Singing Tips & Recording Questions

[Guest sanghoon9864]

There might be a post on this but.

Can you ripp songs with Audacity ?

And Adobe Auditions won't let me open music on it ;;;;

Thank you :]

[Guest love<3changmin]

when i reach higher notes, how do i end it off like nicely>> smth like fading or with little vibrato

i could just end my high notes abruptly >< nt very nice to hear

[starforme]

One technique is gradually closing your mouth while keeping the same shape on your lips. You don't have to close it all the way, but that will help with the dynamics. (:

[Guest Kaga]

when i reach higher notes, how do i end it off like nicely>> smth like fading or with little vibrato

i could just end my high notes abruptly >< nt very nice to hear

You can also fade out your volume with controlled breathing. Nothing too crazy here.. just reduce the amount of air you expell as you're singing (whether you're singing or not, you already know how to do this from breathing your entire life!). When you sing high notes, you're using less air than the previous notes below, so you might fall into abrupt stops in your first attempts. It's ok though, cuz your vocal muscles are just trying to adjust to the new coordinations.

[Guest joonieballoonie]

This is just a stupid question, but do you sound different recorded on a cell phone than in real life or on a microphone? How different is your voice recorded on a cell phone than on a microphone?

[starforme]

Yes you sound different. Someone who knows technical terms, etc. will definitely give a better answer, but a lot of your middle frequency (??) is heard versus your low or high frequencies (??), which is why the sound is different recorded on a mic or a phone. At least... I think that's how it goes? Someone explained it once to me but once was kind of long ago. ._.;;

[Guest love<3changmin]

One technique is gradually closing your mouth while keeping the same shape on your lips. You don't have to close it all the way, but that will help with the dynamics. (:

You can also fade out your volume with controlled breathing. Nothing too crazy here.. just reduce the amount of air you expell as you're singing (whether you're singing or not, you already know how to do this from breathing your entire life!). When you sing high notes, you're using less air than the previous notes below, so you might fall into abrupt stops in your first attempts. It's ok though, cuz your vocal muscles are just trying to adjust to the new coordinations.

thanks to both of you (; i'll try it

question;

my mouth feels abit numb/buzzy feeling after sibging a few times for a not so high pitch song

does this means my breathing was wrong?

and when we sing using our diaphragm, we breath in and tighten the stomach, but when do we stop tightening it? after each sentence or depends?

wonder if im doing it right

[esskeigh]

I didn't get any replies when I posted this in the tech section so I'm hoping for better luck this time.

Everytime I try to record something with Goldwave, my mic(headphones and mic attached) doesn't catch what I'm saying but if some sound from the computer(like music from windoes media player or AIM) comes on, it'll record that.

I hope I made sense. ;;;

Please let me know how I can fix this...or if I should just buy a new mic.

[Guest joonieballoonie]

Yes you sound different. Someone who knows technical terms, etc. will definitely give a better answer, but a lot of your middle frequency (??) is heard versus your low or high frequencies (??), which is why the sound is different recorded on a mic or a phone. At least... I think that's how it goes? Someone explained it once to me but once was kind of long ago. ._.;;

Thanks that makes sense Maybe I should invest in a mike....

[Guest Kaga]

thanks to both of you (; i'll try it

question;

my mouth feels abit numb/buzzy feeling after sibging a few times for a not so high pitch song

does this means my breathing was wrong?

and when we sing using our diaphragm, we breath in and tighten the stomach, but when do we stop tightening it? after each sentence or depends?

wonder if im doing it right

Mmm, I hope you're not jaw jutting. When you do, you put pressure and stress on your mouth, so it could get numb and start hurting after a while. To fix this, just put a finger or two on your chin, and make sure your chin doesn't stick out forward than normally (obviously, your chin should lower a bit to open your mouth, so don't mistaken that with your chin moving forward).

When you think about your diaphragm, don't think about tighting up your stomach. When you breath, people normally use their upper lungs, so thats why our chests heave when we breath. For breathing, this is plenty, but for singing, you need more air capacity, so only sucking in air to fill your upper lung capacity would give you a shorter wind. When you sing, you should be using the air mostly from your lower lungs (When you've mastered it, you can increase by using air from both your lower lung AND upper lung capacity, but that'll take alot of practice to refine good control), so when you suck in air, your stomach should come out a bit. Because of this, you shouldn't be trying to tighten your stomach muscles.. it's counter-intuitive!

I do this too, but put your hand over your stomach, so you get a sense of how much air is leaving while you sing. It's good for leverage. Also, performers cover their stomachs with their hand so it won't show bloat.

