Robert Lunte - Sings Original Composition - "Souls of Silence"

[Robert Lunte]

Snejk yeah your right in Sweden falsett is usually used to describe almost anything that isnt chest we have already had this discussion here on this board other terms are used here no need to add more to the mix

Robert great singing i can hear alot of improvements in your voice wich is very nice! Great workshops on lyrics, i really Loves the ending powerfull melodyline

Rob any possibility I could get à backtrack of this? Would love to try it out myself

Oh, I passed the "Jens" test... must have some merit. Jens, in the last two years, the intrinsic anchoring techniques, vowel modification and distortion techniques I have been working with my students on have helped everyone... and ya, I take my own medicine. I'm totally lovin the "boomy" , theatery overtones in the head voice... but its not about "improvements" as much as its about context, (the right song for my voice and artistry) and production. Often people confuse lack of production with lack of skill... and that is a big mistake. If you have a great track, a great engineer, a great producer and you can write for a song that works for your voice and your spirit,,,, then all of a sudden, your an amazing singer... if your dealing with a shit sandwich production value, in spite of your best techniques, all of a sudden, your not an amazing singer. People don't get that at all...

Yes, I think I did a great job on this, but its also the production and the track. I tell my students that James LeBrie and Steve Perry are great singers, but... if you had their bands... if you had that music to sing over, a LOT of people would sound "great"... a singer is only as good as the band or bed tracks and production they sing on top of... and never forget that.

Jens, that would be fine to let you borrow the bed track for this, but you will give me credit when you post the file... also, send me a private email and Ill send you a link for it... I'm not posting it here. Should be cool... sing the same lyrics too... so we can hear how you manage the vowels... cool idea.

[Robert Lunte]

Thanks a lot for the answer Robert =) I did not wish to come across so.. blunt I suppose... I have a bit of trouble to balance critique so that it comes across as simply my opinion and not some attack on you... Because that's the least I wanted.. Nevertheless it opens up for endless topics and a lot of fun discussion. I was pondering wether I should make a 'video respone' to you so as to demonstrate some of my points and to better, you know, get myself across without sounding like a conceited Swedish stuck-up.

You are right and I love you for saying that each voice is unique and individual!!! Most teachers, not naming names, imply that EVERYONE have the same breaks at the exact same notes and have access to the exact same register with the same timbre, tone and volume. I do not believe this the least!

Simply because a G#4 is not very high for me. I used to need to overdrive them but now I can curb them beautifully in every vowel. I guess we all progress but I've never once had the courage to say "I can!".. I always get stuck on "What if I can't?" and sit there because the moment you think you can do something well, people will try to put you down..

Anyway, tenor C is for me a sticking point when it comes to curbing. I have to use a very reinforced head voice (as you say it). This I would also like to demonstrate as I have a very powerful head voice. However, when I listened to your song, I mean NO disrespect at all with saying this; it sounds like what we in Sweden call "falsett" (in Sweden falsetto vs head voice is simply closure, control and support, but it's a totally different coordination compared to your speaking chest voice). I have no doubt about your volume at all! A good part of mixing is mastering and sometimes even normalizing and using a compressor.

Some people say you can't overdrive above high C. I have a steady overdrive at F (which is just a few notes short of my highes head voice, and to get there I need to flip coordination to head voice). As you say, people are indeed different, we are unique in our voices as whole.

Me, I'm not sure where I would put my register... I have what I think is a kinda beautiful light tenor sound in the upper middle range (up to G4), but what comes natural is a more.. boomy baritone musical voice, like that of Anthem - Chess. Sometimes I feel my range is EXTREMELY limited, sometimes I think I have all the potential in the world, and most of the times I wonder why I try to sing at all =/ - I am one of those who want to be able to sing everything, every note, every style. Which of course is very infantile. I will never be a Russian basso profundo or a counter tenor like Steve Perry.

