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What makes some artists voice more pleasing to my ears than other artists - and how can I make my own voice more pleasing to my own ears ?
I've noticed that many of the artists I like have high voices that seem to really cut through the mix and have ?? rich frequency content ?. My voice is much lower, both in range, and I think 'frequency content richness' - though I've never passed it through a frequency analyzer.
While I know I can't sound exactly like them, or even close, I thought I might be able to process my voice in a way so that it is more pleasing to my own and other peoples' ears. I do it with the guitar all the time with effects, and it dawned on me - why can't I do it with my voice ? I just bought a voiceworks processor (very sophisticated), but I'm not sure where to start in finding my own voice. Can you guys share any tips about what effects I should play with - singly and then in combination - to learn what the voiceworks can do for my voice ?
Also - given my voice is in a lower range, how do I find the range, and how do I write music that will complement my lower range. For example, I think Billy Joel, Ian Anderson, and Jim Morrison all had lower ranges, and I'm willing to bet, the music they composed was designed around it - they're some of the fewer guys with deeper, lower voices that I like. But generally, I like the guys with higher voices, and in fact, I think most renowned singers have really high voices and ranges - Steve Perry, Freddie Mercury, the Gibb brothers (bee gees). Is there a logical reason for this ?
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Well, I know a couple of us here in the forum were at one time trying to work out a deal with the devil to be able to have that "pleasing vocal tonal quality", but the terms were unaccectable. My conclusion, it is a function of the anatomy you were born with, the vocal chords and how they have been used and abused over the years. You can take vocal lessons and learn how to breath properly (and you should do this) but your vocal tone is what it is. Those upper register notes need a smooth elongated vocal chord and a large nasal and oral cavity. If you don't got it, well not much to be done. Now the good news. None of that needs to stop you from singing as long as you can sing in pitch. 
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Quote:
Now the good news. None of that needs to stop you from singing as long as you can sing in pitch.
I've got a friend who's got a great set of vocal chords - but he really struggles with pitch - I'm still not sure whether for him it's a natural talent thing, or a lack of practice (he loves music, but nevered played an instrument seriously, and I think if you're in that category without the raw natural talent, you're less likely to hit the rewind button, for example, as many times as a guitar player trying to learn a new lick).
If I can just combine his vocal chords with my sense of pitch and timing...
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Quote:
What makes some artists voice more pleasing to my ears than other artists - and how can I make my own voice more pleasing to my own ears ?
I've noticed that many of the artists I like have high voices that seem to really cut through the mix and have ?? rich frequency content ?. My voice is much lower, both in range, and I think 'frequency content richness' - though I've never passed it through a frequency analyzer.
If the comparison is being done between modern pro recordings you may have, there are *many* reasons for that.
The Audio Compressor is often used in Studios. Care and feeding of Audio Compressor is one of those things that many noobs attempt to either ignore or want magic "default" presets that instantly make this happen.
But learning a bit about the Audio Compressor and its uses in digital recording, whether a hardware unit between mic preamp output and computer's audio input, or "after the fact" application as an audio plugin at playback, can go a long way towards putting the vocal track out in front.
For example, an Optical Compressor, because of its sheer speed of operation, can be used to put the rather whispering singing of a performer overtop of the loudest band in the world. Some find the example I'm going to use rather dated, others seem not to get it due to the genre or other reasons, but a very good example of what the Compressor and EQ can do are any of the old Karen Carpenter recordings. Intimate, small, yet still warm and always "out in front" of the backing tracks.
Hardware Audio Compression is often used in live performance situations as well. Here it is a constant game of applying enough Compression while avoiding runaway feedback, though. This usually means settling for a more conservative setting than possible if you don't have an active sound engineer to keep things in constant control. There are, however, a few devices now on the market that utilize internal processors to do the job. Google, "DriveRack".
Quote:
Also - given my voice is in a lower range, how do I find the range, and how do I write music that will complement my lower range. For example, I think Billy Joel, Ian Anderson, and Jim Morrison all had lower ranges, and I'm willing to bet, the music they composed was designed around it - they're some of the fewer guys with deeper, lower voices that I like. But generally, I like the guys with higher voices, and in fact, I think most renowned singers have really high voices and ranges - Steve Perry, Freddie Mercury, the Gibb brothers (bee gees). Is there a logical reason for this ?
