SkylessLimits
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Posts posted by SkylessLimits
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Okay, whenever a band releases a new song from an album, I always see them post it on YouTube and make it look all cool like this:
What software is being used? Can someone tell me what software (preferably free) I can use to make videos like this?
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If you want to become a good singer just practice. The voice is just like any other muscle in the body, work it out and learn your limits.
When I started, I just started off singing along to songs I like trying to mimic the singers voice until I eventually developed my own voice. It also helps out if you know how to play some sort of instrument. That way you can sing in tune with it or harmonize with it.
Unless you're gifted with a godly voice, it's going to take a long time. It took me about a year or more. I'm not professional nor do I have the best voice out there, but I know I'm listenable and that all I really aim for.
If you want to learn how to become a professional singer, the obvious course of action would be to find a teacher and take classes.
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I am a big fan of cutting EQ as opposed to boosting. It seems more natural to me to cut away what I don't need instead of boosting frequencies and leaving to bad stuff to muddy up the track.
As for panning your guitars L and R, a trick I am very fond of is only recording one guitar part and copying it to another track. I then nudge the copied part a few milliseconds or so. From there I may alter the EQ on both tracks to that they are not the same. I have had pleasant results from this method.
It's funny how I posted this about exactly a year ago. In fact, this thread was the big stepping stone to everything I know how to do now and I've been doing pretty well for myself. (:
As for that trick, I picked that myself awhile back when I recorded my first song using what I learned here. I really like it as well, but sometimes it just depends I guess. Sometimes I feel like recording two guitars for a more natural sound, or just doing what you said cause it sounds nice + saves time.
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I don't think you can release too much music. Lol.
Releasing an EP every few months isn't bad. Personally if I could record music that frequently without getting bored, I'd do it.
If you're trying to build up a fanbase, I'd say put a good amount of your songs up online. About 10 at the max is good, or more if you want. That way, your potential fans will have something to listen to when they check you out. It'll help them decide if they like you or not.
Build up fans on the main social networking sites like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr. There are different approaches for using each site, but once you know the different approaches, they come in very handy.
Once your fanbase seems like it's starting to grow, release a string of SINGLES before you release your EP or album. It's a strategy to build up hype for your big release. For example, I'm recording an album that's set for release sometime in Feb. Right now I'm in the process of "building up hype" by releasing singles, and doing other things. Building up enough hype will end up growing your fan base too because more people will want to know what all the commotion is about.
So in short, no, having a lot of music isn't bad, but save some of your songs for that potential fanbase.
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No one who handles booking is going to search you out on the web. When you approach someone for a booking you'd better have your credentials in order. You have to go to them. They won't be coming to you. They'll often make a judgment based on first encounter whether or not you are worthy for review.
"Hey do you have a computer? Let me show you this website." Is that anyway to introduce yourself to a potential gig? "Hey look at my ipad no you can't keep it as a reference" Give them something they can hold in there hand. Not a url which they'll forget even before the first contact is over.
And I believe that's where a press kit comes in, right? I read that some gigs prefer physical press kits, and some like electronic press kits. I'm not exactly sure of what a press kit is though and what I need to make one.
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I'm a new musician...well, not new..but new at trying to actually break into the scene.
I have a few (or a lot of) questions that I haven't been able to find on Google, lol, so here they are:
1. How do you book gigs?
2. What's required to book a gig?
3. I've heard that bands need "press kits", what is that and how do I make one? Can I use a digital one like the one on Reverbnation?
4. In three months I plan to release an EP. How do I find people who can write stuff like this on the day I drop it?
I really hope someone sees this and replies. I feel like the section of the forums doesn't get a lot of attention.
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I also suggest watching the videos on this channel and this website. They are for learning piano, but practically all of them can be applied to electronic keyboards too. They have been very helpful to me..
I was also about to recommend this advice. Well, the youtube channel part.
I'm a beginner, and I've been watching his videos for a while. Though I'm only on lesson 3 because I like to practice his lessons over and over again until I can play it without thinking, like I can w/ guitar.
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If you upload a video or the audio of an original song by you, is it considered copyrighted?
I ask this because every video on YouTube shows a publishing date.
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Thank you so much. (: You don't know how much you guys have helped me now.
Now I can make my music a lot better and actually be proud about my work.
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Sorry for going a little bezerk with the explanations I tend to get carried away, I just love talking about audio stuff.
