I think we're alone now

Michael4000

Hi all, I was inspired to do this song Because Billy Joe Armstrong from Greenday just did an at-home version of it. Please tell me what you think!

Thanks,

Michael

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AvqpmhkVjP-MjTiQ3qmVfH8F7Xbg

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DogMeat

Loving it. You are a real musician. So hard to play and sing together.
To my taste the piano has too much low-end rumble, and cutting some of would make the whole track enjouable and get rid of distortion. I don't know what your piano/keyboard and recording process is, but should be fairly easy to fix in many ways

DogMeat

Just checked the file in Reaper and it's too loud. Clipping quite many times and creating that distortion.

Michael4000

@DogMeat thanks for your feedback on this. I intentionally add extra bass to my recordings, because there is no bass player, it's just my voice and a piano, and it can sound a bit empty at the bottom so I crank up the bass. I do realize that it's distorting a bit but not that much on my end. Anyway I'm not overly concerned about the audio quality of the recording because my goal is live performance in a venue, and I will adjust the EQ accordingly for the setting of my performance. On this forum I'm mostly looking for feedback on my singing (although I do appreciate comments on the mix as well). What did you think of the vocals?

sjonrokz4u

Liked it man. Another good outing!

Michael4000

@sjonrokz4u Thanks!

Klaus_T

nice!

just a really minor thing: i think in some of your posts (including this one) i feel these little embellishments you sometimes throw in on the piano could have a different timing sometimes, maybe it's just me. i am not able to explain it any better. it might well be you do this on purpose, and i just expect something else timing-wise. i just mention it because i noticed it recently.

regarding the bass (even though you said you didn't need feedback on the mix ) i don't think you need to add bass for the missing bass. a) it's not gonna replace it, and b) imagining your piano man set, he would just play on the "analog" house piano, so i would reckon leaving the piano preset as it is would be more accurate. along the same line, using the same reverb on both voice and piano would also make sense (i only have laptop speakers atm so not sure,how the reverb really sounds on your mix, it is more a thought)

are you going to make a playlist of the "set list so far" at some point for us?

Michael4000

@Klaus_T Thanks. I agree that I need to work on my timing, I hear it sometimes too. I think part of it is because I'm concentrating so hard on my vocals at this point...this hopefully will go away as I become more familiar with the songs, and more comfortable singing in general. My timing is actually very good on piano alone. I think it's just getting used to putting it all together.

Re: the mix-- I plan on performing with my keyboard, not a traditional piano, because I use the transpose feature at times, and most places just don't have a piano anyway. I'm interested in learning more about the mixing of reverb on piano and vocals. For live performance, I plan on using my TC Helicon mic mechanic. It's very simple-- delay and reverb. Anyone familiar with this, or knowledgeable about vocal effects pedals in general?

Finally, my set list. Well it's pretty much everything I've posted on this forum so far, but I'll paste it all in one place below. There are 37 songs on my list, right now I'm up to 30. It's been a lot of work, I had to create a piano arrangement for almost every song cause most of them are guitar driven songs. This is the first 30 I've done so far since last October:

Fat Bottomed Girls
Ain't No Sunshine
Hard to Handle
Sympathy for the Devil
Werewolves
Santeria
Believer
Only the good Die young
I'm still standing
I Got a Woman
Better Man
American Girl
Africa
Drops of Jupiter
What it takes
The Gambler
Waterfalls
Hey Jude
Living on a prayer
Three little birds
Don't stop believin
I Won't Back Down
Forget you
Why they Call It The Blues
Let it be
You May be Right
Hello
Breakdown
NY State of Mind
I think we're alone now

sjonrokz4u

I’ve been wondering what the set list would be. There’s a couple I’m not sure I recognize but looks like a fun night

jmstanle

@Michael4000 - listening to this I feel like I'm right there in the room and you are singing to me it feels that intimate. Your voice and playing unlock something in me. People are going to love it! You are special :-)

Michael4000

@jmstanle thanks!

Klaus_T

cool thanks for posting the list!

if you don't already, you should use a metronome or beat sometimes for practice. if you do it regularily, it really locks the timings in, and it helps with avoiding tempo fluctuations across the length of a song. i tried it with my band a few times, and weeks later we still felt an "after effect".

Michael4000

@Klaus_T you are 100% correct. So far all of my recordings have been to a metronome. The next challenge after getting through this list of 37 songs will be to go back through all of them and be able to play them all in time without a click track. Also, on a lot of these songs, I recorded piano and vocals separately (because I really wanted to just focus on improving my singing) so I'll need to practice singing and playing simultaneously.

Wigs

I reckon you are still figuring out where to take your breaths and when to hold onto it, and which vowels and mods to use. I think it also caused you to go just the TINIEST bit flat because of unfamiliarity. The song suits the piano and your voice though, round out some of the vowels for the top notes.

Michael4000

@Wigs yes i agree. Thanks for your feedback as always.

DogMeat

@Michael4000 your vocals are great. Really like them

Michael4000

@DogMeat thanks!

Kevin123

Very nice, Michael.