The Trooper - once again

[Olem]

Hi, i took another shot at this Iron Maiden classic, focusing on onsets and pitch this time. What are your thoughts about it? As always - be brutally honest. I have one link with the acapella ( sung without music so it´s not in rhythm) and in the acapella there is nothing added to my voice, and then there is one link that is mixed and with music. Have a great Easter!

http://www.box.com/s/be09aea606a22421b04f

http://www.box.com/s/7d61aai8lzsfproom5ux

[Jugulator]

Olem, this try sounds much better to me, but I don't like the reverb you use. There are minor pitch problems, and I'm sure you know about it.

[Olem]

Thanx for you reply, Jugulator. I am very bad when it comes to mixing, i thought it sounded cool but maybe that´s just me.

I find it very difficult to sing in B4, my voice wants to stay either in A4 or C5. Then i find that 3 phrases are particularly difficult for me, they are: "The bugle sounds the charge begins" (1 verse)- i have a problem to sing the word "sound" after "bugle". "The horse he sweats with fear" (2 verse) - i often fail to sing "he" in pitch, i start in B4 and then "he" drops down to A4 it seems. "We get so close near enough to fight" (3 verse), the same problem there, after "get" my pitch drops. After i sing "get" it feels like i have to push to be able to sing "so" in pitch. I am pretty sure it´s the consonants "s" and "h" that are getting me into trouble and i try to not make them not so breathy but without much success so far. I can´t make them totally silent then it would sound strange. It´s easier when i sing these phrases fast but you have to keep the rhythm of course. Any tips?

[Jugulator]

You need quite good support to sing such songs. I think that the consonants you mentioned above make you lose support.

[ronws]

I like the way you sing this song.

I, too, have done something like a 1/4 slap back echo for a neat effect. The only problem with it here is that the repeats in the echo have enough volume to interfere with the clarity of the lyrics being sung at the current moment, at any point. It then sounds a bit garbled and may create some "pitch" issues that are not actually there. That is, you may have slightly detuned a note to end a word at one point and it worked great for that exact moment in time but the repeat in the echo is then misaligned with a later note, causing that later note to sound off pitch or out of intonation. So, this is probably more of a mixing and eq problem than a technical fault on your part. Sometimes, you can get away with a slightly detuned note if it is not in reference to something else. Robert Plant got away with it in his ending note for "Stairway to Heaven" because there was not a harmony back up or slapback of a truer note to compare to.

In the part of the chorus with the "oh," one of the harmony voices is slightly flat. I think the lead vocal was on pitch and the harmony, possibly at a different pitch, such as a 3rd (most common) or a 5th was slightly off. This could be fixed by either re-recording the harmony or just duplicate the lead vocal to another track and change the eq to make it sound a little different but still at the same pitch. I have read that when someone is off pitch, it usally because they are at the 3rd in the scale, rather than in reference to the current lead note being sung or desired.

In all, I would say, keep singing this song like you do. Just try some different things in the mixing part of your recording process.

[Olem]

Spot on, Ron. I will give you a rep. point I hear that the harmony is slightly off, it´s not the easiest thing to match the harmony with the lead vocal but the next time i will focus on just that. And i hear now that in some places there isn´t enough gap between phrases for the echo to take place so i will adjust that also. Thanx alot Ron.

[Keith]

Each version gets exponentially better!

[ronws]

Thanks, Olem, for understanding what I meant. I think you sang just fine. And trust me, I know, I've tried something funky with the mix, only to have it not turn out the way I thought it would.

[onprcntr]

There is a video on youtube that has just Bruce's vocals on this song. I used it to decide what reverb to use. My band covers this and I still struggle at half step tuning to do it justice.