Sorry, again I drifted into myself but.. I hope this explains some of my reasoning and that I did not at all mean to be rude or anything. Singing is as much about what comes out of the mouth as well as what we interpret with our ears - we all have differences in what we expect, like and all that =)

Anyway, really appreciate your response!!

Ok, Like I said, Ill try more harder and be more better next time... !? When you get a chance, please share with us your G#4 I would love to hear how you do it... or even better, you are welcome to sing some of the lines from this song, that would be very interesting... Step up and show us your nuts like Jens is willing to do, now THAT is something I respect. Jens is willing to actually get after it and give it a try. Don't misread me, I appreciate your interest and feedback, but at the same time, with me, you need to be prepared to back it up... Thanks for your interest and enthusiasm.

[Olem]

Ya, what could u expect other than a professional arrangement. The instruments were a little muted but maybe that was the purpose, to not make it too good with the cd later on your mind . I truly liked this alot, i am not saying this to be nice, this is my kind of music, theatrical, symphonic and if u are going to put out a cd later on i will definately buy it. Your voice impeccable of course and in the vein of Geoff Tate. Other than that i would say, Jonpall - spot on.

[Keith]

Step up and show us your nuts like Jens is willing to do, now THAT is something I respect. Jens is willing to actually get after it and give it a try. Don't misread me, I appreciate your interest and feedback, but at the same time, with me, you need to be prepared to back it up... Thanks for your interest and enthusiasm

I would love to try and sing this also.. Not because I think that I can out do you, but because of the Geoff Tate flair. This is my favorate style of music, my aspiration! There is no way I can sing that G4 with the power and sustain you have, but I really love this song so I'm also willing to give it a shot - or better yet maybe lay down some backing vocals! Backing vocals would prolly be a better idea for me lol. I keep finding things I love about this song with every time I listen to it.

[Snejk]

Challenge accepted!! Is there any way to get ahold of the instrumental?

But Robert, I really don't mean anything ill.. I really like the song and your singing... But for some reason it seems you're a bit... defensive? I mean, it basically boils down to aestethics... What we like and what we expect... I for one am not used to the more operatic approach. I mean, it took me a good amount of listens to appreciate Jussi Björlings singing.

You really have no reason to say "yeah I will try to do better okay!?" because I am not attacking you, I thought I made that very clear in my post...

Anyway, I apologize for any hurt feelings, it was not my intention at all.

[Robert Lunte]

Challenge accepted!! Is there any way to get ahold of the instrumental?

But Robert, I really don't mean anything ill.. I really like the song and your singing... But for some reason it seems you're a bit... defensive? I mean, it basically boils down to aestethics... What we like and what we expect... I for one am not used to the more operatic approach. I mean, it took me a good amount of listens to appreciate Jussi Björlings singing.

You really have no reason to say "yeah I will try to do better okay!?" because I am not attacking you, I thought I made that very clear in my post...

Anyway, I apologize for any hurt feelings, it was not my intention at all.

Snejk, its ok... I'm not "hurt" by anything... LOL... really... Am I being defensive? Maybe a little, but please don't read too much into that... really. I'm a grown up and know that if I put my nuts on the line, I have to be ready to take all kinds of feedback... you are fine and your post is fine. I'm just a human being and sensitive artist like anyone would be... and as i said, I understand your point of view in regards to the regitrations to the head tones... Its cool, bud... you got "nuts" too... so keep coming...

Seems people would like to have this bed track... maybe we can do a little "souls of silence" contest or training excercise out of it? Maybe we can make it something people can play with to learn from? Let me give it some thought...

[Keith]

Seems people would like to have this bed track... maybe we can do a little "souls of silence" contest or training excercise out of it? Maybe we can make it something people can play with to learn from? Let me give it some thought...

Awesome!

[Spectrum]

Rob,

I also apologise if my comments came across too harshly. I wasn't aiming to offend or berate you... by all means it is a good vocal, just not my cup of tea. Your vocals are (expectedly) far more refined than mine, and there's no way I could hit those notes as effortlessly as you do here! This is very advanced stuff no matter how you twist it...

