Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Recording Music

Today was the first time I really tried recording a cover of my own. I'd done some stuff with video and very poorly recorded audio before but nothing with decent audio. I woke up this morning and decided that I felt like trying to record a song and then put it together at uni on Soundtrack Pro. I went on to record 'Eyes on Fire' by Blue Foundation, which I've been listening to for the last couple of days and I printed off the chords yesterday to play with - the ones I actually used are a semitone lower than what I got off the tabs online, but is the same key Blue Foundation did it in.

Anywho, I recorded the piano part on my piano and copied it onto my USB stick, I then listened to it in my headphones and recorded my vocals via a USB connected microphone onto Audacity. I then chucked it all on the USB stick (and converted the piano midi to a wav file online) and took it to uni.

When I got to uni I put the 2 elements together (plus one little bit of another layer in the second chorus). I edited the audio a little to get rid of clicks and pops and stuff.

It's being evil and not letting me embed the track so click here to hear it.

There are a few things I definitely would want to improve next time. I managed to get rid of most of the dodgy sounds but there's still a bit of clicking and stuff at the beginning and more in the high bit at the end that I want to get rid of. Some of the singing wasn't quite how I wanted it to be, but I pretty much did it in one take so it's not totally perfect. Also, I like the layering and perhaps would want to use more harmonies/layering after the chorus where I did a little bit.

Any constructive criticism?
Much appreciated :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello hello! (I listened to this yesterday and wrote a comment and things but then managed to lose it before it submitted properly. I will try to recreate it.)

Lovely song - it's not one I know. I think you have a lovely quality to your voice, too.

On the constructive criticism front, I think the beginning aahs could do with being more slurred, they feel a little disconnected.

I like the layering, but I think when it first comes in the aahs layer should be quieter - more of a fade in? There are a couple of spots in there (towards the beginning of the layered section) where it feels a bit like the two vocal tracks are fighting, rather than merging. I think if you want to play with layering (which sounds like a good idea) you'll also need to play with the volume levels of the different strands.

You have really good diction! Sounds silly but it's so annoying when one can't make out the words to a song. So well done on that front!

Overall I think it's really nice. Good job :)

Hazelnut said...

Thanks :). Yeah, I edited it pretty quickly, so there's definitely improvement to be made. Played around a little with the volume, but yeah it is still a little harsh in sections. Might try and re-edit it at some point. Thanks for the input, and also for the comment on diction :P.
:)