Benjamin Black

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Benjamin Black; solo stuff
Topic Started: Aug 15 2007, 01:48 PM (250 Views)
Morgan	Aug 15 2007, 01:48 PM Post #1
Dinkin' flicka. Posts: 1,950 Group: Staff Member #2 Joined: June 28, 2006 Gender: Male Name: Morgan Location: Sarasota, FL Last.fm: rockon1824	Finally got around to putting a solo thing together. I'm not so sure of it yet, would like some feedback. I threw it together on a MySpace in case I do decide to go through with it. Listen here. I know the recording quality is crap. I was going to put up two other songs today but I've been getting so fed up with the shitiness of the recording and I've decided it really doesn't pay to do it like this. So I'll be looking for better recording equipment soon. Lyrics for the song "Sheep Before Her Shearers" here.
	Страшный суд скоро, все как свечи гореть будем.


ana	Aug 18 2007, 02:34 PM Post #2
eskizo Posts: 5,814 Group: Staff Member #27 Joined: June 29, 2006 Gender: Female Name: Ana Location: Madrid	hmm, some of this really needs some polishing up... sheep before her shearers could definitely be improved, especially concerning two aspects: first off, the vocals. i'm sorry to say this, but they didn't quite work for me. mostly, i think you still need to improve your singing a fair bit, and though it's better than some of your previous recordings, you still need to work on it. try to make your singing a bit smoother, like more balanced throughout sentences or whatever - you seem to unintentionally raise and lower the volume depending on what you're singing, and that doesn't really help the songs. second aspect is the transition from the chorus into the verses - it's way too blunt for my taste, and it kinda breaks the flow of the song. dunno how to improve that, but i'd revise it. not bad, though. liberty, i quite liked. the music itself is cool, and your playing was good imo. again your vocals could so with some improving, but just on minor things, cos they were overall quite fine here - you coped well with the notes on a higher pitch, and for the most part you didn't go out of tune or anything. your singing still needs to sound a little more balanced, but anyways it worked quite well for this song. i'd revise the music for the ending, i think, cos it sounded somewhat random, but it's not too important. i liked this one. in sepia, again your singing ought to be more steady, especially given its tune - it's not too easy to sing that kind of stuff properly, and it really sounds much better if you manage to do it -, but i really like the song. not much else to say about it, really, it's pretty good regardless of what you could improve. i've noticed something throughout all three songs: your singing isn't at all the same all the way through a song, and the quality of it seems to drop slightly as minutes go by. either your voice gets tired or you lose concentration in that matter, so i'd figure out which one it is and work on it. on another note, you've either improved your range or you just never did any singing of this sort in the songs you posted before. i get the impression that you're coping with the higher range pretty well, in case you wanna know, and the sound you manage to get is great - it's clean and strong, so chances are you could do some pretty cool singing in that range. you still have to improve some stuff, like staying in the right tune and so on, but it's good to see you've improved already. like i said, overall these songs need some polishing up, but it's a pretty good start for your solo stuff. there's quite a few things here and there that work great, and the songs are quite good themselves, so keep on working on it.
	I'M SPAINISH! *I DOSENT SPLEL WEL!*


Morgan	Aug 18 2007, 03:04 PM Post #3
Dinkin' flicka. Posts: 1,950 Group: Staff Member #2 Joined: June 28, 2006 Gender: Male Name: Morgan Location: Sarasota, FL Last.fm: rockon1824	Thanks, that was a lot better reaction than I expected lol. I've noticed the volume thing and the quality dropping as the song progresses too. I think part of it is the mic I'm using - it likes to fade in and out sometimes - but I definitely do think I lose concentration at points. I'm going to try recording vox in stages now, like do the verse, stop, listen to it, then do the chorus, etc. to try and keep myself more focused. Especially in "Sheep Before Her Shearers," I found it funny how in the first verse I'm amazingly (almost unintentionally) spot on, I hit the bass notes in the melody perfectly, and then the next verse is all over the place. I really thought Liberty was the weakest song there lol, so I'm glad you liked it. As far as my range improving - a lot of my acoustic songs have been inspired by Iron & Wine and the Postal Service - both of which use a falsetto voice to sing. I've learned a couple songs like those recently and they've definitely helped to improve my range, although singing them definitely fucks up my voice for a day or two, but I'm guessing the only way to stop that is to practice. Anyway, thanks a lot for the crit, I'll probably rerecord this stuff once I get some real recording equipment lol.
	Страшный суд скоро, все как свечи гореть будем.


ana	Aug 18 2007, 09:55 PM Post #4
eskizo Posts: 5,814 Group: Staff Member #27 Joined: June 29, 2006 Gender: Female Name: Ana Location: Madrid	Quote: As far as my range improving - a lot of my acoustic songs have been inspired by Iron & Wine and the Postal Service - both of which use a falsetto voice to sing. I've learned a couple songs like those recently and they've definitely helped to improve my range, although singing them definitely fucks up my voice for a day or two, but I'm guessing the only way to stop that is to practice. ah, but my point is you're neither using falsetto nor screaming, which is damn good. anyways, if it really fucks up your voice to sing those songs, then that probably means you still have to improve your technique - cos if you sing something really high-pitched doing it properly it should only be tiring, not harmful. so keep that in mind, will you? i wouldn't want you to screw your voice... and yeah, i definitely did like liberty.
	I'M SPAINISH! *I DOSENT SPLEL WEL!*


Guitarbreaker	Aug 19 2007, 06:38 PM Post #5
Don't BLINK!!! Posts: 2,373 Group: Members Member #17 Joined: June 28, 2006 Gender: Male	I agree with Ana, your playing has improved. But the vocals are rather nasal and you sound a little drunk I suggest practicing singing more and more, and learning how to sing falsetto properly, it has never affected my vocals personally. Some ideas on practicing this would be simply enough. Singing along to songs, exploring different singing styles like Opera, Broadway or Swing, and also practicing scales (one octave), by using the guitar as a reference for pitch.



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