Karaoke Forums

(i do feel some r being honest...)    morgan u fall under the SOME....sorry if i offended you...i didn't mean to....

apology accepted

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

Perry,  breath control is going to be a tough area for me, and it's currently the focus of warming up (which includes more controlled inhaling and exhalation as well) Tension, and having no experience using the body as a means to project a singing voice will take sometime to break in..

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Perry,  breath control is going to be a tough area for me, and it's currently the focus of warming up (which includes more controlled inhaling and exhalation as well) Tension, and having no experience using the body as a means to project a singing voice will take some time to break in..

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Perry,  breath control is going to be a tough area for me, and it's currently the focus of warming up (which includes more controlled inhaling and exhalation as well) Tension, and having no experience using the body as a means to project a singing voice will take some time to break in..

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

I am not a pro by any means, but I here is what I have found.

You must wear headphones when you record a vocal track.

So I am assuming that you are, as do I.

I was having the same problem and found that the volume of the canned music in the headphones was essential for me being able to hear myself.

I have to keep my vocals slightly higher than the music.

If I go too far one way or the other I will get off key myself and it usually happens at the end just like what you are describing.

Don't know if that is what is actually happening to you or not, just a thought...

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Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Knowledge is limited.

Imagination encircles the world...

From my own experience of recording vocals and from reading different articles, it seems that too much bass and volume in the monitor mix can cause vocal pitch problems.  Hearing excessive bass interferes with the ear's ability to hear pitch accurately causing the person to sing flat.

http://www.recordingeq.com/rw/tip01.htm

I also noticed this problem when singing harmonies, playing bass and standing too close to my bass amp on stage.

What I'm finding personally,  however this is likely just unique to where I am with this, (at this given point) initially I liked headphones, but I feel better with the broader sound spectrum of many speakers when I sing, and more of a surround type setting.   I can't explain why,  I just like more dimensional sound, I believe it in fact HELPS and does not hinder my ability to pitch match yet I don't consider myself a "Front" singer, so I suppose there's a psychological element to this as well

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

I personally do not find bass in a mic to be a hinderance to pitch, neither do I find headphones to be a problem, but more often a help. With headphones I  can hear everything much more clearly.  I do find myself being conscious of diction and listening for pitch as I sing helps me.  I have learned over the years how to sing with emotion and still take care to listen for pitch problems.  When I find that something bothers me on my playback, I will go and do the section over that to me is pitchy.  I can usually hear it when I am singing.  When something grates on my nerves as   I listen, I know it is usually because of pitch.  Headphones make me feel like I am in the middle of the music so whether live music or recorded tracks, I can usually tell if I am on pitch.  I usually don't have to retake because of pitch, but I do record over problems dealing with diction quite often.  I always want my words to be plainly understood.--Mike

Ok Kappy, I'm willing to join the numbers to be critiqued... OMG what have I just done?  

Steven i'm betting the reason u like ur 6 speaker set up is because ur singing without reverb, and that surround vocals r helping u to get that effect somewhat....
i believe when u do start singing with effects u will lose the speakers, at least some anyway....JMO

That's a really good point Billy.  When I sing, I am the only voice that isn't being mix'd. eq'd. blended, etc..  Singing with surround speakers appears to drown that out... I'm looking into mixers in MF..  I'll get something.

Assumption being, since it's tougher for me to balance or blend my own vocals into the mix, surrounding myself with the louder spectrum of surround sound gives the illusion I'm blending..

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Steven,

Have a listen to Jazzy vocal sample; she is back in SS.

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

OK Jian.  I just heard Jazzy posted under "L", so I heard that she's back (roughly about two hours ago).  She's been gone for quite some time.  Glad she's back !

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

That's exactly what I see happening, Char... I don't think it would help any more than having a 'C' category helps.