Anyhow, without turning this into a pissing contest, if you post the instrumental then by all means I'll give it a shot. :)

[Robert Lunte]

NP, Spectrum... there is no issue here? relax... thanks for your follow up.

[ronws]

Just wanted to highlight the thing about recording. Equipment, placement, mixing strategy, mixing capabilities in the DAW, those have such an impact.

I have overloaded the mic a few times. And because the response of the mic in overload, some notes of mine have come across as falsetto. And so, it's gotten to the point where someone will say, that sounded like falsetto and I will sure, okay, yeah, that was falsetto. While laughing privately to myself knowing that if you could be here to hear it live, it would "falsetto" so loud that your ears would hurt. There are times when this section could do with a second name "review and critique my equipment (USB interface and music card versus outboard digital recording equipment or analog converted to digital, recording equipment, recording strategy (mic placement versus direct input) and mixing strategy (from which DAW software suite and what plug-ins to use) whether to notch tracks for voice or mix it all together or decide the order of mixing prominence first and what kind of monitors one uses in the mixing process. And choice of track export (mp3 fits every where but it is a compressed file format with some data loss."

But that's kind of a long name to fit within a banner. And we've got other sections to address those facets of music production separately. Even a section on just microphones, the most important tool we have. The other most important tool is interface. How do we get that lovely sound onto a file in a DAW, or onto tape if going analog?

And as good as Robert sounds on this, he will sound different live. A live performance is different acoustics all together, different mixing strategy, different mic, usually.

[Snax]

Hi Robert,

There's nothing "negative" about your performance but for me personally I didn't feel that the level of expression in your recorded voice matched the emotions in your face and actions. Like your physical performance overshadowed the emotional content of just the audio. Hope you understand what I mean. When I'm recording my own vocals I purposely try NOT to act out the words I'm singing since i know that the performance is purely going to be audio so anything I put into the physical will not be captured. Sometimes what you express in your face and gestures isn't conveyed as powerfully in the vocal itself. Your technical skills are beyond anything I'll probably ever achieve and like others have said, you talk the talk and you most certainly walk the walk. Keep rocking!!!

[Robert Lunte]

Thanks Snax. What you express and convey in the physical, most certainly manifests itself into the audio, without a doubt. The two cannot be separated. It would be impossible for the physical energy to not be heard and felt in the audio performance. I guess I disagree with you on this point, but I appreciate your feedback and support. more to come. This is just one song, one moment in time... each composition reveals something new and broadens expectations...

[Snax]

I guess for me personally it came across that your physical acting out of the lyrics as you performed was more emotive than the actual vocal. That you conveyed the emotional content more intensely via your actions. Of course, you as the artist know exactly how you want your own vocals to come across so this is purely subjective on my account. Great job on the singing and looking forward to much more to come from you.

I should add that I had someone else post a similar comment on one of my earlier songs that I had thought was quite an emotional performance at the time. I guess what we feel as we perform a song doesn't always get conveyed in the finished recorded product. That's always something that recording artists struggle with. There's often just a few magical moments out of hours and hours of takes.

[ronws]

That's why live is different than recorded. It might be funny to watch me sing. I have my emotion in the singing, even if I have the deadpan stare of a sniper making the 1,000 yard shot.

Your mileage may vary.

Plus, I don't really have good video recording equipment. Heck, I don't even know how to mix my recordings in the most flattering way possible,

One of these days, I would like to get on some pro equipment, just once.

But I digress. This is a great song sung by a great singer. Period, paragraph, new book. Maybe, what Mike might have heard is the result of overproduction. That is, a little more raw might have suited him more in hearing this.

Regardless, the song comes through.

Peace out.

(needing peace sign icon of two fingers from a hand, here. Use ya'll's imagination.)