I Need Your Two Cents

[InfiniteMH]

Two songs.

First one (do u wanna ride) is an R&B that my friend wrote and featured towards the end, this i'm not happy with my vocals because i was half asleep when i was recording, I would like to hear about my friend.

Second one (Untitled, named it christmas song for now) was for a friend's girlfriend last Christmas. He had made the instrumental but he can't sing and so asked me to finish what he started. I made the melody, lyrics, and recorded. A bit bubblegumish song, but I like it a lot (probably because it's mine)

Both instrumentals are made synthetically made without "real" instruments, and I would just like to hear what you guys think about the vocal recording quality.

First song was recorded with a SP B1, M-Audio Audiophile 2496, and a Beringher Mixer, and the second one with the same setup except with M-Audio GT-55 mic with a Stedman pop-filter.

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=2737&alid=-1

 

[guttadaj]

The first one had a lot of crackling going on - especially noticeable at the beginning. Besides that, the instrumental seemed well put together for that kind of tune (pop/rap R&B). And, yeah, there seemed to be a big difference in the quality of the vocals between the 2 tunes, so maybe being half-asleep hurt a bit. I heard a good deal of pitch issues in the first one with the lead and backups, where I didn't really pick up many in the second tune. I liked the sound your friend got on the rapping at the end of the 1st tune, although the places where he doubled the words in a couple of places sounded like they could be tighter... a little more precision. I think if the rap came in earlier and then went back to a sung verse and then back to rap, it would've kept my interest a bit more.

I liked the idea of the second song. The vocal performance was a lot better, like I said, but I think it was mixed too wet. The mix otherwise I thought sounded pretty good - maybe bring the piano forward a bit too. I didn't go for the dissonance in the bridge, and the key change at the end seemed contrived, but I think that, with a better transition, it could probably work pretty nicely.

 

[InfiniteMH]

The crackling on the first song is part of the instrumental, not from my recording.

Other than that, wow, thanks for your input.

While my friend likes to do takes over takes over takes of phrases after phrases after phrases (perfectionist) I just like to go with the flow. Unfortunatly, for the first song, well.. haha

I didn't use any compressing, etc etc

not because i don't want to, but i don't really know how to.. I tried the ones built into cooledit and they weren't that good. maybe i'm using it wrong.

Second song being wet, I used the light concert hall reverb option on my cooledit, and that's what i got. sounded good on the track, i guess that's why i missed it on the mix. Thanks for pointing that out.

your one post made me think about what to do differently next time i record

thanks a lot