Walkin after Midnight - a capella

[Hilary]

thanks guys

[Hook]

Very clever and enjoyable arrangement, beautifully sung; made me smile big!
Rock on!

[Hilary]

Oh thanks Hook 

[AndyR]

Wow! Yep, big smile music

I do like singers who aren't afraid to "play" with their voices.

Actually, I might nick this "naked approach" idea - I'm well known for taking ages to produce recordings, it's usually the arrangements and drums etc, (and learning to play the parts!), and then the mixing, that takes all the time. But when I get to the last stage, there's nearly always a wall of backing vox getting plastered on, which I find quite easy to do on the BR1600. I'm often tempted to post just the vocal tracks on their own (because you never get to hear their "full splendour" in the finished mix where they're just the "icing" on the cake). Listening to this, makes me think perhaps I could treat one of the songs on my list like this, and get it done a damn sight quicker... (Two or three days, or maybe weeks, instead of two or three months! )

[Hilary]

Yeah do it Andy, I'd love to hear it - honestly I'm more than a bit rubbish on the guitar (which was an Xmas present in 2010) - I did a guitar track for it and it sounded so sh*te I deleted it and made up the rest to go with the vocals. If I'd realised this at the start I would have sung it in a higher key to get a proper base line in but it was just too low! I'm also a complete novice with the BR (in fact I would have done the vocals first take but I forgot to plug the mic into the BR, second take forgot to switch on the phantom power on so third time lucky!)

Vocally it's not such a stretch for me though (my background is 4 part-harmony a cappella singing which I did for 3 years)

Thanks for taking the time to check my songs out and the lovely feedback

[AndyR]

Really? You've only been playing guitar since 2010?! Nice one - it's folks who get a few noises out of an instrument and then go "right, lets find some people to play it to" who improve fastest . That's kind of what I like about this site - it encourages people to do just that.


I could hear that vocals is "where it's at" for you - and I nearly typed in here or one of the others that I was guessing that you were used to performing live. With prowling around, I've discovered that you're new to this recording lark - so I predict that, much as we like what we've heard already, we haven't yet heard what your voice is really capable of if we were sat in the same room. It took me ages to figure out how to record my vocals so that I was happy I'd captured what I knew was coming out of my mouth (and I'm still not really happy!). Half the problem is that you find yourself worrying about levels and mic positions and goodness knows what else instead of just performing the thing like you know how already. Singing's all about confidence and bravado, if you're worrying about "is this getting recorded right? Am I getting it across OK?", then you end up not producing the performance in the first place.

It sounds to me, from what I've read, like you're naturally experimenting with the mic etc in a way that will lead you to the answers. If it hasn't crossed your mind already, the experience of singing harmony with other "live" humans can actually be used, or at least that's how it ended up working for me. Once you get comfortable with a "hit the button and start singing" process that gives consistent results for you, I've found that I started treating the mic and the pop screen, and what I can hear in the headphones, almost like another human that I'm trying to blend with - it's ended up being a lot more "organic" process for me than it was a few years ago.


Looking forward to hearing more - you're going to progress quite quickly on this recording thing, I think.

[Hilary]

Thanks Andy - Your spot on, I'm not happy with any of the vocals I've posted yet - but you've got to start somewhere. Apart from taking out the breath sounds and adding the tinest bit of reverb and maybe panning I seem at a complete loss. The main thing is I'm trying and what I've recorded doesn't irritate me too much, or at least the latter ones dont! I know it's heresy on this site, but I'm really not turned on by the whole recording thing (or playing the guitar for that matter) and just want to sing. I need to play the guitar so that I can perform my original songs live and I need to record the songs properly to ply my wares.

I appreciate you taking an interest.

Haylie

[Flash Harry]

Kerpow! this is the bizznizz!

Nice comments from Andy, he's worth listening to.

And this is quadruply naked.  I should know.

[Hilary]

Thanks Flash Harry - you are all worth listening to x

[Flash Harry]

Yeah, right, but Andy REALLY knows what he is talking about.