DISCLAIMER: Before clicking the following links, make sure you're fully 
prepared! Your ears might not forgive you. You have been warned.



Cough please. Open wide. Now say "AAAH"...

http://download.orphi.me.uk/Music/G3/IKnowWhy-Raw.mp3

This is the original, unprocessed recording. (Except for some stereo 
panning.) With a little bit of post-production (i.e., a compressor tuned 
to the most aggressive setting I could find) and some backing supplied 
by Battery [drums] and Kontakt [double bass and clarinet - I couldn't 
find a saxophone], it sounds like this:

http://download.orphi.me.uk/Music/G3/IKnowWhy-Final.mp3

(I don't know if it's Cubase or Kontakt, but the first note on each 
instrument seems to randomly get dropped or clipped... Very annoying!)

In case you have no idea WTF this is supposed to be, see for comparison:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA3LFd8g9bY

This is the version I'm attempting to cover.

Problems:

* Technically, it is illegal for this recording to exist in the first 
place. Hopefully nobody will sue me... o_O

* Microphone hiss. Absurd levels of microphone hiss. The extreme 
compressor settings only make things worse.

* Breath control. I had real trouble not running out of air on... well, 
basically ALL of those chords. But even the bits that aren't chords, I 
was constantly breathless. Maybe it's because I'm so unfit, but I 
suspect I'm probably just doing it wrong.

* The lead vocals were done in a single take. I really didn't put very 
much effort into them at all. It was meant to be a guide track rather 
than a final take, so it's not especially accurate. (You may have 
noticed that I didn't sing the final verse - mostly because the original 
lyrics are unparsable.)

* The finale was EXTREMELY hard to sing. I wasn't expecting it to be, 
but I found it nearly impossible to get right. I did endless takes, and 
they all sounded terrible. In addition to being out of tune, it's out of 
time too!

* The bridge with the key change is my favourite part. But for whatever 
reason, when I sing it, every "doo" is 90% D and only 10% OO, so it 
sounds rather achromatic. Again, I'm probably just doing it wrong.

* My throat really hurt during this. I can't decide whether I'm just not 
used to using my voice, or whether I'm actually doing it wrong. (I spend 
most of my life sitting alone, not uttering a word. Whenever I talk to 
people, I notice my throat hurts after half an hour of talking. Trying 
to sing loudly is presumably much more work than merely talking...)

* The headphones I was using make it difficult to hear both myself and 
the backing track. I had to sing this with one ear in and one ear out.

* If I ever get to do this again, remind me to put more pitch references 
in the backing track! A lone double-bass doesn't give me much to go on...

* I had serious difficulty mixing the final version. I wanted to *hear* 
the vocals, but the signal keeps clipping. I turned the vocals down and 
down and down until now they're barely audible, and still the signal is 
only just out of the red. Compare my recording to The Senti-Mentals, and 
their track is nowhere near the end of the meter, yet sounds 
*drastically louder*. WTF?

* I have quite a low voice. Initially I was singing the chords as F4, 
A4, C5. But that was too low and rumbling, so I changed it to A4, C5, F5 
instead. That sounds much better. Yet somehow, when The Senti-Mentals do 
it, their voices sound much brighter and clearer than mine. Not sure if 
they're actually singing higher notes, or whether I'm just singing badly.

For extra fun, if you increase the playback speed of the track, my voice 
sounds higher, and then you can "make out" the chords properly:

http://download.orphi.me.uk/Music/G3/IKnowWhy-Chipmunk.mp3

It's actually not bad, eh?

Post a reply to this message

Le 26/05/2014 14:20, Orchid Win7 v1 nous fit lire :

> Problems:
> 

> (I don't know if it's Cubase or Kontakt, but the first note on each instrument seems
to randomly get dropped or clipped... Very annoying!) 


Hint: have all partitions' lines start with a note, then padded with
silence. It might be a problem of uninitialized variables, so everybody
says BOO at the start and voilà!


> * Technically, it is illegal for this recording to exist in the first
> place. Hopefully nobody will sue me... o_O

Depends on which country you are. IIRC, it might not be a problem in China.

> 
> * Microphone hiss. Absurd levels of microphone hiss. The extreme
> compressor settings only make things worse.
> 

You seems too near the microphone (saturating ?). The sensibility of it
might also be a problem if you are to move away from it.

The original was probably done about a meter away from the microphone,
with enough volume to not hear breathing. And they stood up. Not sited.


> * Breath control. I had real trouble not running out of air on... well,
> basically ALL of those chords. But even the bits that aren't chords, I
> was constantly breathless. Maybe it's because I'm so unfit, but I
> suspect I'm probably just doing it wrong.

Singing lessons might teach you how to breath silently, or even how to
sing while taking air in! But you need to find an old timer, because
current "singer" just talks... in the head microphone while jumping
around (calling that "dancing")

> * My throat really hurt during this. I can't decide whether I'm just not
> used to using my voice, or whether I'm actually doing it wrong. (I spend
> most of my life sitting alone, not uttering a word. Whenever I talk to
> people, I notice my throat hurts after half an hour of talking. Trying
> to sing loudly is presumably much more work than merely talking...)

Practice! A twitting child has something like 2 hours of babbling loud
everyday... if he is quiet. An adult can have a day with as much as
thirty second of vocal ("Hello"..."Thanks" "Goodbye"). There are
muscles, they need to work every day if you want them to run.

And volume comes from the belly or even the pelvic area.

And do not start a marathon head first from your wheeling chair.
(or do not try to lift the 200 kg when entering the weight-lifting club)

> 
> * The headphones I was using make it difficult to hear both myself and
> the backing track. I had to sing this with one ear in and one ear out.
> 

Real studio have a feed-back loop in the headphone. Or you need the
opened-ones.