Thanks that makes sense Maybe I should invest in a mike....

starforme basically summed it up. I'm not totally sure about the technicalities myself, but I know that mics have sound drivers like speakers, and in them they convert sound waves to electric data and vis-versa. For cell phones, you're gonna get lower quality sound drivers for cost reasons, so they're not gonna do a good job at covering the wide range of bass, mid, and high tones. Most non-studio grade sound equipments will definitely lack a refined control over bass, and the mids and highs will lack some resonance and sound alot shallower because of compression. Compression just ends up emulating some of your vocal frequencies, and because each of us have very unique timbre (vocal tone qualities), chances are the emulation will alter things here and there.

I hope that explained a little more.

[Guest love<3changmin]

Mmm, I hope you're not jaw jutting. When you do, you put pressure and stress on your mouth, so it could get numb and start hurting after a while. To fix this, just put a finger or two on your chin, and make sure your chin doesn't stick out forward than normally (obviously, your chin should lower a bit to open your mouth, so don't mistaken that with your chin moving forward).

When you think about your diaphragm, don't think about tighting up your stomach. When you breath, people normally use their upper lungs, so thats why our chests heave when we breath. For breathing, this is plenty, but for singing, you need more air capacity, so only sucking in air to fill your upper lung capacity would give you a shorter wind. When you sing, you should be using the air mostly from your lower lungs (When you've mastered it, you can increase by using air from both your lower lung AND upper lung capacity, but that'll take alot of practice to refine good control), so when you suck in air, your stomach should come out a bit. Because of this, you shouldn't be trying to tighten your stomach muscles.. it's counter-intuitive!

I do this too, but put your hand over your stomach, so you get a sense of how much air is leaving while you sing. It's good for leverage. Also, performers cover their stomachs with their hand so it won't show bloat.

starforme basically summed it up. I'm not totally sure about the technicalities myself, but I know that mics have sound drivers like speakers, and in them they convert sound waves to electric data and vis-versa. For cell phones, you're gonna get lower quality sound drivers for cost reasons, so they're not gonna do a good job at covering the wide range of bass, mid, and high tones. Most non-studio grade sound equipments will definitely lack a refined control over bass, and the mids and highs will lack some resonance and sound alot shallower because of compression. Compression just ends up emulating some of your vocal frequencies, and because each of us have very unique timbre (vocal tone qualities), chances are the emulation will alter things here and there.

I hope that explained a little more.

thank you!

hmm i dont jut my jaw while singing..my chin just move upper n lower..

ok i'll try not to tighten my stomach muscles

[J00NGiEx]

ahh. i need help :[

a few weeks ago i went to my HS football game against our rival school

and i basically screamed the whole 4 hours i was there.

i didnt lose my voice afterwards

but its like.. scratchy..?

it doesnt hurt but at random times i have a long spazz of coughs.

and when i sing.. it like.. doesnt crack but i go mute for a bit..

i dont know how to explain it.

its like my voice is cracking except no sounds come out..

especially when i go higher...

does anyone know what im talking about? and if you do, how do i "fix" it or make it better?

its already been more than a week and my voice is still like this.

and i need my normal voice by this sunday and i dont know what to do because i cant sing like this..

[Guest Kaga]

Bah, as a singer, you shouldn't try to scream much if not at all. Screaming puts a great deal of stress on your vocals as you probably know from exp. There's no definite way to fix it, but only ways to relieve the pain and prevent risks of possible damage. Just rest your vocals by not speaking much for the next couple days.

[Guest joonieballoonie]

Mmm, I hope you're not jaw jutting. When you do, you put pressure and stress on your mouth, so it could get numb and start hurting after a while. To fix this, just put a finger or two on your chin, and make sure your chin doesn't stick out forward than normally (obviously, your chin should lower a bit to open your mouth, so don't mistaken that with your chin moving forward).

When you think about your diaphragm, don't think about tighting up your stomach. When you breath, people normally use their upper lungs, so thats why our chests heave when we breath. For breathing, this is plenty, but for singing, you need more air capacity, so only sucking in air to fill your upper lung capacity would give you a shorter wind. When you sing, you should be using the air mostly from your lower lungs (When you've mastered it, you can increase by using air from both your lower lung AND upper lung capacity, but that'll take alot of practice to refine good control), so when you suck in air, your stomach should come out a bit. Because of this, you shouldn't be trying to tighten your stomach muscles.. it's counter-intuitive!

I do this too, but put your hand over your stomach, so you get a sense of how much air is leaving while you sing. It's good for leverage. Also, performers cover their stomachs with their hand so it won't show bloat.

starforme basically summed it up. I'm not totally sure about the technicalities myself, but I know that mics have sound drivers like speakers, and in them they convert sound waves to electric data and vis-versa. For cell phones, you're gonna get lower quality sound drivers for cost reasons, so they're not gonna do a good job at covering the wide range of bass, mid, and high tones. Most non-studio grade sound equipments will definitely lack a refined control over bass, and the mids and highs will lack some resonance and sound alot shallower because of compression. Compression just ends up emulating some of your vocal frequencies, and because each of us have very unique timbre (vocal tone qualities), chances are the emulation will alter things here and there.