I haven't used audacity for more than 5min so let me take a look at it this afternoon and see what practical solutions there are for your project using that DAW. Sound good?
Yes, that will be great. (:
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That is fantastic advice. I learned the hard way to the point where I was afraid of using eq for awhile, which is probably why it would never have dawned on me to use it for a stereo field effect.
And as I was thinking about that I remembered a trick that, admittedly, I've never used before but might work for SkylessLimits. I've heard of engineers doing this back in the tape days, of recording a track (didn't matter what) then bouncing a copy onto another deck and recording the playback of both machines on a third deck in stereo. However, the output on one of the playback decks slow it down by just a little bit so there's a delay and a pitch change(in the range of cents) between the two channels.
I'm sure this technique could be easily replicated in the digital domain, but I've never attempted it myself. Does it sound like a viable solution?
It does sound like a good solution, but I don't really understand what you're saying. All of this terminology is like a whole new language for me. So dumb it down a little ? Lol.
That could probably be done with a chorus plugin. Delay, phase or flange might also help in small doses. This starts to get a little spacier, and I was under the impression the OP was going for a more natural sound, so I didn't mention it, but it is worth mentioning that delay can be used in place of reverb, and might be preferable in this case.
I hope we're not going to far afield of the OP's request...
You guys are going that far from my request. I'm really new to all of this, so all of this extra information is good for me. As far as I'm concerned, I won't be able to get any real education on this stuff until I go to college, which I'll have to wait 2 years for. So that's why I'm glad I found this site. I can get what I want to know, and learn what I didn't want to know for future references.
BUT! Keep in my mind that my main goal is to just get my soundtracks to have similar quality to the song by Halfway Deserted in the original post. I wanted to know some recommended panning settings (which you guys have given me, I've tested out, and liked the results).
I mean, he records from his laptop, with one mic, and a DAW. So I'm just thinking I should be able to sound as good as him, if not more or less.
I'm not going for a natural sound really, I just want things to sound good to the point where someone is like "Hey! This Skyless Limits guy is pretty awesome. I want to download and listen to him over and over." With my equipment, I know I won't get that much of a professional sounding mix, but I know I can get something similar to Halfway Deserted's. (:
OH! Earlier, one of you said for me to add a little touch of gverb to my guitar tracks. What settings do you think a "touch" would be? Btw, I don't know what a "dry" track is.
On my gverb settings, it gives me the following:
- Roomsize, Reverb time, Damping, Input Bandwidth, Dry Signal Level, Early Reflection Level, and Tail Level.
I already have settings I use for my vocals. But what would be good for a "touch" on the guitar?
- Roomsize, Reverb time, Damping, Input Bandwidth, Dry Signal Level, Early Reflection Level, and Tail Level.
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@SkylessLimits hi I just wanted to comment on some of the questions you were having with panning and double tracking.
So to begin I'll explain how humans perceive the stereo field how it was explained to me one time that really clicked for me.
Say you have one guitar track (like in your song) and want it sound like it's right infront of you on the recording but you only have one microphone.
If you record the guitar with one mic mono and play it back center channel its going to sound different because there is only one channel of information not two. It's just like putting an earplug in one ear and then playing a guitar. It will sound weird in real life and on record. (Not unless of course you want to do a mono mix which is an art unto itself).
So there are some ways to go about getting more information to your ears. First off would be to use two microphones to record your guitar and then send each signal on opposite sides of the pan. How much you pan them is up to you but just use your ears and do some A-B comparisons to some records that have the sound you're going for.
Next up would be double tracking and pan left and right. One thing to keep in mind with double tracking is that you will need two separate performances or an effects altered second track. They need to be slightly different or you will not get a full sound with a sense of space. The human mind interprets depth, distance and triangulation of sound though phase and pitch differences i.e. doppler effect. You can tell a car is moving away from you because the pitch goes down. That is more of physics phenomenon but it is also a psycho acoustic one as well.
Finally the use of a stereo reverb unit. You could input a mono signal into a stereo reverb unit to simulate all the sonic information that a two microphone set up would pick up. All reverb units are different so I won't go into specifics here and I'm not sure if audacity has the ability to apply effects though a stereo bus.
Hopefully that answers some of your questions. Feel free to ask me for clarification.
Okay... I don't have two microphones.
