You can say anything, just don't tell me it sounds like Enya...

[fritsthegirl]

So....been toying with this song for a week or two, took ages to record and get right. And still it's super short and simple. I badly wanted an electric because I can hear this in my head. But since I don't have one, I stuck with the acoustic.

And the vocals, how do you stop from recording all the disgusting mouth sounds you get? This song was stretching it a bit for my scratchy & untrained voice. But still, it's the recording tips I'm after more than anything.

I welcome feedback of any nature of course, ta for listening.

I know this is meant to look like a block of solid right here, but I haven't quite 'mastered' that bit yet.



Freaks me Out

oh...tides are flowing, all your ships have sailed,
the seas of gentle slumber

kingdom's magic places,
the mind with all its faces

oh...sweet day dreaming melodies,
seduce the rolling thunder

nether heaving tides
the tender heart abides

oh...hypnotise me and take me far,
to stars of magic wonder

 

[rudenruven]

sweet nice song. i dont know what mouth sounds you mean? id suggest you keep working on your singing. maybe check out the singing succes video tutorials on youtube, especially the one about vocal compression.

 

[dobro]

You have a pop at 0.31.

I like the doubled vocal.

Have you started experimenting with distortion and pitch shifting plugins yet?

Nice tune, nice delivery. I keep hearing opportunities for overdubbed tracks, though - bass and at least one other instrument doing fills.

 

[Chili]

I agree with Dobro, I hear so much more to this tune. Lots of potential.

A few thoughts.

The extraneous noises can be dealt with in two ways. The lip smacks and breathing can be editied out in between the singing parts. Your DAW should have a wave editor and you can open the wav file of the vocal tracks and silence the the spaces in between the singing. Some people (I'm one of them) will leave the breath noises in to keep it natural sounding. In a song like this, I would think you should too. You might consider lowering the gain just at teh breath noises so they are more subtle if they are indeed botherhing you. I didn't really hear them, so probbly nothing to worry about. Sounded natural to me.

When editing noises like that, crop closely to where they start and end because you are also editing out room noise and it can sound weird to hear the room noise appear and disappear.

The other option is to back off on the vocal compressor. The compressor is used to even out and bump up the track, but it will also bump up the small noises and make them more prevalent. Lip smacks, hard consonants and sibilance are artifacts of pushing the compressor too hard on a vocal track. But, you say, the compressor makes the vocals sound great when i push it hard!! Yup, it can, so the singer needs to know this and adjust their singing technique to minimize the mouth noises. If you're the singer, then you're lucky because you can practice and experiment to your heart's content without dealing with an ego.

Good little song, hope this helps.

 

[RAMI]

Man, we need more chicks in this place. I find this really sexy, it's so feminine it's almost wet.

I find this song, as well as one of the other ones you posted, so White Album-ish. I can hear this right along side "Julia" or "Long Long Time", both on the White Album. They're slow, sleepy tunes with the same feel.

I really like this. I don't like the doubling on your voice. I really don't think your voice needs it. I agree that there can be so much more going on in this song, but I also find it works as an acoustic guitar/vocals song just as it is.

 

[fritsthegirl]

sweet nice song. i dont know what mouth sounds you mean? id suggest you keep working on your singing. maybe check out the singing succes video tutorials on youtube, especially the one about vocal compression.

Thanks, had a quick look at some of those videos, I could definitely do with a bit of training. Maybe it's just me that could hear the mouth sounds, I am sure they are there but perhaps they're not as obvious as I thought.

 

[fritsthegirl]

You have a pop at 0.31.

I like the doubled vocal.

Have you started experimenting with distortion and pitch shifting plugins yet?

Nice tune, nice delivery. I keep hearing opportunities for overdubbed tracks, though - bass and at least one other instrument doing fills.

Heard it too, will repair/redo it. I haven't experimented with distortion or pitch shift yet...but will now. Yeh I know what you mean about the opportunities for filling it out more. I have only one instrument in my arsenal, I need a band.

 

[fritsthegirl]

I agree with Dobro, I hear so much more to this tune. Lots of potential.

A few thoughts.

The extraneous noises can be dealt with in two ways. The lip smacks and breathing can be editied out in between the singing parts. Your DAW should have a wave editor and you can open the wav file of the vocal tracks and silence the the spaces in between the singing. Some people (I'm one of them) will leave the breath noises in to keep it natural sounding. In a song like this, I would think you should too. You might consider lowering the gain just at teh breath noises so they are more subtle if they are indeed botherhing you. I didn't really hear them, so probbly nothing to worry about. Sounded natural to me.

When editing noises like that, crop closely to where they start and end because you are also editing out room noise and it can sound weird to hear the room noise appear and disappear.

The other option is to back off on the vocal compressor. The compressor is used to even out and bump up the track, but it will also bump up the small noises and make them more prevalent. Lip smacks, hard consonants and sibilance are artifacts of pushing the compressor too hard on a vocal track. But, you say, the compressor makes the vocals sound great when i push it hard!! Yup, it can, so the singer needs to know this and adjust their singing technique to minimize the mouth noises. If you're the singer, then you're lucky because you can practice and experiment to your heart's content without dealing with an ego.

Good little song, hope this helps.

