Vocals on GarageBand (GB) recordings have become something that needs to be really looked at over the next few weeks. There is an intention to possibly re-record a fair few tracks to their full song’s length and record new ones never tried on GB before. Maybe all of them need to be started over from scratch. I may lose certain sounds I could never replicate though. I learned this morning though that I can copy a track from one recorded song. Go to another newly started recording of that same song and paste it into that completely new and different area.

Also, a few weird processes that I have done over past songs, is to sing and play guitar into the same microphone at the same time. To then layer other tracks on top. Now…. I know I can remove that specific singular guitar/vocal track and save it on a new recording out on its own. The vocals and guitar cannot be separated from themselves still, in their new environment. So. No chance for future manipulation of compression, echo, reverb, volume, etc. .

‘Why do this singing/playing together then?’ you ask. There was never an intention to keep songs as the finished articles, but to use the first step of voice/guitar to layer other sounds on.

SO THIS MORNING’S EXERCISE WAS AN EXAMPLE OF ‘WHAT TO AVOIDS’ AND GETTING A SOUND OF VOCAL THAT DOES NOT SOUND POOR ON FINAL RECORDINGS. FIRST UP IS OVERDONE ‘ECHO’.

Vocals are strange when they are your own. Out there and laid bare. You hear back and think ‘Is this the best I can do! Is this how I actually sound?’. Well, I do ask those questions of myself. I strive for better technique. As yet don’t know how to achieve it. Or, don’t know if I can in reality. The sound of vocals on GB provides you with a slip road to confidence. Out and off the main road where others exist. You become insular and can sit quietly and reflect.

The GB system has voice library sounds with choices of flat, compressed, echo, reverb, etc.. But slip road quality time is not based on GB sound choices. It is based in the way you record them. Basically, through headphones. You hear in a very comfortable, intimate and private way. Your World exists for you, and only you. You’re alone in that specific moment in time. No others to listen to your voice. Or watch your delivery and judge your results. Confidence? It actually does come purely from the ‘wearing headphones’ phenomena. You are enveloped in the sound of guitar and voice and it swirls around in an ethereal fashion.

BELOW VIDEO

ADDED SOME KEYBOARD SOUNDS. ALSO SOME EXTRA DRUMMING AND EGG SHAKERS. T’WAS MUCH FUN. I USED AN INDIAN DOUBLE ENDED DRUM. NEVER REALLY SURE IF IT IS A PAKHAWAJ OR A MRIDANGAM DRUM. IT SOUNDS RATHER LIKE BONGOS. RAISED THE DRUM NOISE I MADE IN THE GAP PART….

TODAY I MADE UP A QUICK SONG. NONSENSE LYRICS. BUT IT CAN BE USED TO TEST OUT DIFFERENT LAYERING OF VOCALS. DIFFERENT LYRICS COULD GIVE A CALL AND RESPONSE OR DIFFERENT VIEW POINTS. AS AN OBSERVATION. I WAS WATCHING A QUIZ TYPE PROGRAMME (TIPPING POINT) AND ONE OF THE QUESTIONS WAS ‘WHO’S PHRASE IS ‘Yeah Baby’?’ AUSTIN POWERS OF COURSE. STRANGE HOW YOU CAPTURE ODDITIES THROUGHOUT THE DAY AND THEY PLANT THEMSELVES INSIDE YOUR BRAIN SUBLIMINALLY.

………LET’S JUST DANCE………Yeah Baby.

NONSENSE LYRICS:

Baby, baby I don’t wanna dance

But maybe I won’t get a second chance

So baby…… let’s (just) dance.

You love to rock and roll

But I love the blues

(We can work it out)

You with yours

And me with mine

You’ll be good

And I’ll be fine.

Singing into the iPad externally with no headphones is completely the opposite. You hear your voice in its true reality. Vulnerable and as it does exactly what it says on the tin. You can alter your voice with different delivery and use a false mimicry. I actually don’t want to. I like a voice that is the singer’s own. Some singers are so unique they have magic in their vocal cords. I don’t mind mine. I truly don’t. But I have no magic in uniqueness.

The iPad is ideal for capturing ideas in the moments an idea springs into your mind. A narration of a lyric. A little new melody. But no intimacy exists. Is that why some singers close their eyes on singing live? To connect with what is within. To focus on their pronounced ambience. Giving them a strength of dynamic to express in a different way.

Other GB users may have the answers to capturing vocal ambience. Currently I do not. But the simple fact of only seeing these songs, up to now, as experimental captures to learn technical knowledge has led to the lack of focus on getting professional sound. That does not mean professional playing skills. It means achieving overall finished sound that delivers properly. My vocals have been, up to now, simply trial and error.

Over the times I have recorded vocals, a lot of the rules for proper capture are very wrong. The location of my microphone is in front of my Mac screen. A piece of glass that bounces my guitar and voice straight back at the microphone and causing more echo. I use nothing to absorb sound. Also. My personal distance from the microphone is a few feet away because I am holding a guitar whilst singing. The closer your voice is to a microphone causes intimacy and depth to be present. You can sing quieter and with more soulfulness. Well…..if able to produce quality soulful vocals. I haven’t tried that sort of emotional focus.

THIS BELOW WAS AN ATTEMPT AT CREATING ABSORPTION BY SURROUNDING THE MIC WITH THICK FOAM. ADDING AN ECHO TO SPECIFIC SUNG PARTS LATER.

Speaking of confidence earlier. Actually, the red button scenario can hanker results. Being in front of a microphone can be very difficult for the need to get it right. Natural delivery goes out of the window. A self consciousness creeps in when the red recording button is pressed and mistakes happen. I never check if I am hitting peak volume either. Going into that ‘red zone’ overload where the computer cannot grab and keep the vocal. It simply goes out of the recognisable capturing ability. The vocal then isn’t recorded. Literally the computer says ‘No!’. Can produce ‘click sounds’ as per in the top vocal experiment near the end. Plosive pops can happen too. Therefore cutting off certain vocal sounds, or popping ‘P’ words, which then fails to give true performance. So that will need addressing too.

There is still so much to learn and get clear understanding of what to avoid. And what to keep that works. However, by actually asking the right questions you get answers.