aravindmadis Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 Hi folks.. Did a cover of this song.. Heard the version done by Bono before I heard the original and have since been hooked on to the song.. Lot of emotion in the song and the lyrics and I love to sing these kind of songs.. https://app.box.com/s/3q33lx11j48cz41iwjy8gyswmcqkymg5 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KillerKu Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 You sound so passionate. I'm really feeling this. Yours and Bono's covers are revealing this to be a spectacular song. The melody is great. Alright, let me go through the track here. You've got a gorgeous wistful timbre, coming in at 0:46, 'anywhere I would have followed.' It's really beautiful for this song. You should explore that side of your voice. Timbre on the upper areas is brimming with emotion. Particularly the 'And I am feeling so small...and the section Chorus at 1:46 is dialed in beautifully. I love it. Taking off my emotional hat and putting on my singing help hat. A Few technical things. The first couple notes might be a little sharp to my ears and are more nasal than the rest. Not enough to bother me, but if you want to do a comp, you might tweak on them. There was a little lisp somewhere, 'sthaying goodbye' but it was one time. Now, I like singers rough, emotional, and raw, but if you wanted to polish it you might try tweakig the last chorus a little bit closer to the first two choruses. The first two had a crying very emotional sound, but also had a smoothness to the delivery that may attract listeners. The last had a bit of harshness, where things were going a bit more nasal. Overall, I really liked it and I think singing a really passionate emotional song is a good direction for you. It's bringing out other character and even vocal techniques in your voice (sob/cry) that not only sound good and authentic for you as an artist to express yourself and communicate with listeners, but tend to balance out some of the nasality. Get a version on Soundcloud, and I'll star that one too. I may sing this song myself at some point. Hearing how emotional you guys are with it, I prefer your versions over the original. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronws Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 Well done. This is a good match for your voice and I liked the mix, too. It seemed well balanced. I hereby condemn you to having a melodic voice that really shines on ballads. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aravindmadis Posted March 11, 2015 Author Share Posted March 11, 2015 Killer.. Here is the soundcloud link I actually liked Bono's version more than the original. He has a "softness" in his voice that works very well. My emotion in singing here I think is more raw and strong. I guess there are different ways to bring emotion.. Ronws, I could live with that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KillerKu Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 Killer.. Here is the soundcloud link I actually liked Bono's version more than the original. He has a "softness" in his voice that works very well. My emotion in singing here I think is more raw and strong. I guess there are different ways to bring emotion.. Ronws, I could live with that You nailed it on the emotions. Bono's version has a subdued melancholy and he sounds like he is closer to giving up on the subject. Yours has a raw, pleading feeling in your gut as if you're not quite ready to give it up and are willing to fight for it, even if it things get dirty. For me that's a big part of what singing is about. My favorite singer (David Ruffin) had a quote where he said, "I don't know what kind of voice I have. I guess it's just the feeling I get for a song.' It's how he emotionally interprets the song. Ray Charles, another huge inspiration, was asked if he ever got tired of singing Georgia on My Mind, as it was so famous, incredibly good, but on his set list, and he replied, "No. Because every time I sing it, I'm feel different." So he always had more emotions to express in his singing and the interpretations always came out that way. I'm really big into emo singing as a singer and as a listener (not the genre). I believe soul singing isn't a genre or sounding like X or Y soul singers, but is what you did here. It's when you lay your heart bare and put your vulnerability on the line. Honestly, it can make technique harder. Emotions have their way of coloring the sound, they alter the resonate spaces, vowels, and even affect the laryngeal muscles directly, and so forth. The main technique I've been working on lately I think of as 'emotional bridging.' The concept is kind of like bridging chest and head voice, but the other bridge occurs between the emotional state of the singer, and trying to get it to the intended pitch! It's much harder than singing like a robot. But for me, those are my real soul singers. Someone can have a spot on Ray Charles impersonation, but to me that person isn't a soulful singer by being able to do that. He might be able to imitate a voice that fits into the soul 'genre,' but genres are just arbitrary boxes to put music into. Genres aren't soulful. For me, real soul singing is when you allow yourself to be vulnerable, putting your heart on the line, expressing yourself as an individual, and try to express your emotional interpretation of a song as best as you can, as you. It's is a risk. It's a lot safer to try to calculate what the audience might want. It's a lot scarier than being Ray 2.0 and it requires 'letting go' and allowing 'you' flaws and all to color the sound. Most of my heroes had to find their voices, find who they are, and express that. That's why they are my heroes. Someone can imitate these guys and it's an impressive technical feat, but they already existed. Already did their thing, but it's more impressive to me when people find their own ways of communicating with their singing and connect with me. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bono Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 I loved It! I agree with killer, you sound very passionate... this kind of songs goes really good with your voice, I also like your version of Too much love will kill you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aravindmadis Posted March 12, 2015 Author Share Posted March 12, 2015 Yours has a raw, pleading feeling in your gut as if you're not quite ready to give it up and are willing to fight for it, even if it things get dirty. It is so weird that you say this, because the visualization that I had singing this song(it actually came from the video) was like this. I found the part with the old man saying goodbye to his wife(presumably of many years) the most touching. To me it felt that he had to remove her from life support and if she gave the slightest indication of any life in her, he would do anything in his ability to keep her alive and yes, it included fighting really hard even if things get dirty I am a big fan of singers who can emote. I will always prefer a singer with flaws if he can emote over a technically pitch perfect singer who cannot convey sadness/joy in his singing. Killer I was most impressed in a recent post of yours when said something on the lines of Piano having 5 octaves and for range, you can have instruments, but only a human voice can express emotion in a note(unlike an instrument where you need a series of notes to actually feel emotion).. I couldn't agree more with you on the value of emotions in singing 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bono Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 I am a big fan of singers who can emote. I will always prefer a singer with flaws if he can emote over a technically pitch perfect singer who cannot convey sadness/joy in his singing. Indeed, I'd change the whole Christina Aguilera's discography just for The blower's daughter of Demian Rice. Great song to cover, btw. Well, the whole discography except Say something Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sexy Beast Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 Aravind, you're doing a much better job on keeping the depth of your voice! Especially during the chorus (1:35 and 2:31). You are engaging more of your voice (stronger sound) during the chorus, however on all those lighter passages you have a tendency to go nasal and loose that depth. Also consonants like 'm', 'n' and 'ng' tend to give you problems (especially the latter 2). Listen to the last phrase of the song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronws Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 Aravind, you're doing a much better job on keeping the depth of your voice! Especially during the chorus (1:35 and 2:31). You are engaging more of your voice (stronger sound) during the chorus, however on all those lighter passages you have a tendency to go nasal and loose that depth. Also consonants like 'm', 'n' and 'ng' tend to give you problems (especially the latter 2). Listen to the last phrase of the song. Actually, every human being in existence has some nasality on those consonants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sexy Beast Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 Ron I am well aware of that but if you're singing the word "nice" only the 'n' should be nasal, not the "ice" part. Let's say you can sing the word "dice" just fine but when you're singing "nice" you are singing through your nose then you're doing something wrong because those 2 words should basically sound the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W772 Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 Hey, I agree with some of the comments above about some of the notes being a bit sharp. You have a nice tone (for sure) but the only thing that you can be even better at is pitch - if you can address that, your track would be perfect Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronws Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 Ron I am well aware of that but if you're singing the word "nice" only the 'n' should be nasal, not the "ice" part. Let's say you can sing the word "dice" just fine but when you're singing "nice" you are singing through your nose then you're doing something wrong because those 2 words should basically sound the same. I am not disagreeing that Aravandis has some nasality in his sound. I also think it is a side effect of his primary language and dialect. Just as, I may sound too nasal through the nose to someone from say, Russia. A number of guys I have heard speaking Russian, including a guy that I worked with who was from the Ukraine, tend to sound hyponasal. And granted, you don't want through the nose sound all the way through the word. However, the n or ng sound does not include a through the nose sound, near as I can recollect. I think the two events are separate. And I am not hearing through the nose nasality with Aravind. I do hear some nasalence, as most any human will have whether hyper, neutral (which is still some nasality), and hypo, which sounds like a blocked sinus. Then, again, I am not a teacher nor an expert. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDEW Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 Just listened to this Aravindmadis. Very emotional. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aravindmadis Posted March 14, 2015 Author Share Posted March 14, 2015 I am not disagreeing that Aravandis has some nasality in his sound. I also think it is a side effect of his primary language and dialect. Just as, I may sound too nasal through the nose to someone from say, Russia. A number of guys I have heard speaking Russian, including a guy that I worked with who was from the Ukraine, tend to sound hyponasal. And granted, you don't want through the nose sound all the way through the word. However, the n or ng sound does not include a through the nose sound, near as I can recollect. I think the two events are separate. And I am not hearing through the nose nasality with Aravind. I do hear some nasalence, as most any human will have whether hyper, neutral (which is still some nasality), and hypo, which sounds like a blocked sinus. Then, again, I am not a teacher nor an expert. I think this forum has some of the toughest critics. I mean this in positive way. SexyBeast I am sure has the right things in his mind when he is critical about his impression of my singing and his feedback in the past has been really helpful for me to sort out some of my problems. Having said that I think the perception of nasality varies across cultures. Where I live for example, this would not be considered nasal at all. There are very popular singers who are much more nasal than me. The issue is that here the focus on singing is as much on the right pronunciation as it is on whether the note is exactly at center. Vowel modification of any sort is really frowned upon in our music. I would for e.g. get blasted for being too anglicized if I were to sing traditional Indian songs. We all at this forum know that singing across a big range without vowel modification is physiologically impossible and western music is more accommodating of accents and modified sounds than for e.g. traditional Indian music would be. Because the focus is a lot on proper pronunciation, we tend to be more forgiving of nasality, especially when it comes to sounds that are more nasal like "m" and "ng".. I guess the key for singers is to focus on what the audience wants. And audiences tend to want different things... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronws Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 When you mix your recording, eq a drop at about 1400 Hz. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gneetapp Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Oh man! Oh man! Aravind, your improvements have no bounds! I'm so jealous (in a good way)! Your timbre was so nice with the low end, and very little nasality. Awesome singing! yeah, you had a few spots just a bit off-pitch, but who doesn't?! I think you should revisit some of your earlier recordings where you sounded too nasal, and redo them. Nice job! Keep rocking! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aravindmadis Posted March 17, 2015 Author Share Posted March 17, 2015 @Gneetapp.. Thank you for your kind words.. It is a very slow progress for me and it has taken me nearly 2 years to get to where I am today, especially with a full time job that does not involve music! Yes, there are some spots where the pitch is not exactly in the center. The amount of effort & skill required for perfection is out of my reach now.. Yes, I plan to redo my earlier songs.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KillerKu Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 @Gneetapp.. Thank you for your kind words.. It is a very slow progress for me and it has taken me nearly 2 years to get to where I am today, especially with a full time job that does not involve music! Yes, there are some spots where the pitch is not exactly in the center. The amount of effort & skill required for perfection is out of my reach now.. Yes, I plan to redo my earlier songs.. Perfection is in the ears of there listener. Remember to keep that in mind. It's already helping you to remember the cultural thoughts about perceived nasality (E.G. Chinese Opera). Anyway, I was objective and said a few notes sounded a bit sharp, and then pretty much immediately listened to this: And I describe 'that' as perfect to my ears. It is so passionate. Perfectly describes an emotion I've lived through when a doctor decided to cut me off cold turkey from a medication and is one of my favorite songs in recent memory. So I'll try to be objective with you guys cause it can possibly help you achieve a goal, but how close the pitch is to the center point is arbitrary in that it doesn't always represent how artistic, emotional, or valuable a piece of music is. Sometimes it's the imperfections that communicate the emotion. Emotion isn't perfect and human vulnerability is inevitably fragile. PS... All western music is out of tune (and auto tune actually moves away from perfect tuning to equal temperament). So modern singers when accompanying music are constantly training to sing out of tune. Barbershop quartets tend towards mathematical harmony. In this link, you can see the mathematical ratios are simply off: http://www.phy.mtu.edu/~suits/scales.html Particularly on the 3rds and 6ths. You can hear the difference if you pay extra attention. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 Great Job aravindmadis. well done. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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