Natural Ability Or Training Options

[Luciana Segovia]

I'd agree with Luciana 100% - it's a lot like guitar. Some people just have a natural gift for things - voice included. But a lot of others really have to work hard at it.

One of the important things I think was kind of left out is that with singing, moreso than with guitar, it is important to find your own style and go with what works for you. If you don't have natural talent, it will be extremely difficult for you to try and replicate someone elses sound that isn't in your natural style. Not only that, but it's part of what will make you unique and stand out as an artist.

The first time I heard bands like Atreyu and Lovedrug ( older stuff for both of them ) I thought their voices were a little ... odd. Didn't like them a whole lot in the beginning, but there was something about it that kept me listening anyway. There was something different and unique about it that wasn't the same old sound as everyone else. I prefer the older stuff because they had a more signature sound for the singers that worked very well - now both of them sound more homogenized ( imo ) with the vocal style.

see

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[Luciana Segovia]

Question then for anyone - to what extent can a vocal harmoniser like Antares Autotune 'fill' in the gap between ability and my bumbling? That's both in terms of adding a bit of 'sparkle', if you see what I mean, and attempting the (probably) impossible of correcting my bad singing?

I'm particularly interested as it seems to me that an awful lot of commercial 'hit' records have Antares or something similar processing the vocals now a days. (And you can spot them easily .) Studio wise I'm guilty, I use Melodyne and that can correct an awful lot of issues - not just with singing but instruments generally.

When we talk about 'feel' (and I do agree with the idea) studio musicians however often aren't really expected to be 'individual' but to be able to play/sing technically correctly - if you see what I mean - in the pocket, on pitch, etc and pretty much homogenised. But if they can't - Antares, Melodyne fill the gap...

Perhaps I'm being overly provocative but for me the question might be expanded to 'Natural ability, training, or studio processing'? Take a look at 'X Factor' - I'll bet that the winner will rely heavily on the studio .

Cheers,
Tony

ps Apologies Luciana and all who can sing, you do have a gift and good singers are a joy to work with in the studio.

Wow! this is a big issue: Antares

Well it's true.. there's a lot of programs who process the voice turning a simple person in a good singer ...but Aparently!
I hear about that program in studios but.. what happen in live?. Can this simple person be a good singer in live?...

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This post has been edited by Luciana: Feb 26 2008, 03:41 PM

[Fsgdjv]

I have a question about this to Luiciana and everybody else who feel they want to answer. I understand that everybody who isn't tone deaf (something I've realised that I'm not, to my great surprise) can learn to hit the notes, but that doesn't make it sound good. My question is, can someone with a voice that just sounds bad learn to make it sound good when singing? I've been thinking a lot about this lately and wondering if it's even worth to try to practice. (Allthough I've realised I could keep on practicing singing just for fun even if I never got anywhere..)

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[Luciana Segovia]

Good question...

My answer is : Yes!

When you are studying singing you are not only learning to sing on pitch. This is an important thing, but not the only one.
To sound good is like studying the "quality" of your voice (another important thing). This issue is about how much air are you using with the vocal cords. How the vibration of them is. When the vocal cords are vibrating wrong cause the air is not enough or too much, the sound of the voice is clearly bad and you can feel it too. So if you think that you have a bad sound is because of that. To train and control breathing is the answer. And then singing scales for the sound.


hope it help!

Luciana

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[Antipolitik]

Hi,

lots of people use Melodyne and Antares in the studio. They come in rack versions as well so getting the same pitch
control live isn't too difficult. You can check out this gear: http://www.voicetonepedals.com/correct.html

Personally I mix my guitar practice with singing practice. I sang really really bad at start but slowly I'm getting a better pitch control. A good way too train for me is to use Antares Autotune on my vocal track. I loop a verse riff I play with my guitar and then I just go "aaaaaaaaah" "ooooooooh" and so on and look at the Antares pitch detector. It's actually a very nice feature and helps me a lot in getting better pitch control. I'm like 5% talanted when it comes to singing and 95% is pure hard work You can also sing the whole verse and when done run in thru Melodyne and look at the pitch detection and see where you are complete out of tune, RESING THAT PART... it's easy to fix it with Melodyne but it will sound MUCH better if you nail it yourself and then maybe use Melodyne to "finetune". Remember, sometimes it sounds sterile if you use too much of pitch control. An amount of 75-85% pitch correction should be ok. Try different values.

Anyway, keep trying all of you!

Jonas

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[Luciana Segovia]

Well Jonas... that was an excellent advice! .. .. maybe some people needs to SEE before to HEAR... your advice can help that people!

Thanxs a lot !

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