Acoustic Mixes, anyone? Feedback from great musical minds?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Shaky Tee
  • Start date Start date
Is this a competetion? Who can type the most? LOL :D

Excuse me....non-music related post. Forgive me, I'm from holland.

O wait...here are some singing tips an opera singing friend once gave me (I'm not responsible for any spelling issues, it's just copy and paste from her original text):

Well, breath control is important... for starters, when you inhale, you don't want to let your shoulders rise too much. This doesn't mean you should force them down, it means you should breathe 'down', filling the lower parts of your lungs first. The upper part of your ribcage is attached to your spine, but the lower part (called 'floating ribs') are held in place by cartilage and muscle. When you breathe in and down, these ribs should expand and create more room (that's why your shoulders won't rise.) The hardest thing to learn to co-ordinate is holding your ribs out. Once you inhale, and you expand those lower ribs, as you sing and your lungs deflate you need to use muscle control to hold them (your floating ribs)out. Try to think of 'breathing into your back', and you'll feel the sensation of your back sortof 'opening up'. This helps with support. For more power or volume, you use your diaphragm and your epigastrium instead of 'pushing with your throat'. The diaphragm is sortof attatched to the bottoms of your lungs, so when you breathe in and you contract your diaphragm, you're really helping to pull air into your lungs and it helps control your airflow as you sing out. If you put your fingers on your xyphoid process (where the two sides of your ribcage curve up and meet below your breastbone) and say "mmm-hmm", you should feel a muscle contraction - that's your epigastrium. That's what you use for support as well, to maintain volume instead of using your throat. I dunno what else to tell you... I don't know if resonance tips would be useful in singing in a pop style. Breathing's pretty basic though, and applies to most everything....

I've never known what she was talking about. With pop music there's no need to have that much technique. None of us need to fill big orchestra halls with just our voices and no amplification.

Relaxation is the key IMO. And not trying to hard.
 
Understanding the breathing exercises

I believe that for most of us, there is only one way to understand these breathing exercises and that is to practice them, even if we don't have a clue at first, observe our bodies and our reactions to them, and over time, we will understand them.
 
Hey Shaky

I downloaded “It Got You Too” last night. As far as mix comments, I don’t know if anyone said this yet. The whole thing sounds so mono. For future reference consider doubling your acoustic guitar and panning one left and the other right. It adds a nice full sound. Or on more complicated picking parts, since I am not such a good guitar player to copy the first track, I often copy the track and offset the copied track by some amount which gives a nice sound to.

Sounds like you got a lot of advice on your vocals already. They come across to me kind of harsh sounding. Kind of like you need to open up your mouth and or throat a little and find some good area of resonance there somewhere that you can project into the mic. Right now it sounds very restricted. Just a thought.

I have to say that the song itself seemed like it might have a lot to do with you and maybe the places where you hang out. But honestly, it didn’t really strike me as interesting. It just seemed to go on and on for over 5 minutes and I found myself wondering when it would end. That may be ok. If you are hanging out in the coffee house scene and the audience there gets your references, then that’s cool. It just seemed like there were so many words that I ended up not being able to follow the message. That could be my problem.

Just keep on a going. This is supposed to be fun right?
 
I listened, will review later

I downloaded and listened to the first four tunes.

My, my, you are certainly prolific.

My initial impression was you are a talented artist, a good singer-songwriter.

I'm thinking because of the volume of material your are creating, you are not focusing on 'perfecting' to the best of your ability the elements that go into all of this.

I also understand you are doing this with equiptment very much like Erland's setup.

I mean, producing a tune on a Palm Pilot, that's some wild stuff laaaaddddeeeeeee

;-)

namaste,
Pat Jack
 
Phoolan Devi

If_All_The_World_Were_Like_New_York_City....(Acoustic_Version).mp3
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It_Got_You_Too_(Acoustic_Version).mp3
--------------------------





Niland.mp3
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The_Ballad_of_Phoolan_Devi_(Acoustic_Version).mp3
------------------------------

This is my favorite of your songs because of the subject matter and the hero in the song, Phoolan.

The guitar in the beginning sounds a little tinny sonically, needs a little delay.
If you are singing and playing at the same time, I think your tracks and mixes
will improve a lot if you lay the guitar and vocal seperately.

If you have not taken 3x5 notecards and made 'Tally Mark Charts' for your tunes
breaking it down into VERSE - CHORUS - BREAK and so forth do so ASAP.

You can never know enough about the music you yourself are writing. All analysis you do of
your OWN music, (at whatever level), lends to a better performance.

