Acoustic Recordings of Songs in Progress

Hey man, you have a strong voice, nice baritone quality.

Are singing and playing at the same time on most of these?
 
Thanks musicturtle, Yep, all of these are tracked playing guitar while singing. When I redo them to add drums I'll try tracking separate for everything. I've just been trying to get a reasonable demos down to show people my music while I work on composing. I have a version with bass added directly over these takes but am still working out whats too much sometimes, cause I have a tendency to write melodic bass lines so the songs can loose to much focus even if the bass plays well with the music itself. I hope to quite smoking too to help my range. Some songs I had to tune down, to work with my voice.
 
Cool. I would try doing a few recording the guitar separately even for demo purposes. Your timing is a bit off on both parts at times and the vocals have some pitch problems here and there. Concentrating on one at a time might help. Just my two cents of course, keep at it, and yes quitting smoking should help, it sure helped me.
 
You're keeping good time on guitar, and you have a decent voice. Your vocal melody gets a bit tangled in itself at times which, IMHO, is due to superfluous words being squeezed in at spots giving a rushed feeling.
 
I agree with the bloke above with the vocal comment. You're up on the tightrope there trying to balance telling a very verbose lyric story...with melody...at speed. Hell of a breathing technique you have to pull off here. Good songs though. They'll sound nice all mixed up when you get em how you want em.
 
These are some new practice mixes. I'm trying out turning my guitar down to E flat, and just started working with making tracks from different takes. Does anyone know how to get reaper to auto punch? I tried changing the record method by right clicking the record button but it seems to still record the space before (that I'm trying to listen to) where the punch is set.

For The World E Flat 112bpm Practice Mix by Christopher Ciccone | Free Listening on SoundCloud

Winds Shifting E Flat Practice Mix by Christopher Ciccone | Free Listening on SoundCloud

Tell Me A Story E Flat Mix 7 With Takes by Christopher Ciccone | Free Listening on SoundCloud

Show Your Light E Flat 178bpm Mix2 by Christopher Ciccone | Free Listening on SoundCloud

I'm Here In Time E Flat Practice Mix by Christopher Ciccone | Free Listening on SoundCloud
 
... Does anyone know how to get reaper to auto punch? I tried changing the record method by right clicking the record button but it seems to still record the space before (that I'm trying to listen to) where the punch is set...

Maybe you haven't got the procedure correct. This clip should help.

YouTube
 
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It sounds as if you're trying to sing just a bit lower than what should be a comfortable key for your voice. Can you transpose up or down one key..? - sometimes that makes a big difference.

Your guitar work seems fine, but the way you're phrasing your lyrics interferes with your song's rhythm.






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Thanks for the video Spantini. Think I was using the item auto punch and not moving the marker outside the screen so it would deselect and record from the marker.

Yeah, my voice kind of needs different keys depending on the song, I'm just doing a bunch of recordings in E flat to see which ones work while I have it tuned this way, on winds shifting it keeps my voice from breaking too much into the high register. If you are referring to for the world (the first song listed), I agree that's a song that sounded better with the guitar tuned normally for my voice. I have a capo but never really got comfortable using them, it might be my guitar but it seems to mess up my tuning to make songs not sound right. I also play for the world a lot better if I sing and play at the same time, because there's all sorts of rhythm changes in it.

Try listening to that version which has the guitar tuned to e.

02 for The World - Tales of the Heart Demo by Christopher Ciccone | Free Listening on SoundCloud

Rock on Tango is an example of a song that I tuned the guitar down to C#

05 Rock On Tango - Tales of the Heart Demo by Christopher Ciccone | Free Listening on SoundCloud

And I believe in love is an example of either D or E flat tuning that turned out really nice for my voice

01 I Believe in Love - Tales of the Heart Demo by Christopher Ciccone | Free Listening on SoundCloud
 
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