Singing tone not very pleasant.

ChrisRobinSings

So i have been singing songs and have recorded myself singing. When I hear the recordings, I sound really nasal and like I have a cold. But when i sing in my chest voice, it sounds really unpleasant. Is there any warm ups on Volume 1 that can eliminate that ? I practice every day and I want to be able to sound pleasing to the ear since I am in musical theatre.

highmtn

Chris,

We can imagine what you sound like, but an actual recording would be far better.  Despite your description, an audio picture would be worth a thousand words.

Thanks.

Bob

ChrisRobinSings

I really don't like the way my voice sounds, and I don't have anything to record with.

ragnar

download garageband or audacity (both free) and just use your computer's internal mic. Garageband will access it automatically.

ChrisRobinSings

Thanks

Kokonuht

Garageband is only for Mac though. If you're using a desktop I highly doubt there's a built-in microphone. Try using use mobile phone to record (it has sucky quality, unless it's a good phone but at least we could get some picture of it haha)

ChrisRobinSings

I am trying to upload a song on soundcloud but i dont know what to sing. lol I will try to do a song *gulp*acapella (Cue the da duh dunnnnnn)

I will put a link soon.

ChrisRobinSings

The song I sang was Dona Nobis Pacem because that is what I could salvage at the time. Its 14 seconds long (lol) but when I gain more confidence in my singing ability (or lack of hehe) I will post more longer songs. Little warning before hearing, I suggest that y'all lower the volume because I recorded the song wayyy to close to the laptop. Well .....(gulp) here it is https://soundcloud.com/chrisrobinsings/dona-nobis-pacem/s-LTo9Q 

Have mercy I am made of glass!!!!!!! lol

highmtn

My questions would be as follows:

Is your throat fully open in the back?  Is your larynx in a neutral or slightly lowered position?  Do you feel like you are singing from your support or from your throat?

You have a high range.  Nothing wrong with that, but you could bolster that range with a little better low, rounded tone.  That's why I mention your laryngeal posture.  A slightly lowered larynx can add low overtones to higher notes. 

Is your tongue down all the way to the base of the jaw? This can help to lower your larynx and also to create more space in the vocal tract. 

There is a little bit of instability or quiver in the breath.  Some of that is nervousness, but most likely it is lack of support.  That is the one thing that will improve the sound of our voices more than anything else, and it is so often overlooked.  It will take your effort out of your throat and place it where you have much more strength, in your abdominal area.

Now that you've posted and we didn't kill you, it's OK for you to post some more and not be so worried about it.  Next time have a CD player going in the background so we have a pitch reference (instead of acapella) but keep your voice well in the foreground so we can hear it well (actually about like it was on this recording).  Relax, we won't bite.  Sing in English, if you like, so we can see what you're doing with regard to vowel modifications and the like. 

Are you going to sing any Pop, or Musical Theater, or is everything you do in Italian? Give us some samples of what you really want to do with KTVA.  We'll give you honest feedback and try to help you out along the way.

Good singing to you!

Bob

ChrisRobinSings

I was singing in head voice. My larynx was in a neutral position. I had always had that quiver in my breath which I need to eliminate. Im a musical theatre person but what I want my singing style to be similar to is Adam Lambert and Kelly Clarkson.

ragnar

Well it's quite simple really. Your tone sounds pleasant enough to me but you obviously need to sing a whole lot stronger (and in chest voice primarily) to emulate Lambert and Clarkson who both are singers with massive power, and excellent technique actually.
An audio sample of your best/strongest chest voice singing would be good for us to hear in order to give more input.

ChrisRobinSings

Thank you for your feed back @highmtn and @ragnar. I will upload myself singing a pop song.

ChrisRobinSings

Thanks for the confidence guys I realized that we are all here to learn and not to bully anyone for their  singing. I have recorded myself singing Alone by Heart(Celine Dion Version). I just listen to the first half so I am taking a risk by not listening to the ending where all the high notes are. I kind of ran out of breath on some parts though.Lower volume a little bit I sang too close to the laptop.  Well anyways here is a link to the song enjoy

highmtn

Hey Chris,

I don't want to sound too nitpicky here, but we really need you to do a little sound check before you get through the whole demo.

