Wicked Game - Chris Isaak. Really love this one! :)

[theflink]

Hey guys!

The feedback from my Heart of Saturday Night cover really fired me up to get another video done, so:



Just finished recording it! This time, it's Chris Isaak's incredible Wicked Game. What a great song and one I really love playing!

As always, I hope you guys like it and maybe leave a comment or a thumbs up/down on the video on youtube, so maybe a few more people watch it and give a little feedback! It would mean a lot to me

Have a great day

[TJE]

.....certainly well done! Keep up the good work! Certainly better than a lot of the garbage heard on the radio today!��

[KevWind]

Because of your post in the open mic I thought I would listen and comment

First I am familiar with this song (Isaak's radio version) and I really like your version and performance of this song.

As far as constructive critique. Not much on your style or performance per se.
After watching some of your other show and tell offerings
Your style and voice are great in that it is yours,,, so I would not attempt to change it. And other than yes always work on articulation (particularly in the more quiet parts ) Other than that I will only offer some recording technical suggestions to consider.
You do tend to ( like me) have a fair amount of dynamic variance in your performances (i.e. from quiet to loud) which is both good and bad news . The good is, it allows for genuine emotional believability to come through. The bad news is it is much harder to record .
One way to address this is to learn to " Work the mic" a bit more, that is to say practice leaning in closer when you are singing softer and lean away a bit when belting it out.

Also my main suggestion is stop recording backed so close to a wall or corner. get much further out into any room you are recording in this will also greatly help with the clarity/ articulation of your vocal .

Remember what the mic is hearing is very different than what you are hearing
So another suggestion is to get a set of headphones to monitor/ audition what the mic is hearing (which will also help in better mic positioning decisions ) you can always ditch them for the actual performance of the video
Just some thoughts and one last one do not worry about what people vote or rate your music You are doing fine

[H165]

+1

I also viewed your performance here specifically because of your comment in the other thread.

I like your cover here. I try not to get critical because it discourages people, but I will say your performance here is far better than at least 2/3 of the others posted here and on other forums.

1. You are in tune and in time with yourself.
2. Your playing is backing your vocals without a bunch of screwups, missed notes, or gaps.
3. You are using decent recording gear.
4. Your voice works with the song.
5. You are connecting with the viewer.

So, although I give you a 4 stars, there are reasons you might not get that from some folks.

1. You're not Chris Isaak. Some people want a clone of the original performance.
2. You do not sound "studio"
3. You are not on a $500k stage set shooting a commercial video
4. You can't please everyone. Fact of life.

As noted above, you use a very wide dynamic range. High-end compressors are often used in the recording process to present a final product which is easier to listen to on audio equipment. There are hundreds of other post-processing things that can happen to recordings.

Chris Isaak uses echo, delay, and sometimes heavy reverb (especially on Wicked Game) to get some of his sound, so your performance cannot be directly compared to his.

Nearly every famous or successful performer in every genre (not to mention every wildly successful inventor and scientist) has been told they have no future in the field. The people who told them this were proven hilariously incorrect, and those people are now infamous for their stupid remarks.

Garth Brooks just did a very successful concert, in the rain, which was attended by 60,000 happy fans and watched on the telly by millions of others. Nonetheless, there are zillions of people who don't like the whole "Cowboy Hat Beach Rocker" genre that has sprung up from the fringes of country music. These people would not even consider viewing a Garth Brooks performance, let alone care enough to give him a "1 star" critique. Mr. Brooks does not think about those people, let alone worry about them, and neither should you.

Keep up the good work and ignore the negative stuff.

[mr. beaumont]

Good on you for putting yourself out there.

My only recommendation at this point would be to be careful with the melody of a tune. WHile it's ok to put your own spin on things (and often with covers, it's the ones that re-imagine the tune that I like best) keep in mind, the melody is really the most important part of most songs, and if you change it, you better have a good reason.

"Game" has a rather haunting melody, and I think your alterations might be the source of some people's reactions...

[AcousticDreams]

Think you have a really beautiful voice and this song suited you very well.

H165 comments are pretty much right on.

If you had the benefit of better mics, recording gear, reverb, COMPRESSION, you probably would have really killed this performance.

Recording, sound engineering can make or break you. It is one of those unfortunate parallels. In order for your performance to be truly appreciated everything must be just right.

I would surmise that Compression would be a key ingredient to capturing your voice. In that in this song, there is a huge dynamic range between the low volume and the High volume. Compression can actually make things seem more natural. A mic is but a few inches from you. As where normally people listen at a slightly further distance of 6 to 10 feet. Sound evens out over a distance. At close distances, there is no evening out. Compression solves all of that.
* Reverb as well, helps in this area. In some ways, Reverb limits the highs and lows through another means.
*The digital world is a harsh one when you peak. Not true in the old days with Analog tape. It was easy to get a smooth sound.

