Captain's log #36
New voice tracking session. All undesired vibes of Paul, Gene and company have been removed.
I have recorded 5 takes, plus a few more of a stubborn section where I think I could do something more. And I'm not hardly as beaten up as I was in the previous session.
It was expected, after all; the other session was a bit of a stubbornness case; after all the effort of setting the process, the sensible voice advised to just dismantle the whole thing, but it was just impossible to resist giving it a try.
This time, with the extra mental resources liberated, the process has matured a bit more; it has grown a separate section about getting the right headphone mix, something that up until now I've been doing winging it time after time, as with so many other things.
Regarding the singing, I entered the session with a stance of "I've done the due diligence, so now I'm going to forget all about it and just sing". My previous singing was perhaps too "academic", after learning about the raspy voice, more focused on not making mistakes than in getting a good performance. This time I think I've developed more my own style (although raspiness is not something habitual in my songs).
One of the things I was doing wrong was that the mic was placed higher than my head, and, having an unconscious live-like stance, I tried to point my voice to it directly, which implied tilting my head back, leaving the neck "in the open". To sing this song the way I wanted, I discovered, it is very important to stick my chin to my chest. The next discovery was that my chest was too "buried"; I had to pump it a little to give the sound more power and a bit more of "cockiness".
From there, listening to my body and its effects on the sound, the image that I've found is "the standing rock". The way Lemmy or Joey Ramone sang, as if they were standing in the middle of a meteor storm, firm, holding tight and yet keeping their cool, managing to have their say (how useful can be these poetic images? Well, they are useful to me. We humans can have "mechanic parts", but we're not machines; some of us have a heart too).
I'll relisten to the recording tomorrow; hopefully I have everything I need for the main vocals (I need a new session for a few unisons in certain sections).
Another good news is that yesterday I found how to turn Qtractor's Midi drumming into independent audio tracks; exporting it as a midi file and then importing it to Ardour, where I cannot edit it but I do know how to send each piece to the corresponding track. Laborious, but this situation will improve in the future, I hope, when I move from Ardour 4 to 5 (and then something else will break somewhere; ah, the joys of software...)
I have recorded 5 takes, plus a few more of a stubborn section where I think I could do something more. And I'm not hardly as beaten up as I was in the previous session.
It was expected, after all; the other session was a bit of a stubbornness case; after all the effort of setting the process, the sensible voice advised to just dismantle the whole thing, but it was just impossible to resist giving it a try.
This time, with the extra mental resources liberated, the process has matured a bit more; it has grown a separate section about getting the right headphone mix, something that up until now I've been doing winging it time after time, as with so many other things.
Regarding the singing, I entered the session with a stance of "I've done the due diligence, so now I'm going to forget all about it and just sing". My previous singing was perhaps too "academic", after learning about the raspy voice, more focused on not making mistakes than in getting a good performance. This time I think I've developed more my own style (although raspiness is not something habitual in my songs).
One of the things I was doing wrong was that the mic was placed higher than my head, and, having an unconscious live-like stance, I tried to point my voice to it directly, which implied tilting my head back, leaving the neck "in the open". To sing this song the way I wanted, I discovered, it is very important to stick my chin to my chest. The next discovery was that my chest was too "buried"; I had to pump it a little to give the sound more power and a bit more of "cockiness".
From there, listening to my body and its effects on the sound, the image that I've found is "the standing rock". The way Lemmy or Joey Ramone sang, as if they were standing in the middle of a meteor storm, firm, holding tight and yet keeping their cool, managing to have their say (how useful can be these poetic images? Well, they are useful to me. We humans can have "mechanic parts", but we're not machines; some of us have a heart too).
I'll relisten to the recording tomorrow; hopefully I have everything I need for the main vocals (I need a new session for a few unisons in certain sections).
Another good news is that yesterday I found how to turn Qtractor's Midi drumming into independent audio tracks; exporting it as a midi file and then importing it to Ardour, where I cannot edit it but I do know how to send each piece to the corresponding track. Laborious, but this situation will improve in the future, I hope, when I move from Ardour 4 to 5 (and then something else will break somewhere; ah, the joys of software...)
