davie

If any of you guys are interested then let me know, I can post some audio samples

Hey there, Welcome back to the forum. It's been 5-6 years since you made your initial post. Has your vocal range and overall singing changed much since that time? Regarding identifying your vocal fach, it is difficult to do without hearing how you sound. Vocal range is only able to indicate so much. But from how you described your range, it seems fairly typical for an untrained male singer of any type. Feel free to post a sound clip of your singing and I can give you my opinion.

Okay. Here's an update on my experiences with the cympad. Just got back from a drum recording session, we installed the cympads and did a bunch of takes. When comparing recordings from 2 weeks ago to the recordings made today, my general impression is that there is a more defined attack on all cymbal pieces (hi-hat, ride, crashes). The piece with the most noticeable difference was the ride cymbal, the attack had much more presence. Crash cymbals seemed to have a bit a longer but more even sustain. In my opinion, I think these might be a good addition to a drum recording setup looking for a extra boost in cymbal definition.

Hey guys, I was wondering if any of you have any experiences with the Cympad Optimizers. I just ordered a Starter pack. I'm not a drummer myself, but I got these for my drummer to improve the sound of our drum recordings. Crash cymbals sustain seemed to cutting out short for some reason, so I was hoping these would have an improvement on it. Thoughts?

To discuss lesson details, rates and scheduling, email me at davie@daviekuan.com

I occasionally buy used CD's to use as reference tracks. But I also once in a while buy new album releases on CD to support my favourite bands/artists. It might be a collector's mentality but I feel like having physical copies of an artist's music helps to solidify myself as a true fan and not just some casual listener who knows a couple of songs. The last physical album I bought was 'The Blue Hour' by Suede. I also own all of their albums.

For this very reason. When people say that they like "the beat".. I don't really know what they're referring to anymore..

I don't consider SS and other techniques based on speech level singing all that healthy for the voice. I think a lot of the exercises used focus too much on manipulating the throat to achieve specific outcomes. And like you mention, lack of principles regarding breath support. In order to build a strong voice with a solid foundation for singing, a singer needs to have proper breath support. Breath support allows a singer to hold back breath pressure and to gradually fuel an even and steady flow of breath to sing. If a singer feels like they're running out of breath too quickly, it's because they're either letting out too much breath or they're not breathing in deep enough. And about breathing through the mouth vs nose. Either way is fine, nose breathing will prevent you from getting dry, but breathing through the mouth is good for a quicker inhalation when there is less time to take a breath. I think most efficient way to breathe is to simultaneously inhale through both the mouth and nose at the same time. Hope this helps

Hi and welcome to the forum, I had a few listens to your clip. I thought it was pretty good. There's definitely potential here. Not a huge fan of the Singing Success program, in my opinion it doesn't always work well for everyone. If I could advise something, work more on the breath support to try to get a more even breath flow.

Hi and welcome to the forum, I had a few listens to your clip. I think in general you have a good voice, pleasant tone and good pitch. One thing I think you can improve on is your diction and enunciation. There were some spots where words got slurred together making it a bit tougher on lyric intelligibility. Or it might simply be a stylistic thing but either way I would try to work more emphasis on enunciation. Overall, I think you have the potential to sound great if you keep at it and work on the voice.

I actually watched this video probably a week ago. No idea what they're saying. Jack Livigni has some good insights on singing in his videos though.

Hi Sqlfox and welcome to the forum, I had a few listens to your clip. I think your singing is not bad, especially for a new singer. Aside from a few spots here or there pitch is decent. You seem to be singing in a pretty good suitable range for your voice at the moment. For a younger singer, especially someone who is still developing in the voice, I would recommend not going too much into the extremes of vocal range or loudness. For a young male singer it can take a few more years for a voice to settle down. If you're passionate and serious about singing then I would recommend getting a voice teacher to help you keep on improving.

Hi and welcome to the forum, I do read reddit from time to time. I think I may have posted in /singing a couple of times. I think the main difference between this forum and /singing is that reddit has a very wide user base that span many topics and categories. So having a reddit account allows you to participate in various categories. It's almost like a large collection of forums in a way. On the other hand this forum's main focus is music primarily and has been around for a longer time than reddit. I think Harmony Central was one of the first music forums on the internet, which I believe started around early 2000s.