That sure does help, thanks a lot, that's really useful advice. It is a sensitive thing recording vocals, I find it's pretty unforgiving - you hear everything you don't want and all that's wrong is magnified by 100. I haven't really mastered it by any stretch of the imagination, and that includes the singing too. I need to read up a bit more about this and practice, as you say.

 

[fritsthegirl]

Man, we need more chicks in this place. I find this really sexy, it's so feminine it's almost wet.

I find this song, as well as one of the other ones you posted, so White Album-ish. I can hear this right along side "Julia" or "Long Long Time", both on the White Album. They're slow, sleepy tunes with the same feel.

I really like this. I don't like the doubling on your voice. I really don't think your voice needs it. I agree that there can be so much more going on in this song, but I also find it works as an acoustic guitar/vocals song just as it is.

Thanks for the compliments, I love both those tunes. I can't play guitar very fast, nor can I come up with loads of lyrics, so whatever I do it always comes out like this drawn out, lazy sort of music. I thought twice about the doubling on the vocals...I did it for the wrong reason actually, to cover up a couple of instances where I ran out of breath...

 

[dainbramage]

Beautiful! Keep it up, keep recording! Your voice might be untrained but it actually sounds better that way.

 

[fritsthegirl]

Beautiful! Keep it up, keep recording! Your voice might be untrained but it actually sounds better that way.

Thank you, I like that!

 

[heatmiser]

Wow. That was short!

It's cool. I like the melody and the fact that the vague, dreamy lyrics reflect the same sort of mood that the music itself does.

It seems like this is your 1st attempt at doubling both the guitars and vocals to get maybe a bigger sound than the first couple of tracks where you just had guitar and voice more or less centered, right?

My personal thoughts on the recording/mix: A lot of people will tell you to double (or triple!) track vocals but mix them in a way so that it's not obvious to the listener (pan them together, drop the volume back on all but one, etc.). I personally like blatantly doubled & panned vocals myself in certain songs, and this seems like that kind of song, but I think this arrangement is maybe too sparse for it though, you know? It really sticks out.

I also found the overall vocal levels to be too high in relation to the guitars. I know they're the feature here, but still, I'd get the tracks all more in the same neighborhood level-wise myself. I thought the doubled vocals here could've been tighter. Sounds a little fluttery at times.

I like the guitars on this, but similar to the vocals, the doubling stands out in that the guitars are neither completely in synch with each other, nor are they playing different parts really. It does give a cool stereo effect where your chords are kind of being struck alternately on one side and then the other, but I would've either played the parts identically, or had completely different parts myself.

I guess I'm saying either go for it and double things, add more parts and make this a bigger production, or keep it simpler and tighter than it is now (just my opinion of course!).

Sorry, that's a lot of crap from me. I like your songs and singing and hope we keep hearing more!

 

[heatmiser]

Oh, and I looked up Enya (had no idea) and this most definitely doesn't sound like that. Plus, you'd need to have a video where you're staring off into the distance with a meaningful gaze while superimposed birds fly majestically around you or something. Really strange...

 

[fritsthegirl]

Wow. That was short!

It's cool. I like the melody and the fact that the vague, dreamy lyrics reflect the same sort of mood that the music itself does.

It seems like this is your 1st attempt at doubling both the guitars and vocals to get maybe a bigger sound than the first couple of tracks where you just had guitar and voice more or less centered, right?

My personal thoughts on the recording/mix: A lot of people will tell you to double (or triple!) track vocals but mix them in a way so that it's not obvious to the listener (pan them together, drop the volume back on all but one, etc.). I personally like blatantly doubled & panned vocals myself in certain songs, and this seems like that kind of song, but I think this arrangement is maybe too sparse for it though, you know? It really sticks out.

I also found the overall vocal levels to be too high in relation to the guitars. I know they're the feature here, but still, I'd get the tracks all more in the same neighborhood level-wise myself. I thought the doubled vocals here could've been tighter. Sounds a little fluttery at times.

I like the guitars on this, but similar to the vocals, the doubling stands out in that the guitars are neither completely in synch with each other, nor are they playing different parts really. It does give a cool stereo effect where your chords are kind of being struck alternately on one side and then the other, but I would've either played the parts identically, or had completely different parts myself.

I guess I'm saying either go for it and double things, add more parts and make this a bigger production, or keep it simpler and tighter than it is now (just my opinion of course!).

Sorry, that's a lot of crap from me. I like your songs and singing and hope we keep hearing more!

Don't apologise, I really appreciate you taking the time to give me some stuff to work on. I think I agree with you about getting it played together more tightly. I mean, I definitely agree with that. I have as much to learn about the playing techniques as I do the actually recording so it's really helpful to get some perspective on that since I kind of mull my way around these things and hope for the best. It's good feedback, and made me think of what else I might do with it. I kind of kept it short because I knew I'd be working on it for a while yet - the shorter it is the less takes!

 

[fritsthegirl]

Oh, and I looked up Enya (had no idea) and this most definitely doesn't sound like that. Plus, you'd need to have a video where you're staring off into the distance with a meaningful gaze while superimposed birds fly majestically around you or something. Really strange...

Thank God. I can't do meaningful gaze when birds fly around me, just this I have been working on this for a couple of weeks and right at the last minute before I uploaded it that weirdo came into my head, that song sail away or whatever it is. Annoyed the crap out of me to think I might sound even 1% like that. Thanks for resting my mind.