I have 18 songs all ready to go. Just ONE small problem.
I CAN'T SING!
Honestly, its like I can't hear where I'm supposed to be. Like I have no reference. I can match notes pretty good with a single note piano, but throw guitar in, and I'm lost trying to find reference.
Anyhow, any tips on how I could perhaps possibly fix this?
(this is just for example, If I comped it and etc I could prob get better takes than these. The verse, I usually sing way up high, which sounds alive and not dead as this one, but thats no excuse!)
One idea you could try, since you say it's easier to match pitch with just a single piano note, when you get ready to rec vox, record the vocal melody on a synth piano then mute everything else and record your vox with just the single piano line (and maybe a click track if you use one), then delete/mute the piano and unmute everything else.
Or, if it helps with the mood, do this but leave everything unmuted and just turn the reference piano line up louder than everything else so it's easier to follow.
Might be worth a try.
Also, IMHO, I kinda like your vocals as they are. They are off key, as you say, but it has an almost intentional Kurt Cobain sort of off key.
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You have an absolutely great voice, the comparison to Cobain was made already and I would second that. Leave it at that. I think if you go and "improve" it, it will loose a lot of character and charisma.
At that point I would be glad if I could you offer you a job as main vocalist in my band or project. (At the moment I dont have one... sad.)
I absolutely like the song you made, including everything as it is. Wonderful!
(Why do people always have "problems" with what is their outstanding singular ability? What would have happened if Bob Dylan, Nick Cave, Lou Reed and of course Kurt Cobain and Chris Cornell (may he rest in peace :-( )would have thought in terms of "What is normal?" and "What is acceptable as mainstream?" and would have tried to get exactly there? Nothing. Zero. Nada. (Pop-)Music would be even more boring as it is today. So... do the world a favour and sing as you sound. Please!)
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Read some tips saying I should reduce the amount of bass in the headphones as well as not track with compression. Think I got it a TAD better. Still in uber demo mode lol, Have to write some real lyrics for second verse.
Tried to put a mild autotune on it, not sure if it really did much, yet you can hear an artifact every once and awhile lol..
THINK its better, still seems waaaay off or weird to my ear..
0:22 and 0:30 you use an augmented 4th, which is a hard note to sing accurately to begin with, and must be done with a lot of confidence. It's the lack of confidence that 'this is the pitch I want' that is showing, little fluctuations and timbre changes. It sounds like you know what you are doing over all though and the tone is good.
The end of that sample is the worst bit as the pitch drifts everywhere, it will help if you think through the melody and identify where there are 'anchor' tones, things like major or minor chords being outlined, tonics and dominants, and other shapes that you recognize from your favourite music.
For example for me it helps to remember the song The Sunset Sleeps by Red Hot Chili Peppers for a descending 7th which is a really tough one if it's not going from the 7th to the 1st of the scale.
You might try some of those intonation training apps/youtube videos/pdfs whatever you can find to exercise your pitch 'targeting' ability. It's not going to make you sing 'less real', unless you sound like you're practicing when you perform. The idea is to practice so much you have confidence and skill when you perform and you can decide how much you want to drift from the notes by intention, not by accident.
Some good stuff~! LOVE the technical stuff, Still hard to believe for me that there are like all this technical stuff for vocals, Like its an instrument! (guess it is).
Anyhow, how the heck do you know thats an augmented 4th? Lol I don't even know what that is~!
0:22 and 0:30 you use an augmented 4th, which is a hard note to sing accurately to begin with, and must be done with a lot of confidence. It's the lack of confidence that 'this is the pitch I want' that is showing, little fluctuations and timbre changes. It sounds like you know what you are doing over all though and the tone is good.
The end of that sample is the worst bit as the pitch drifts everywhere, it will help if you think through the melody and identify where there are 'anchor' tones, things like major or minor chords being outlined, tonics and dominants, and other shapes that you recognize from your favourite music.
For example for me it helps to remember the song The Sunset Sleeps by Red Hot Chili Peppers for a descending 7th which is a really tough one if it's not going from the 7th to the 1st of the scale.
You might try some of those intonation training apps/youtube videos/pdfs whatever you can find to exercise your pitch 'targeting' ability. It's not going to make you sing 'less real', unless you sound like you're practicing when you perform. The idea is to practice so much you have confidence and skill when you perform and you can decide how much you want to drift from the notes by intention, not by accident.
Kind of interested in what you called anchor notes. Because I just pretty much sing whatever comes out of my mouth. No real direction.
Here's a take I took today. Ugh. A TAD better, but I think I need to spend a good 4-5 months of vocal lessons to get going? A little better....
You potentially have a real good voice. What you don't have is any understanding of technique, and most importantly, control.
ONE lesson with a really GOOD vocal coach will probably be enough to let you know exactly what you are doing wrong. That is the first step, eliminate the bad habits. A great coach will tell you there and then things about yourself that will amaze you and pave the way for extremely rapid progress so you can do whatever you want with the voice you have been gifted. There's three things to learn CONTROL, CONTROL & CONTROL. They come from good technique which can easily be adopted if you know how. Question is, do you want to know how?
I agree with the Cobain reference. I think you do have a good voice for the style of music. Is the pitch off a bit here and there. Sure, but listen so was Kurt Cobain's voice (not to mention Ozzy, and even Robert Plant and Sammy Hagar have gronked a few notes here and there).
A little ReaTune might help (let the yelling at me commence!) - don't use it like an obvious effect, keep it very subtle, and just revise the trouble spots as needed.
Take your time and get it right. You're a lot closer than you think.