Also, these notcards will serve as an immidiate reference for other musicians to quickly learn your songs so they can jam with you knowing the structure. Make charts, make copies.

example :

Meter : 4/4
Tempo : 65 - 70
Key : A minor

VERSE 1:
a-min|||| d-min|||| E-Maj|||| b-min||||

BREAK:
||||

TURNAROUND:
||

VERSE 2:
|||| |||| |||| ||||

CHORUS 2:
|||| |||| |||| ||||

HOOKS and HARMONY VOCALS OUT :
|||| |||| |

or some derivation of this charting style as you see fit for your work.
Posting these tally charts will allow people to learn your songs quickly and cover you.

--------------------------------------------

You have a tremendous amount of material, and organization will help you focus on performing better, it will help you to release tension and anxiety about all the other hats you are wearing ... singer-songwriter-producer-distibutor-mixer-engineer-mastering ... etc ...

continuing with Phoolan :

The beginning vocal is very strong and fairly well in tune, the vocal is fairly dry.
As you reach the guitar punch into this first round through the hooks 'Your bodies not for sale' ,
You go out of tune a bit vocally, that could be tension creeping into your voice as you 'anticipate' the arrival at the 'hook' section'.

At 00:20, yes the guitar is BADLY out of tune. You MUST get the guitar fixed or get another guitar.

Your ear is listening to and depending upon the guitar for reference, for intonation. As long as the guitar is out of tune you will be just as out of tune. Get the guitar fixed and a LOT of your vocal intonation problems will EVAPORATE, as will the tension I know you must be feeling about this. Get that guitar fixed PRONTO, sweetheart.

This is a REALLY cool song. I want to auuuummmmm in the hook section and the bridge as we go into 00:40, a chant backup of deep male voices would be cool here ... as they 'surround' Phoolan ... and attempt to envelop her.

Now the guitar ostinato is in much better in tune, (than the chords), at 00:40, and your singing follows suit, kiddo ;-)

I really believe you have some 'Helen Ready' in your voice. But you are going to have to have a guitar that plays good ... and in tune to find that.

If you aren't using a click track you are a bad girl. But I think you are ...

As the song preceeds you 'compensate' for the deficiencies in the guitar well, as your body and musical mind take over and they know what's going to happen, so they become flexible in technique to make the instrument sound better, and you are warming up, dropping INTO the song, and your singing is much, much better at 2:30.

Get the new guitar for Helen's sake ...

At 2:37, you go into your headvoice for one moment, and yes, it is slightly out of tune.

Although you let the last guitar chord ring nicely, with no buzzes, it is out of tune and this is not acceptable for the caliber of work you are capeable of producing, get yee to a pawn shop, pawn that guitar with as much money as you can scrape up, call a friend that is a guitar player, go to the pawn shop WITH them and pick out a new guitar that for heaven's sake ... just plays in tune. I think there is bad karma in that guitar, I'm not kidding about this.

This is a good song, a very neat song, take this compliment from someone who has been practicing hatha yoga in the style of http://www.kripalu.com for 5 years ... it's a very neat song.
 
It Got You Too

It_Got_You_Too_(Acoustic_Version).mp3
--------------------------

Please put 2 seconds leader on your songs, this one starts instantly in Windows Media Player and the first note sounds like ... smush-cracked ...

I like this initial vamp, the guitar sounds much better here. Your vocal is a tiny bit flat. This could be your monitoring solution.

Get some vocal exercises for your headvoice. You've got to get in touch with what is going on in your sinuses and your bones in your head-voice.

01. Start at the bottom of your range and SLOWLY, excruciatingly slowly, with all of a full breath sing in glissando, in rythm sliding up a perfect fourth above your bottom note.

02. Take a slow measured breath in, as you are breathing in, keep singing that perfect fourth above your bottom note in 'your mind'.

03. Do not sing on this next exhale, exhale fully.

04. Begin your preparatory inhale for the next, inhale belly first, then mid-lung, then just fill the chest gently and slightly, not all the way.

05. Repeat 01 - 04

06. As you end this next preparatory inhale, you are still singing the perfect fourth above your bottom note.

07. This is your new 'foundation note', it is now your lowest note, sing it on the exhale.

08. Repeat 01-04 and sing a perfect fourth above your new foundation note.

09. You are about in the middle of your range now, the next go round sing a MINOR THIRD above your new foundation note.

10. The next go round sing a Major Second.

11. Figure out WHERE you break into your headvoice and learn how that feels.

Remember you are using a glissando, slow and methodically sliding between the notes in your range. Notice how your body feels through each slow methodical glissando, the tip of your nose ... your teeth, your eyebrows, the tops of your ears, the back of your head, your throat ... listen ... to your body while you are 'working it baby' ...