Hi and welcome to the forum, I think you have a naturally good sounding voice. It might be a bit off here or there but it's nothing that can't be improved upon. I'm hearing some issues in the voice; the phonation tends to get shaky on some spots, which I suspect is possibly due to a posture and breath support issue. These two things are often overlooked in a singer's training but are critical to the core of singer's sound. If a singer's posture is collapsed on itself then it becomes very difficult to maintain an even flow of breath. It also makes it difficult to hold back breath pressure. This makes singing higher notes more difficult too because there is a tendency to push too much air on high notes, aka forcing chest voice. In my opinion, it sounds like there is too chest voice being using on your higher notes. This can cause over-thickening of the vocal cords can cause a singer to sing flat. From a technical training aspect, pay extra attention to your body posture. Make sure the spine is tall and straight and the ribcage is suspended high but at the same time without tension. Also work on engaging the body more to hold back the breath pressure. Then gradually work to find the balance between chest and head registers. I hope this is helpful. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

What kind of guitar? Single coil guitar I'm assuming? Have you tried noiseless pickups?

John, looks like a good setup in your original post. Phil's picks are solid as usual. I use a lot of Shure mics in my drum setup as well. SM57 on toms and snare. SM81 for room mic. Kick drum mic is pretty personal preference, I use an Audix D6, which is a solid mic for rock music but a beta52 should do fine I think. I mike snare bottom using an sm58, but I never found bottom snare to be that useful in a mix, its usually used subtly. I remember recording engineer Andrew Scheps once said that any kinda mic is sufficient for bottom snare. I think the most important parts might be the overheads and what type of mic placement (eg. XY, spaced pair) you're using on the overheads, and also the room position, size and acoustics. I actually use pretty budget mics on my overheads, Rode M5 in XY formation. If you're interested, I have a recording of my drum setup on my soundcloud page.

Also I think a lot of good voice teachers will recommend against using too much internal hearing to navigate the voice. Singers who do so can create a lot of extraneous tension in the voice simply because they're doing too much to manipulate their sound. But in reality, the best vocal sounds tend to sound very ugly internally. So in general, try not to rely too much on the sound. The way the sound can translate is very deceptive, which is why it is very invaluable for singers to record themselves. Another thing, some singers don't hear much sound internally in certain parts of their range, for example some tenors can barely hear any sound when singing around their upper passaggio.

The best type of acoustic environment to practice singing in is actually a dry sounding room. In order to build a solid foundation for the voice, a singer needs to rely on body sensations rather than auditory feedback. If a singer's vocal production relies too much on how it sounds in a room then it will be difficult to adjust to singing in different room settings. Especially when switching to a dry room, there might be a tendency to force the voice to try to hear yourself. If you find difficulty singing in a dry space then it might be helpful to monitor yourself with headphones along with a little bit of reverb in the headphone mix.

I'm really only hearing an instrumental track. There is a synth fill being played throughout the track but its more accompaniment rather than lead.

The vocal or lead melody is actually one of the most significant parts of a song. Lyrics together with the melody can be considered 90% or more of a song. Whoever writes the lyrics and melody pretty much own the song and has the full songwriting credit. If two or more people contribute to the songwriting process then it needs to be decided how the songwriting credit is split. Like daddymack said, seeking out a co-writer or songwriter makes more sense in this situation. You might have better luck posting this topic in the songwriting forum section.

Checked out your recording. Overall I like the vocal in full voice. The falsetto part is not bad. I feel it could be better if you transition back into a mix voice on the last note. I feel that the falsetto is being dragged too low and its making the voice cut out a bit. For example: -I can say that loving you is easy -I don't need to prove a single thing -Somewhere along the way I guess you got under my skin ... and so on throughout this melody

Have you already written a vocal melody for this?

The track was not found..

Hi Andy and welcome to the forum I'm sorry to hear about your issue. If your voice is cutting out and consistently cracking in parts of your range then you may be dealing with some swelling in the voice box or vocal folds. Have you tried seeing a throat doctor about it? If your regular singing isn't causing any damage then it might probably be a result of bad sound at the venue and poor monitoring setup making it difficult to hear yourself. Singers have the tendency to sing too loudly to compensate for not being able hear themselves adequately. Do you have a vocal training routine? There are some vocal exercises when used properly can lead to strengthening voices and also rehabilitating damaged voices as well, such as the cuperto exercise from the Swedish-Italian school.

James, Please refrain from such remarks. The admins and mods here have been quite lenient towards you and your behaviour. You're at a risk in getting banned again. If you wish to continue using and participating in this forum community then I suggest stop with the offensive comments and conduct yourself properly.