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I know what I like and it doesn't matter if the singer is on-key. If Johnny Rotten sang on key would the Sex Pistols have been as great as they were?
When I recorded I always had musicians around me to make sure the notes were on-key or at the absolute least acceptable to the song. Unfortunately, those people are far away now. In most instances the person doing the recording can't hear the mistakes. So, if you have a set of ears, could you listen to the following basement demo and let me know if the vocal is acceptable?
Warning: my voice is an acquired taste, and not many acquire it. But, I like the song. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Unless you're going to say remove your vocal chords.
THANKS
https://soundcloud.com/francesfarmermyhe...-love-song
Not knowing the song, I can't say whether the notes are correct, but there are no obvious mis-hits.
To be honest, it's a lot better than I expected after reading your comment about Johnny Rotten. If he had sung on key it would have been a different Sex Pistols - but I'm not sure that would have been a bad thing.  For example, as far as I can tell, Joe Strummer and Mick Jones sang mostly in tune, and it never seemed to hurt The Clash's credibility.
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First Thank You for the "no obvious mis-hits", that's really what matters. Sometimes there's just one or two notes that are wrong. Most people can hear them except for the person that sang them.
I LOVE the Clash and I also hear nothing that annoys me in their music. I'm driving to the studio with a singer who is going to do background vocals and she says "what do you want me to do?", I put on the Clash's The Prisoner and have her listen to the BG vocals (which I LOVE) and she says "you want me to sing out of key and flat?" I was shocked. But, she understood what I meant. So, we might not hear it...
On another Clash note. When they played NYC for their Sandanista tour, they had 8 shows at Bonds. I had tickets for all 8. Opening night the place was double packed (Tickettron sold a full house and the box office sold a full house for each show) I was close to the front being crushed, people were passing out and had to be lifted to the stage where they were carried off by security. The first opening act was Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, they sucked so bad I told my friend who was drinking a bottle of pre-mixed vodka and orange juice to throw it at them. He did, one of the Furious five started yelling at the audience who booed them off stage. Leaving after the show, at every exit was a fireman. The following morning it was announced The Clash had doubled the amount to shows to make up for double the ticket sales. It was a pain in the ass finding out which nights my tickets were valid for (no computers). But, all the shows were excellent.
If you've never checked them out, Mick Jones and Tony James (Sique Sique Sputnick and Generation X) formed a band Carbon - Silicon. Loved B.A.D also.
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Had a listen to this. If it wasn't for the words on the page I would not have known what you were singing. I find the vocal too indistinct and I think it needs to be slightly more upfront on the verses (brighten it up slightly with EQ - push up the higher frequencies a bit). One point I did notice (only a small thing) - your lyrics use the word 'clown' and 'clock' when you are in fact singing 'clowns' and 'clocks'. Not a big deal but if you want things to come across correctly it's details like that that people notice. The pitch of the voice is fine. The music is not really my thing but there's nothing inherently wrong with it but the mix could be improved upon, especially the vocal. Just my opinion.
'The purpose of life is a life of purpose' - Athena Orchard.
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Have to agree with Bob, a great overall job and the singing on-key as far ss I can hear.
Used a bit of Autotune, haven't you? Sometimes when overusing AT you can hardly tell on-key or not. But if I'm correct bout AT, this is not to much for my taste
Curious here, a fan of Madness also?
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Jerome: Thank you. This is a 15 minute mix. I really needed to know about the vocals before spending hours on mixing complete crap vocals (yeah I've done that). When I put up the lyrics I had to change them from the original sheet I had. I didn't realize I had those errors. As I listen to my "voice" I think of Edith Piaf. She spoke of her mentor who forced her to work for hours to learn proper diction. She didn't believe she could do it. She had a thick cheap Parisian accent. I have a cheap Long Island accent, and as you can hear my diction is far from perfect. That's something all vocalists should think about. I know I do, and that's a problem I don't think I'll ever get over.
MFS: Thank you. Not 100, 1000% melodyne (autotune). When I import my vocal EVERY note is flat or sharp a half step. Which in musician terms means I can't sing. In the studio, the ears made them "acceptable". I've always wanted to be right on pitch and melodyne allows that. With Melodyne 2 I've fixed notes and still been pitchy. In Melodyne 4 so far when I put the note on a G no matter what the pitch align reads the blob is on G and the note has been a G. I'm using the 4 trial version, I'll be upgrading permanently.On a funny note, when I used to play live, a reviewer wrote "strong lead vocals". We all had a great laugh over that one.
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had a listen....
not my thing and like Jerome said, vocals needed to be in the foreground more, and without the words I wouldn't have understood most of what you were singing.
"BTO....Bachman,Turner,Overweight
They were big in the 70s....for five minutes,on a Saturday,after lunch..." - Me 2014.
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oh yes, and BTW,
at least you can take constructive criticism and not jump up and down criticising us in return as so many others do who want opinion (as long as its their opinion!)
"BTO....Bachman,Turner,Overweight
They were big in the 70s....for five minutes,on a Saturday,after lunch..." - Me 2014.
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Crazy Horse: Thanks. I'll eventually post the completed version. Hopefully it'll sound clearer. I'm just not a singer. I always wanted to be. But, I'm doing this in my basement for fun. I just want to be in key. Or at least to the point where the few notes that might be pitchy are listenable. I had a friend who mentioned there's a Beatles hit that has a brass section in it, and one of the instruments has a few off-key notes. It was a hit. So, it's good off-key (though he hates that small section of the song) and then there's my off-key where there's a consensus "no you can't do that".
I take constructive criticism very well. I know most people aren't going to like my songs and definitely my voice. What I have on many occasions got defensive about is when someone's opinion is out and out wrong. When I was playing live and recording in a real studio, a reviewer ripped my cassette apart (that's right cassette). So many things weren't in any way true. For example: "The drum machines used were cheesy." There were no drum machines, it was all live and actually had a 70s live sound to them. What that person was listening to, I have no idea. I swear with all they got wrong, I don't think they reviewed my album.
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