So with using one microphone, lets say I record my guitar one time, then duplicate the track. Is there ANYWAY to get a false stereo effect? I think Rex kinda contributed the an answer to this question, but I'm not sure.
it boils down to there has to be a slight difference between the L & R stereo fields, or the listener will still perceive it as being in the middle, or slightly to one side, as in the 50/25 panning scenario described in the OP. One way of achieving that difference that Nikolai didn't mention is... EQ. In addition to creating space in the guitar tracks for the vocal, try a bass cut on one guitar, and a high cut on the other. Same doubled track, but a much wider stereo field.
So if I duplicate a guitar track to make a double track, can I pan one left (50) and one right (25). Add a little high end EQ on one track, and a little low end EQ on the other track, and add reverb (it's called gverb in audacity) to one track, will that give me the false stereo effect I'm trying to achieve?
Is the left (50) and right (25) a good slight difference between the L and R stereo fields?
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Ok, enough about EQ and compression then.
What I ment was: You record the guitar track once, double them and pan them both the same. If you want a quitar panned to the other side you can record a second take. It's all just taste, but I think music sounds the best when it sounds natural. It's easier to relate to the massage that way. If you pan your quitar and voice on both sides it sounds as if two people are playing the exact same thing at the same time. This is impossible to do in real life, so on a recording it sounds unnatural.
You say you always have one guitar in your songs, but if you pan them to both sides it sounds as if you have two.
The fact that I can hear you sing on both sides in the headphone makes it sound like there are two people singing. And since the are both singing excatly the same it sounds unnatural again. You understand what I mean? You should pan your vocals, but pan all doubles the same.
By clear panning I mean that you don't hear your guitar and voice in the same place in the headphone. If you pan everthing double they all intervene with eachother because they are at the same place in the headphone a lot of the time. It's best when every instrument has it's own place in the mix.
Wouldn't that sound odd though? (Sorry for all the questions, I'm learning here.
) If I made a second take of me playing guitar, and panned it to to the opposite side of the original side, it would sound like I'm playing 2 guitars, and sound more natural, well, to you it would. But if doubled ONE track, and panned it left and right, you'd hear it through both speakers/headphones, and it'd still sound like I'm playing 2 guitars wouldn't it? (Cause that's how you said it sounds when I do it to my vocals).When I listen to professionally recorded music, let's say Cady Groves for example (I'm listening to her right now actually), Everything that's played in the left headphone, I can hear it in the right headphone..and when I have both headphones on, it sounds like everything is centered, and obviously louder. Nothing sounds "unnatural" to me (besides her occasional auto tune).
I had always been stuck on the idea that panning left and right was supposed to give the music/sound a more wider sound.
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I don't have much experience with mixing and mastering aswell, so I'm not going to answer all your questions.
What I've noticed in your recording (I know you didn't ask about this, but I'll tell you anyway. lol.) is you mix sounds a bit unnatural because you pan everything to both sides. I think for the backingtrack this is not a big deal, since you can have two guitars playing the same thing. But the problem is that it doesn't sound natural. When two quitar players play the same, there are still going to be minor differences. When you pan two exact same recording to both sides the mix gets unnatural. I would recommend not to do this. Pan the quitars precisely the same. If you want to have to have fuller sound, record the quitar again and pan it to the other side. This goes for all instruments. Imaging how you would perfrom this song on stage and pan it accordingly.
When it comes to voice the above goes even more. It would strongly recommend not to pan your voice to both sides. It sounds as if there are two people singing excatly the same at the same time on the other side of eachother. This is impossible and your mix sounds unnatural as a consequence.
I think it's ok to double the tracks, but be carefull with the doubling of reverb. I ussualy double the 'naked' track and put reverb on the first. Then make the second one softer to the point where it sounds full, but not to full. Don't forget to pan them equally.
About compression: The idea is that a compressor evens the sound out by reducing the softer parts and lowering the loud parts. You can tell it from what point it should do so by adjusting the treshold. If the treshold is a -2 Db the compressor starts working when the mix/track exceeds -2 Db. You can adjust how strongly it compresses by adjusting the ratio. There's much more to learn, but I don't know half.
Equalization: With an EQ you can control what frequencies you want to cut/boost. If you have very much low frequencies in your mix (bass etc) you can cut these frequencies out with an EQ. Again: There much more to know about EQ.
Normalization: With normailzation you can control how loud the average (or peak) loudness is. If you set it to 0 Db, the average amplitude is 0 Db. This might be helpfull for you, since you have problems with different amplitudes in your mixes and between your songs.
