I learned a few things last night/finally got back up and running again...

Jagular

Jagular

Active member
Hey guys & gals,

I have kind of been away a while. So first...I apologize for not pitching in around here too much for the last several weeks. I'm sure I missed some great stuff. My computer died & I built a new one and finally got my gear hooked up to my new 1010lt the other night. The new machine rocks...still working out some kinks with the audio part, but I'll get there.

So last night I did my first project (just a wee one) on the new setup. I just met a woman in our neighborhood through another neighbor who is a singer/songwriter & works for some label downtown (Nashville). I really don't know all the details because I am horrible at asking that kind of stuff. But anyway, in conversation it came out that she was in a pinch to get a male vocal track on a project she is working on and her usual vocalists were not showing up for some reason or other. So...to make a short story long...I gave her a demo of some of the rough stuff I had done prior to my computer crashing and she asked if I would be interested. I still don't know if this is a paying gig or not, but at this point I don't care.

She gave me the work track with her singing. I thought...well, she is going to want this in a differnent key for a male singer right? So I knocked it down a fifth and rehearsed it that way. Then I called her up and it turns out that she really needed it in the original key. I said [beavis&buttheadvoice] Uhhhh.....ok [/beavis&buttheadvoice]. It was a little on the high side, but still in my range, but just didn't seem right for this style of song (straight up country). Plus...although I sing Country, my voice generally does better for ballads. I can pull of the more "honkytonk" style...but in this range...eeeeyow. But mine is not to reason why...

What I learned:

1. I'm going to love Sonar. I'm especially liked the Timeworks compression & EQ. They absolutel rock compared to what I was using before.

2. My mic AKG C535EB really sounds harsh sometimes :mad: I had to nearly swallow the mic for proximity effect to get this to sound decent.

3. I can actually get a pretty good vocal if I lay off a little ;) :D. My initial inclination when recording a vocal track is to attack it & let er rip...because I can. I found out in this case...with this style...in this range...I really couldn't. So I relaxed & let up on the gas a little :D

Anyway...if anyone is still reading :D Here's what I did. I was provided the backing track & I just added the vocal. I guess I'm interested in some ears on the vocal track. It's a first cut. I know it's not perfect and I will probably redo it this weekend to fix some dropped words and other minor issues here and there. My initial thoughts are I might need to cut some highs...just a little & back the verb off a little. I would appreciate any feedback before I retrack it.

I was actually pleasantly surprised how it turned out first time around. Let me know what you'd think or if there is anything that you would adjust.

It's called "Keepin It Real"

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/Jagular/songs/

Thanks a bunch!!!
 
Good job on the vocal! I didn't think there were too many highs in it. The reverb could be brought back a little, but its fine as is too. Good to see you have the computer up and running again!
 
Hey Jag...

Im way outta my genre here. ...and im listening on the puter at work, so after taking that all into consideration.....:rolleyes: :D

...the vocs sound just a touch hot to me. From here it sounds like a little more compression might help, ....and maybe just a touch of a drop level-wise. I wouldnt feel too uncomfortable about stretching your range..... ...doesnt sound bad at all.

..the opportunity sounds exciting.... good luck:)
 
Hey Jag -

I'd kill for those sss's. Soft. Nice.

To me, the vocal's not really too hot, but it's REALLY midrangy...just doing a cut on winamp @3k warmed it up immensely. I'm to chicken to EQ my own vocals (I really should start), but if there's any way you can scoop out some of the mids, I think you might like it even better.

Keep in mind, I'm the KING of harshness, lol.

Actually, I had the same problem with the rhythm guitar in the same EQ range, which is probably why I like the track a lot better with a mid cut.

Congratulations on the new stuff. Got monitors yet?
 
Crawdad - Thanks man. I hear a few things in there that I want to fix by retracking (no comping for me...no sir) well...not yet anyway :D. But I'm not going to delete this track just yet...just in case :D. I think I'll lower the verb just a tich. Thanks for listening.

Guernica - Yeah... they don't sound to out front in the car, but I listened to it just a bit ago on the stereo downstairs. Yeeeeooww..:D. Vocals need to be up front for pitching this song, but that may be just a tad too much :D. I will certainly bring them down some. Yeah...kind of a cool opportunity. I don't have any delusions about getting an recording deals (too old & fat :D), but I sure wouldn' mind making some extra scratch doing some demo work. That sound feasible. Thanks for the ears man...much appreciated

Chris...hehe...I did play with the new Timeworks EQ with a preset for male vocal. It seemed to make it come alive a little. But maybe too much. I'll may back it off or get rid of it all together upon further listens. That guitar was pretty midrangey too. The combination started to make my ears hurt in the car :D. RE: monitors...if I had them everything would sound perfect the first time, right???? :D. Thanks for listening.

You guys have been a great help. Thanks a lot :)
 
I like the guitar sound, little clicky in parts but good. Reverb on it could be dropped little bit.

No bass guitar?? :D

The singing is fine, maybe a *little* stretched in parts, but I have no doubt you could nail it after a few takes. I can hear what you mean with the 'harshness'. In a more complete version with more backing tracks (vocals and otherwise) it may work out.

The song itself isn't overally original sounding, but hey... country. J/K. :)

Kill that Karaoke drum track!
 
