Check out my DT - Spirit Carries on / Vocal cover

[crillemannen]

Yo,

So i found this godlike karakoe version of the Spirit carries on. It sounds like its the original recording except the solo, which isn't 100% But the choirs and everything sounds like the real deal and i bought it of a karakoe site after hearing the preview clip. Could share it if anyone feels for trying it yourself

Really happy with the recording and it feels like iv'e improved quite a bit since i started using mastering the mix 1 1/2 year ago. And the vocal lines suites me very well although it becomes a little bit heavy at the end haha, could probably not do it live that well haha.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12967127/Spirit Carries on - Christian vox.mp3

Tell me what you think

/ Cheers

 

[LeSedna]

I'm myself learning (too slowly unfortunately) proper singing. I can see the work it needed.

I don't know the original, but sounds good to me ! For constructive criticism, I personally don't like the release of your vocal lines (at least on this very song singing in this very style). I think it would sound better if you hold the pitch of the note until not producing any sound anymore because I feel it's a bit prominent when you slide back to your throat, and you do it every single time at the end of a line. I myself realized I do something different at the end of every single line if not being careful, I release tension by releasing a little bit of air kind of a pop singer way trying to melt girl's pants like I'm full of emotion, which sounds cool at the correct place, but is annoying if I do it all the time (at least I feel like it would be)

I can see the end being more difficult. You managed it well though, live or not ! Well done, I think it's pretty cool for such a short time.

How long did you spend on the Singing Success before Mastering The Mix ? The problem is that I have no idea how far I should push into CD 1,2,3, etc. Especially because some exercises are redundant, just faster or with a twist, and the lack of an objective goal is what I am missing here.

Are there Karaoke sites where one could find songs from popular metal/rock bands ? I tried to find a few ones but no joy, I ended up hunting youtube covers when possible, or ghetto-removing as much as possible of the voice frequencies on the original songs

 

[crillemannen]

Ok, well the release of the vocal lines are intentional but i agree with me overdoing it im the beginning of the song. It is basically one take the first half of the song and i was like, what the hell , it's not like it is gonna be offcially released so i ignored it

Well i started with SinginSuccess several years ago, and did those 1 1/5 octave drills so you get connection between chest and headvoice. And i bought mastering the mix when it came out. And practiced it pretty seriously for about 6months. And when you practice you should abuse your voice in a healthy way, because you are gonna feel some strain in the beginning but as long as you don't push your voice to much and take a break a day or two once in a while then you should be ok. Think all the exercises are great on those cd's. But i had already discovered my mix voice so if you haven't done that then it can take a bit longer to understand the excersises.

And for me it was about learning how to properly warm up my voice too, getting that natural compression going. Nowdays i only do liprolls 1 1/5 octave until i feel that i got that compression 100%. And that can take from 20min up to an hour. But after that i can sing nice popish soft and can push my voice pretty much how hard i like without getting soar throat And you get the pitch for free when you get that compression going.

 

[LeSedna]

I have been experimenting with my voice (especially during the many many 10h+ long trip cas I used to do) the past few years and never really trying to practice seriously. So yeah I know how to modulate my voice between the different registers etc, although not comfortably enough to be spot on if you ask me at 6 in the morning in the street right away. But it's more on the consistency that the biggest mid-range goal is for me, like keeping the pitch no matter what, and also keeping that damn larynx down (on top of the belly in control) to keep the good tonal qualities in the voice.

I very very recently started doing almost-daily practice, and now that I have setup my little room with a mic, I spend sometimes hours practicing on songs I like as well

 

[smy1]

Regardless of technique (which I know nothing about) - it sounded like you were completely bored while singing the track. Then I listened to the original and found that James LaBrie sounds pretty bored too. But you sound even more bored. It sounds like you were forced to sing the song at gunpoint or something like that.

Please don't take this as an insult, but good vocal technique does not make interesting vocals. And these are not interesting/compelling/emotional vocals.

(It gets much better when you sing more powerful in the end - although the straight endings to the lines sound weird. And I'm usually not a friend of vibrato!)

 

[crillemannen]

Regardless of technique (which I know nothing about) - it sounded like you were completely bored while singing the track. Then I listened to the original and found that James LaBrie sounds pretty bored too. But you sound even more bored. It sounds like you were forced to sing the song at gunpoint or something like that.

Please don't take this as an insult, but good vocal technique does not make interesting vocals. And these are not interesting/compelling/emotional vocals.

Damn dude haha. Well everyone is entitled with an opinion of course, but i disagree. Guess you just don't like my voice

To bad you didn't like it though :/ I like my performance though!

 

[LeSedna]

Since we're at it, I just did this, any first idea on what to improve first before it becomes a bad habit ? Except the obvious off tune ? When I check my vocals in melodyne it's impressive off tune it can be

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/881054/MAO...r - 121212 - The Racing Heart (Katatonia).mp3

That's the humble take at the beginning of a long journey, I wanna record here and there so that I can objectively hear my improvement and this is one of the first ones ever.

