The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Hi. I submitted my first entry this week (as Lichen Throat). I'm a middle-aged guy with no musical training, who has nonetheless recently (and somewhat inexplicably) developed an interest in composing music. I'd been doing exclusively instrumentals until this week, which is likely quite evident to any listeners. My goals here are to have fun and learn as much as I can. I'm already very impressed with the skill and talent of the community.

Awesome! I'm fairly new here too, joining early this year, and my focus is largely testing my opinion of my music against the opinions of other musicians and composers (there are some of both here).
My songfight entries are sadly generally half-assed but each one surely teaches me something

lichenthroat wrote:Hi. I submitted my first entry this week (as Lichen Throat). I'm a middle-aged guy with no musical training, who has nonetheless recently (and somewhat inexplicably) developed an interest in composing music. I'd been doing exclusively instrumentals until this week, which is likely quite evident to any listeners. My goals here are to have fun and learn as much as I can. I'm already very impressed with the skill and talent of the community.

Nice. I myself was in the same boat you're in 18 months ago -- a middle-aged guy with no training but with an interest in composing and performing music. I've learned a ton in that time competing and participating in official and unofficial fights. My playing, singing, and production have all improved quite a lot, it's been pretty wild.

You mentioned in another thread that this is the first time people outside your family have heard your singing voice. Candid reviews of my singing have really helped me out. Here are some things I've heard.

Vocals are too far forward: too loud
Vocals are too dry: no reverb
Vocals delivery is flat: no emotion, no passion
Pretty pitchy dawg: Pitches all over the place

I used to think processing your vocals with software was cheating somehow, I'm glad I got over that. Now I 'cheat' like a mofo whenever my singing is marginal (which is most of the time).

Comping: stitch composite vocals together from the best parts of multiple takes
Reverb: plate reverb to color the sound a bit, convolution reverb to give the illusion of space
Compression: my singing volume is all over the place, compression evens it out
Timing adjustment: sometimes my timing sucks, having words fall right on beats sounds awesome
Pitch correction: my eyes can show me what my ears can't hear

Welcome to SongFight! Please be awesome!

Thanks! I am very unfamiliar with the terminology, so your explanation is quite welcome.

Welcome to Songfight! Please be awesome.

So basically you are me in 2005. Please be more awesome than I was.

Lichen Throat, is that a reference to werewolves or somesuch?
-bill

HeuristicsInc wrote:Lichen Throat, is that a reference to werewolves or somesuch?
-bill

In part. It's also a reference to the unpracticed state of my vocals. Strangely, I've never liked werewolves much. I have always liked lichens, however.

Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone!