Recently, I've finished the first assignment for my vocal workshop which was to re-interpret a popular exisiting song as your own cover and to make it vocally challenging for yourself. Since I historically struggled with using my chest voice, I decided to do a bluesy cover of Panic!At The Disco's "I Write Sins, Not Tragedies" since most of it sits comfortably in my chest voice and the chorus / bridge veers into the upper limits of my chest voice where I have a habit of switching back into my head (often because I feel like I get a little too loud when I sit in my chest voice in my upper register).
What I learned from this was that using a more nasal tone, combined with focusing my more on my resonance and placement, that my vocal tone could sound quite crisp and powerful in that register of my voice, without having to push so hard to get there. It just takes a certain amount of concentration rather than force to get my voice into the right position - which is basically having your soft pallet sitting nice and high in the same position it does when you yawn. I've been using a habit tracking app called "habitica" to try to get myself to do at least 5-10 minutes worth of targeted vocal exercises everyday. These exercises help me to work on the weakest parts of my voice and what I need to re-learn in how I sing. This has been so useful for helping me to blend with the other vocalists in Gem's recital. Quite a few of the songs like "Better" and "Recover" need to have that more gospel-like tone - it needs to be thick and full so most of that is about understanding your register and resonance. I've gradually found it easier and easier to slip into my chest voice in my upper register and to be able to tell what it feels like when I'm in it versus when I'm just using a very convincing head voice. The one thing I've been really struggling to get my head around recently as we've been rehearsing my own recital songs is how to control my vibrato. I can turn my vibrato on and off fairly easily but really struggle with how to control the width of it. This again, has been a vocally historic issue for me as my vibrato used to be quite uncontrollable and was a nervous habit when I would perform. However, nowadays I'm a much more confident and experienced performer and don't get the same kind of nerves I used to get when performing as I did when I was a teenager. It's just become a habit that my vibrato sounds a certain way and it's a habit that I want to try and break this semester (or at least try to work around). With Sophie's (our vocal workshop lecturer's) help, I want to be able to control how wide my vibrato is and not just when I use it. This may mean practising singing without playing guitar as I've found it quite hard to focus very intently on my vocal work when I'm playing at the same time. Even though I've been singing whilst playing guitar for over a decade now, I'm using my voice in a very different way that requires me to focus much more on what's going on internally rather than what my hands are doing. Next weekend from the 15th-16th of October, I've got a gig at the Greenbushes Acoustic Festival, so hopefully I'll be able to use some of my newfound vocal skills there in a solo context. Then after that on the 18th of October, I'll be performing in Gem's recital at the Rosemount Hotel on Tuesday the 18th of October! So very exciting stuff - I'll make my next update post most likely after Gem's recital.
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Recent rehearsals for Gem's recital have mainly been held on Sunday nights and during her ensemble class on Tuesday afternoons. What I've focused on in vocal workshop recently has mainly been on switching into my chest voice more often and more clearly for more of the "gospel / pop ballad" vocal style so that I can blend better with the other harmonies. Sophie, my Vocal Workshop lecturer, has mentioned that even when I've thought I've been in my chest voice, I've actually been in a mixed voice / head voice. This was very strange to hear since I was fairly certain I was singing in my chest voice, however, by doing some tailored vocal exercises, I've realised that my upper chest voice feels a bit different to what I've been used to.
