Journey - Faithfully :: YET another version :D

[haiduc]

Ah well, it really makes no difference if there are 1000 or 1001 different covers of that song right?

So here's mine, real quick and dirty:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/48158209/Faithfully%202012-10-06.mp3

I think I start to like doing these karaoke tracks, had great fun with this one today.

Looking forward to any feedback! Please be critical!

:)

[Guest]

I thought you did a good job. Sounded a little strained in spots but hey, that's Steve Perry man I can't get close to that!! Nice job.

[ronws]

Neat rasp you've got there. But you did a good job. It sounded like a few pitchy spots, though I forgot to note where they were. If you go back and listen to it, you will hear where. I do it with myself, all the time. I go back and listen to one of my old ones and hear where I went into the pre-chorus a little flat and tuned up halfway through and wished I had re-done that.

But this was, I take it, kind of a live take, one-off. I liked the backing track. I liked your version and I would keep this in your set of songs you can sing, if I were you.

[haiduc]

Thanks folks!

Doing these covers is very interesting, I'm discovering new stuff about my voice all the time.

Ron, no I didn't do this in one take, I wish I could - but on the other hand, I didn't really rehearse the song. I just wanted to record a complete song to have something I could refer to later, like a snapshot of my current level of singing. Thanks for rating it "performance quality", that's a great confidence boost for me.

I constantly browse YouTube for good backing tracks, I have quite a catalog by now - enough for the next couple of years

Regarding pitch issues, it's very interesting to see how the monitoring influences pitch, still trying to find the sweet spot there. Monitoring through headphones (which I did in this case) always seems to throw me off pitch a bit. I tried different monitoring levels, moving one side of the headphones a bit off the ear, etc.

Also it was fun to see how different vowels have their own "magnetism", dragging me toward a certain pitch or resonance and how I would go about steering against it. Sometimes, especially in the higher passages, the navigation was quite a bit of a challenge.

I noticed Perry using a rasp and I tried to mimic it, then I found it can actually help in disguising instabilities. Of course I don't plan on using it as a crutch but it's good to know what it can do.

Strain is also interesting, it really seems to have a lot to do with mental attitude. When I do a "difficult part" my mind keeps telling me that it's difficult, so I keep holding back on energy and volume to make it safer to save myself from the embarrassement of voice cracking. However, it comes out strained that way, as if hitting the gas and brake pedal at the same time...

Anyway, lots of things to learn.

Thanks for the pointers! :)

[ronws]

Monitoring is a big deal. I'm glad you mentioned that. I was reading the guerilla home recording book and he mentioned somethint that immediately made sense. A lot of guys are wearing cans (headphones) to monitor while singing. Problem is, headphones can be notoriously bass-y, like a near-field monitor eq'd low. This has the effect of pulling you down with it. And if this is how you were monitoring, it might have been guiding you a dime or two flat. For we sing what we hear. And if what we are hearing is off and we don't already have the pitch in our head, it will sound barely flat, like the intonation is wrong.

So, the short solution that I can think of is to sweeten the playback of the music. Make it a little more treble, or, at least, not as much bass.

I use Audacity and I have not been able to fix the latency problem. So, I sing with one can off the ear. I have learned, since I have more reflecting surfaces closer to me to my left, to take the left one off. This gives me a truer reflection of how I sound than to the right, which is more open space and prone to introduce room ambience. Pan the playback hard right. That't helped me quite a bit. It's as close to live monitor as I can get and not have bleed-through.

I think you sang well all the way through. Just a few wobbles hear and there and I think it was a hearing thing than an actual technical singing issue.

[haiduc]

Hey Ron,

Yeah, I was using a lot of volume on the headphones and they have quite a bit of a bass response.

I also mixed the song wearing headphones and, interestingly, I couldn't hear any pitch issues while mixing.

When playing back the song on speakers I can hear I'm slightly off pitch.

Of course that makes a lot of sense now after what you've said.

I remember tracking using studio monitors once, set up in a triangle with a hyper-cardoid mic, so that the speakers would be in the dead-spot of the mic. Pitching was perfect then. However, I can't repeat this setup in the room I'm currently using so the goal is to get the same result with a headphone mix.

Regarding your latency issues, does your hardware support ASIO direct monitoring? That should fix it, the downside is that you only get a dry vocal signal so you'd have to use external processing (compressor, EQ, reverb) for your headphone mix.

[ronws]

Dude, I have a computer so old it has a hand-crank to start it, like a Model A Ford. My monitor is a candle and we make hand shadow puppets on the cave wall.

Seriously, my computer, I named Frankenstein, was built in 2005 out of parts that were spare, back then. So, whatever sound I have is what is on-board capable. The only hardware I have is the usb interface, the headphones that I use with that, and the mic's. My guitar rig is fancier than that, though much older. 25 year old Roland GS-6 digital effects rackmount unit. A little older than, a Fender 85 amp that will produce 200 W rms. And about the same age as that, a Hondo copy of a Flying V. I also have a Memphis copy of Les Paul that I bought in 1982 but I don't play that one any more.

[haiduc]

Well, I used to record back in 2002 with a P4 laptop and a USB 1.1 audio interface using ASIO direct monitoring so your system is 3 years ahead of that

But I know how crappy hardware can really mess things up. I just got a new laptop for about 500 euros last month (ridiculous compared to the price paid for the one in 2002) and I'm very happy with the performance in terms of recording, latency is around 5 ms with my Focusrite Saffire I/F so I can use live effects.

The thing with PCs is that they don't gain any value as they become older, compared to guitar rigs

I have a Roland D-20 synth somewhere in the attic...

Never played a Flying V, I was always wondering how the thing would not slide off your leg when playing sitting down... :P

[ronws]

Never played a Flying V, I was always wondering how the thing would not slide off your leg when playing sitting down...

When I play it while sitting down, I am still wearing a guitar strap on it.

I took a pic of it and now I can't find it.