One thing the video you posted differs in you recording in the panning. He has clear panning. That's why you hear his voice so clearly. There's nothing in the way. His voice has it's own place in the stereofield.
Like I said I don't have much experience with mixing and mastering, so I might have said some wrong things. But I hope it will help you a little.
Thank you. I actually understand compression and EQ now, well, I understand what I wanted to know about them. Like, how to use them. Thanks to a certain YouTube video.
So besides that, about this panning thing.
I've been recording the guitar one time, copy and pasting the track, panning it left and right, then applying reverb/gverb to both tracks.
You're telling me I should record the guitar one time, then instead of copy and pasting, manually record myself playing guitar again? And then apply reverb to the naked track, and pan them equally? I'm asking because I almost always just have one guitar in my songs, not two.
Lol.Oh, and about it sounding like there are two people singing in this: I purposely did that. I would auto-pitch correct one track to give it that "doubling" effect. On other songs, it just sounds like one person singing. You can just hear me in both headphones.
So let's say from now I don't use the auto-pitch to get a doubling voice anymore. Do you still recommend I don't pan my vocals?
And what is clear panning? Cause I want to do it to my vocals now.
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Also, the double- & triple-tracking the way you're doing it is probably not helping a lot, tho it's not necessarily harmful.
Are you saying it'd be better if I just recorded the track, and not double/triple it?
Because I usually do that to give the vocals a fuller sound, and so everything is played in the right and left channels. Like, so it'd sound good if you were to listen to it with headphones on.
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I use a free DAW called Audacity when I record my music. To record, I use a USB compressor mic called a Blue Snowball.
The music I put out on my Facebook page for my fans are pretty decent, mediocre at best, but even with the recording equipment I use, I know they could be better IF I KNEW WHAT I WAS DOING. I have NO knowledge on audio terminology.
I don't know exactly what "Compression", "Equalization", or "Normalize" does.
Before I ask my question, I'm going to give you guys the layout of what I've been doing for every song I record:
- I'll record my instrumentals and copy a 2nd track of everything, for example: I'll record my acoustic, then copy and paste the track to make a 2nd copy. Same thing goes for every other instrument.
- For everything I double, I'll pan one track 50% to the right, and I'll pan the 2nd track 25% to the left.
- When I record my vocals, I'll make THREE copies of each track. I'll center one, and then do the whole 25%/50% thing for left and right.
- Then I'll equalize the mix (not knowing what it does), and then compress the mix (not knowing what it does, but knowing it makes my track louder).
Now here's my problems:
- I have to go and adjust the volume (dB) of everything. Like, my guitar will be so loud you can't hear the vocals, so I'll put my guitar tracks at, let's say, -7 dB, and put my vocals at -3 dB. Going back and having to adjust the volumes for all the other instruments so they come out evenly is annoying. I don't know what compression does, but before I posted this topic, I read up on an article that it's supposed to even out the volumes so I won't have to go back and adjust all the volumes or something?
- This also has to do with me adjusting the volumes, but when I record my vocals, I don't do it all in one take. I'll record a verse (take a break), record a chorus (take a break) and so forth. When I do that, one section will sound louder than the other and you can clearly tell I did them separately. So I'll end up going back and adjusting volumes. Isn't compression supposed to be able to keep me from doing that? Or did I read wrong?
- One of my songs will sound louder or softer than the other. It's not a big problem, it just bugs me a little. I want them all to have around the same level of volume.
So that's what I do when I record, and those are the problems I go through as I record.
So my questions are:
- What does compression do exactly? On Audacity, it gives me Threshold, Noise Floor, Ratio, Attack Time, and Decay Time settings. I don't know what they do, or how I'm supposed to set up the settings. So help?
- What does equalization do?
- What does normalization do? I'm not even sure if I even need it to be honest. So I want to know if I do or not.
Here's what my recordings sound like (Keep in mind my recording process):
Here's what I AIM my recordings to sound like (Sorry if posting two songs is against the rules or something, I just need to put this as an example):
[media=]
His instrumentals are all at one consistent level, and his voice sticks out, but not to much. And when he sings high/with emotion, it's not all extra noticeable from the rest of the track. You can hear his voice clearly over the instruments all throughout the song. AND EVERYTHING SOUNDS AMAZING.
