, but that made the lower notes sound a bit quieter. I did this all on an iPhone app.

Thanks, MDew. Really appreciate it.

This is one of those songs that you instantly recognize, whether you're a Rock enthusiast or not.

Looks like it was fun for you to sing. Sounds professional. Well done.

Randomly got the idea to try to do the first cover I posted on here again. I posted it about one year ago, exactly. Wanted to see if anybody could see any improvements here and anything that needs work.

I did "Ooh Baby Baby" by Smokey Robinson and The Miracles.

Here's the original: http://picosong.com/Edtv/

Here's me giving it another shot.

Differences between the first one I posted and this one is that I held a mic closer to my mouth, as opposed to singing into my phone's mic, which was sitting a few feet away, on the counter. Also, I sang the entire thing here.

http://picosong.com/EdDj/