The distortion on your voice makes it just about impossible to give you very accurate feedback on this clip.

Your previous demo was perfect on the record level of your voice.  This one is saturating the recording with distortion.  I'm not dissing you.  This is part of the process, you getting better at recording so that we can get better at advising you, so that you can get better at singing.  It's all good, when we get rid of the bad.  So I hope you don't get your feelings hurt when I tell you this is a bad recording.  Is there any kind of meter you can watch to keep your voice from going into the "red"?  If not, then you are going to have to use trial and error to adjust the microphone level for your voice to not distort the recording.

Because this song is sung in a more belted voice, you are singing louder, and you will have to adjust your microphone level, either through the Windows sound mixer on your computer, or just by your distance from the mic.  At any rate, let's get good recordings and we can then give you good feedback.

I can hear some places where there are pitch issues, but with the distortion being so prevalent, I can't give you an honest evaluation other than to tell you to first practice improving your recording skills.

This isn't to bully you.  It's to help you with a basic skill that will serve you well in your vocal quest.

Listening to yourself on recorded playback is THE most useful way to really speed up your vocal self-improvement. 

Let's take another try at it, and this time, record a little and check to see if it's clear and undistorted.  If it's distorted, adjust as needed, and repeat until you've got a good sound.  THEN, listen to yourself.  Do you hear any bad notes?  If so, work on that part and re-record it, until you've got it about as good as you think you can.  Then send us a link to that.  It's much more likely to get you some valuable feedback after you've gone through a process like that. 

Hoping to give you some good pointers to help you along the way.

Bob

ChrisRobinSings

Thank you for your pointers. I shouldve checked the track before I submitted it.I used the internal mic on my computer. You are right in what you say that this will help me in the future, and don't worry you didn't bully me I submitted my recording on this site to get critiques like this. I fully understand what you mean. Next time I will submit a better recording. thank you again for your feedback

highmtn

Looking forward to your progress and development.

:^)

Bob

ChrisRobinSings

When you said distortions, did you mean that you heard the singers voice over mine or was it the fumbling noises ??? @highmtn

highmtn

Chris,

The distortion I'm referring to is the terrible static-like sound superimposed over your voice.  It is the result of the recorder's input level from the microphone overloading and saturating the recording.  It is a digital recording, and because of this, when the input level is too high, it creates digital overshoots.  Digital overshoots are very unpleasant-sounding.  That makes it almost painful to listen to.  Literally.  

Never make something painful to listen to and then ask people "Well, what do you think?"  They are likely to say something unpleasant to you.  Getting a good recording is a matter of balancing the sound and ensuring that nothing is going into distortion.  

You want it to sound clean, so we can actually hear what is going on with your voice.

Bob

ChrisRobinSings

Thank you for the clarifying this, I was confused

ChrisRobinSings

Here is a good recording with no distortions that I could hear, just my voice and the backing track. I did hold back on the belting because I record in my small room. Here is the recording of me singing I Don't Believe You by P!nk. P.S. lower the volume a little please thank you and enjoy:)

https://soundcloud.com/chrisrobinsings/i-dont-believe-you-p-nk/s-ijeh8

Ken Tamplin

Hi Chris,

I checked through your stuff. I actually think your tone is pretty cool. (it's a bit airy but it sounds like the sound you are going after and there are a lot of great artists with this kind of sound. George Michaels for one. Check out his song Freedom).

What I think is more important is focusing on pitch which I know you are aware of.

I am going to be posting a video on this soon to help people with this issues and rest assured, this is very common for people learning to sing.

ChrisRobinSings

Thank you so much Ken by the way, I need help building my midvoice because I am going for the theatrical sound like Adam lambert and Kelly Clarkson, any advice since you heard my recordings @KenTamplin