Deep purple cover (Soldier of fortune)

[Chavie]

The mic is horrible, sorry in advance.

i mess the lyrics up in a few spots .......

my best singing comes at the very end i let loose kinda......well i tried haha

one accomplishment though, i think ive gotten better at breathing/support since last time

any criticism would be great (dont be afraid to rip me a new one lol)

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=9986908

[ronws]

Crappy mic, or not, you have good control. What is lacking, and I know this all to well, is the deeper overtones of your voice and that is totally because of the cheapie mic. I was having the same problem because a small desk mic simply cannot physically handle the wavelengths, frequencies, and volumes outside of a narrow band of response curve.

I suppose it depends on what sound you want to have. I think Ian Gillan sings with more twang, providing a "sharper" vocal sound. And I tend to use twang. In fact, after using my new mic, one of the other people here was able to hear how much I do twang. So, me asking for more twang may, unconscious to me, mostly, be a case of me talking about how I would sing it. So, talking about twang is just a thought about vocal style and is in no way a criticism. You did fine on this song and I like the slow, funeral dirge emotion you seem to have, here.

As for the mic, I don't know what to tell you. I could not afford the one I now have. It was given to me by an angel who believed in me and what my voice could do. And the difference has been like day and night, even to my ears. With cheapie mics, you have to back at least 15 inches to 2 feet away to avoid overloading the volume limitations. When you hit a high note with volume, the diaphragm ( about 1 to 3 cm across in a desk mic,) can't vibrate far enough back and forth. And can only vibrate so fast because of it's physical limitations. So, the frequency response (pitch) flattens out, with a "ring" to it and makes you sound pitchy, almost flat from pitch. Backing away from the mic will help. Then, you have to raise the volume on the track when you play it back or mix with backing tracks. We still won't get all the overtones because a small mic "masks" more severely than a larger mic. Masking is where the loudest sound or tone gets prominence and the others are simply gone.

[Chavie]

Thanks man, i'm just going to have to breakdown and get one,recording is one of my favorite things to do.

What model mic are you using now ?

[sl0wkarate]

I definitely dig your tone in this song, and as ronws said, crappy mic or not it sounds good to me!

You might want to check out mxl usb mics. If you don't already have an interface and all the bells and whistles then they'd be worth looking at. I use a mxl usb.006, was the only cardiod condenser usb mic that guitar center had and I have no complaints about it. Completely plug and play as well. http://www.guitarcenter.com/MXL-MXLUSB-006-Powered-Condenser-Microphone-103999496-i1169096.gc this is the one I have, for 100 bucks it's hard to beat. They do have better ones such as the .007 and .008, but as we all know, when you go up in quality you go up in price(100 more for the .007 and 70 more for the .008). As far as quality check this link http://soundcloud.com/sl0wkarate/apology-acoustic-vocal-cover-incomplete . It's mastered but you can still get a feel for how it records(i record in my room so I do get issues but sound reflecting off walls just so ya know.) Just throwing this out there as an option for you to look in to :)

[ronws]

Hey, Chavie, the one I have now was given to me. It is a Fame CM-1 studio condenser mic. And it goes through a guitarface II USB interface. I record with Audacity, which is freeware. But you also have to to download a free mp3 encoder to export tracks to mp3.

And I agree with slowkarate. You did fine. I would not base any criticism on whether or not you sounded like Ian Gillan. You don't sound like him but that is not a bad thing, or a good thing. You simply have your own voice.

[akarawd]

I don't know the song so I can't say much but what I do know is you have a beautiful singing voice.

You sound really great on this rock ballad and that is a feat for most singers.

[gno]

Chavie - that sounded awesome! Nice recording too! I'm using a Sure KSM27. Large Diaphram Condensers are commonly used for vocals, although you can use dynamics or ribbons just fine too. Be sure to get a pop filter if you don't already have one. One thing that is critical for me is how you monitor yourself during recording.

[Chavie]

Thanks everyone:)