Wow, I had to fight my DAW all the way. The laptop just starting gagging even though I had most tracks “frozen”. I eventually had to freeze the verse and chorus vox busses to get it to play smoothly so I could automate some stuff on the overall gtr buss
In any case, here it is. There is some distortion on the vox at certain points which I couldnt really isolate (besides the distortion I added on purpose lol)
There is also some guitar hiss at one point. trying to remember back to when I recorded the actual tracks almost a year ago. I dont think I had too many designs on it being a super hi fidelity thing.
I am pretty clueless on vox processing…even moreso than how clueless I al on the rest of it hehe
Hi Jon - I really like a lot of things about this track - it’s a great melange of styles with a really cool bluesy base.
Just listening on small speakers, so I haven’t got much helpful stuff to say about the mix at this point. I’ll try to have a listen again when I have access to decent monitors.
My only comment is on the vocals: The verses sound killer - really bluesy and soulful… but when you go to the chorus (“but when the morning comes…etc”) something sounds off to me - is the vocal flat there? It just doesn’t sound like the notes you are singing are gelling with the instrumental backing at that point…
hard to say exactly…for sure though I was JUST learning to sing and pretty much writing those lines as I sang them, cutting and pasting as I went
Probably one of my weaker compositions overall, even though it has a few good moments. The only reason I spent more time on it was because another member asked me to add bass and give him the stems lol. So I remixed it from scratch. 2 days of my life gone lol
definitely a whole different vocal technique on the choruses, more distorted
could be one of these 2 things:
the notes themselves simply dont go with the backing chords
the notes themselves WOULD go but I am singing them flat or just pitchy
The only way I can think to check that would be to redo the notes with a guitar or midi piano or something and see if they gel with the chords then
Also in play is the fact that essentially its a whole different mix on the chorus because the guitar tone changes drastically
All in all its pretty messy
What do you think about this one around :45 as the verse ends and it goes into the prechorus?? People were telling me it was pitchy but I think it works nicely. I think some of those type lines just sound “different” because you have an ascending like against a moving chord background
"this aint no way to live…SOMETIMES U FEEL LIKE…U GOTTA GET AWAY!! " The tone on “GOTTA GET AWAY” is probably the best vocal tone I have laid down to date
Yeah the tone on that phrase is cool, but (to my ear, at least) the notes don’t really seem to harmonize with the underlying chord at that point.
I personally think it’s pretty critical to have some bass while I’m singing to help with structuring the notes of the vocal melody…could that be the issue here?
now are u talking about the chorus on “Morning Light” or the prechorus on “Another fool”? lol
To my ear, the first few notes of the chorus on “Morning light” seem a little “off” one way or another…but the prechorus of “Another fool” works nicely. I just posted it up as another example where people said it was pitchy or whatever. I dont think Another Fool is pitchy per se, I think it is just an interesting choice of notes over a shifting background
Hey dude - you’re the one posting all the other tracks in the thread - don’t blame me for the confusion! Yes, I was replying to your comment about “Another Fool”…
I finally completed a version I was pleased with. I am sure I could keep working on this song, but I feel I am at a good spot to share my mix of Morning Light. Thank you Jon-Jon for giving me this opportunity. Enjoy!
Just found this thread, and listened to the raw vocal first by mistake, then listened to v1, and v2. There’s a lot good going on in there, and I can hear where it’s going. I do agree, however, that on the first version the vocal on the chorus is substantially off, and although it’s much better on the current version it is still far enough off to make you wonder what the real melody is there. What you’re going for is nice, but since it’s dancing around the background, it needs to be precise to be effective. What I would try is to play the melody for the chorus on a piano, so you know what notes are intended, and compare that with the vox track. The vocal is also doubled there, which is kind of making the pitchiness stand out. Again, the new version is much, much better, and is usable, but it could be really nice with a little more work on the chorus.
yeah, dunno how much more work ill put into this one. It has numerous issues…one being the drum track wavers all over the place and its just a stereo drum track. Not much I can do with it etc
and the vocal. yeah, I have DOZENS of songs that I need to add vox to. So I dunno how much energy ill spend going back and re-tweaking old stuff yet again etc. the way I see it, it either works fairly quickly or its not really meant to be
It’s a very good song, and if you’re the vocalist you should revisit it when you can. The chorus is challenging, if I had to sing it, it would be a lot of comping to get it right. You are not far off on this, hope to hear it down the line.
well I had just started singing when I did it, which was almost exactly a year ago. I have a year of improvement under me now and a lot more connected range etc. (practicing singing while at work 4x/week lol)
I may revisit it in the future but like I say, I have a huge backlog of new music that I need to sing on.
I told myself id have 3 songs FINISHED by spring, to have something to show to folks for my almost 30 years as a musician. So far I have 0 finished lol
I keep trying to get the music better before I commit to a lot of vocal additions. Im always trying to get closer to a VanHalen sort of vibe which is really hard for me since I am naturally way behind the beat both playing and singing lol. Whereas VH generally pushed the beat etc,
here are a couple quick snippets from a few weeks back. This is more the style I want to try for…then again, dunno if I can even get my vocals up on the beat enough to keep up with it lol.
If I had a nickel for everything I wanted to do, id be rich lol
29 days have elapsed since you uploaded this for bashing… I too struggled with the “when the morning comes” chorus and the chords that you pitched. Oddly enough, to me, it didn’t sound like you were flat and out of tune! I had the same issue with David Bowie’s Lets Dance when that was released, and that grew on me quite quickly!
I enjoyed listening to it, and the good point from me was that it was a pure original that didn’t sound like a track that I’ve heard before!
Yes, I was replying to your comment about “Another Fool”…