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Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
- I need to read up on mixing and fx tracks
- I might be better doing instrumentals or getting somebody to sing for me (which would also allow me to write easier as I'd be writing for a more flexible vocal range)
- Not to bother sharing with friends and family as they either won't bother listening to it (family), or will just say "yeah cool" (friends).
- That my guitar recording set up needs resolving, I could not record direct through usb from the Digitech GSP1101 as there's a fizzing noise using this method, and plugging it into another interface adds hassle, adds cables to trip over, and loses the ability to do stereo (the whole reason I wanted to use the GSP in the first place)
- my laptop is old and takes too long to export things.
Thanks
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
There's also the argument that a fairly polite sounding Black Country chap trying to do that style of music, especially with a bit of blues in there, would sound utterly absurd
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
Knowing you're not American but have a strongly accented delivery would probably be my only negative, but that's just my personal bugbear. I wish English people would sing in an English accent more. It would let more personality through.
If - I really like the doubled vocals. Very reminiscent of Brian Protheroe who used a lot of double tracking, and your voice sounds similar. I wonder if the arrangements could perhaps be a bit more adventurous. The best arrangers pack a lot of movement into their songs - chorus within the first minute, big shift two minutes in, three acts, reprise or devation at the end, that sort of thing. Obviously there's no rule book and they may be meant to be more stream-of-consciousness arrangements, but packing in more movement might be something to work on for the future.
But overall I enjoyed the stuff, there's a lot of off-kilter personality on show!
Not heard of the double tracking man so I'll give him a listen on Spotify on the way home. I did If and Wild Fire double tracking manually rather than just copy-and-pasting with a slight delay and panning, ie I sang it twice, the second time trying to follow the first as much as possible which was interesting. There's a lot of that on Jack White songs with vocals and guitars so wanted to try that out.
Re the accent - I think I did go a bit American on Wild Fire in particular but mainly because I know the Laura Marling original version too well and she does it too! Likewise with the Lou Reed vibe on that, that's why I nicked the Wild Side bassline for it as my little joke. It is difficult to consciously change an unconsciously used accent I think, I will give it a go though. Would be interesting to find some good examples of singing in an English accent that I could get the gist from, as I am a bit of a mimic in general so need a reference point to start with most of the time. I often find it just as cringe worthy to hear an overly twee (or strong regional accented) English vocal as a fake mid-Atlantic type voice. Arctic Monkeys, Maximo Park or any English musical theatre song ever spring to mind in particular. Only person I can think of that sounds unmistakeably English and still sounds good in the styles I like is Pete Doherty (though appreciate that's not for everybody!). Laura Marling does sometimes but switches between that and the mid-Atlantic thing a lot, but she has the voice to pull it off.
Lou Reed, Jack White and Paul McCartney are very much the holy trinity for me influence-wise. It's the Reed and White influence (and my lack of concentration) that lead to the stream of consciousness thing. I think though my next project will likely be the "back to basics" approach I failed to act upon for the last fretboard challenge.
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
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I’m okay with mid Atlantic accents but I guess to hear English accents I tend to think of folk oriented musicians, like RT here:
https://youtu.be/j0kJdrfzjAg
I was trying to decide what accent Scott Matthews sings with, he’s a contemporary kinda folk, indie, singer songwriter ish chap from Wolverhampton. He’s been with a band when I’ve seen him live but Youtube was pulling up more of the folk ballad stuff:
https://youtu.be/nqwP9Y99668
I was trying to think of famous Brummie singers but I’m not sure you could pull off an Ozzy Osbourne or Joan Armatrading impression. Dave Wakeling of The Beat is the closest I could think of as someone who still sings in Brummie.
https://youtu.be/Z_Ti1VYUNIs
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
On the reverb, from the comments I was expecting it to be more extreme than it is. In my view it depends how mainstream you are aiming to be - if cool quirky indie is the aim then I'd say do what sounds right to your ears and don't worry about it - there's plenty of reverb on the first Great Lake Swimmers album, or say Camera Obscuras ''lloyd, I'm ready to be heartbroken'.
