Dream Theater Surrounded cover

[djemass]

Hi,

First of all, I am not a singer by itself, I am just a guitarist who tries to sing .

Here is my attempt of DT cover called Surrounded. I play guitars and I also sing on it.

Very hard tune !!

Voices and Guitars recorded with my 11Rack. The mic I used is a AKG D5

Cheers

Dje

[SH]

Hey dje,

Wow, you really are quite a good guitarist, aren't you? I really liked the song, actually, loved the intro, then the guitar solo, sounds great. Vocally, I couldn't really hear that much (I listened to the first 2 1/2 minutes). The mix had your voice fairly quiet over the guitars, which is perhaps how the song is meant to be, I wouldn't know. I'd be interested in hearing your voice more clearly. I'm wondering also, with guitar skills like that, why start singing? Do you intend to play and sing while performing? Is this a piece you are trying to brush up for performance, or is this just a learning experience? Did you sing and play this at the same time? What I can hear sounds good.

[djemass]

Hi

Thanks for your kind words about my guitar playing.

About singing it is a new challenge for me and this song is only fo the moment a training song. I did not sing while playing guitar. Not yet... The passages in 9/4 are quite hard to do...

Cheers

[djemass]

Hello,

Any comment and advice should be very helpful for me to progress...

Thank you !! :D

[Olem]

Hello, djemass!

First i must say you are a great guitar player. In your highest notes you push too much and twang a little too much sometimes i think. What you need to work more on is your support and slightly decrease your twang to get Labries tone in your upper range. Take this advice with a grain of salt because i am no vocal expert but since there are not so many answers for you i thought i would give u my opinion. Hopefully someone with more experience and more rep. points will chime in.

But overall, a good vocal performance.

[Validar]

As the others have said, outstanding guitar work. Superb. And for someone with no vocal training (I'm assuming) you did better than most without training would have. This song isn't easy by any stretch of the imagination.

If you're serious about singing, start from the ground up. You already have the potential.

[djemass]

Thanks for your comments. I really appreciate.

In fact I read deeply Jaime Vendera's Raise your Voice and I think I understood the different concepts he explained. But I have no practice, and not a good coaching for the moment...

I push too much (but less than before) in the highest note (about beyond A4 note), and the twang for the moment is the only way for me to hit these notes with power (and avoiding a kind of falsetto with resonnance...

Thanks for about my guitar playing. We dunno, if one day you need a solo on a recording, I am at your disposal

Cheers

Dje

[djemass]

Oh I forgot, and I swear it is true, the whole song has been recorded in one take for guitars... The end long solo a la Satriani before the Pink Floyd Mother solo is absolutely improvised...

Cheers

[Olem]

Djemass!

You are of course on the right path when you twang, its just that now you sound too much like a witch at the moment:) . Just keep practising and look for posts here regarding head voices, falsetto, twang and support and you will find valuable tips.

Cheers

[djemass]

Djemass!

You are of course on the right path when you twang, its just that now you sound too much like a witch at the moment:) . Just keep practising and look for posts here regarding head voices, falsetto, twang and support and you will find valuable tips.

Cheers

Hi

Thanks for the tips !

I will check the threads here because i also noticed i had to remove twang in my uppest range

Cheers

[Steven Fraser]

Djemass!

You are of course on the right path when you twang, its just that now you sound too much like a witch at the moment:) . Just keep practising and look for posts here regarding head voices, falsetto, twang and support and you will find valuable tips.

Cheers

Djemass: To accomplish what Olem suggests, to reduce the 'witchiness'... just be sure that when you go up to the top voice you let your jaw down a bit, but not so much opening side-to-side. I don't think you need less twang. I think you need a rounder vowel around the twangy core of it.

Very effective piece. You could boost the voice part in the mix, and it would balance better, IMO. Personal preference.

[djemass]

Djemass: To accomplish what Olem suggests, to reduce the 'witchiness'... just be sure that when you go up to the top voice you let your jaw down a bit, but not so much opening side-to-side. I don't think you need less twang. I think you need a rounder vowel around the twangy core of it.

Very effective piece. You could boost the voice part in the mix, and it would balance better, IMO. Personal preference.

Hello,

Thank you for the tip with the jaw !!! Very efficient ! i will definitely take care of this aspect !

Thanks again. If you have other comments on my singing, don't hesitate, this will make me prgress.

Cheers

[gno]

djemass - nice guitar work! That is one of my favorite DT tunes. Your voice definitely has a lot of potential as you have no problem with the range of this song. I'm sure you would agree the song is not "in your voice" yet as there are some pitch issues and phrasing / rhythmical issues. More practice with the song will get rid of these for sure. Keep up the good work!

[djemass]

djemass - nice guitar work! That is one of my favorite DT tunes. Your voice definitely has a lot of potential as you have no problem with the range of this song. I'm sure you would agree the song is not "in your voice" yet as there are some pitch issues and phrasing / rhythmical issues. More practice with the song will get rid of these for sure. Keep up the good work!

Hi

Thanks for the kind words. Of course i have a lot of work left to be comfortable with this song which is for me hard to sing...

[djemass]

Anyone has ever noticed than when you hear with good headphones a mix, the voice may fit very well, and when you hear the mix in computers speakers, you hear all the problems of pitch, breathing and so on ? very good for improvement !! I heard the mix in computer speakers, and I could notice a lot of problem of pitch, breath, support and so on, "witch" effect in the upper range...

[gno]

Anyone has ever noticed than when you hear with good headphones a mix, the voice may fit very well, and when you hear the mix in computers speakers, you hear all the problems of pitch, breathing and so on ? very good for improvement !! I heard the mix in computer speakers, and I could notice a lot of problem of pitch, breath, support and so on, "witch" effect in the upper range...

Ah.. the art of mixing. It is a long long journey. A good mix will sound good on every set of speakers / headphones. It's a pain, but you have to listen to your mixes on a variety of output devices - ipod earbuds, computer speakers, car speakers, etc. You are absolutely correct - pitch problems with voice can be hidden on some listening environments and they become annoyingly apparent in other environments like cheap speakers. It's always good to listen to mixes on crappy speakers as they will accentuate the problems. Headphones can be very deceptive.

[ronws]

As I have learned of the art of mixing and mastering, a mastering engineering will often change the mix because what sounds fine in near monitor in a studio will sound like caca in you car stereo. So, one really has to mix for the expected medium and playback equipment. That is, if you expect to hear on your computer outboard speakers, you will have to mix, listening to them. Etcetera.

So, for example, let's say that your car does i-pod. Well, then, you need to try some test mixes that can download to your i-pod and then drive about 60 mph with the windows rolled down a little and see if it sounds good, if that's the environment you want it sound good in. I can certainly tell the difference between earbuds and headphones.

When I listen to submissions here, including my own, I am listening with headphones connected to my USB interface. So, it's like being a sound room with 15 monitors.