AC/DC "Hells Bells", please critique

[Olem]

Well, another AC/DC tune here. I practise alot around passagio now and trying to have that full voice but sometimes i just want to sing something that i can do fairly well namely reinforced falsetto. So, what do you think? Am i alot off pitch here, pitch recognition is something that i have problems with. Any tip are most welcome. I can add just vocals if someone has problems hearing my voice.

http://www.box.net/shared/jn40slnkle

Thanx in advance/ Ola

[akarawd]

Hi Olem,

It'd help if your vocals were a bit more prominent in the mix but I already see how well you can perform.

Your are clearly not trying to nail each line but have fun with the piece, right ? ACDC's no easy task to cover and you've got both the range and the distortion and sound totally convincing.

I'm no expert but one thing you could pay attention to (and that would yield instant results) is your timing. So basically study each phrase a bit more meticulously.

You surely have what it takes.

Best,

akarawd

[Olem]

Thanx for your reply Akarawd!

Yes, i am doing it for fun, when i have had a boring or stressful day it´s just such a releif to go down to my basement and release some frustration .I can hear that i´m out of pitch on many spots of this song. I will do another take and try to be more on pitch and also work with the timing, i think one reason that my timing is a little bad is because i´m focusing so hard to stay in the twang/distortion mode, when it´s more easy for me to stay in this mode i think my rhythm will be better because then i can pay more attention to the rhythm.

[gno]

Olem - from what I can hear you sound really good. Yeah, maybe a little off on pitch here and there. But if you were singing with just backing tracks and not the original vocal, I think you'd hear yourself more and I think you would be able to correct those issues pretty easily. Can you get a hold of a recording of just the instruments to sing with?

[tributeman]

I really dont like anyone singing along with the singer in the track.You must have confidence to sing to a backing track and then put it up on this site.Yeah its fine to rehearse the phrasing etc with the original song before doing a recording but for me this was just a waste of time sorry Frankie:(

[ronws]

Actually, tributeman, this is Olem's thread, not Frankie's. And sometimes, center-panned tracks are easier to get than backing tracks. I was not aware that it was a requirement to only use backing tracks here. I will certainly be more careful in the future. Another member sent me a file of the "Immigrant Song" that was center-panned but you could still some track bleed-over. I'm glad I didn't post it in the forum.

Anyway, Olem, you were on pitch in the chorus. I think it was because you were twanging then. Try and twang more in the regular stanzas of lyrics. As for timing, I know the problem, myself. I am used to timing my singing off of what my hands are doing when playing guitar. Recording is a special challenge. What has helped me is realizing that the singer leads the music, by a fraction of a second. If you are waiting for the background phrase, you are already a 1/4 or !2 beat too late. Trust that the music will be there.

And I really like the tone you get. I can't do that.

[chele1000]

I think what Frankie is trying to say is that singing along with the original singer will always be easier. When we do this, we are always a split second after the singer starts to sing therefore we "hear" the pitch first and then duplicate it INSTEAD of producing the sound ourselves. We can do this 'singing along' thing forever and really not improve much. If we really want to get some advice and we really want to improve ourselves, find someone that can play and sing along with them or get karaoke tracks to sing to. Otherwise, you are just spinning your wheels.

We are not telling you to stop.....just take the next step my friend.

cheers!

[eleet]

Hey Olem,

First off AC/DC is incredibly hard to pull off and brian johnson has a hard time staying 100% on pitch live. Try singing the song softly with NO rasp just to make sure you're singing the right pitches, a lot of notes we're not correct and perhaps some ear training is needed to really hear the notes. Sit at a keyboard or guitar (if you play either of them) and play the notes a lot and try to sing softly to it just to get a clear idea of what the notes are. After you have that then work on building up you head voice and falsetto without using tension to get the notes out! 1)do a lot of vocal slides and arpeggios using different vowels with no rasp and just try to get a consistent sound on pitch 2) do a lot of breath exercises to make sure your breathing is consistent. Next time also record yourself without the original voice to get a much better Idea of where you are vocally. I think with enough training you could pull this stuff off but you need to be able to sing well with out any rasp before you can add it. Also rasp is best when it's produced from the nasal passage not the throat in my opinion so while I cant hear exactly what you're doing I just want to make you aware of that.

[ronws]

I think what Frankie is trying to say is that singing along with the original singer will always be easier. When we do this, we are always a split second after the singer starts to sing therefore we "hear" the pitch first and then duplicate it INSTEAD of producing the sound ourselves. cheers!

Which one of us is Frankie? Perhaps I am confused.

Anyway, more often than not, I am playing guitar rather than singing over any kind of pre-recorded track, partially for the very reason you mention. Not only that, but sometimes, having the original vocals on there throws things off and it introduces unfair comparisons.

[Olem]

I posted this thread some time ago and was a little surprised to see it grow significantly these last couple of days. But i see some good points here. Firstly, i was looking for a backing track without any vocals but couldn´t find it and i can see the problems with not fully hearing my voice. From now on i will not sing to a regular song anymore, i thought my voice was distinct but clearly it isn´t and also as someone pointed out it could effect my performance with timing. Eleet, you have some good tips there, i am a litte unpatient and just like to sing songs right away without any profound preperations but i realize now that i need to do some "homework" before i put out a result.

Thanx, all you guys for taking your time to answer my post.

[ronws]

I posted this thread some time ago and was a little surprised to see it grow significantly these last couple of days. But i see some good points here. Firstly, i was looking for a backing track without any vocals but couldn´t find it and i can see the problems with not fully hearing my voice. From now on i will not sing to a regular song anymore, i thought my voice was distinct but clearly it isn´t and also as someone pointed out it could effect my performance with timing. Eleet, you have some good tips there, i am a litte unpatient and just like to sing songs right away without any profound preperations but i realize now that i need to do some "homework" before i put out a result.

Thanx, all you guys for taking your time to answer my post.

Now, you are in the same boat as I am. I haven't posted new submissions in this forum because I don't have a decent mic. My recording skills stink. I agree, sometimes, it's difficult to find a decent backing track. For example, the one I have of "Sweet Child of Mine" has no lead guitar, so that really caused me to work hard to find the cues, as I am used to cueing off the solo when I sing with the album or cueing off my hands when I play it myself.

And now that I see that it is a faux pas to post using center-panned tracks, I will certainly not do so. Because of the ghost vocals is why I usually prefer to play a guitar arrangement, myself. And If I don't get it exactly right, that gets criticised, too. So, I will wait until I can get backing tracks free of ghost vocals and a decent mic. Getting a decent mic might happen next year, though I would rather have the CVT materials first. Whether I can record a decent song here or not, at least my live performance can improve. For that is what I am used to doing, performing live, in a club, with friends, sometimes in a music store. Once, a guy and his son were looking at guitars and the man started playing "Shook Me All Night Long" and I started singing it, too.

Some friends of ours are pagans and we are always invited to their gatherings. Last time I went, there was a young lady who plays violin. Even though she had never learned "Dust in the Wind," we played it and she did a pretty good job though it wasn't Steinhardt's melody. So, I can play and sing most anywhere else.

I expect you to do the same. Keep on singing. It's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll. Words to live by. And I would like to hear you do that song, too. If you do, you could email me a link and that would be great.

[chele1000]

Frankie is "Tributeman" :)

[ronws]

Thanks, Michelle. I was confused. At first I thought we were all going to call each other Frankie as some kind of running gag but then, I thought, no, these people aren't into the same twisted humor (ala Monty Python) as I am. That actually helps clear things up, though.