As always your tune get me in whatever mood your shooting for. Makes you want to get up and dance with my sweetheart. You can smell the beer if you listen real close.:D

The vox is a little too loud in quieter spots but perfect when the song fills in verb makes it sound live. Drums sounded Ok to me, except that kick;) "thump thump"(heartbeat) one Thump at a time might sound better?,,, Perfect guitar tone/bite small stumble at 2:18.

Also grabbed ,I'll still be loving you,while I was there. Dude You are the VOX MASTER:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D I'D pay for that one great cover.


Peace
Bill
 
Emeric - I hear ya on the drum track. Not my track though. So they can do whatever they want to once I give them the vocal track :D. Thanks for the listen.

Bill - yeah....beer :D... Again, I hear ya on the drums, but like I said above, not my track so... I agree the vox is a little heavy in some spots. Even though this is a song pitch demo & the vocal needs to be way out front, this may be way, way out front :D. Thanks for the ears. Oh an thanks for listening to "I'll Still Be Loving You". That was a collab with dachay2tnr like, i think on my third day here :D. The Dachay's did all the BG vox & dach did all the mixing. I just supplied the lead vocal. That was my first time at the mic for a couple of years :D.

To everyone, thanks for the listen & the ideas. I implemented a lot of them. I retracked the vocal, backed off the mid frequencies a tad & backed off vocal a couple decibles and upped the compression a tad and backed off the verb. Turned out pretty good sounding in the end.

I also learned I can record my vocal without compression with the new 24bit card :D

This is officially the end of this thread. I'm taking the tune down in a minute. If anyone really wants to hear how it ended up, I would be glad to give a link to a new version through pm or something...but I can't imagine...

Thanks again everyone. Your ears were a great help :)
 
End of the thread?! Man I'm slow.

I can hear your voice straining just a little due to the key in some spots, but otherwise you nail it. It's pushing you a little bit, but you can hit it.

Heard you hit the compressor a little hard a couple of times early, but not all the way through. Glad you found you've got the headroom to track without it at 24-bits.

Great voice.
 
I'd take just about ANY of the vocal sounds today.

Man, if it had more ass, and less fuzz on that "what the fuck were you thinking" guitar tone, I'd hate you.

Very cool tune.
 
chrisharris said:
I'd take just about ANY of the vocal sounds today.

Man, if it had more ass, and less fuzz on that "what the fuck were you thinking" guitar tone, I'd hate you.

Very cool tune.
Click to expand...
Totally sorry about that, man....lmao. I have no idea how it happened, but I was TRYING to post in scottboyer's thread.

I rarely drop "F-Bombs" in your threads, lol.

*bump*
 
let me know where you got it stashed and I`ll listen when I get home from work. I need to get me one of them kinda cards too, so this`ll be that much more incentitive. Plus, I enjoy the way you sing...
 
Ok...against my better judgement, I uploaded the new version for a limited time only. Since this isn't my song, I want to limit the public exposure to it so I'll take it down again in a day or two.

As long as I'm bumping this (which I didn't intend on doing) I'll add a couple more comments. This is my first ever comped vocal track. I almost wish I would have never gone down this road becaus now, as I listened to this some more, there are two small phrases that I'm tempted to search through some of the old takes around those phrases and replace them...a never ending cycle ;). But maybe I'll just leave it alone ;) :D.

One more thing I learned (and the reason for the comped vocal track) is that I found the rust in my pipes. While song was technically in my range, I'm rusty enough where it is not comfortably in my range. It sounds a little forced in some spots, but overall, not too bad. I did, I think, 6 full takes on this track. On the seventh I couldn't finish because of fatigue of my vocal chords. I didn't blow out my voice, just fatiqued it. That's what I get for not seriously singing for so many years. I think I need to get it back in shape a little bit. The take before the one where my voice failed was my favorite except I messed up one word in a phrase. Soooo...I replaced it with the same phrase in the last take. HEHE...it was just too easy.

Anyway...here is the link. It's "Keepin It Real 20020614". I actually cleaned up the track a little since then (a couple lip smacks & computer noise on silent portions) but the final mix is identical except for that. Let me know if you have any more thoughts

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/Jagular/songs/

Thanks :)
 
I`ll have to try it again in the morning when I get home. I went to bed while the dl was going on and it was corrupted when I tried to play it tonite. :(
 
:cool:

Jag;

Cool Rockin Country Toon, Dude. Like everthing about it. Sounds "REAL," not over polished.

Enjoyed the listen and glad you have a new recording rig happenin, Bro!

CR ><>
 
Jag,
Thanks for puttin it back up for a while. I think you did a great job considering it was near the top of your range. I know exactly what you went through.
The mix, overall was very good...It would have been good to hear the bass, but I know you had no control over that. The vox were right where they belong but the guitar was a tad hot..again, I think a little bass would have fixed that.
Good to see you back up and runnin, lookin forward to hearin more.

bd
 
first, I`m impressed with the "clean", lotsa clean open space in the background whit the new card and that mic. The vocal was full, smooth, and well captured, there were a couple of spots when on the 5th I could almost see the right leg tighten up and right eye close a little. 2 gins with a twist would take care of that... :)
real nice.
 
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