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May 2015 Challenge - 'Highway Star' by Deep Purple

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Folks... I don't think this is a competition. If its a competition, it won't succeed. People won't "compete"... this is not about competing... it about learning and getting a review on your singing, ... but at the same time, comparing your version to others, learning from others how they got through it, learning how to make home recordings and to "challenge" yourself, not each other... 

​That's a good thing to clarify there.  The original idea Elvis was proposing seemed vaguely in between a contest and a challenge.

I'm definitely the collaborative type. If I can help with singing or recording, I'll be happy to. Singing at and above D5 with thick rasp is definitely not my strong point as a singer so it may be I can learn some things here as well.

As for how I approached mine, I warmed up by dialing in resonance (buzz at top row of teeth while humming). And leaned more towards narrower 'a' and 'er' on the higher notes than I normally do in my regular singing. The style of singing I generally use taps out into something closer to falsetto earlier than the screams in this song so I modified vowels and went a lot more 'pingy' and metallic. I used my normal rasp on the mid range notes which feels like a twangy vowel shift with an alteration of air flow.

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I was misunderstood. As you dont win anything its not really  competition but the winner is chosen just so you get the incentive to really try your best. Nothig hostile. All just good clean fun :)

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Yeah, the whole point of this is to challenge yourself and see what you can do. I know there seems to be more of a love for Rock here, and there are tons of challenging rock songs to put you to the test, but to really challenge yourself, I don't think you can do better than taking on something that is a completely unnatural thing for you to attempt. This is a world music forum, after all. And by doing a challenge like this, EVERYONE will be out of the element at some point. In fact, it will likely happen several times. And when that does happen, we will all be around to offer support by coaching each other and offering tips. We're a family here. Let's improve together.

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I don't know that there is anything to win, nor should there be. I agree, it's a chance to stretch your wings and either try something you have not tried before, or get a chance to shine in a genre you are comfortable with. And I think it's okay to mention who's version you liked best. For the All of Me challenge, it was a dead heat between GSoul, DStarr, and Elvis. With Elvis having a bit more of a rock sound but still valid, I think.

And, as I have learned, even if you know the song, it can still trip you up. I have Deep Purple's "Made in Japan" and have listened to it for a few decades and have sang along with this song and "Child in Time" for quite some time. But even I could still mess it up.

So, I like Robert's mention that we should also pay attention to recording and having it sound good. We can all sing well. The objective is to get that awesome singing into a file that can be made to sound good. And that is just as much for me to adhere to as anyone else.

 

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I don't know that there is anything to win, nor should there be. I agree, it's a chance to stretch your wings and either try something you have not tried before, or get a chance to shine in a genre you are comfortable with. And I think it's okay to mention who's version you liked best. For the All of Me challenge, it was a dead heat between GSoul, DStarr, and Elvis. With Elvis having a bit more of a rock sound but still valid, I think.

And, as I have learned, even if you know the song, it can still trip you up. I have Deep Purple's "Made in Japan" and have listened to it for a few decades and have sang along with this song and "Child in Time" for quite some time. But even I could still mess it up.

So, I like Robert's mention that we should also pay attention to recording and having it sound good. We can all sing well. The objective is to get that awesome singing into a file that can be made to sound good. And that is just as much for me to adhere to as anyone else. For I have long been the king of crappy recording, which is nothing to brag about, just a thing.

I started a thread on Reaper and I am trying to develope some crash course posts for it to help with what is considered simple, which is vocal track against karaoke track.

​Yeah, I guess it's okay to say who you liked. I just didn't want to enter that challenge, because it's completely natural for me to do what's done in that song. Since we've now made it clear that we're only competing with ourselves, when the challenge does land on R&B in the future, I will participate, just because I may just end up with a nice demo. It will also be nice to be able to answer questions people have about style.

I'm going to give Logic Pro X for Mac a shot, because I got it a year or two ago. I'm probably going to end up trying to learn some of the applications for Windows too, just so I know my way around.

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Nector, ah yes... I have that... its really great... but, I don't get it... there are things about it that I need training on.  I just use waves plugins instead.

I generally use it like this. i use a preset i likebthe most and then tinker with it. Also harmoniser is extremely strong on it. Pitch editor is also preety awesome Altough i dont really like to use it. Feels like im cheating.

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I generally use it like this. i use a preset i likebthe most and then tinker with it. Also harmoniser is extremely strong on it. Pitch editor is also preety awesome Altough i dont really like to use it. Feels like im cheating.

​Ya, I tooled with the pitch editor a little bit, but couldn't figure it out... doesn't matter though, I never sing out of pitch anyways,... Im just that perfect. And its so not cool to use pitch correction on 1/10th of a second of singing... If you use pitch correction, that means you can't sing on pitch... stupid cheaters that aren't the real deal... they should all just go make sock puppets and keep lying to the industry that they don't use it... 

Awesome mic technique here!

 

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I generally use it like this. i use a preset i likebthe most and then tinker with it. Also harmoniser is extremely strong on it. Pitch editor is also preety awesome Altough i dont really like to use it. Feels like im cheating.

​Come oooooooooon. You know you don't need pitch editor.

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Thanks for support G!!! But that tool is alot more than mearly autotune. It has power to transpose a voice up to whole step up and down and preserving timbre. It can also lower the amplitude on vibrato. If there is a very wide vibrato in your recording it can tone it down. 

