gerardo said

hahah yeah im geran, but not anymore from the MV forum, as the gentle administrator banned me from saying he has a flageolet split of the voice problem above F4 :p

Good I'm glad people aren't just kissing his ass anymore. I heard the same issue in his voice with his Lights by Journey competition. I thought I was dreaming when people said he was singing it better than Perry.

Are you geran from the modern vocalist?

man your singing was so good that i started listening to it and then i kept doing what i was doing in my notebook (facebook, work etc) and i forgot i wasnt listening the original song! xD really excellent!!

quentin said

Thank you so much guys for the technical aspect of recording. I am a total newbee regarding this aspect of singing.

Owen, in an interview, the sound engeneer of Nirvana at the time said that he asked Kurt Cobain to double track several time to have this powerful effect on the chorus. Maybe he diminished the sound of the doubled tracks so that you only hear one beefy voice.

Regarding the backing track, i think i can find indeed a better one. I know that some people can eraze the singing parts with an Advanced software but it often sounds like you still hear the singer or like a whole bunch of frequencies have disappeared along with the voice track.

I plan later to make a video showcasing me singing the song in one blow so i think i will have to diminish the overall volume and manipulate afterwards to balance the sound.

I wouldn't doubt it's still double tracked in the chorus especially if the engineer says so. Perhaps they combined both approaches there, and also kept the chorus effect through the verses where it's not double tracked.

You won't need to manipulate the original track to get the vocal out, the official instrumental version is already available, they took the entire vocal tracks out fully if I remember correctly.

OwenKorzec said

Sounds great buddy! It will probably take me about another six months to a year before I can sing like that!

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If you are working with Phil you are in good hands. You might be there shorter than expected.

Owen, in an interview, the sound engeneer of Nirvana at the time said that he asked Kurt Cobain to double track several time to have this powerful effect on the chorus. Maybe he diminished the sound of the doubled tracks so that you only hear one beefy voice.

Regarding the backing track, i think i can find indeed a better one. I know that some people can eraze the singing parts with an Advanced software but it often sounds like you still hear the singer or like a whole bunch of frequencies have disappeared along with the voice track.

I plan later to make a video showcasing me singing the song in one blow so i think i will have to diminish the overall volume and manipulate afterwards to balance the sound.

A couple comments on production:

-I am aware there is an instrumental version of this song available that is actually just the original without vocals, rather than a karaoke track. Just letting you know it exists in case you're interested in a better quality track.
-On the choruses I would recommend doubling all of it, not just the high parts - to keep the volume and power more consistent. OR, and I think this is actually what they did in the original, just throw on a chorus effect that sounds like a doubler. It has a slightly different sound that is quite signature to this song.
-As for setting gain, what Phil said is one approach but personally I would just set the level so the high parts don't peak, and then raise the volume of the verses in the software afterwards. The advantage of that is when I record I can just set one gain level for everything, forget it, and focus on the singing!!! As long as you record 24 bit and don't record too hot, making volume adjustments in the mix afterwards aren't going to be a problem and I'm sure any recording software will allow a way you can raise volume only on the verses, even if it may require a roundabout approach (the better the software the easier it will be usually)

Also if you encounter an issue with not being able to raise the volume enough, there's this awesome sonalksis freeG free plugin you can download where you can put it at the beginning of your chain and just raise the fader, boom there you go more volume.

Lastly if and when you do adjust volumes in the verse vs. the chorus and you use a compressor, make sure the volume change is done BEFORE the compressor in the chain, not after (such as with volume automation etc). That way the compressor will level the volume out from verse to chorus correctly.

Hope that's helpful and not confusing, cheers.

Good job on the grit on the verses as well.

For now you will have to turn the gain down on the pre-amp and record the chorus separately in order to get the volume to work for the lighter part and the heavier part considering your situation with the garage. Then throw a compressor on at the end to keep the verses and choruses similar volume.

awesome job.

https://app.box.com/s/9mwekb95ktxifuy7bpqq

Thats a work still in progress, especially on the verses. There is a great video with Ken Tamplin showing some little tricks about how to sing the verses. Cobain's tone is purposedly breathy and shallow which has been hard for me since i have so much time working on compression. For the chorus, i am just confident that my voice will strenghten soon enough to be a bit more precise on consonants and make the lyrics more understandable.

Overally, it feels great belting out these gritty chorus notes!

I unfortunately could not record the chorus with a condenser mic. If i get close to the mic, i overload it and my singing is cut by the software i use. If i get far from it, there is too much reverb (i sing in my garage). I think renting a room for recording will solve the problem.

For the comparison, here is the original :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWKbfoikeg

And here is the Ken Tamplin video :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d916SXQq_U