The Recording Bug

The Recording Bug has hit! (...bit?) Anyway, Rachel and Tommy and my Dad have been up countless hours the last several weeks making recordings for auditions, contests, school applications, scholarship applications, etc. Now it's my turn!

OK, I will level with you all: MySpace karaoke isn't quite up to par with submissions to Berklee, Interlochen, Downbeat Magazine, and various opera departments and events. But, formality was never my genre anyway (not ONstage, anyhow). However, I love karaoke, I use MySpace, so I had to give it a try. At least now I know that the mic my Dad gave me several years ago (a SHURE PG58 for those who care), and the 3-prong mic socket => USB converter cable from Rodney are all in working order. Though, of course, my sound card's automatic audio manager did pose a few obstacles but I managed to get through all that.

If I want to pay $100/yr, I can record full tracks, list them for public consumption and comment, and save as many as I want (now I can only do 10). Since my Dad has some karaoke CD's with more (good) song options, and Rodney just gave me Cubase, a multi-track recording software (more aimed at midi's), why should I pay $100 when I can do it myself? Not to mention that MySpace karaoke will probably NEVER have a track for Kansas' The Devil Game that would match the quality of my Dad's self-made midi.

But enough rambling. My best recording so far is probably Across the Universe in the style of Fiona Apple; a song I first heard during the credits to the movie Pleasantville (a movie I wouldn't entirely recommend). This was a song originally written and recorded by the Beatles, for which Apple did a cover. If you have never heard Fiona Apple, she has a very unique voice. Here's a YouTube vid of her doing this song (the set is from a scene in Pleasantville), so you'll know what I was aiming for, and not think I sound stoned or something. And last but not least, here is my version, or at least as much as ksolo let's me do for free. As far as I know, none of the other karaoke-ists actually tried to sound like Apple, but you can listen to them too, for comparison. Hopefully that loads for you - if not, keep trying :P

Listening to it again though, I think I want to re-record and change a few things like:
1. Go down in pitch on "rain"
2. Use the British pronounciation of "pass"
3. Maybe have less hiss on "universe"
4. Don't blow into the mic so much on "Pools"
5. Try to have a fuller, more relaxed, less forced tone.

There were also certain things I loved about this recording, that I hope to reproduce in subsequent re-recordings. I particularly like the tone on "possessing," the deep fullness on "me," and the vocal break on "om." The site doesn't let me keep  2 recordings of the same song, but my Dad found a way to make MP3's of these, so I'll just save the versions that way.

I'd really like to do Toni Braxton's Unbreak My Heart, but I can't seem to get it yet. Rachel may say I'm a contralto, but I'm beginning to have my doubts. Who am I kidding? I ain't no Irene Adler...