> * If I ever get to do this again, remind me to put more pitch references
> in the backing track! A lone double-bass doesn't give me much to go on...

Reference need rythm (but a visual metronom can do), and pitches.

> 
> * I had serious difficulty mixing the final version. I wanted to *hear*
> the vocals, but the signal keeps clipping. I turned the vocals down and
> down and down until now they're barely audible, and still the signal is
> only just out of the red. Compare my recording to The Senti-Mentals, and
> their track is nowhere near the end of the meter, yet sounds
> *drastically louder*. WTF?

Working in mp3 is not the best thing.

And you might be saturating the microphone.

Thanks for sharing a bit of music in this hard world.

Post a reply to this message

>> (I don't know if it's Cubase or Kontakt, but the first note on each instrument
seems to randomly get dropped or clipped... Very annoying!)
>
> Hint: have all partitions' lines start with a note, then padded with
> silence. It might be a problem of uninitialized variables, so everybody
> says BOO at the start and voilà!

Yeah, I may have to do that. (I wish I could say this is the first time...)

>> * Microphone hiss. Absurd levels of microphone hiss. The extreme
>> compressor settings only make things worse.
>
> You seems too near the microphone (saturating ?). The sensibility of it
> might also be a problem if you are to move away from it.
>
> The original was probably done about a meter away from the microphone,
> with enough volume to not hear breathing. And they stood up. Not sited.

I had the microphone far enough away that I was surprised it actually 
detected my voice. But yeah, it picks up so much background noise - 
which has nothing to do with how near or far I am.

I imagine the professional track was done in a recording studio with 
sound-proof walls, high-quality microphones, and a recording engineer 
who actually knows WTF he's doing.

>> * Breath control. I had real trouble not running out of air on... well,
>> basically ALL of those chords. But even the bits that aren't chords, I
>> was constantly breathless. Maybe it's because I'm so unfit, but I
>> suspect I'm probably just doing it wrong.
>
> Singing lessons might teach you how to breath silently, or even how to
> sing while taking air in!

Yeah, I keep toying with the idea of doing this. Not sure if I have the 
nerve though... we'll see.

>> * The headphones I was using make it difficult to hear both myself and
>> the backing track. I had to sing this with one ear in and one ear out.
>
> Real studio have a feed-back loop in the headphone. Or you need the
> opened-ones.

Yeah, these are cheap "gamer" headphones. (I.e., they're designed to 
deliver maximum bass power, rather than high fidelity.) Having said 
that, they're not as bad as you might imagine... But they're definitely 
designed to isolate external noise.

>> * I had serious difficulty mixing the final version. I wanted to *hear*
>> the vocals, but the signal keeps clipping. I turned the vocals down and
>> down and down until now they're barely audible, and still the signal is
>> only just out of the red. Compare my recording to The Senti-Mentals, and
>> their track is nowhere near the end of the meter, yet sounds
>> *drastically louder*. WTF?
>
> Working in mp3 is not the best thing.

I only transcoded to MP3 so the file download would be small. The 
original material is all uncompressed.

> Thanks for sharing a bit of music in this hard world.

No problem. I must admit, though, I was hoping for more of a reaction... 
It took me about 5 hours to record the vocals for this, and probably 
about 4 hours before-hand preparing the backing track. And another 4 
hours afterwards trying to make it sound good...

Post a reply to this message

Le 2014-05-26 10:46, Le_Forgeron a écrit :
> Le 26/05/2014 14:20, Orchid Win7 v1 nous fit lire :
>
>> Problems:
>>
>
>> (I don't know if it's Cubase or Kontakt, but the first note on each instrument
seems to randomly get dropped or clipped... Very annoying!)
>
>
> Hint: have all partitions' lines start with a note, then padded with
> silence. It might be a problem of uninitialized variables, so everybody
> says BOO at the start and voilà!
>
>
>> * Technically, it is illegal for this recording to exist in the first
>> place. Hopefully nobody will sue me... o_O
>
> Depends on which country you are. IIRC, it might not be a problem in China.
>

No, he means that the terms of his lease prevent him from singing in his 
appartment.  Therefore, not only did he do something illegal, he even 
posted proof of it on the intertubes.


-- 
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/*        @        */{P(0,a)P(a,b)P(b,c)P(2*a,2*b)P(2*b,b+c)P(b+c,<2,3>)
/*   gmail.com     */}camera{orthographic location<6,1.25,-6>look_at a }

Post a reply to this message

>>> * Technically, it is illegal for this recording to exist in the first
>>> place. Hopefully nobody will sue me... o_O
>>
>> Depends on which country you are. IIRC, it might not be a problem in
>> China.
>>
>
> No, he means that the terms of his lease prevent him from singing in his
> appartment. Therefore, not only did he do something illegal, he even
> posted proof of it on the intertubes.

No. I recorded this at my mum's house, while she was out of the country. 
So it's fine.

Post a reply to this message

Le 27/05/2014 20:19, Orchid Win7 v1 nous fit lire :

>>> * The headphones I was using make it difficult to hear both myself and
>>> the backing track. I had to sing this with one ear in and one ear out.
>>
>> Real studio have a feed-back loop in the headphone. Or you need the
>> opened-ones.
> 
> Yeah, these are cheap "gamer" headphones. (I.e., they're designed to
> deliver maximum bass power, rather than high fidelity.) Having said
> that, they're not as bad as you might imagine... But they're definitely
> designed to isolate external noise.

Yep. I enjoy gamer's headphone too for this. Strong isolation and at
good separation (left vs right): can save your "life" to turn/hide from
the small hinting noise of incoming death, out of the view. But for
singing, they isolate too much, so you would need a feed-back loop from
the micro via the mixing table.

Post a reply to this message