Help Me!! Please!!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Shaky Tee
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Shaky Tee

Between being and nothing
I too have just put a new song up.

I'm frankly not very happy with it.

In fact, I HATE it!

This was supposed to be my masterpiece, but it's come out all wrong.

The reverbs suck, the mix sucks, my vocal takes suck (I did about five of them yesterday, and I used the one that I initially thought was the best - I dunno if it's me or if the lappy decides to speed things up on me - I've gone over this song vocally for a LONG time, and I'm still going off). EVERYTHING SUCKS!!!

Anyway, I need some suggestions REALLY bad. Anyone have any ideas?

The song is on the very top of my alter ego page at al.com:

http://www.artistlaunch.com/helens

I was up until four in the morning trying to put this together. I tried all kinds of reverb sounds. I d/led it this morning after I uploaded it and almost burst into tears.

I need a kick in the ass.

And a hug.
 
Shaky Tee, first of all, here's your hug...
The mix sounds pretty damn good to me... the lead part (keyboard?) is a little hot, but not bad.
I love your lyrics, and the melody is cool, it's a well-written song.

And now for the kick...
You need to re-sing it to resolve pitch issues. Are you wearing headphones for singing? Your voice has a fine quality, but your sharps and flats are taking away from the quality of the song. It sounds to me like you can't really hear yourself while recording.
Do however many takes it takes to get it right, this song is worth the time and effort.

Excellent writing, good mix... now you've got to sweat through getting the vocal tracked on pitch.

Mark
 
Thanks MKG,

That's been my biggest issue with this song - I've tried EVERYTHING to put this puppy to bed vocally - Turned the music up in the cans, turned them down, last time I took out some of the instruments and just sang along with the bass and drums. Frankly, it made it worse. :eek:

I have some other ideas, but can you suggest anything?
 
I'm not able to download it. Have you taken it down already?
 
Vocals are the only problem with this song.NOTHING is on pitch.I repeat NOTTA.LOL.You know that though.....maybe you are out of your range on this one.Nice clean mix on the song ....those vocals are just terrible(you already know that).

It almost sounds like you sang off pitch as a joke.

:eek:

Did you?
 
NO, I haven't taken it down. It's on listen only, but I'll make downloadable, if you wish.

Kramer, no, sadly, not a joke :D. I'm considering maybe taking it down a notch. I'm also going to try a few other things.

It's just made me crazy, is all!
 
I saw an idea here recently that sounded very cool. Do a track (key, guitar, or any other melody instrument) that does exactly what you want the vocal to do. Sing along with that track, using it as a pitch guide, just like you'd use a metronome as a rhythm guide. Once you get the vocal on pitch, erase the guide track.

Mark
 
Sure. I'll give it my 2 cents (I think my firewall at work keeps me from listening without downloading - it only seems to work when I can download).

I haven't heard it yet, but the lyrics look promising, and the trick MKG suggests has worked for me in the past - I have pitch problems too unless I'm within my "comfortable" range.
 
I've just made it downloadable.

Don't say you haven't been warned about the vocals. :D
 
I'm listening to it now. Yup, the pitch of the vocals are the killer. You do have a nice vocal quality though.

Here's another idea: I'm not hearing much in the vocal range that a singer could cue from. The piano is high, and there's nothing in the low registers that's easy enough to grab onto. (which would be perfectly okay if that's the sound you're going for).

So... instead of adding a melody track to follow while you're singing, try adding a track of low strings, or a synth track that really holds up the key. This should make it a lot easier to hear where you're at while you're tracking, and it shouldn't distract you like singing over a melody line sometimes does.

Don't let the frustration get to ya - we've all been there. From listening to the other tracks, you ARE able to sing correctly in pitch, so just figure out what the music needs to keep you there (be it temporary or permanent). There's no shame in that, and we've all heard stories of much crazier things :)
 
ouch.... :)
I'm sorry... this is a hard one... let me ask you first... do you hear that singing is off? if you don't I'm not sure what the solution would be...

if you DO hear it then I would suggest to sing a small portion ... like the begining ... and work on the pitch issue... don't sing it with the track just play a chord or even just a melody notes on keyboard and practice that way...

the mix seems pretty good but at this point it's hard to concentrate on it ... :)

also I don't think a million takes will do any good ... you need to learn the melody I think ... you didn't just improvised the melody right???

sorry, I hope I didn't sound too harsh.. it was not my intention...

I have to admit I was surprised to hear a lady homerecer... :)actualy I do know one here in my area ...

cheers

PS I listened to some other tunes on the page, it's a wierd thing... it seem like all the vocals are not realy right ... hm ... yet they are strangely close ... I think they are all a little sharp... or I'm loosing my mind... :D
 
I might recommend that you don't listen to this song for a good two to three weeks. Come back after that time and listen for the pitch issues. I think they might seem more apparant. My guess is that you're so submerged in the mixing, that other things are getting past you without you noticing.

There was some tone on other instruments (guitar at 2:05) that are a little hot on the midrange.

The piano part has a nice flow to it - good job on that...

Just some ramblings...
 
Geez Shakes, don’t be so hard on yourself. I haven’t listened yet, but I will. Maybe you just needed a rest before you finalized. Let it go for a day or so and come back and it will sound altogether different. I believe old TripleM just said that. Anyway, I’ll listen and get back to you. I do the same thing all the time. It’s usually just a matter of gear chain sequence and tweaking. But it does seem to be hard to evaluate something when you’ve been at it all night…sort of like spinning your wheels and going nowhere. As Arnold said, I’ll be back!
 
major pitch problems with the singing. I think past "autotune" territory...

the intro piano is kinda "stompy" sounding..and some unique drum programming. Kinda sparce and "unhuman" feeling.

the fidelity is also lacking highs, especially on the drums. The almost have the 3rd generation tape sound...kinda back there with no punch...but kinda "tappy" sounding.

very interesting tune, but the singing needs some big attention before you continue.

Now...the solo at 2:07 makes the music sound much better...much better stereo feel, fidelity, with the drum exception. And it is a NICE solo too. Love it. Things are improving at this point. but damn those canned drums.

I wonder if you're hearing "correctly" when doing you vocals to be so off so much of the time....

at 4:00...or the ending, so to speak, the timing musically really falls apart...even with programmed drums??:confused:

You're on the right track....stick with it.
 
Thanks mix-dude, I'm definitely going to redo the vocals on this.

Everyone else, the site seems to be down now. Should be up in a few...
 
Shaky,

Stylistically, this tune reminds me of Kate Bush... cool tune!

MixMkr pretty much covered it well... the two "absolutely must-fix" items are the drums and the out-of-tune vocals.

The drums at 30 seconds to the end are way off-tempo, and the level balance between the cymbals/hi-hat and the rest of the kit is very disproportionate througout the song. I agree with Mixmkr too that some different programming may be in order to give it a more human feel. Find a drummer and ask them to help you program a pattern.

I didn't mind the tack-piano patch too much, kind of suits the style of the song, but I didn't care for the synth sound of the solo....

The tune's worth fixing these things for though!

Bruce
 
Cool tune-you've already got some good advice but thought I would re-mention: vocals seem to be going sharp-alot! The melody in the section between :30-:40 (and it also happens later several times) seems to be undefined. I didnt really care for that slapback sounding echo on the voice too much either.

On the positive side-I really like the tune-nice chord progressions - some interesting use of dynamics-good lyrics-good melody in general. I agree with a little polishing this could be your masterpiece don't give up!
 
Interesting Tune

Hey Shaky Tee,

Very interesting tune! Nicely constructed and I like the arrangement.

I haven't read any of your replys so I am probably being redundant so if I am ... yada yada yada

Anyway, the one feedback I might give may be to try re-recording the vocals. I think you can nail this and if you can get those vocals to sit right this thing will really fly.

Something that helped me (courtesy of Erichenryus) is to try recording a complete melody track of what you want to sing and then try singing along with it. Of course, there is also the old auto-tune if you have one (and not opposed to using it ... big debate there) ... If not, then do like Lt. Bob says and just record, and record and record til' you can't stand it anymore, then record some more ... eventually you are going to get it.

This is really worthy of fixing ...

btw -- here's a big hug to you! It is not even one smidgen to being close to as bad as you think it is (try saying that 5 times fast) ...

Best to you and thanks for sharing this!
 
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