I did this a week ago as well : https://dl.dropbox.com/u/881054/MAO... Vox Cover - 121204 - My Twin (Katatonia).mp3

 

[crillemannen]

Since we're at it, I just did this, any first idea on what to improve first before it becomes a bad habit ? Except the obvious off tune ? When I check my vocals in melodyne it's impressive off tune it can be

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/881054/MAO...r - 121212 - The Racing Heart (Katatonia).mp3

That's the humble take at the beginning of a long journey, I wanna record here and there so that I can objectively hear my improvement and this is one of the first ones ever.

I did this a week ago as well : https://dl.dropbox.com/u/881054/MAO... Vox Cover - 121204 - My Twin (Katatonia).mp3

Can't you record something without the original vocals behind. So much easier to hear

 

[LeSedna]

Well I'd love to if you show me where I can find the BT for these ! I don't wanna spend the time to do the BT myself right now What I did is to flip the phase in mid/side setup to remove the center content, not touching the bass... But there are a lot of back vocals as well. Or maybe I didn't do it right.

I have a good one for The Outside by A Perfect Circle but it's a bit out of my league for the moment I think I found a good enough one for My Twin, lemme check

EDIT : here you go, very quick one, excuse the plosives ruining the recording, no pop filter yet

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/881054/MAO.../Mateo - Vox Cover - 121212 - My Twin BT.mp3

 

[crillemannen]

^

I think the phrasing was great in the beginning and you got a nice soft tone to your voice. People often don't realize that singing soft is the hardest thing to do, atleast to make it sound good in recordings. But you got a bit of an uncontrolled wobling going on in the chorus, not that it is super bad but the only thing you can do about that is to practice And it sounds just a little bit strained, but if you practice you will get more control of your high notes and you will be able to get that speech level singing sounding "normal" in your high register.

 

[ArthurD]

Nice cover!
Vocals way too loud IMO.


WAIT

I`ll post my covers on BAR section instead of Rate My mix

 

[LeSedna]

^

I think the phrasing was great in the beginning and you got a nice soft tone to your voice. People often don't realize that singing soft is the hardest thing to do, atleast to make it sound good in recordings. But you got a bit of an uncontrolled wobling going on in the chorus, not that it is super bad but the only thing you can do about that is to practice And it sounds just a little bit strained, but if you practice you will get more control of your high notes and you will be able to get that speech level singing sounding "normal" in your high register.

Thanks, I think I noticed already what you describe so it's only confirmed. Also, melodyne clearly shows notes out of pitch, way more than I would imagine while I am singing . It is definitely strained during the moment when I need to push, it doesn't feel natural yet to me.

For the tone of my voice, yeah I think that's in this sort of register that I feel the most confortable with. And pushing a little more, I feel confortable in some sort of Scar Symmetry chorus type of melodies with kind of a 100% full voice like Christian. That's where I'm trying first and then later I'll try to work on something different with more fry and the need to push more (like A Perfect Circle/Tool songs, things like that). Also I think in this register as long as I don't push too hard I like the tone of my voice, which I know is something rare since most of the time we hate our voice. At least I see where the potential is for the moment !

As I'm a noob at voice recording, how far from my NT1A should I sing ? I think I did too far or too low and had to compress unreasonably (not that I tried to blend it perfectly but still).

 

[crillemannen]

Thanks, I think I noticed already what you describe so it's only confirmed. Also, melodyne clearly shows notes out of pitch, way more than I would imagine while I am singing . It is definitely strained during the moment when I need to push, it doesn't feel natural yet to me.

For the tone of my voice, yeah I think that's in this sort of register that I feel the most confortable with. And pushing a little more, I feel confortable in some sort of Scar Symmetry chorus type of melodies with kind of a 100% full voice like Christian. That's where I'm trying first and then later I'll try to work on something different with more fry and the need to push more (like A Perfect Circle/Tool songs, things like that). Also I think in this register as long as I don't push too hard I like the tone of my voice, which I know is something rare since most of the time we hate our voice. At least I see where the potential is for the moment !

As I'm a noob at voice recording, how far from my NT1A should I sing ? I think I did too far or too low and had to compress unreasonably (not that I tried to blend it perfectly but still).

Well something you got to learn is to like your own voice hhaha, you often have a singer you like allot and you try to sound like him/her and maybe you don't have that type of voice and then you have to reconcile that you will never sound like that, if you know what i mean. I would for instance love to be one tone higher in my tesitura, where my A would be an high B for instance, but even if i learn to control that high B or C i would never be able to sing lines smoothly on those notes, just take some highnotes from time to time and coming from the whole rock scene there are allot of really high pitch singers in that genre, and then you have to reconcile that you jsut don't have that type of voice

but on the other hand every great voice has it's own strengths which one of your favorite singer maybe don't have and then you can say, wow that is kind of cool


I usually sing about 10cm or so away from the mic, and for rock i usually compress the hell out of the vocals haha either way

Nice cover!
Vocals way too loud IMO.


WAIT

I`ll post my covers on BAR section instead of Rate My mix

Thanks man! And i think it is alright to post in this section if you just want to show something that you're proud of and spend allot of time working on