Demo after two months - Nights in White Satin

jnaab

Hi everyone. I recorded a few songs this week to mark my progress at the end of 2013. Here's one for you to check out. It's a "one-take", sang once straight through, no editing, no pitch correction, a bit of the effects that Ken spoke of in his Recording Vocals video, with the vocal track volume a little louder than normal.

Things are coming along nicely, though much more room for improvement. Hope you are all well. I'm only online Thursdays, Fridays and half of Saturday each week.

jnaab

I think the link I put there is bad, try this one if that's the case...

JonasFinnLarsson

I really liked your singing! I hope I can get better also!

jnaab

Thanks Jonas!

highmtn

Sounds good, jnaab.

A suggestion I have is to  begin de-emphasizing the consonants and ride the vowels more.

One example would be to leave out the "H" consonant of "I can't say any mor-hor".  Just smooth it together and let the one vowel change notes without a consonant to push it.  Similarly on "they can't understa-hand".

Your pitch is good and your tone is good.  I'm not sure if the distortion was intentional at 1:57.  A little pitchy at 3:53.

You have a lot of good things going for you, not the least of which is a very strong voice to work with!

Good job!

Bob

jnaab

Thanks Bob @highmtn! The distortion was unintentional. My intention right now, especially for sharing my progress here, is to record a single take and share it "as is". I recorded two takes of this the other day and chose the better of the two, rather than patching together bits from both. In a few months I plan to record a proper demo, possibly at a local studio, edits permitted :-)

I sometimes do that "h" thing for effect, but if it sounds odd I'm happy to drop it. I don't do it consciously, but I notice it afterward.

I've made more progress on reigning in the vowels than the consonants, though both are on my radar and have a ways to go.

Thanks again, I appreciate the time you took to listen and comment.

sspatrick

@jnaab. This sounds pretty good. I think you could brighten the tone/vowels a little more and add a little more support in the lower end notes. I do agree with Bob on the H in more:). You have to reset the vocal tract when you do that and pitch will suffer. Just keep it one note. In the chorus the Woah I Love you part, try using the Ah vowel to set up the Woah rather than using a closed Oh vowel. Think more Wah(or Aw as in loft). That can open up that vowel for. Overall good tone and performance.

jnaab

@sspatrick. Thanks so much for the feedback and sorry for the delay getting back to you. I only have internet access two days each week and forgot to return to the forum the last time I was online.

Most of my training now is on the closed Oh and not the Aw in loft or law, though I'm starting to mix that back in. I do train to sing opera (as well as rock) and in Bel Canto they work with what they call the "french Oh with rounded mouth (boca redonda)", exclusively. All other vowel sounds are derived from the french-oh. I know this may not sit well at KTVA, but I've work both the KTVA wide open Aw and the  Bel Canto rounded Oh and my voice has developed a great deal faster on the Oh, for both opera and rock. I'm now working both of them about 70/30 in favor of the Oh, and the Aw I use is still more vertical and rounded than Ken's version. It's all good though. Lots of improvement and I'll tinker until I've got it down. Thanks again.

jnaab

@cinema

Hey, so sorry to get back to you so late. I never saw the indication for the reply until I logged in today. This was incredible feedback and I appreciate it. My voice and technique has changed so much since then that I'm already singing the song very different from before.

I've never heard that people sometimes use vibrato as a way to stay on pitch. I'm going to start paying much closer attention to that. I'm also working with all the vowels again, though mainly oh and ah. I do the ah both with a wider mouth (KTVA) and with the oh mouth (opera).

I'm also a month in to new in-person instruction with two new voice coaches, both professional opera singers here in the city where I live. They've caught some errors and I've made changes accordingly that have improved my tone, technique, support, pitch accuracy and so forth.

In April I begin to more seriously record a series of rock covers, including re-recording Nights in White Satin, to use to find local musicians to form a band and to find online collaborators who are looking for vocalists. I'll share some of the work here. It will mark four months of KTVA, or KTVA-compatible training.

Thanks again, I very much appreciate it.