Chorus.fm Member Compilations - HALLOWEEN COMPILATION (Out now!) • Page 23

heads up Brad. Might send you an altered version of my cover, I listened to it again this morning and picked up on something I want to change. If you don't get anything then I ran out of time and its cool if you wanna just post what I sent you otherwise.

 

@phillyfradet - Under the Boardwalk (The Drifters)
@elemenohpe - Stay Out (Hit The Lights)
elemenohpe - Smooth (Santana/Rob Thomas)
@bradsonemanband - My Own Worst Enemy (Lit)
bradsonemanband - Sasha (Turnover)
@Emotherapy - Waiting (Green Day)
@Benjamin Lee - Off to the Races (Lana Del Rey)
@nothingsforeverdude - I Was My Own TV Show the Summer My TV Broke (Julia Brown)
@therookielot - Video Games (Lana Del Rey)
@zmtr - Beach Baby (Bon Iver)
@TheFeels - It Must Be Summer (Fountains of Wayne)
@CoffeeEyes17 - Holiday From Real (Jack's Mannequin)
@InfiniteArms - Blood Red Summer (Coheed and Cambria)
@Craig Manning - Thunder Road (Bruce Springsteen)
@snaps - You Belong With Me (Taylor Swift)
@Things So Impossible & @DashboardProfessional - You're So Last Summer (Taking Back Sunday)

Friendly reminder that there are 5 more days until your summer song covers are due! If you've already sent me your tracks, disregard this.

Stoked to hear all of these!

 

I'm gonna change mine to Video Games by Lana if that's cool. I have a show in 2 months and thats one of the songs im playing so I might as well record a cover of it first.

 

updated!

 

We recorded guitars, vocals, and more guitars on Monday. It's coming together.

 

I just realized this will be out on Memorial Day... where I'm from is very tourism driven and this marks the "official beginning of summer".

How appropriate.

 

very appropriate!

 

So I was working on a cover of Dancing On Quicksand by Bad Suns for about a week, trying different rhythms and instrumentation, but it all sounded really forced. I think I got overwhelmed with song choices and just kinda jumped at the wrong one.

That said, started a Taylor Swift cover the day before last and it's coming along waaaaay better. Full skeleton of the song is done at this point, just need to record it all now haha. Starting tomorrow I'm off for four days, so I should have the time to finish just in time for the comp!

Edit: it's We Are Never Getting Back Together

 

stoked to hear it!

 

4 more days! songs are due on Sunday! get 'em in! ahhhh! yayyyy!!!!

 

Tips on recording vocals? Do you do it in parts and then place it where it needs to go, or do you do it while you listen to the music you've already recorded? or do you just do it in silence and hope your timing is right?

I found that in my cover, towards the end I get too focused on what the music is doing rather than what my vocals should be doing instead.

 

@InfiniteArms I record all guitars, bass, and drums first. But I usually only track vocals with the drums and bass monitoring. Sometimes before doing vocals, I'll put in a midi track of just piano hits that correspond with the vocal melodies and have that play along, because I'm not a good singer and having that melody going while I'm singing it is typically really helpful to me.

This is more a common practice, but I do try and only record a line or two at a time. Recording too many lines in one take always takes a toll on the power of my delivery and ability to hit any higher notes.

 

i often record guitar / vocals at the same time for demo-type tracks, but when i'm not doing that, i record the rest of the song first and do vocals last while monitoring the rest of the song and finding a level where i can hear myself at the volume the vocals are supposed to be in the song, maybe a little louder. would also recommend running through the entire song in a single take, then re-doing it a couple times, then doing some splicing / comping. this feels a lot more organic imo than recording different parts separately, unless of course you have a long instrumental break somewhere with no vocals.

 

am probs going to change my song, not sure to what yet though. either to living north by cymbals eat guitars or a song off all hail west texas.

 

I'm still fairly fresh to this whole home recording thing but for what it's worth here's what I generally do.

Usually I track drums, bass, guitars, vocals, keys/midi instruments in that order. Honestly, if I had a more powerful laptop I would record midi instruments before vocals but if I'm working with a lot of tracks and/or effects my PC can't track the virtual instruments without crazy clipping or crashing.

As @trevorshmevor mentioned, it might help to record your vocals with only drums and bass or only guitar... whatever is distracting you. If you recorded your song to a click track it shouldn't be too hard to sing along with that but, I wouldn't recommend it unless you've got some perfect pitch and all your other instruments are DEAD ON to that metronome.

I generally try to sing as much as I can in one take but never try to overdo it. One verse or chorus at a time is enough. If I'm encountering that I'm not able to get lines out fast enough, I'll record every OTHER line of a verse and then go back and record all the lines I missed in one take.

I like @nothingsforeverdude 's idea about doing 2-3 full takes and splicing together from there. I might try that for the next cover I work on just to see how it goes... I'm not a super strong singer so, I doubt that method would work well for me. My voice would be shit after a few takes of a song that requires any aggressive vocals or is higher than my general range.

Speaking of which, I know we threw out a lot of band ideas for the next compilation. Should we expect a poll? I'd like to get an idea of what we're leaning towards so I can start trying to figure out what to work on.

 

Usually, I record all the music first. Then when I record my vocals, I do them in sections. I do a lot of big choruses, so I generally record those first because I know they will take the most work, and I'd rather get one really good take of a chorus and end up killing my voice for the day and record the rest another day than try going through the whole song and not nailing the parts, especially the choruses. After I record the chorus vocals (assuming my voice is co-operating when I record them) then I go back and record all of the verses and harmonies throughout the song.

After I have everything recorded, I listen to it in my car multiple times for the next couple days and I listen to it as a casual listener. I pick out parts that aren't great/sing along and sometimes come up with new harmonies I want to add, make notes of what I wanna do, and then I go back and record those things.

Then, when I finally feel like it's as good as it's gonna get (because let's be honest, who's ever 100% truly happy on their amateur recordings? haha) and then I mix it, master it, and call it DONE. And then I never go back to it again. Unless I feel like the mix needs some work. I only mess with mixes again though if there's something blatantly off. If it's a little off, then I just roll with it, haha.

 

3 more days until Summer songs are due

 

Got bass recorded and more vocals. It's coming together.

 

Got all my instruments recorded today, got shot up with a ton of novocaine at the dentist earlier though so vocals for sure aren't happening until tomorrow haha

 

you should at least do one take of vocals today. that'd be funny to hear.

 

(Alternate Novocaine Version)

 

@trevorshmevor - do it nuuuumb

 

Sorry, i'm not gonna get this done in time. Maybe next time!

 

For your enjoyment, here's a snippet of novocaine vocals... I call them my "Jimmy Jr" vocals (Bob's Burgers what uuuuppp)

Now to record the real thing today haha

 

My Turnover cover is done, but I still need to do the vocals to my Lit cover. It'll be another last minute recording session, haha.