My First Singing Post-Twilight

[sunglassesatnight]

This is an Elliott Smith song, and my attempt at it doesn't do him any justice at all, but I need to put my shit out there and get some feedback.

It's far from perfect, I screw up the guitar a little, I am not a good singer, but it's the only song I've recorded while singing that I wouldn't feel like a total hack putting out there.

Let me know what you all think, and be honest. You won't be any harsher of a critic than I am on myself.

Thanks guys.

Twilight

Also, I just played it for the first time on my speakers, (5.1) and it sounded really weird. Guess that's what I get for just mixing with headphones.

[jaroben]

guitar sounded fine. your voice was good, but the song doesn't allow you to open it up much. I've never heard the song by the originator so i can't compare your version with it. But everything sounded fine to me.. I'd like to hear something else from you where there's more expression in the vocals.

[GreedylilPig]

Ryan - great to see you posting some of your work. I think you did a good job capturing the Elliot Smith tone.

The guitar sounds good, but it's sometimes drowned out by the very bassy vocals. Maybe your vocals would sound crisper if you backed up a bit from the mic. I know it's the nature of the song, but you seemed very reserved and shy with the performance. I would guess you have a much better voice than you think you do. It's hard to tell based on this recording, but I hear potential there. Maybe it's a confidence issue but that's not for me to say. You also might want to work a little bit on your breathing. At certain points you seemed a little out of breath. I think the breathing aspect of singing is different for everyone and finding what works for you just comes with practice.

What kind of setup are you using? I recall reading on your site some time ago you were trying to create an efficient, professional-sounding setup and I'm wondering how that's coming along.

Thanks again for posting and I'd like to hear some more of your work.

[sunglassesatnight]

Thanks for the advice Brian.

I am definitely reserved in my singing. It as much a combination of not knowing really how to sing as being worried about what is going to come out.

Any advice is more than welcome. I have read a bit on diaphramatic breathing, and I almost always neglect to try to employ it, because it's not a regular thing to me.

As far as setup, I recorded this song in one take. I have a large diaphragm condensor mic that I used for vocals, as well as a pencil condensor aimed at the 12th fret on my guitar. I recorded two tracks in mono and then mixed them down. Those mics go to a mixer, which is fed into my computer on RCAs.

I know this isn't ideal, but I much prefer playing and singing at the same time.

Also, the vocal track sounds much less boomy/bassy to me on my monitor headphones, I don't know what didn't translate to full sets of speakers, but I will try backing off the mic a bit.