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Tips For Newbies

Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 12:06 pm
by TheChaosCollective
Hello fellow Voice Banders!!!

I just posted my first song, "Cracket Fuhgetist", on the Voice Band Posterous blog. Definitely not the coolest thing posted so far but I learned a few things while recording that will probably help some of the newbies get more fun out of their Voice Band experience.

1. Record ALL drum parts seperately. The dual trigger mode is fun to impress your friends but next to impossible to consistently do through a whole song.

2. Smack the surface of something to trigger drum parts. Trying to do it using your voice creates too many volume fluctuations.

3. Add cymbals towards the end of your recording session. They are in a higher frequency range than the other drums and are hard to judge volume levels when you don't have the other instruments layed down yet. Often you'll find that what sounded good after a couple of layers will sound like garbage after you add a few more instruments.

4. Save your recordings with a slightly different file name after each layer you add. That way if you decide you don't like that layer you added 3 steps ago you won't have to completely start over again. I learned this the hard way. (Note to developers: Please add the ability to delete specific tracks within a recording!! Also volume adjustments, panning, etc after a track has been recorded would be nice..)

5. Use the metronome. It's there for a reason!!!

6. Unless you have absolutely horrendous pitch, avoid the auto-tune. You can be much more expressive with bending notes and such without it. (As you'll hear from my recording, I'm a horrible singer and I managed to nail pitches pretty close for the most part).

7. Have fun!!! It's not a competition!!!

I'm sure there's more, and I'll add them as they come to me, but this should help get things going.

-Shaun

p.s. Can't wait for the Pro version!!!