Beautiful Goodbye - Amanda Marshall

[Javastorm]

I don't usually sing torch-y rock stuff like this but I love listening to it and heavier stuff within the genre. Wanted to try something new. Any and all feedback is welcome.

https://app.box.com/s/88yuem4987gdtg3ip3vx47bnyx2z3vfn

[JonJon]

3 hours ago, Javastorm said:

I don't usually sing torch-y rock stuff like this but I love listening to it and heavier stuff within the genre. Wanted to try something new. Any and all feedback is welcome.

https://app.box.com/s/88yuem4987gdtg3ip3vx47bnyx2z3vfn

u got a great voice brother. wanna trade voices for a week? (no dont, u might not get yours back hehe)

your voice is tailor made for those emotional songs etc.

 

just from an arrangement/songwriting point of view, this song showed a certain pattern or formula that works well with a voice like yours. Simmer along with all the normal emotional cry/sob sort of stuff and then at peak moments hit a nice clear high note

So for long term development keep in mind to hone the ability to hit a good clear powerful high note. Since most of your style seems to be rich and warm, if you are able to hit good clear high (deep lol) notes, it just gives you a natural songwriting tool

The only nitpicky negative things that stood out to me were at 2:52 on "all"..did the microphone distort?

and for some reason the "just" at 2:55 sounds a little funky

[JonJon]

is that karaoke or did u make the backing track too?

[Javastorm]

1 hour ago, JonJon said:

u got a great voice brother. wanna trade voices for a week? (no dont, u might not get yours back hehe)

your voice is tailor made for those emotional songs etc.

 

just from an arrangement/songwriting point of view, this song showed a certain pattern or formula that works well with a voice like yours. Simmer along with all the normal emotional cry/sob sort of stuff and then at peak moments hit a nice clear high note

So for long term development keep in mind to hone the ability to hit a good clear powerful high note. Since most of your style seems to be rich and warm, if you are able to hit good clear high (deep lol) notes, it just gives you a natural songwriting tool

The only nitpicky negative things that stood out to me were at 2:52 on "all"..did the microphone distort?

and for some reason the "just" at 2:55 sounds a little funky

Thank you haha. That's a good point for songwriting, I'll keep that in mind as I write stuff. At 2:52 yeah, it peaked. I can fix that. Not sure about the "just" after that.

 

1 hour ago, JonJon said:

is that karaoke or did u make the backing track too?

This is a karaoke track- The only backing tracks I know how to make so far are with my own instruments (keyboard/guitar/cello/acapella)

[JonJon]

8 minutes ago, Javastorm said:

Thank you haha. That's a good point for songwriting, I'll keep that in mind as I write stuff. At 2:52 yeah, it peaked. I can fix that. Not sure about the "just" after that.

 

This is a karaoke track- The only backing tracks I know how to make so far are with my own instruments (keyboard/guitar/cello/acapella)

What software do u use?

[Javastorm]

I use Audacity. I want to upgrade at some point to something that's more powerful but I'm still satisfied with what I can do with this one for what it's worth

[JonJon]

2 minutes ago, Javastorm said:

I use Audacity. I want to upgrade at some point to something that's more powerful but I'm still satisfied with what I can do with this one for what it's worth

Reaper all the way

 

I understand audacity gives u the ability to remove vocals from tracks etc   http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tutorial_vocal_removal_and_isolation.html

[JonJon]

love to hear you on some nice power ballads...similar to these maybe

 

 

[Javastorm]

Will take a look at those for sure! I fixed the peak in the original mix and the timing towards the end and updated the file.

[JonJon]

4 hours ago, Javastorm said:

Will take a look at those for sure! I fixed the peak in the original mix and the timing towards the end and updated the file.

 

Well those were just 3 of the top of my head from back in the '79 - '90 era showing that style of song.

Dude, we should collaborate on some songs! lol. Seriously, I have approximately 14.5 million original songs on my HD that are essentially backing tracks with no vocals. I'll probably never get around to putting vox on all of them.

I have put some of them on wikiloops.com but for every one I put on there I probably have 10-15 on my HD.

here is one from like 2 weeks ago that needs vox. Somewhat in a VanHalen style

http://www.wikiloops.com/backingtrack-jam-72377.php

one from a year ago with a nice anagram title hehe http://www.wikiloops.com/backingtrack-jam-39112.php

I can write stuff like that in my sleep generally, but I only recently started singing so I have dozens and dozens of such tracks rotting on my HD.

Anyway, thats a nice site if you are looking for material to sing on. there are only like 10 singers there and a zillion people wanting singers to add vox to songs lol. There are also lots of nice drum tracks etc to start writing your own songs on etc. I have uploaded lots of drum tracks their recently

 

Pm me if you are interested in writing some stuff together, could be fun

 

 

[ronws]

I used to use Audacity and it is free. And it will cut out a significant chunk of vocals. But it can also create sound quality issues for the rest of the track, making it sound more scratchy and "under water"-y.

I switched to Reaper and paid the 60 dollars and it has been worth every penny. The plug-ins are great and even Glen Fricker recommends those.

With Reaper, you have real time adjustment of effects. You change signal chain and effects chain on the fly with drag and drop, side-chain effects with drag and drop on the fly. The advantage of the system is that the inventor, Justin Frankel, did not spend decades plugging cables into patch bays. He spent decades making computers do things really fast and easy. But he has always been a fan of music. He invented the music player that became standard option in desktop computers. Sold it to Google and then worked for them for a while. Anyway, so it is a good DAW and worth the money if you can save for it.

Here, at the forum, Robert has a link to a karaoke site that has just about any song you will ever need for 1 to 2 dollars and you can custom order it. With or without background vocals. With or without lead guitar, in case you want to record your noodling on your axe. Available in mp3 and wav.

I have a basic thread on Reaper with some links to vids that make it easy to use. In fact, seeing it can be easier than reading my writing.

[JonJon]

Reaper is incredible. I probably only use 3% of its features and power. So far I have only used free VSTs and I use mostly the internal Reaper stuff. Even at that I only use maybe 10 of them...there are hundreds more to wade thru etc.

There is of course a bit of a learning curve but it really isnt that bad. I started on it maybe 2 years ago. I hadnt recorded any music since like 2004 maybe, and that was on a standalone digital 8 track. I was clueless and I was like "whats a DAW??  Interface?? whats that?"

So I got Reaper, I got a focusrite 2i4 interface, I already had an sm57 and an akg C3000 mic. I got a bass a little later. I got started and stumbled in the dark and as u go it gets better and better. Then I got EzDrummer2 and went thru that small learning curve.

I respect studio owners and producers etc but ill be danged if im going to pay someone $1000 for a 2-3 song demo when I can get 95% of that quality myself