Where Have I Been?
Shooting videos of myself on location.
There has always been a bayou less than a half mile from the apartment, a canal-like waterway which is lined on each side with grassy areas and other trappings of a park.
It seems to be a popular place for jogging, walking dogs, grilling, eating and drinking, and has recently seen the appearance of a skinny guy who rides up on a bike and shoots videos of himself playing under a tree.
One of the things I am learning about music video is that, for one thing, a person could spend a great deal of time working on one.
With the Audacity program, I am able to separate the audio portion and potentially totally replace it with stuff done in my studio.
Just play along on a second track, matching the guitar note for note, then sing on an additional one, then the original audio, with birds chirping and the motorcycles revving in the background, can be replaced with the stuff recorded in the relative silence of my apartment.
On the above video, I just put the audio portion into Audacity and processed it a bit with compression, equalization, delay and reverberation, and then matched it back with the video.
The result is that I sound like I am in a cathedral, though I am seen sitting under a tree in the park.
The potential for me to add a second guitar, bass, drum, backup vocals, hand claps, chimes, cat meow etc is just about limitless.
In the past, I might have dove headlong into doing so, eager to have a video with all of the above, and in my haste would have ruined it, the way an impatient gardener who keeps digging up a newly planted seed every few hours to see if it's growing yet, might do to a plant.
I would have 3 guitars, a fake bass, my snare drum, backup vocals and extra harmonicas, and it might have sounded like a cacophony of parts, each one just a bit off here and there...it can become ragged sounding in short order.
The next step for the above song would (will?) be to re-sing it, taking it a phrase at a time, making it loop while I practiced over and over before hitting the record button after I had it "right." The end result would be that every vocal phrase would be the best one of 20 or so times through. This is the way the Frank Sinatras and Barbra Streisands of the world record their vocals. The backup singers would breath in right along with Frank and match his every syllable.
This could require that a whole day be devoted to just the singing.
So, I am exercising some restraint in posting the above as just a one-take live run through of whatever popped into my head at the time; no extra guitars, harmonicas or cats meowing added.
This is basically what I do for an average of 2 hours each night, minus the cathedral reverberation...
Shooting videos of myself on location.
There has always been a bayou less than a half mile from the apartment, a canal-like waterway which is lined on each side with grassy areas and other trappings of a park.
It seems to be a popular place for jogging, walking dogs, grilling, eating and drinking, and has recently seen the appearance of a skinny guy who rides up on a bike and shoots videos of himself playing under a tree.
One of the things I am learning about music video is that, for one thing, a person could spend a great deal of time working on one.
With the Audacity program, I am able to separate the audio portion and potentially totally replace it with stuff done in my studio.
Just play along on a second track, matching the guitar note for note, then sing on an additional one, then the original audio, with birds chirping and the motorcycles revving in the background, can be replaced with the stuff recorded in the relative silence of my apartment.
On the above video, I just put the audio portion into Audacity and processed it a bit with compression, equalization, delay and reverberation, and then matched it back with the video.
The result is that I sound like I am in a cathedral, though I am seen sitting under a tree in the park.
The potential for me to add a second guitar, bass, drum, backup vocals, hand claps, chimes, cat meow etc is just about limitless.
In the past, I might have dove headlong into doing so, eager to have a video with all of the above, and in my haste would have ruined it, the way an impatient gardener who keeps digging up a newly planted seed every few hours to see if it's growing yet, might do to a plant.
The next step for the above song would (will?) be to re-sing it, taking it a phrase at a time, making it loop while I practiced over and over before hitting the record button after I had it "right." The end result would be that every vocal phrase would be the best one of 20 or so times through. This is the way the Frank Sinatras and Barbra Streisands of the world record their vocals. The backup singers would breath in right along with Frank and match his every syllable.
This could require that a whole day be devoted to just the singing.
So, I am exercising some restraint in posting the above as just a one-take live run through of whatever popped into my head at the time; no extra guitars, harmonicas or cats meowing added.
This is basically what I do for an average of 2 hours each night, minus the cathedral reverberation...
The guitar sounds fine; I'm not sure what you're trying to achieve with your voice so I'm not gonna say anything.
ReplyDeleteThere are singers like some of the punk, underground, guys like Tom Waits, who aim for "vocal fry" or roughness in the voice.
Me, I'm a Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra kind of guy.
So obviously I don't think your voice sounds good. But you know... opinions are like assholes ... everyone has one ...
Frank, I'm guessing was an inch away from a high quality microphone and so, could kind of half hum, half sing (I think the term is "croon," with Bing Crosby being the posterboy for it) and that's the way I like to sing.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like some roughness is creeping in from my trying to sing with volume. That's something to have to guard against. Think of how you would sing if someone was standing a mile away and your life depended upon him hearing and recognizing the song.
Vocals are the main focus, as I stated in a recent post.
To me the freedom of singing in a park that nobody owns nor can bang a broomstick against to shut me up, has brought an improvement over anything that I've done in the apartment.
But, the guitar is the only part that is considered "done" or "laid down already." Everything else, especially vocals, will be polished up
Yep, Frank, Crosby, et. al. were "crooners", said "crooning" made possible by amplification which was a new thing.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point about singing in the park - no one can shut you up, and you won't restrict yourself for fear of being "too loud".
I'm now moved into my new place, having almost 200 square feet to call my own, I could turn that place into a real drum studio. But like you, I might get some of my best practice when out busking or in the park.
Another advantage to busking/playing in the park is, there you are with your instrument and you can't get distracted. Harold meows, "Oh, I've got to feed the cat", you think, then while doing that you think of something else ... and you're off servicing a whole chain of distractions and your guitar sits, unplayed.
Oh, I was going to say, to me it sounds like you're trying to sound like that Elvis Costello guy, or trying to sound like Bob Dylan who was trying to sound the the sick and dying Woodie Guthrie.
ReplyDeleteI started out singing along with the Beatles red and blue albums, trying to have a John Voice, a Paul voice, and yes Travis Blaine, even a George voice. For Ringo try pinching your nostrils closed when you sing =works for me...
ReplyDeleteI also loved the voice of Paul Simon, and would try to work on a Paul and an Art (Garfunkel) voice.
It was considered normal to think him a good singer, as well as Don McClean. Both Everly brothers were good singers; Bobby Vinton had a pleasant voice, catchy songs and could carry a tune...
But, you wouldn't hear emotions expressed at the gut level.
Then, along came Elvis Costello, who sounded angry at a time when I was a teenager full of angst and wrote a lot of songs that were complaining.
I suppose Costello "emotes" a lot, this is what initially repelled me when hearing his "new" stuff, he seemed to be hamming it up, musically; but then it all grew on me...
When David Lee Roth sings Jaime's Crying, there is such a mocking tone in his "oh, oh" (it's so sad to see) that it takes you into the realm of having to judge him as a singer in a different context.
Randy Newman, another great one at sounding as tongue in cheek as his lyrics warrant, but he is in the "he can sing pretty well, he just doesn't have a great sounding voice" category.
*oxymoron-ic category
ReplyDelete