For starters, I've realised that I've been using a lot more air than I actually need to when switching into my more powerful upper register. I can help to curb this by doing my normal vocal exercises and using a straw to help keep me in my chest voice. This, plus moving my resonance to a more nasal tone will help to keep me in my true chest voice. Luckily, these exercises are quite familiar to me so I was able to pick them up and make the most of them fairly quickly. This has helped me blend better with the five other vocalists I'm singing with, especially when matching their tone and pronunciation. Pronunciation is an interesting aspect of vocals but when you want to attack a certain note in a certain way, e.g. a high note in chest voice, sometimes you'll need to change the vowel of the word so that it's easier to sing. E.g. "heard" has a very closed sound so instead of singing "her-d" you'd sing "ha-er-d" and switch from an "a" sound to an "er" sound to make the most of the open note. So listening to the other vocalists and noting where vocal breaks and pronunciations are and how they change is really important in an ensemble setting. This is a skill I'm developing and getting my head around in these rehearsals and in vocal workshop. I've recorded some of the rehearsals and my assignment that I will update later. I made it! For the full recap of the different projects this involved, here are the PDFs and links to the tracks I created over the course of this semester's special topics unit. I had a lot of fun and overall I'm extremely chuffed with all of my work this semester (even if I didn't end up sticking to that update every week). Here are the links to the tracks I created on my Soundcloud profile: 1) Golden Trash (Solo) - soundcloud.com/user-751676690/golden-trash-draft 2) Sad Songs - soundcloud.com/user-751676690/sad-songs 3) Golden Trash (Band) - soundcloud.com/user-751676690/golden-trash-full-band
Unfortunately, during project week 1, I tested positive for Covid-19 and subsequently became quite sick. This meant that I was unable to record or mix anything during my mandatory one week isolation and fell behind on more uni work than I would've liked. Amidst attempting to recover and catch up on lost time, I had an epiphany with regards to the studio space. Because I live with my family, I'm not the only one who uses the space for rehearsal, or practice. However, the state of the room and how neat it is kept is mostly my responsibility. This has lead to much of my anxiety about the room when it has been left dusty and cluttered, with equipment not being returned properly. I've decided that this is an important issue to tackle to help make the space a more relaxing work environment and to motivate me to spend more time in there. So I've decided to have a notice on the door of the studio detailing the "Rules of Use". These will basically list how to treat the equipment, how to tidy up the equipment and to ensure that when you are finished with the space, to vacuum and clean the space. Hopefully, with a poster on the door, regardless of who is using the studio, they will be prompted to follow the rules of use. I will add the PDF of the sign just below later:
Going through and analysing / cleaning up vocal harmonies for an artists's album in very intense detail.
Said artist is wearing headphones as Lee is working with the monitors. She’s been able to catch more of the smaller details, breaths and artefacts as Lee works with the monitor’s (PSI monitors – do it as a research) to hear the piece as a whole as is his personal preference. DETAILS Pitch correction artefacts and smaller mistakes in OG vocal harmonies can be exacerbated when used as a basis for the other harmonies. Make sure you’re satisfied with your vocal takes. Lee’s Vocal Plugin = VocAlign (reverb / pitch curves & automation) They’ve been catching smaller compression details and manually automating them down / up when needed. Again, stresses the importance of maintaining vocal consistency in the original recording where possible – it helps to save time during mixing. Most of the session has been going through and cutting out / fading any obvious little breaths or artefacts (mostly cutting out silences between phrases completely). Some of it has been shaping the autotune to make it smoother with the other vocal takes. Make sure to listen to how sections of the track lead into each other after spending a chunk of time mixing a certain part of the track, otherwise you may change it too much! Don’t be afraid to get rid of stuff you’ve recorded for the good of the song. This includes cutting out bass note for bass drops, elongating notes where needed etc. Getting a second opinion on certain mixes is good so you’re not getting too in your own head about it - musical opinions preferably but sometimes just asking someone to compare the pair can help. Standing up and seeing how it sounds from different places in the room (or just stretching) w ceiling buffers… probs quite important… Artist is using headphones she’s more used to / comfortable with while Lee works with BIG monitor speakers. Micro-shifting = different version of doubling (fake doubling)
