JonJon

just some quick vocals I threw onto a Latvian buddys music track (from wikiloops)
I wrote the lyrics around 9pm and I couldnt keep my eyes open and I was going to just do the vox later but I decided to "just lay down a scratch vox track"...but you know how that goes. I was dead tired so this may not be my best but I still dig it even though I was struggling a bit
 
The vibe is a little different than my songs because essentially he never changes chords lol....gives a bit more of a stoner rock feel, which I dig
 
Anyone figure out the story I am paraphrasing in the song?
 
enjoy
https://clyp.it/gf5nc5if
 
okay, actually I am lying, this is just some computer generated vocals based off of a sample of my voice on an answering machine. its all fake. Even the vibrato is a vst. and i was wearing a wig

just some quick vocals I threw onto a Latvian buddys music track (from wikiloops)
I wrote the lyrics around 9pm and I couldnt keep my eyes open and I was going to just do the vox later but I decided to "just lay down a scratch vox track"...but you know how that goes. I was dead tired so this may not be my best but I still dig it even though I was struggling a bit
 
The vibe is a little different than my songs because essentially he never changes chords lol....gives a bit more of a stoner rock feel, which I dig
 
Anyone figure out the story I am paraphrasing in the song?
 
enjoy
https://clyp.it/gf5nc5if
 
okay, actually I am lying, this is just some computer generated vocals based off of a sample of my voice on an answering machine. its all fake. Even the vibrato is a vst. and i was wearing a wig

thanks. there was thought put into it TO A DEGREE...but it was also pretty much a free for all as u can tell.
I learned a lot trying to mix it. one thing I learned is that it'll be a while before I do something with that many tracks again lol
 
Dunno if i'll mess with it anymore unless im ready to put an album together or start marketing my songs etc.

take my comments with a grain of salt, as you know im an old dude so this isnt my style etc. I dunno if I have ever heard the original...is it Beiber?   Besides, im not a singer nor the son of a singer....I tend sycamore trees etc
 
To my ear it sounds like there isnt much breath being used...so parts of it sound almost "spoken" instead of "sung". It may just be a stylistic thing though because it sounds like a quasi GreenDay approach. Since im old etc I think Green Day sux lol.
Seriously though thats how it sounds to me, like you never bothered to inhale and let things vibrate and resonate.
maybe try training sirens with vibrato etc? in other words work on some training where you actually hold the notes longer. The other end of the spectrum from the quasi-spoken approach
 
Also, just curious. Do you have a developed headvoice yet? Sounded like this was mostly chest with the high note(s) going to falsetto. again I dont know the original so im not sure how its supposed to sound. Can you siren up thru the passagio into head voice? if not I can relate because my first songs on this forum (stuff like "Happy Birthday Sugarboo") where mainly chest with falsetto thrown in.
Actually the last high note sounded like headvoice to me maybe
 
The mic thing, yeah that can be a drag. I hate to sing a line and then I look down and notice I peaked the DAW. Then I bring the gain down, sing it again and look down and it peaked again and im freaking out and screaming, hehe. especially when u FINALLY nailed a take. In the end I think you have to play with how close or far you stand from the mic. if you set the gain a certain way and you want to stand close to the mic for a nice close sound, you of course are going to blow the meter of you really blast out something...unless you step back some or aim off to the side a bit.
Mic proximity etc is probably a whole world to be explored. If u watch good live singers you often see they will hold the mic off to the side for certain fx

Been working hard on getting my mixes better. This one took about a week. Good learning experience. Not perfect but im somewhat proud of it
 
Approximately 80 tracks involved
 
Its going to be a fairly low quality upload because its an MP3 to start with and then uploaded to an MP3 site
On The Inside, scratch full mix #1
 
EDIT: Rebalanced mix, much better On the Inside, rebalanced mix#1
 
Enjoy, JJ

never ever said anything COULDNT be done. I fully plan to make mindblowing music. I just like to reiterate and complain out loud how every single itty bitty step has to be some extreme uphill battle.
The Beatles were 4 guys plus a great producer plus studio musicians and  none of them ever worked a day in their lives. Im 1 guy doing this on top of a full time job. You know the spiel
 
Matthew 21:28-32
28 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’
29 “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.
30 “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.
31 “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”
“The first,” they answered.
-----
 
Im like the first son. I moan and complain but in the end im getting the work done
 

Been working hard on getting my mixes better. This one took about a week. Good learning experience. Not perfect but im somewhat proud of it
 
Approximately 80 tracks involved
 
Its going to be a fairly low quality upload because its an MP3 to start with and then uploaded to an MP3 site
On The Inside, scratch full mix #1
 
EDIT: Rebalanced mix, much better On the Inside, rebalanced mix#1
 
Enjoy, JJ

your mix is definitely getting better,  I like the scream at 1:50.  Also the nonono at the end was funny in a good way.  Certain parts of it had too much character like I'd rather hear it done simpler, more jonjon rather than whoever you're trying to emulate. 

I just got back from the studio and just finished another song. The ep is coming together and should be released early next year. I am realy liking the way my voice has developed. When I first started I couldent sing above middle c and didn't know how sing anywhere remotly close to the pitch. 
 

Really dig this track man, dig the gritty and breathy low singing complimented by the piercing high mid range stuff. It's hard for me to pinpoint the influences in here but I could almost say this is some Electric Light Orchestra-esque stuff hahaha.  Especially that psychedelic break with the harmonies... reminds me of this: 
Great job overall man, not really in a place to give you criticism vocally as you are out singing the hell out of me here lol.  Btw: really dug the ad-libs you threw in there, sounded genuinely soulful and 70s rockish.  

The 4pillars is pretty big. Take some time and look at some of the explanation vids etc. There are explanations and demonstrations of lift up and pull back.
The point of lift up/pull back is to help get you to "bridge". Bridge essentially means go from chest voice up to headvoice etc. In your example file you are not bridging. You are going up with chest voice to about g#4 and getting stuck there.
Basically you need to learn to access your headvoice. it can be tricky at first etc. You need to sort of learn to get the vibration (resonance) out of the throat and more up onto the roof of the mouth (hard and soft palate etc)
 
Do you have a keyboard? if not, here is a cool on online that tells you what notes you are hitting http://piano-player.info/
 
What happens if you try to hit a note around, say, B4?   A lot of people start off with chest voice and then they jump up to falsetto when they try to hit higher notes. Falsetto isnt really a true headvoice but its what most of us start with until we learn to vibrate the sound off the roof of our mouth or at least somewhere above the throat itself

I dont remember exactly where I "broke" at. But it wasnt at D4....more up around where he is I think, or maybe f4ish. Of course I wasnt stopping when it got tight lol, I just kept pushing hard until I choked out. Thats the nature of the beast
I dont think he is going thru a passagio there. Sounds like he is onsetting sort of lightly around G3 and going up about an octave. The fact that it is so light might be affecting the break though. if he onsetted a bit heavier it might make the break point more noticable

The 4pillars is pretty big. Take some time and look at some of the explanation vids etc. There are explanations and demonstrations of lift up and pull back.
The point of lift up/pull back is to help get you to "bridge". Bridge essentially means go from chest voice up to headvoice etc. In your example file you are not bridging. You are going up with chest voice to about g#4 and getting stuck there.
Basically you need to learn to access your headvoice. it can be tricky at first etc. You need to sort of learn to get the vibration (resonance) out of the throat and more up onto the roof of the mouth (hard and soft palate etc)
 
Do you have a keyboard? if not, here is a cool on online that tells you what notes you are hitting http://piano-player.info/
 
What happens if you try to hit a note around, say, B4?   A lot of people start off with chest voice and then they jump up to falsetto when they try to hit higher notes. Falsetto isnt really a true headvoice but its what most of us start with until we learn to vibrate the sound off the roof of our mouth or at least somewhere above the throat itself

oh yeah, no way I was not going to push hard and see what happened lol. That being said I already had sang high falsetto stuff for years too. I just needed to learn actual headvoice and I was off to the races

lotta character in your voice. You aint gonna get a lot of constructive feedback lol. Just take what u have and keep strengthening it and trying new things

nice, I dig it. Nice F#5
come sing on my song, I got a nice F#5 high harmony waiting for u lol
 

This is something I did a few months back that I wanted to share, it's when I first starting feeling kinda comfortable around the C5-D5 area in full voice. Any and all feedback welcome.
 