I hope that explained a little more.

Thanks That pretty much sums up what I wanted to know.

[ilovesuperjunior]

im going to SM auditions... and they're like 7 days away, and i thought i was going to sing "If I Ain't Got You", but now im not so sure.

could anyone recomend some songs for me? (is this the right section?)

things i can sing are SOME stuff from Christina Aguilera, but those are kinda hard for me. uhm Kelly Clarkson songs, but again kinda hard (Anytime is like... wow), Alicia Keys stuff, i'd say i have a pretty strong voice, and i can go pretty high. HELP!

[Guest Kaga]

im going to SM auditions... and they're like 7 days away, and i thought i was going to sing "If I Ain't Got You", but now im not so sure.

could anyone recomend some songs for me? (is this the right section?)

things i can sing are SOME stuff from Christina Aguilera, but those are kinda hard for me. uhm Kelly Clarkson songs, but again kinda hard (Anytime is like... wow), Alicia Keys stuff, i'd say i have a pretty strong voice, and i can go pretty high. HELP!

I think you're in the wrong topic for this post..

[Guest lovemickytobits]

i sound flat when im singing. it's like..

not exactly flat, but like.. without feelings.

it was okay when i listen to it in my brain? but it's stucked up when i play the recorded one.

anyway to solve this problem?

[Guest Kaga]

i sound flat when im singing. it's like..

not exactly flat, but like.. without feelings.

it was okay when i listen to it in my brain? but it's stucked up when i play the recorded one.

anyway to solve this problem?

Ok, so here's my input on your question. I dunno why I wrote so much, but I figured you might leave w/ at least one useful tip.

You might think that you sound dull during the play back of your recording vs the voice you heard in your head. There's several factors involved, and one or more of them might apply to you. Some of the major factors include physical, mental, and technical reasons.

The physical reason is this: the voice you hear through your head cavities will never be replicable as soon as those sounds leave your mouth and are recorded through the air. With some people, the resonance in your head cavity might sound very rich- to the extent where it could mask the subtle pitch differences of sharpness/flatness. When your voice is recorded, it's getting everything minus the resonance you hear in your head, so your voice will sound thinner and also might reveal some of the stuff that was getting masked.

The mental reason is this: you already have a preconception of many things in life that are well intitled as your own opinions, right? What you thought was so absolutely correct at one point in life might later on be questioned once you take a honest second glance at it. That's basically what might be going on with your evaluation of your recording. At that moment, you felt like you poured yourself into the song, but when you play it back, you just realize that you could have just been caught up in the moment and didn't really execute proper techniques to back up what was going on inside your mind. You just needed more focus and reasoning, instead of trying to force out an emotion that was premature.

I can go into lengths about just the mental aspects of singing, but that I guess is for another time.

The technical reason is simple: maybe you're not using adequate enough equipments? I'm not saying go out and buy some expensive Shure mics and a Onyx mixing board, but if you're serious about your ambitions, you owe it to yourself to invest a good amount of your resources into it. However, in my opinion, the technical aspects are the least significant factors in making you a better singer. Don't fall into the allusion that buying the best equipments will make you sound like an idol. People like Paris Hilton can buy the best studio heads and pop out an album, but she can't sing for crap if her life depended on it. It just becomes a crutch.

But yea, I'll end it with this. In the business economics world, there's a common rule called the Post Hoc Fallacy. Basically, it means that C didn't happen directly as a result of B. There are many if not infinite factors involved in every parts of our lives, it's naive to pick out only one factor and make conclusions with it. In the same way, don't take any of my advice as dogma, because there's probably many more factors involved with just your own self that will have their impacts in your vocal development. Just make sure you build humble confidence in yourself, and everything else will fall into place. Cryptic? Why am I undoing all that I just posted? Well, that's up to your interpretation.

[Guest disfunktional.]

any tips on how to sing low notes?

[FallenSkies]

i have some recording questions...

can anyone recommend some good recording programs?

and also, is there a way to record music and your voice at the same time, like to make a cover?

nvm i one of my quest's answered bhut i have another 1....

i dled audicity, bhut when i record myself w/ the song, the rate that it plays the song while im recording is faster than the rate that the actual recording, so when i play it back it sounds like i am singing faster than the song. anyway i can fix this?

oh and i'd still like to know some recording programs out there if you dont mind ^^