Once you really KNOW where you break into your headvoice, and this will fluctuate from day to day by as much as a minor third, and season to season.

Once you know, devise a glissando pattern that allows you to arrive at the break in your headvoice from a gliss that is a Major Second, once you arrive there, toy with that area, by using that Major Second glissando, up and down, play with it. It doesn't matter HOW it sounds, it matters how it FEELS. Get in touch with that break and it will dissappear completely.

If you do this exercise, there is a high, high probability that within 3 months you will be sliding effortlessly in and out of your headvoice and you will increase your range by as much as 5 notes, a minor third in each direction. That means the range your currently work within will be improved dramatically.

Water work, and gliss work ... for the voice.

continuing with 'It Got You Too'

You are going to benifit from exercises that work you consonants and vowels, people will think you are nuts as you walk around and do these exercises but you must do them, the vocal lines you write are actually quite demanding for any singer, and you've got to be on top of it.

You are going to get a bass player to lay down a track for this, it's neat tune I like it.

See if you can borrow different sets of headphones from friends, if even for only one or two tracks, find the headphones that you feel most comfortable with. The monitoring solution for a vocalist is very, very important.

At 1:40 you come in with a really good vocal, you are just below your head-voice here. Your vocal technique is going to improve as you practice yoggic breathing techniques, I promise you it will. You will be able to support your singing voice more effectively.

This is a cool tune, don't eat too much of that peyote sweetheart.

At 2:58 that's good vocals ... because you LOVE to sing that part ... don't you ? It's a very personal part ... you feel it ... you are sincere ... I hear it.

The guitar sounds a little better here, but it's still out of tune. Get yee to the pawn shop ...

If you are laying your guitar and vocal seperately, that's great, try laying them togethe ... it's good practice to do it both ways, lay the track standing, doesn't matter how it sounds ... how it feels ...
 
NILAND

Niland.mp3
---------------------------


You are going to work hard to get better drum sounds ...

I like the stuff going on in the beginning, I like it a lot.
Just mix the drum much lower here please, until you get a better track.

'budweiser can' ... makes me giggle, but's it's acutally sad huh ...

This has a worldbeat sound, I like it ... 'World Cafe' ... NPR

You do ... in all your works, mix the 'level' of the vocal properly, that's good.

Awwww, the string swells are nice at 1:35, but maybe you are overdoing those swells slightly, tame the slopes of those arcs a little ... I like strong swells, but maybe these are a touch too much.

At 2:00 the mix level of the vocal is good, but the instrumentation is overpowering the vocal in comparisson to the previous vocals.

Deep breathing exercises, develop your lungs so you can support more. That little tag 'streaming flow' , you are out of breath there.

I tell you, work really , really hard on your vocal technique, and get a new guitar, redo all of this material, and you are going to have the beginnings of a very, very neat portfolio of songs.

You sing much better in tune in NILAND ... guess why ?
 
If_All_The_World_Were_Like_New_York_City

If_All_The_World_Were_Like_New_York_City....(Acoustic_Version).mp3
-------------------------
'love you and I'd hate you and I'd need you to'

At 00:51, this is the best part of your range because your guitar is closer to being in tune for these notes than any others, thus your voice is better in tune.

You sing overall much better in tune in NILAND .. it's the guitar honey, and I hope I just proved it to you with the reference to NILAND and your intonation there.

In Niland I hear your voice 'fighting' to sing out of tune, because you have trained it to sing with your out of tune guitar.

I LOVE that silly hook, it's so true. It's introspective.

I'd like to hear some horns in this tune.

At 2:12, the 'to the sea' hook is very nice.

Remember, you are writing rather demanding vocals, you are going to have to work like crazy on being quite a good vocalist to pull of your songs ... very well.

Yes, you are a poet, but I think you have found a place to go with all this, but you are going to have to bust your ass on vocal technique, and I think you have the guts to do this.

Good luck and KEEP POSTING.

I love Phoolan Devi ...
 
you are NUTS, man!! Thanks!!

Did I tell you I was bookmarking this thread? :D
 
I can guarantee that If shakey had replaced her picture with that of a big fat guy she wouldnt have gotten so many replies. Dont argue with me you know its true.
 
I'm surprised that pic I have up there got me any replies in the first place, LOL!!!!
 
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