Guitar Sound: First I found it at too low a volume. GlennWillow offered some good advice to me just yesterday, saying that the guitar should be mixed as loud as possible.
* While you definitely have some reasonable fingering skills. My one suggestion would be for you to add more dynamics in your fingering style. More emphasis on certain notes to add dynamics. Yes, this can really make a difference. In this song you voice is dynamically crying out. But your guitar is a bit too even. Hold onto the last notes for a millisecond longer. And...Add some mild reverb as well to the guitar.

Keep up the great work...you are on your way!

[Silly Moustache]

Hi, yes, as already said, good for the puttig yourself up for criticism. It's worth doing.

You know what you can do and what you need to do, and you are doing a surprisingly difficult song ... to sing (not to play) and the original was a remarkable piece of work by C.I.

I'd like to add one thing:

Chris Isaak sung this in, I think, three octaves.
You are young and have good, elastic lungs.
In the first part (the low part, you are not filling your lungs fully in order to make that part low, but clear - listen again tot he original.

The second part is your ideal range - fine.

The third part that CI sings (and with a yodel) is even more challenging, and you REALLY would need to fill your lungs for that part.

So ....I CHALLENGE YOU! Learn about diaphragm control and filling the lower part of your lungs.

Not only will it improve your singing - it is a good healthy exercise!
It isn't difficult - it is simply a technique.

Before 2004, when I got pneumonia with complications0 I took my voice for granted. I eventually got my voice back.
Last year I had cancer treatment and have lost more of my range (and our range naturally drops with age anyway).

Learning and using this tenchnique now will do wonders for your voice and health.

See:

and

After a while, you'll find that you do this automatically.

Hope that helps,

So, my challenge its to see/hear you singing this and articulating on all three octaves !

Oh BTW - don't let the mic block your face (which you didn't) or your guitar ...we're all guitar nerds here!

[Silly Moustache]

additional : This is how I was taught ...

[TBman]

Good job, I liked it.

[Ceabeceabe]

For background info, I am not familiar with this song.

As others have said, very nicely done in general.

As for constructive criticisms:

I agree with prior posts suggesting that some focus on breathing full deep breaths when you sing would be helpful. I go in and out of being able to do that without thinking about it.

Stylistically (or maybe mic-wise) it was difficult to hear what you were saying during the softer more mumbly sullen parts.

Maybe think some more about the interplay between the guitar and the voice - are their points where the guitar volume should be really low while the singing is not, or sometimes when there is no singing maybe bring up the guitar for emphasis, etc. Not sure if fooling around with dynamics would take you further from what you intend with the song.

Again, nicely done!!

[theflink]

Originally Posted by KevWind

Because of your post in the open mic I thought I would listen and comment

First I am familiar with this song (Isaak's radio version) and I really like your version and performance of this song.

As far as constructive critique. Not much on your style or performance per se.
After watching some of your other show and tell offerings
Your style and voice are great in that it is yours,,, so I would not attempt to change it. And other than yes always work on articulation (particularly in the more quiet parts ) Other than that I will only offer some recording technical suggestions to consider.
You do tend to ( like me) have a fair amount of dynamic variance in your performances (i.e. from quiet to loud) which is both good and bad news . The good is, it allows for genuine emotional believability to come through. The bad news is it is much harder to record .
One way to address this is to learn to " Work the mic" a bit more, that is to say practice leaning in closer when you are singing softer and lean away a bit when belting it out.

Also my main suggestion is stop recording backed so close to a wall or corner. get much further out into any room you are recording in this will also greatly help with the clarity/ articulation of your vocal .

Remember what the mic is hearing is very different than what you are hearing
So another suggestion is to get a set of headphones to monitor/ audition what the mic is hearing (which will also help in better mic positioning decisions ) you can always ditch them for the actual performance of the video
Just some thoughts and one last one do not worry about what people vote or rate your music You are doing fine

Thank you for the comment! I'll try and take all of it to heart. I just recorded a new one and I've tried to change the way I place the microphone, and the way I compress the song afterwards. Seems a bit more balanced this way, but i'll have to keep trying to get it just right. And I've switched to a different spot in the living room as well! Again, thank you for the comment!

[theflink]

Originally Posted by H165

+1

I also viewed your performance here specifically because of your comment in the other thread.

I like your cover here. I try not to get critical because it discourages people, but I will say your performance here is far better than at least 2/3 of the others posted here and on other forums.

1. You are in tune and in time with yourself.
2. Your playing is backing your vocals without a bunch of screwups, missed notes, or gaps.
3. You are using decent recording gear.
4. Your voice works with the song.
5. You are connecting with the viewer.

So, although I give you a 4 stars, there are reasons you might not get that from some folks.

1. You're not Chris Isaak. Some people want a clone of the original performance.
2. You do not sound "studio"
3. You are not on a $500k stage set shooting a commercial video
4. You can't please everyone. Fact of life.

