JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Musician Message Forum Making Great Demos with BIAB

Hey there Barry!

I totally agree with you about "singing like you really mean it" and not worrying about hitting every note perfectly, but then it seems we veer into totally different paths.

I tend to think of tools like Melodyne and "choosing the best bits from several 'takes' " (aka compositing a vocal track) as actually doing the opposite of what you say they do. These tools are meant to free up the singer to really "go for it" and not worry so much about pitch (cuz you know you can 'fix' really bad notes), cuz again, we're agree-ing that there's probably nothing worse than a "too careful" vocal fueled by a worry over missing notes. "Sing it like you mean it" --that is always and absolutely the first order of business.

I just think that, once you've got a killer emotive vocal, and one that might be a little pitchy (cuz again, the singer "went for it", but did take after take) that it's nice to know that there are tools that one can choose to use and steps that can be taken to make a good performance perhaps even stronger by making obvious sour notes a little sweeter. It seems a little strange to advocate singing one's heart out but just saying "no" to tools that can make that heartfelt performance..perhaps better?

I am simply advocating having tools in ones toolbox that can help build the solid foundation of strong vocals. Singing with "heart" is the correct place to start.

Anyway, I always tell the singer-songwriters I produce to "sing with style and flair and don't worry about hitting every note perfectly" --or some form of that statement.

Certianly singer-songwriters have more leeway in terms of pitchiness, and as I said, "it depends on what our intention is" with our music--in terms of how much work we might want to put into a given piece. But even a Bob Dylan who was notorious in his later years for going into the studio "cold" --even Dylan's vocals have so-called gimmicks of compression and EQing and reverb on them to make them sound more professional.

ANyway, you've "caught the spirit" I was hoping for in my thread, here. We all have different ways of doing things and I appreciate you sharing your "method" a little bit. You are more a Cassavetes and I'm more a Kubrick, but both made some really great movies.

And what I layed out in my first post was how I make demos for clients, and I carry the mantra "it's not done until it's done" with me as I work on each cuz I can't do good work if I'm worried how long it might take.

And as I said, when I do personal stuff and stuff for fun, my "process" is usually a bit less rigorous. But rigorous, in my case, usually produces the kind of results that I can then feel good about handing a finished demo to a client.

Mike