So yeah...I typed a lot. Lol. Please help me out. Remember to try to keeps things simple for me, but thorough please. I'm not stupid. I just don't understand much audio terminology. I've had no education with this stuff. Lmao.
- I'll record my instrumentals and copy a 2nd track of everything, for example: I'll record my acoustic, then copy and paste the track to make a 2nd copy. Same thing goes for every other instrument.
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What version of windows do you have? If you have 64 bit, you need to download that one. If you have 32 you need that download. If you don't have windows 7 you probebly need the 32 bit version.
Ahh okay. I have Windows 7 so I guess I download the other.
So when I use this, is it the full version?
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Oh, and which version would I download?
There's two different ones under "Windows"
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Try out REAPER. You can donwload and try it out for free. It's a complete Digital Audio Workstation with all the bells and whistels attached.
If you never used a DAW you will need to put some effort in understanding all the bells and whistels, but it's not to complicated and if you are serious about recording you will defenitly need ot use a DAW at some point.
http://www.reaper.fm/download.php
Thank you. I'm sure I can pick up on how to use it if it's not too complicated. But you were really helpful.
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Okay, so I record and mix my own music in my bedroom with a laptop (using the free Audacity software), and a studio USB microphone called a "Blue Snowball".
The microphone I use is great, it has a great rich sound. Good for recording vocals, guitar, and other instruments, but I feel like I could accomplish so much more if I had the right software for recording.
It'd be great if some of you could recommend some recording software I could use on Windows.
I don't want it to be TOO complicated to use, since I'm new w/ recording and would have a lot of trouble.
I want my sound to come out similar to this guy's (w/out the autotune, I won't be using it).
I know for a fact that he records at home with just a laptop and a mic as well.
I want to know how and to be able to put in beats also, like he does at around 1:35.
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No offense intended to you personally, but this particualr thread seems to have turned into a "critique my voice" forum
That's OK I guess, but not really what it was intended to be.Now....for my honest, unedited views on your specific post. Because of what this is and how it was recorded, no one is going to be able to tell you anything useful about your voice.
- No point in addressing pitch, because I'm going to assume that you've pitch-corrected the track. Since one's ability to sense & nail pitch is one of the most essential elements of singing, not sure what to tell ya'
- The recording itself is so wistfull & effect-laden, that the resulting vocal sounds like a semi-sung whisper, more than a singer. I'm not familiar with the song, so I'll assume that's the effect style of the original track. But once again.... that really doesn't leave anything to critique about your voice & ability as a singer.
- The timing of the lines seems OK, if that help in any way. but that's about all I have to contribute.
My advice to anyone really looking for feedback about their voice is this. If you're going to post a sample of something, forget about all the electronic crap! Post something with you "singing"...in your voice, with your timing, without all the layering, utilizing your sense of pitch. Then and only then, you may get an opinion or two that proves helpful. Sorry, but I guess my post falls under the heading of "be careful what you ask for" - LOL Goo dluck with your music!
Tom
Sorry, I looked at other post before me and just assumed that it was a voice critique section.
Where would one post if they wanted critique on their voice?Actually, the majority of the track ISN'T auto pitch corrected. The only parts that are auto pitched are the parts where I attempted to get a "double voice" effect, for example in the beginning when I said, "That you and only you can give to me".
So for the majority of the song, do you think you can address my pitch?
The semi-sung whisper is actually a style of singing I've been experimenting with. So I guess what I'm really asking is if you think it sounds good. Lol.
I'll post a topic with me actually singing, no semi-whisper singing. Lol.
I'll probably post it on this thread too...since Idk where else to put it. So if you find it, I'd appreciate your feedback. (:
- No point in addressing pitch, because I'm going to assume that you've pitch-corrected the track. Since one's ability to sense & nail pitch is one of the most essential elements of singing, not sure what to tell ya'
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This is a cover of "You Be The Anchor" by Mayday Parade I did.
Please critique my vocals so I can get better.
http://soundcloud.com/skylesslimits/you-be-the-anchor-that-keeps
That's OK I guess, but not really what it was intended to be.-
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Soundcloud And Youtube
in Musician's Lounge
Posted
Every time I upload a song to Soundcloud, YouTube, and Reverbnation (The only places I upload my songs) my sound quality goes down. The sounds isn't really distorted, it's just like it gets way quieter than the original.
I upload my songs in WAV format. Is there any way to fix this problem?