I don't see anything wrong with having a forum section specifically for critiquing, and I think it would be a nice addition, but I KNOW that it will NOT solve the problems we have with the critiquing process. We may have a 'smooth sailing' atmosphere here NOW, with everyone in agreement about doing and being critiqued, but the first time we get another startlett wannabe who thinks she's god's gift coming in... there will be the same revenge 'critiquing' and garbage we've all seen already because she will THINK she's great, ask for critiques (to stroke her ego) and end up finding out she's not as great as she (or heck, he) thinks.

I guess I can't help thinking that we ALREADY have a system set up for critiquing, and for any well-meaning person to be afraid to use it is just ridiculous. I think a critiquing forum would be a nice addition though.

Hey Steven....sorry I'm so inconsistent around here. I like to sing, and it seems to take alot of my time.

I have a problem with breath control myself. My only advice is to learn a song really well to know when to breath deeper for a verse that's tricky. I don't think I sing right. I'm not sure that I'm suppose to tense anything to be able to squeal out a high note. I'm so caught up in trying to imitate a singer's sound, I just do anything it takes to try to capture that sound.

Just recently in SS, I did a Lionel Richie song....Truly. I used alot of headvoice I guess. I don't really know the proper terminology for this singing stuff. What I call headvoice is....making sounds that emanate as I'm exhaling, but in a lower volume that barely can be heard while trying to maintain some kind of pitch.
I was having a problem with this when I recorded everything to one track, because I had no way to increase the vocal volume after it was recorded. Therefore, the vocals seemed distant or muffled in my recording.
I recorded this most recent song to separate tracks, and was immediately impressed as to how I could increase the vocal volume before I mixed the tracks together. That also bothers me a bit, because now it showcases every flaw in my vocal.
While singing that song from the start, I was almost in a whisper, but then transitioned to a higher volume as the song progressed, which also required me to apply distance between my mouth and the mic as the vocal volume increased.

After adding some reverb to the "dry" vocal, then compression to lighten any "hotspots", then increased the total vocal volume a tad, I mixed the tracks together and was really surprised of the overall result! I like recording that way now!
The old way of recording to all one track was forcing me to keep my vocal volume loud while singing just so it could be heard in the final product.

But I can't sing with headphones on for some reason? I sang to the separate track while listen to the karaoke song playing through my little pc speakers, although my voice wasn't coming through the pc speakers. So it almost sounded as though I was singing while listening to a transistor radio, and the music volume wasn't enough to bleed over into my vocal track while singing.
But then, since I couldn't tell what I sounded like as the music was playing, I had to wait and listen "after" the song was recorded.

I bet if you recorded a song this way, you could almost whisper the lyrics and get the same end result. I felt that my effort level went waaaaay down while singing and recording that way. The song wasn't perfect still, but I didn't have to scream my lungs out just get the vocal heard.

Personally, I'd LOVE to see a critiqueing forum.  My thought being, that way, each person wanting a critique could post their own thread w/the title of what the want critiqued as the topic.  I want to be more involved with this thread, but I get a little lost wading through all the posts as they jump around a bit.  That would make it a little easier, for me, at least, to be effective in critiqueing things I know I would be helpful on.

Also, in regard to your concern about "starlets,' Sebby (which is valid!) once it becomes apparent who they are, it makes it easy to avoid their posts, since I think'd be unlikely they'd spend much time critiqueing others if they just want an ego stroke.

Just my 2 cents.

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"I hold the key to an open door....will I ever be free...?"

This is funny!
It sounds like what I just explained to Steven in how I recorded a recent song.

I don't know how sharp or flat that song might sound to anyone, but I know I was more able to hear myself while singing without the loud music.
I'm use to singing with loud music, so it was weird doing it the way I did this time.
And I really don't know how any live performance of mine really sounded to anyone in the bar, so I'm definitely still learning here.

Thanks for that link Don!

My original hopes were for this to become a "critique" thread where discussion regarding the process would take place elsewhere, however I gave up trying to control my threads.. So what I'll do with the help of the mods is this..

I'm going to add a FOR CRITIQUE ONLY, DISCUSSION regarding critique to take place here

It will be as follows.

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".