Do I do this song justice vocally?

I don't want to upset any layne staley fanatics that'll accept nothing less than a karaoke king, but I'm not layne, and as much as I find him a real inspiration and a reason for me to never use drugs, I'm not trying to be.

I really love AIC but I don't think I could do justice to a lot of their metal-ish songs because my voice just isn't aggressive/raspy enough. But "Jar Of Flies" is a bit laid back in that sense, his voice is much smoother, so I figured "what the heck, I'll give it a try.." about ten minutes ago.

Here's the original, for anyone who doesn't know;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMOU7qZVwJs

I'm pretty sure the vocals are layered, and so I only sang the main layer but fumbled on a word or two. It's obviously not as dense a sound, and it's only the vocals so there's nothing hiding any flaws besides the song playing in the background. (I haven't heard it in awhile, I'll admit..) If you guys think it's good enough, I'll try to do it acoustic or on the piano if I can figure out my own unique take, which I'd like to do.

That was really good! You have a great voice IMO.

I'd listen to it if you did it acoustic

You sure my voice works for the song? I remember asking an aic "fangirl" AWHILE back who was apparently in her 30s or 40s and she flamed the crap outta me for asking for her opinion once or twice. She told me she wouldn't even bother telling me how bad I suck in comparison, and that she'd be nice and leave me alone. I wasn't really sure what to think of her opinion, considering her age and how she acted half of it.

So thanks, friend. I hope Layne's smiling down on me right now.

You waver a bit on your pitch, but other than that, you could totally pull this off. Would like to hear backing music though.

Nutshell is an easy one to play and sing.

Yeah, that was either me running out of breathe because I seem to push harder than I need to with AIC songs, or if you mean the "I stay away"s he sings the second one a bit lower, and then the last one higher. I didn't mean to throw anyone off.

I'll try to learn "Nutshell".. I suck at tuning, though.

I think I could play "I Stay Away" while singing, also.

I think it works just fine with the song. I was expecting a totally different voice from Layne's, but yours its pretty suited to the song IMO. It isn't a dead copy and that is usually a good thing...

Thanks, man. Pretty cool.

I got a wire to plug my guitar into my amp, and now I tried to tune in drop d to do a pearl jam song WITH a simple guitar backing, and the highest string broke.. wtf?

Nice voice man. I'm a huge AIC fan. Do you write any of your own lyrics? I have a few old songs laying around that people say sounds alot like AIC. Maybe if you're interested we could talk about a little collaberation.

It was very good. A little waverly, but you'd probably do better with the music in front of you rather than singing over the original in your headphones. You did the song justice I think. You can work on annunciating also, some of the words crapped out a bit in the "why'd you travel south ....." part.

You shouldn't be afraid to go loud in certain parts. I heard you do "Oceans" and you sound good in those loud dynamic shifts, like the "I will be" part.. Nice falsetto too btw.

What's interesting about your voice is that it doesn't sound like Layne much, but a mix of three of his peers, Vedder, Cornell and Buckley, IMO. Yeah I know that is great company, you're not that good yet but you have a lot of potential. Don't hold back any anger.

@Jim; Sure, man! I do write my own lyrics, and I've even tried coming up with some nice melodies. I'd love to collab if you'd like.

I don't know where you're hearing buckley, honestly, but that actually makes me really proud of how far I've gotten so far, even if it's not that far in the long run. I'm going to assume you mean I'm not in their league yet, but I know that, I haven't even started a band or finished a single song. If you mean vocally I'm not in their league, well, I don't know how much more I'm gonna be able to improve, but I'll keep on trying. I don't HAVE to be as good as them, but having a goal like that is good motivation. Makes you work hard.

And, I actually did "Rain When I Die" today, and I x'd out audacity before I could turn it into an mp3.. I got sidetracked when my piece of {censored} landlord started mocking me in a drunken, muffled stupor downstairs because I was recording more than once for multiple songs. So I put some aic on full-blast and started screaming for a half hour or so. I threw in some "{censored} yous" and other nice comments. It felt good.

But, when I start making originals, I'll be sure to show some of you guys. I'm trying to learn as much musical theory and recording stuff as possible, I don't want to just be the guy that sings.

Winosaur, sent you a PM.

You sure my voice works for the song? I remember asking an aic "fangirl" AWHILE back who was apparently in her 30s or 40s and she flamed the crap outta me for asking for her opinion once or twice. She told me she wouldn't even bother telling me how bad I suck in comparison, and that she'd be nice and leave me alone. I wasn't really sure what to think of her opinion, considering her age and how she acted half of it. So thanks, friend. I hope Layne's smiling down on me right now.

Dude, you pretty much nail it!

it sounds a bit more country, though, but I like what I am hearing....

Even if someone says they don't like it, so what?

You know you can sing, so do it!

I've never heard any country-ishness in my voice, and no one's ever said my voice sounded country, but I guess that particular recording might sound country. I guess I have heavy vedder qualities as previously said. Maybe he'd do a good country song too.. lol

Thanks for the compliment, though. Been practicing a lot, trying to improve my mix.. (Don't listen to that scream file, it's not meant to be good.. I was taking a piss out of a song. Just wanted to know if it's head voice or not, or if I should give up on finding it.)

Well, your voice is unique so it doesn't sound like an impression of

Alice N Chains.

I don't know how to exactly say what I mean when I heard you sing, but

it was darn good. I've had DAW problems for years and never had a stable

environment to record my voice, but I just tried reaper and I have zero Crashes with it. I hope to record my voice soon..

What type of mic, preamp, interface do you use?

I just noticed your soundclick page says, "I suck at life!"

Dude, I feel the same way!!

PS-I listened to it again, and I can hear the Eddie V qualities but when you hit the high notes

I can hear something different that Eddie. I mean he screams the high notes and you sing them...

True, I guess. lol

Yep, I do suck at life. I'm horrible at it.

I actually use the mic that comes with rock band (y'know, for the ps2) and then I record it into audacity, use gverb on it so it has that live mic amplifying effect, and I put the gain up a bit.

I'll look into Reaper.. And if it's p2p, I'll look into it when I have cash.

Oh, yeah, and I think it's safe to say that the fangirl was a bit insane in the membrane for downright flaming me for nothing. lol

True, True. Reaper is free for 30 days, and it's only

60 bucks for a full license!