As noted above, you use a very wide dynamic range. High-end compressors are often used in the recording process to present a final product which is easier to listen to on audio equipment. There are hundreds of other post-processing things that can happen to recordings.

Chris Isaak uses echo, delay, and sometimes heavy reverb (especially on Wicked Game) to get some of his sound, so your performance cannot be directly compared to his.

Nearly every famous or successful performer in every genre (not to mention every wildly successful inventor and scientist) has been told they have no future in the field. The people who told them this were proven hilariously incorrect, and those people are now infamous for their stupid remarks.

Garth Brooks just did a very successful concert, in the rain, which was attended by 60,000 happy fans and watched on the telly by millions of others. Nonetheless, there are zillions of people who don't like the whole "Cowboy Hat Beach Rocker" genre that has sprung up from the fringes of country music. These people would not even consider viewing a Garth Brooks performance, let alone care enough to give him a "1 star" critique. Mr. Brooks does not think about those people, let alone worry about them, and neither should you.

Keep up the good work and ignore the negative stuff.

Thanks a lot! I had a bit of a rough day when I posted the song and maybe hoped for a brighter reaction than what it got.. Such is life! Looking at it now, I know i shouldn't really worry about that stuff, and try to listen to the people that actually care to post their responses instead..

I'll keep working to better myself

[theflink]

Originally Posted by Knives&Guitars

Think you have a really beautiful voice and this song suited you very well.

H165 comments are pretty much right on.

If you had the benefit of better mics, recording gear, reverb, COMPRESSION, you probably would have really killed this performance.

Recording, sound engineering can make or break you. It is one of those unfortunate parallels. In order for your performance to be truly appreciated everything must be just right.

I would surmise that Compression would be a key ingredient to capturing your voice. In that in this song, there is a huge dynamic range between the low volume and the High volume. Compression can actually make things seem more natural. A mic is but a few inches from you. As where normally people listen at a slightly further distance of 6 to 10 feet. Sound evens out over a distance. At close distances, there is no evening out. Compression solves all of that.
* Reverb as well, helps in this area. In some ways, Reverb limits the highs and lows through another means.
*The digital world is a harsh one when you peak. Not true in the old days with Analog tape. It was easy to get a smooth sound.

Guitar Sound: First I found it at too low a volume. GlennWillow offered some good advice to me just yesterday, saying that the guitar should be mixed as loud as possible.
* While you definitely have some reasonable fingering skills. My one suggestion would be for you to add more dynamics in your fingering style. More emphasis on certain notes to add dynamics. Yes, this can really make a difference. In this song you voice is dynamically crying out. But your guitar is a bit too even. Hold onto the last notes for a millisecond longer. And...Add some mild reverb as well to the guitar.

Keep up the great work...you are on your way!

Great advice, that I will take to heart. I've been fooling around with compression (This one is compressed, as are all the others, believe it or not ) but I haven't quite cracked the code yet... More practice and reading needed to figure it out.. And the part about adding more dynamics and accents in my playing is spot on. It's something i'm looking at!

Thanks for your time!

[theflink]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

Hi, yes, as already said, good for the puttig yourself up for criticism. It's worth doing.

You know what you can do and what you need to do, and you are doing a surprisingly difficult song ... to sing (not to play) and the original was a remarkable piece of work by C.I.

I'd like to add one thing:

Chris Isaak sung this in, I think, three octaves.
You are young and have good, elastic lungs.
In the first part (the low part, you are not filling your lungs fully in order to make that part low, but clear - listen again tot he original.

The second part is your ideal range - fine.

The third part that CI sings (and with a yodel) is even more challenging, and you REALLY would need to fill your lungs for that part.

So ....I CHALLENGE YOU! Learn about diaphragm control and filling the lower part of your lungs.

Not only will it improve your singing - it is a good healthy exercise!
It isn't difficult - it is simply a technique.

Before 2004, when I got pneumonia with complications0 I took my voice for granted. I eventually got my voice back.
Last year I had cancer treatment and have lost more of my range (and our range naturally drops with age anyway).

Learning and using this tenchnique now will do wonders for your voice and health.

See:

and

After a while, you'll find that you do this automatically.

Hope that helps,

So, my challenge its to see/hear you singing this and articulating on all three octaves !

Oh BTW - don't let the mic block your face (which you didn't) or your guitar ...we're all guitar nerds here!

This is something I've been trying to get around to practicing regularly. Sadly, I've found that my limited practicing time is usually spent elsewhere.. I'll probably have some more time on my hands soon-ish.. This is definitely something i want to be able to do consistently. I already know the benifits.. Now I just need to get used to it

Thank you for your comment

[theflink]

Originally Posted by TBman

Good job, I liked it.

I'm glad you did! Thank you very much