Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

Hey board members, please listen to my cover (pure vocals no music, in other words a capella) of the song "Outside" by Staind. Ignore the video cause my camera is distorted and I wasn't trying to perform really, haha, (I know, if you watch me I don't look very confident, lol.) But yeah, anyways, please critique the cover I did. (Sorry it's just raw footage and I didn't do any retakes, just belted it out so the sound will get fuzzy sometimes (mic I'm using is a CAD u37 condensor mic and since my voice is kinda powerful it kinda messes up the sound with a lot of buzzing.)).

But yeah, I would appreciate any input, good or bad. *ready to be flamed*

Edit: crap, forgot to add the link, lol, it's a myspace video so . .

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=59327347

And yes, I am Asian but me no have accent.

Yeah, the stage fright is very obvious. You need to work on that.

Your voice suffers from it.

It's not a bad voice, but it needs some emotion. Try setting your input at a lower level, so you don't need to have such tight controls over your natural volume, cuz you seem a bit stifled.

You have a voice, & you stayed in tune pretty well. Not the best song to display your voice, though.

Without reading what anybody else wrote, this is my opinion.

You have an insecurity in your voice so it seems a bit timid and off pitch a few times. That type of song needs real emotion put into it and you were obviously very stiff...stage fright I assume. You have a pretty nice voice though but that song doesn't give me any idea of the range you might have..

What you need to do is get a karaoke disk of some songs like that so you can record with the music in the background; it makes a big difference.

I like your voice; do you play any instruments, like guitar?

The more confident you are with your voice the less you will think about messing up and will allow you to get into the song more deeply.

Alright, I'll try to put up another cover (this time with music). I might try a more upbeat song this time (with more range). Thanks for your input. But yeah, I held back a lot on some parts cause those parts sound soft in the song (to me at least). Also about my stage fright, I'm weird when it comes to cameras for some reason, haha, even if it's just me taping myself. But when it comes to a performance on stage (as long as I'm comfortable with the material) I'm perfectly fine performing in front of hundreds (done musicals before, just never been in a band).

As far as instruments go, I have been trying to learn how to play rhythm (learning the cords and stuff) but I really need to work more on my technique (never played a guitar before but I played the violin for about 5 years, however that's been quite a long time ago) like I have trouble controlling what strings I play just because of the fact that I always have the urge to flail away (it's acoustic so I shouldn't be doing that, lol) also have to work on switching from chord to chord (finger speed/placement basically) and stopping the buzzing that I get sometimes from the strings. But yeah, I am far from the point of being able to play and sing at the same time.

As far as improving my voice goes, I'm planning on taking a singing class that'll hopefully improve my control and breathing method.