https://app.box.com/s/zt2zay06qbl8orzn9y9fwvcozqlz41bv

2nd video really explains it well. You have chest voice and you have head voice. (yes, im comfortable using old outdated terms lol)
there is that range where the voices overlap. At first, an untrained singer has a big gap and he has to flip to yodel to get up to the higher notes. With trainingtraining, the singer is able to smoothly work through that whole range without any huge or sudden changes in tone etc
Later on, the singer can learn to work thru that range in different ways. He can sing notes in that range using different techniques.
for example lets take the note A4. The trained singer may have 3 different approaches to that note:
1) gradually let go of the chest voice and let head voice smoothly take over. You get a blend of chest and head voice. IMO that would be whats called "mixed voice", though I never personally use that term. I usually just call that "singing in the bridge" or "the bridge area"
2) belting. use more compression etc and forcefully sing the note using more of a chest voice feel. Also called "pulling chest' lol. This is the opposite of what the guys in your vids are doing. Do they sound like Bruce Springsteen or Bono or John Fogerty? no
3) bridging early. This means the singer went ahead and let go of the chest voice feel and embraced the head voice at a lower note than he might normally do. This is what I think of when I hear the term "light mass" singing.
 
Its a stylistic thing to. Some people NEVER belt because they arent trying to get that type of sound. IMO the guys in your vids arent belting, they are using either early bridging or just natural bridging but in any case they are keeping it pretty light.
Some people NEVER use head voice because they never learned how, or because they want a loud, chesty, shouty type of sound.
other people use various voices as I described. a good singer might use all 3 of those bridging methods in the same song or almost in the same phrase

something MDEW said in my old siren thread. Makes good sense now for this thread


 
Yes. I have been referencing "shedding weight" as you ascend. But if you are already really light to start with then you dont have anything TO shed and you might have to work more to maintain air pressure and cord closure etc

2nd video really explains it well. You have chest voice and you have head voice. (yes, im comfortable using old outdated terms lol)
there is that range where the voices overlap. At first, an untrained singer has a big gap and he has to flip to yodel to get up to the higher notes. With trainingtraining, the singer is able to smoothly work through that whole range without any huge or sudden changes in tone etc
Later on, the singer can learn to work thru that range in different ways. He can sing notes in that range using different techniques.
for example lets take the note A4. The trained singer may have 3 different approaches to that note:
1) gradually let go of the chest voice and let head voice smoothly take over. You get a blend of chest and head voice. IMO that would be whats called "mixed voice", though I never personally use that term. I usually just call that "singing in the bridge" or "the bridge area"
2) belting. use more compression etc and forcefully sing the note using more of a chest voice feel. Also called "pulling chest' lol. This is the opposite of what the guys in your vids are doing. Do they sound like Bruce Springsteen or Bono or John Fogerty? no
3) bridging early. This means the singer went ahead and let go of the chest voice feel and embraced the head voice at a lower note than he might normally do. This is what I think of when I hear the term "light mass" singing.
 
Its a stylistic thing to. Some people NEVER belt because they arent trying to get that type of sound. IMO the guys in your vids arent belting, they are using either early bridging or just natural bridging but in any case they are keeping it pretty light.
Some people NEVER use head voice because they never learned how, or because they want a loud, chesty, shouty type of sound.
other people use various voices as I described. a good singer might use all 3 of those bridging methods in the same song or almost in the same phrase

Well those sirens were actually the first time id ever bridged lol. Thats "sort of" a c5, not that great though.
of course I was 48 at the time and had sang high notes using falsettofalset falsetto or reinforced falsetto for years. So there was already some foundation laid for higher notes etc
and for the last several months ive done lots of high sirens and can now actually siren up closer to like f#5. Been working on that some lately, there is another bridge up there. That doesnt mean I can smoothly articulate lyrics up there though!
Now im starting to work on belting some belting because ive never really trained it yet. My belting belting sux
----------------------------------------------
stuck at A#4? yeah, somehow have to learn to use more resonance up in the soft palate etc....or even feel the note" in the back of the head" lol
Surely you can make some squeaks or hoots or SOMETHING above A#4 though cant you? sometimes u can play with those noises and bring them down to lessen the gap etc
 
Sometimes I use pictures to sing with. Like, sometimes u cant just "push" a note higher. I picture a crane or a suction cup reaching down and "pulling" the note up. You are trying to go from one resonance to a higher one and maybe different mechanisms are involved etc. They need to meet and link up. Sometimes the higher one has to reach down to get the note etc. At least thats the mental imagery I use

something MDEW said in my old siren thread. Makes good sense now for this thread


 
Yes. I have been referencing "shedding weight" as you ascend. But if you are already really light to start with then you dont have anything TO shed and you might have to work more to maintain air pressure and cord closure etc