Sometimes smaller tweaks are better than outright getting rid of something / changing something e.g. toning down the micro – shifting on the song to adjust the brightness of the vocals BUT also found that a small adjustment on the multiband compressor in the top end helped with this too. Trying not to lose the tone of the song. My total budget for this semester is a tentative $1000 - I'd rather not spend all of it, but I'm trying to be realistic about the pricing. Upon working in the studio for a little bit, my initial list of items to budget for come under the following: 1. A Preamp / Interface that can be extended to multiple inputs e.g. a Focusrite 4 channel preamp. Price approx. $500 - $600 2. Repairing the keys on the electric Yamaha piano. Price approx. $150 3. Extending the drum riser and adding extra storage space to it. Price approx. $50 - 70 4. Repairing the active amp for the mixing speakers. Price approx. $50 - $60 5. Buying a new cymbal stand. Price approx. $20 - $40 6. Using expanding foam and egg cartons to make extra sound proofing. Price approx. $30 - $40 Everything bolded above are my personal spending priorities for this semester as it will drastically effect my own workflow and will help to ease my mind (much of it is to do with repairs). To help reduce the cost of these renovations, my idea is to make the storage for the drum riser myself and to make my own sound proofing. You can see my initial rough design ideas for the drum riser below. It will store the majority of the microphone stands, as well as any other cymbal stands etc. that I need it to. I've already messaged the professional electric piano repairman for dropping off my Yamaha keyboard tomorrow morning. Everything is in the back of my car and ready to go and hopefully, I'll get it back before next week so I'll be ready to record.
Goals & Semester Brief
This semester, I am aiming to rework my home studio so that the space is more functional and efficient for writing and recording music. This will be accomplished via a combination of:
To demonstrate that I’ve improved the studio and learned new ways to use the equipment that I have available to me over the course of the semester, I will record two tracks using similar styles and instrumentation at the start and the end of semester as a point of comparison. Task 1: Taking Stock and Researching Pre-Amps After spending an afternoon in Lee’s studio, we concluded that if I wanted to build upon my current studio set up, I would need to (at some point) invest in new “stackable” preamps. This is because my current set of mixers and preamps are “not stackable”, meaning that I cannot connect more preamps to it and therefore I can’t record using more than four microphones at a time. The preamps / interfaces I have are:
The mixer is most commonly used for live recordings and therefore, individual channels cannot be recorded as separate tracks (which is crucial when recording for the intent of mixing and mastering). However, the MOTU 4Pre can record each of the 4 inputs as separate tracks and acts as it’s own interface. This is fantastic for recording something using only four mics and it’s a high quality preamp - however, it cannot record more channels than that and unlike other brands, it can’t stack anymore preamps together to record more instruments. My first task is to research potential future preamps (within my budget) to use for my studio so that I can expand it as necessary as my studio grows in the future. Currently, my “future budget” is looking at under $800 for a starting preamp. The best starting preamp would be an 8 channel input preamp that is stackable. However, this is very likely to be outside of my current budget. So, I landed on looking at something like the Focusrite Scarlett four channel input preamp. This preamp is easily stackable with other brands and fits nicely within my price range, coming in just under $700. Although I had a look at other brands such as Audix’s Audient 8 input preamp, it’s Primera he was well into the thousands, which for now, is out of my budget. However, I believe that it is definitely something to aim for when I start building upon my preamp stacks. Another thing to consider is the amount of microphones I actually have to use these preamps with! My current list of microphones I own includes:
I’ve got 9 mics, 3 of which are in pairs (the shure SM58, the Seinheiser e835s and the C2s). It’s really important to have pairs of the same microphone as it means when your recording something using an XY configuration, it’s easier to mix since they’ll have the same sort of specs. Some of these mics are in better conditions than others merely because of wear and tear over the years (especially the Shure SM58s), but they all still work and I understand that I have a wide enough range to effectively record many different types of instruments. The only thing missing is having a pair of omni directional room microphones. Currently, I have some friends with pairs of these mics that I often borrow but investing in a pair of my own for the future would be a good investment. |
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Artist SummaryI'm a WA Fremantle based singer-songwriter / composer. Here, you can have a gawk at my studies, compositions and performances. Archives
August 2022
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