Use of a good Cardioid Dynamic mic in Live Performance can ease the situation a lot. The "Proximity Effect" of the Cardioid Dynamic mic is that situation where, when you get closer to the mic's element, there is more Bass, back away a bit and the Bass backs off. We male singers can use that to great advantage. This is why you will often see singers with their lips actually touching the mic's windscreen while singing certain passages and styles. The closer the lips get to the mic, the warmer that Bass Response sounds. And, it 'punches'.
--Mac
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Bottom line, if a singer can't tell if they are matching a pitch or not, they need to consider landscaping.
And don't DARE consider correction tools or the whole world will scream "AUTOTUNE" and send your soul to burn in hell for eternity.
Though somehow EVERY other tool is acceptable, and nobody can really define what they think autotune really does. It has be come en vogue to scream AUTOTUNE, stamp a red A on the chest of the singer, and ostracize them. Meanwhile those same people use harmonizers and such all the time.
Still comes down to raw talent. Either you can sing in pitch or you can't. Lots of practice can help but there still needs to be the native ability present. Lessons can improve range, power, breathing, phrasing... but natural ability, no. If someone can't tell when they are a few cents flat or sharp.... see "landscaping" above.
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For those having problems with intonation (which means being able to hear pitch differences), it is indeed possible to train the ears to be absolutely infallible.
That may indeed take some time and effort on the part of the individual, but these days we have so many wonderful tools that allow for us to work on our own (not visit and pay a live teacher, for example), and use of softwares for ear training can greatly accelerate the process. I know this from teaching my own students.
Band in a Box has the Ear Trainer inside, which is something that used to take at least two people to do back when I was a freshman in music school. It is *excellent* for Interval Recognition, Chord Recognition, both of which develop the Relative Pitch sensibilities, and it can also be used for pitch identification, such that one can develop the Absolute Pitch ability if they so desire as well. Ten to Twenty minutes a day with the Ear Trainer is all it takes and it is just like playing a Computer Game.
Then there's the Tuner.exe program inside your bb folder, as previously mentioned in another thread here.
The only students I've ever encountered who could not improve these abilities were those who started out with the basic statement that they could not do it. That is a self-fulfilling prophecy, the only reward from such being the chance to say, "See, I told you I couldn't!" -- Attitude is 90% of the process.
--Mac
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Quote:
Bottom line, if a singer can't tell if they are matching a pitch or not, they need to consider landscaping.
Yeah, I did the landscaping course, but it didn't improve my singing at all. Got any other suggestions?
ROG.
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My other suggestion is above.
Practice getting better.
It is written in one or more of the biographies that when Frank Sinatra started out trying to be a singer that the band members all stated that he was terrible at it. Bad intonation was cited, as well as poor phrasing, bad timing, the whole nine yards. Frank's mother actually paid for an early example of a portable PA system (Bogen?) and mic so that the local bands would hire Frank so that the female singer would have a mic.
Of course, he kept at it, took vocal lessons, hired vocal coaches, did whatever it took to get there. And get there, he did.
"Deep Desire"
--Mac
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Quote:
Frank's mother actually paid for an early example of a portable PA system (Bogen?) and mic so that the local bands would hire Frank so that the female singer would have a mic.
Of course, he kept at it, took vocal lessons, hired vocal coaches, did whatever it took to get there. And get there, he did.
...I knew there was somebody to blame - it's my mother's fault : )
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...I knew there was somebody to blame - it's my mother's fault : )
Or Sinatra's.....
Sinatra was ALWAYS a shade below the note. Part of why I loved his work so much. Take your style and run with it. When I do practice singing, I sing along to Sinatra CDs. Almost Like Being In Love, A Foggy Day, and Cheek To Cheek take me to the top and bottom of my range, and on Almost Like Being In Love when the key changes at the end it pushes me past and I can somehow manage to gliss up to it when my vocal chords are warm.
Then I when I go to sing anything else, I go back to maximum suckage, so yes, I blame Sinatra.
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Quote:
Sinatra was ALWAYS a shade below the note.
...what about Neil Young's voice - why do you love it, or not ?
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Neil Young can't sing, play or write. Totally rode the backs of Crosby and Stills.
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Quote:
Sinatra was ALWAYS a shade below the note.
I would add Johnny Cash to that list, but it didn't seem to hurt him any.
Don S.
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Neil Young can't sing, play or write. Totally rode the backs of Crosby and Stills.
disagree. young is easily one of the best singer/songwriters of my generation.
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