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Awesome mic technique here!
 

That felt like the most heart felt lip sync I've ever heard. 

She was even a tad flat sometimes to my ear. So she had the integrity to not even tune her backing track and maybe even sang her backing track all in one take.

I guess the next step is to make all mics double sided, just in case.

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Thanks for support G!!! But that tool is alot more than mearly autotune. It has power to transpose a voice up to whole step up and down and preserving timbre. It can also lower the amplitude on vibrato. If there is a very wide vibrato in your recording it can tone it down. 

This is kind of why it took me until now to get interested in this software stuff. I don't like the tricks and all. If my natural voice can't do it, I don't want it to sound like I can on recording. What I'm really interested in is making some cool harmonies and backup vocals. It's common in the stuff I listen to.

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This is kind of why it took me until now to get interested in this software stuff. I don't like the tricks and all. If my natural voice can't do it, I don't want it to sound like I can on recording. What I'm really interested in is making some cool harmonies and backup vocals. It's common in the stuff I listen to.

Nectar 2 has a great harmoniser. Take a look at youtube. 

Also take a look at that karaoke track i posted maybe you can create a post or add it to original post so ppl can hear it ;)

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This is kind of why it took me until now to get interested in this software stuff. I don't like the tricks and all. If my natural voice can't do it, I don't want it to sound like I can on recording. What I'm really interested in is making some cool harmonies and backup vocals. It's common in the stuff I listen to.

Research intervals and scales in music theory for harmony work.  Generally major or minor 3rds (3 and 4 notes up) and 5ths (7 notes up or 5 notes down)  and octaves (12 notes up or down) are most common are most common.

Major and minor 7ths, 4ths, and major or minor minor 6ths come next most often, The sourest sound is a minor second (1 semi tone up or down). Every harmony point has a flavor. Minor harmonies tend to sound sadder or more tense, while major harmonies tend to sound brighter or more freeing. If you have any kind of instrument it would be very helpful.

 

                        

 

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Research intervals and scales in music theory for harmony work.  Generally major or minor 3rds (3 and 4 notes up) and 5ths (7 notes up or 5 notes down)  and octaves (12 notes up or down) are most common are most common.

Major and minor 7ths, 4ths, and major or minor minor 6ths come next most often, The sourest sound is a minor second (1 semi tone up or down). Every harmony point has a flavor. Minor harmonies tend to sound sadder or more tense, while major harmonies tend to sound brighter or more freeing. If you have any kind of instrument it would be very helpful.

 

                        

 

Yeah, I played piano for a few years so I know about it.

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Here is an AWESOME highway star Karaoke track

​Elvis, this is very thoughtful, but... I think it puts me at potential risk of copyright infringement as the owner of the platform, facilitating the distribution of this karaoke track to people that have not paid for it. When you consider that a Karaoke track costs $1-$2, it is not worth the risk and I would rather that we, as a community, do this with a tad bit more integrity. This is why I created this topic yesterday... Thus I will remove your link... sorry bud, I don't what to get any calls from attorneys for IP theft.

Karaoke Version

CLICK HERE >>>

Or

Amazon.com

The Amazon.com Search Widget Below The Banner Ad...

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Yeah, I played piano for a few years so I know about it.

​It's the key for harmonies. Mixing harmonies is another story. You should experiment with different distance and timbre generally speaking for each voice as close micing the same vocal style repeatedly will overload the frequency spectrum and makes mixing more difficult.  

 

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​Elvis, this is very thoughtful, but... I think it puts me at potential risk of copyright infringement as the owner of the platform, facilitating the distribution of this karaoke track to people that have not paid for it. When you consider that a Karaoke track costs $1-$2, it is not worth the risk and I would rather that we, as a community, do this with a tad bit more integrity. This is why I created this topic yesterday... Thus I will remove your link...

Where to get Karaoke tracks: CLICK HERE >>>

​This does make a lot of sense here. Since we aren't selling anything a lot of us probably don't put much thought into the track used. 

 

I've practiced with original tracks as a training tool. Another time I found one karaoke track that someone claimed they had made and was fair use, and when I uploaded it to soundcloud they said it was copyright infringement.

 

I do think it's a good call to take care on this issue. Unless one of us explicitly makes the track.

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I'm brand new to all this stuff, but looking to really get into Logic Pro X.

​"G" if your interested, I can give you some very basic Logic Pro X lessons ... but if you want a real pro teacher, I recommend this guy... he is my teacher and is a real pro.  He does skype lessons... tell him I referred you!

http://logicprokauai.com/register/

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​"G" if your interested, I can give you some very basic Logic Pro X lessons ... but if you want a real pro teacher, I recommend this guy... he is my teacher and is a real pro.  He does skype lessons... tell him I referred you!

http://logicprokauai.com/register/

​Thanks, Rob. I think I'll try to mess around with it first and then ask you if I have any questions. I haven't even tried to use it yet, lol.

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So, who's started? Where's everyone at? I haven't been able to sing much for the past week, because I've been sick, and my recording time is always limited. I'll likely have something at least rough sometime this week. I've already been thinking technique-wise how I'm going to approach this. I've pretty much decided I'm going to go Rock style with it.

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