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Cover Song - Melissa


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I played Melissa so much during my recent guitar test drives that I finally decided to do a cover. My vocals suck are not good, but they are starting to improve thanks to a vocal and piano instructor. I should have gotten help years ago. He's turned into more of an overall music coach than a singing instructor.

 

Anyhow, this is all me except for the drums, which is the output from a plain MIDI file feeding Superior Drummer 3. Both of the acoustic guitars are the original bird.

 

All apologies for the vocals.

 

Melissa

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Vocals are kind of a personal thing, I guess. I can't stand my voice at times, but in some places I think it works well. Trying to stay in those places is too limiting, so I just do what I do and let the chips fall.

 

I think Neil Young can be horrible at times, but he still has a natural, honest voice that works well FOR HIM. Even McCartney has some stinkers out there.

 

Good effort, keep it up and don't take the World seriously.

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Vocals are kind of a personal thing, I guess. I can't stand my voice at times, but in some places I think it works well. Trying to stay in those places is too limiting, so I just do what I do and let the chips fall.

 

I think Neil Young can be horrible at times, but he still has a natural, honest voice that works well FOR HIM. Even McCartney has some stinkers out there.

 

Good effort, keep it up and don't take the World seriously.

Thanks for listening and commenting, Murph. I guess I found out what I needed to know.

 

The sad reality is that this is one of the better jobs I've done singing. I'm really quite awful at it. I've got over 50 original songs done to this state. I recently played through them. There are actually some very good songs. Maybe an album's worth. I very much want to put a good vocal track on.

 

Then again, it is just a hobby. [smile]

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Nice cover mate! Music is spot on and vocally, nobody ever sounds like anyone else. Enjoy your gift!! [thumbup]

Thanks for listening and commenting.

 

Agreed about nobody sounding like anyone else. Mine got less awful when I stopped trying to sound like Gregg Allman.

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I had a listen, and I think your song was very well done. Personally, I'd take a real, and honest voice any day over a ”pretty” boyband voice, if you know what I mean? If you have help, I think you will work out some rough edges and find very soon that you have a voice that works just fine and is uniquely yours.

 

I think it is time you let the world hear some more of yours songs...

 

Lars

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Thanks for the kind words and encouragement, folks. I'm working on it. :)

 

.....

I think it is time you let the world hear some more of yours songs...

.....

There is a part 2 to the music coach helping me thing. In addition to work with "Melissa", we will coach me as I re-do my choice of originals. I've got it down to 3-4 finalists. I'll post one as the "before" example like I did with "Melissa".

 

btw, my Myrtle is supposed to come in tomorrow. [thumbup]

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Thanks for the kind words and encouragement, folks. I'm working on it. :)

 

 

There is a part 2 to the music coach helping me thing. In addition to work with "Melissa", we will coach me as I re-do my choice of originals. I've got it down to 3-4 finalists. I'll post one as the "before" example like I did with "Melissa".

 

btw, my Myrtle is supposed to come in tomorrow. [thumbup]

 

Looking forward to hearing those songs!

 

Did you return the Edwina, or are you going to keep both mics? It would be interesting to hear your opinion on the two.

 

Lars

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Looking forward to hearing those songs!

 

Did you return the Edwina, or are you going to keep both mics? It would be interesting to hear your opinion on the two.

 

Lars

I had to return the Edwina. I did retain some test recordings instead of deleting them all. I should know by this time tomorrow, though. [thumbup]

 

I did check with the folks at Ear Trumpet before doing so, just to make sure my logic matched up going from Edwina to Myrtle. They seemed like genuinely thoughtful and engaging folks.

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I had to return the Edwina. I did retain some test recordings instead of deleting them all. I should know by this time tomorrow, though. [thumbup]

 

I did check with the folks at Ear Trumpet before doing so, just to make sure my logic matched up going from Edwina to Myrtle. They seemed like genuinely thoughtful and engaging folks.

 

I would have guessed that the Edwina was the one best suited for home recordings of the two, but I guess it depends on personal taste and recording space acoustics among many things. What features of the Edwina did not work for you, and what do you expect from the Myrtle?

 

Lars

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I would have guessed that the Edwina was the one best suited for home recordings of the two, but I guess it depends on personal taste and recording space acoustics among many things. What features of the Edwina did not work for you, and what do you expect from the Myrtle?

 

Lars

I just took the initial test drive. Impressed. More detail later, but it was in all bottom end. My guitar track through Myrtle sounds like a complete instrument.

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I would have guessed that the Edwina was the one best suited for home recordings of the two, but I guess it depends on personal taste and recording space acoustics among many things. What features of the Edwina did not work for you, and what do you expect from the Myrtle?

 

Lars

A better response this morning. I've actually been thinking about this very question over my coffee for the past 90 minutes or so. More to the point, how to answer without writing a large essay. I would say, for a very small and imperfect home project studio and using a guitar ill suited for that space and purpose, that Myrtle allows for a massive distance variable to obtain a very even, well balanced signal. The Edwina wanted closer mic'd to get the low end, which was OK on it's own, but I could not keep some unwanted resonance out of the mids at that distance. It is not Edwina's fault. At least not entirely. I'm playing a Hummingbird in a 10X11X8 room into an interface known for artificially brightening source material. Note, also, that I will still need to dip a bit somewhere around the 2.8kHz range.

 

One more note. Edwina let me get a little bit of the pick noise into the signal way up around 6-10kHz. Boosting it for some added sparkle.

 

OK, another note. Myrtle and Edwina both let me have better signal in the 700Hz - 1kHz range. Usable signal. Myrtle even higher.

 

More later, probably on a dedicated thread as we're going way off topic now. [thumbup]

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Thank you very much for your generous compliment. :)

 

I think you are knocking yourself out about the vocals.

 

Try and up the volume on the vocal I think at present it is hidden away behind the guitars and it should be the other way round.

 

You could give it a try in another key, try a capo first.

 

Go well.

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Wish I could play those guitars like you, but that's "wishful thinking."...lol............ Like Murph indicated, vocals are a pretty personal thing. Guys like Dylan and Cash didn't do too bad for having somewhat limited vocal range---especially Dylan. Leonard Cohen could barely sing at all, but he made his mark. John Prine is another one. There's more to a song than a tremendous voice. You don't need to sound like Dean Martin or Judy Collins to sound good. Beyond that, have you tried singing this particular song in a different key? There were a couple times you were barely getting the words out, kind of forcing yourself to talk instead of sing, or maybe you didn't have the breathing right for the song (lots of folks don't think much about that, but it's critical). Anyway, I like the song and the efforts you are making. What you're doing is one of the things I really enjoy about this forum. Keep "your" music alive. [thumbup] [thumbup]

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Guys, thanks for listening, the tips and kind words.

 

I understand what you're saying about different voices being good. It seems I listen to more "bad voice" singers than I do "proper" singers.

 

My vocals instructor has helped a lot so far. Long way to go. Wish I did lessons years ago. [thumbup]

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