John Legend - All Of Me Cover (contest entry)

[Elvis]

Hey guys! This is my entry for All of me contest.

 

I figured id upload it here too just so i get some feedback from you guys!

 

My falsetto sux hard and i cracked at 1 place but overall im preety happy with it!

 

Tell me what you think

 

https://app.box.com/s/ozr07i6py6n8e0oai0jzcs56vqss3wr0

 

Edit: ill record another one so consider this one as practice

[MDEW]

 Sounds pretty good Elvis. I would treat this one as a practice, that is how I am treating my submission. With a few more days you could really polish this up.

I liked your recording better than my own. I tried those high parts and crashed and burned so I dropped the high note(cheated) for now. You pretty much have those high parts nice and solid.

 I think I am going to download the Track that Felipe provided and record mine again. The Piano sounds so much better than a guitar for this.

[Elvis]

Thanks MDEW...i might scrap this for now yea and record proper one..at least without any breaks and chirps

 

Thanks for kind words

[MDEW]

  I think you have the right approach on this for your voice, just a few more days of singing it to lock everything in place.

 You already sound a whole lot better than I do. 

[Martin H]

I liked it very much.

[Elvis]

I liked it very much.

 

Thanks so much Martin and MDEW...

 

To be honest these kind of replies makes me train harder and not loose my will to learn to sing...

 

I myself realise this is far from perfect and im really just a begginer but i really have alot of will to learn..hopefully in time ill get better

[Robert Lunte]

Hey guys... I feel like I should chime in here... didn't want Felipe to think I was "doggin" his idea... I haven't even had time to hear the track... and any recording I do right now has to be toward my EP... Im also doing a major update to "Pillars" that is a huge beast... I may not have time to make for this... but I do want to try... Just wanted you to know Im not puss'n out, just have other things to do right now... to include more features and improvements to this forum... lots of work with contractors, teaching, product building, and any time left over to sing, I have to do it on my own tunes at the moment... Im trying to get some new content published.

[Robert Lunte]

Thanks so much Martin and MDEW...

 

To be honest these kind of replies makes me train harder and not loose my will to learn to sing...

 

I myself realise this is far from perfect and im really just a begginer but i really have alot of will to learn..hopefully in time ill get better

 

A compliment from Martin... he doesn't pass them out easily... congrats Elvis.

[Elvis]

Hey guys... I feel like I should chime in here... didn't want Felipe to think I was "doggin" his idea... I haven't even had time to hear the track... and any recording I do right now has to be toward my EP... Im also doing a major update to "Pillars" that is a huge beast... I may not have time to make for this... but I do want to try... Just wanted you to know Im not puss'n out, just have other things to do right now... to include more features and improvements to this forum... lots of work with contractors, teaching, product building, and any time left over to sing, I have to do it on my own tunes at the moment... Im trying to get some new content published.

 

 

Its actually my idea to do this contest but we wont nitpick hehe

 

Yea it means alot when some really good singers and quite knowledgable say something is good, even if its just out of courtesy

[Pekka]

That was very good Elvis

[Ken]

You're sounding good! Btw, your falsetto dont suck. The falsetto part in the first chorus was great, it suits the song. Seemed like you struggled more with the falsetto at the end though.

[ronws]

I could only hear falsetto parts at the end, which you may not be used to doing. Or may have fallen out of practice for that, considering the large scale work you are doing with Pillars. But it was usable, I think.

 

The rest of the song rocked. I liked the subtle r&b trills you put in. Small, subtle, just enough, like some cayenne pepper. A little bit goes a long way.

 

I want to try and record this weekend, whether I am a beginner or not. But, already, your version is the bar to clear.

[Elvis]

Ill try to record new one. This one is ok but some of the errors were not really neccesary. :/

[Real]

Sounding real strong man. I like how focused your tone sounds, and you made the song your own!

[Robert Lunte]

Elvis I finally got a chance to listen to your version of this tune... 

 

Ya... nice work!  I like the colors your using... makes me proud as your coach!!

 

- You definitely have those warm curbing vowels working well for you... nice warm, backward resonant position on a lot of these notes.  2:19 is a good example of this... this sort of color pops up a lot in here... nice.

 

- Also a nice dampened larynx , which is contributing to the nice warmth we hear in a lot of this.

 

- 3:02 - 3:07 ... very tasty, nice work!  

 

What needs improvement:

 

- 3:21 "table..." , put this into a dampened, EH... move resonance forward to the hard palette... it may be too G#4 is a bit high for a backward resonant position for most people that are learning, thats why its crapping out a bit.

 

- In fact any moments of instability here, I think are due to probably too much backward resonance... be careful... as I state in the book... backward resonant positions are very seductive... the sound great, they feel great, but they do sacrifice some strength in the glottal compression and you also sacrifice articulation with backward resonant positions... ... maybe around G/G#4... start leaning towards edging positions more.

 

- The biggest point of improvement here is your cues.... you are a bit sloppy on when your coming in and out on the onsets... your late, then your rushing, then your late, etc...  You need to feel the tempo more here and generally speaking, lay back... don't let your emotional excitement make you rush the cue/onset, focus on accenting the down beats and staying in the "moment" of the tempo... 

 

Not to worry... most singers rush the onsets until they learn how to lay back and "swing" more... Ive worked on it myself... it just takes paying attention to it and feeling the accents/tempo better... lock in... you are not throwing darts at the cues/onsets... its not a random, "try to hit it" experience... it actually is locked in and needs to be at a specific moment in time... pay attention to the GROOVE, and stop trying to anticipate the cue/onset.

 

Nice work, like I said, makes me proud... I hear some colors in here that are the result of some of the things the program showed you I think... regardless of that, you did a nice job... but its not done, you have more work to do... edge a bit more where you need to and lock in the groove better. 

 

[Elvis]

Thanks Robert! I agree there is alot more to work on.

 

Not to get deffensive but i can ussualy follow melody and rhythm very well but because i am using a "poor way" of recording i have some limitations. I cant really hear myself if im having my headphones on so i remove them slightly, and then i cant hear the bed track, so i kinda fall late or early. 

 

My dad actually agreed to buy me Rode NT-Usb so if it gets delivered by the end of the challenge ill try recording with it.

 

Thanks again for your input i REALLY appreciate it

 

Edit: and i was doing alot of "baby babe's" so i guess that dampening became almost unintentional

[ronws]

Thanks Robert! I agree there is alot more to work on.

 

Not to get deffensive but i can ussualy follow melody and rhythm very well but because i am using a "poor way" of recording i have some limitations. I cant really hear myself if im having my headphones on so i remove them slightly, and then i cant hear the bed track, so i kinda fall late or early. 

 

My dad actually agreed to buy me Rode NT-Usb so if it gets delivered by the end of the challenge ill try recording with it.

 

Thanks again for your input i REALLY appreciate it

 

Edit: and i was doing alot of "baby babe's" so i guess that dampening became almost unintentional

Just remember, using a USB mic, you will have latency in your recording software that you might have to adjust to a shorter playthrough. However, that will also cause clicks and pops in playback. So, when you go back to playback, adjust your latency back out to 30 ms or whatever it was before you adjusted it. This because adjusting latency down creates less time for all the information. Increasing latency allows more time for all of the data to play.

[Elvis]

Just remember, using a USB mic, you will have latency in your recording software that you might have to adjust to a shorter playthrough. However, that will also cause clicks and pops in playback. So, when you go back to playback, adjust your latency back out to 30 ms or whatever it was before you adjusted it. This because adjusting latency down creates less time for all the information. Increasing latency allows more time for all of the data to play.

 

 

Actually i already tested Rode NT-Usb on my laptop and there is 1-3ms latency even on 512 buffer size and thats actually negligable. Its very well made.

[joshual1]

didn't read the entire topic before listening and i guessed you were Rob's student ^^.

 

Really great take!