It's useful to be aware that you are fairly heavy on the reverb if you hadn't realised, but beyond that I'd make your own aesthetic choices unless you're aiming for mainstream radio airplay. That being said I do tend to pile on too much reverb myself...
The other thing which occurred to me is the stylistic difference between the tracks in arrangement and vocal style - it sounded to me like I could be listening to different artists across the tracks. Again, I'm in a similar boat with some tracks I'm working on myself, and I'm not sure whether it's something I want to bring more consistency to or not yet.
Anyhow, I thought the tracks sounded cool in a slightly arty indie way.
Thank you all very sincerely for your feedback on this, it's been rather interesting. If nothing else, I've learnt not to bother sharing with family or friends as it's more frustrating when you get no feedback from them, people with a disconnect like you chaps have been infinitely more helpful for which I'm grateful. My dad finally admitted to having listened to "a bit of it" last night, but said he didn't bother to listen to all of it because it was boring, morose, and my voice was monotonous. Cheers dad! Amusingly I tried to play it to my partner's mom in our living room on the hifi (and her request becuase she couldn't work the "Cloud Sound Thing") and she got up half way through the second song and returned just as the vocals finished in last song, leaving me sat there with it on thinking...erm ok then...
Anyway, yes, next steps & responses to the feedbacks above.
I'll still try to do the stems when I can be bothered to boot up the Perpetual Windows Update Machine, sorry the laptop, so that Mr Spark and Mr TheWeary's son can have a bash at a couple of them when they are bored enough.
Singing - I've got some youtube tutorials to watch on the train on a bit of voice training, though the one I have watched so far seemed to go against essentially everything I find to be comfortable and effective - said to stand up (I seem to sing better sat down), over pronounce the words (I find unless I mumble I sound like I'm trying to do musical theatre which is not the sound one should want!) and stuff like that. But it's good to listen to the opposite viewpoints to challenge yourself isn't it, and perhaps meet in the middle somewhere. I've tried listening for English accent voices but I'm finding very few that sound good, although having listened to my songs I'm not hearing that much of an American accent except on the cover songs. Still would be keen to hear examples of English accent singers that don't sound naff, might post a thread in the music section as recommendations are usually quite good from here. Let's be clear though I'm never going to sing like a Brummy, not least because I'm not a Brummy, but also regional accents do not work for me in British bands.
I do like the reverb but I've also got some videos to watch on how to use Cubase (my knowledge is 80% what I learnt in a 2 day music tech course I did at Secondary School, which would have been in about 2002 using Cubasis VST, and 20% me clicking buttons until something works) so hopefully that'll help. I'm not looking for any commercial attention from these, hence why I don't particularly care if the variety of things on there removes any cohesion from the playlist as they were all pretty much experiments to see what I could come up with. Only If and Suarez are in the style I'd personally consider to suit what I like. But as I'm a rookie in terms of writing, singing, recording, and playing parts within arrangements, I don't have a consistent style to follow without basically rehashing White Stripes or Yeah Yeah Yeahs songs..
My next project will probably be an attempt to do the styles I like - it won't be sent to any friends or family though as I hope to remove that source of frustration going forwards. For this I'll be trying to get somebody else to sing for me, a "hired gun" if you will as my voice is not up to that style. I hear what you guys say about delivery, confidence, etc etc but that will only get you so far and I don't have the right gears in my singing to do it. I'll still try to improve the voice (as I have ZERO technique whatsoever) but not for the purposes of creating the style of music I want to do. It's not a curse of perfectionism I don't think, it's just like not using a fork to eat a broth.
Re the tech issues, I know it's possible to run these things on basic set ups, but I think personally that's based on chance of stumbling across a set up that works. My system doesn't work consistently, but I'm not in a position where I have the time and money to take punt after punt on old computers until one of them works for me unfortunately. So I'll have to stick with what I have and just stop working as and when I encounter issues rather than getting annoyed with them.
Thank you all again for taking the time to listen and offer your thoughts. I'll be removing the songs from the public domain (ie from Soundcloud) at the end of this month, never to resurface again as a whole in all likelihood (though one song may resurface if it fits with my next project).
Cheers all
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic