Return of the Vocal Videos

Things have been busy for me lately. Aside my continuation in Skyrim (level 56 almost 57) for All Achievements, I also recently picked up Rocksmith last week since the game was FINALLY released in Europe. Now not only am I trying to level up in Skyrim for that damned Legendary dragon, but I am also trying to make sure I play Rocksmith consistently to maintain whatever callouses I may be gaining.  That is not including the fact that Rock Band still releases new DLC and I want to record vocal videos (especially of Amberian Dawn songs). So many things I want to do and so little time... first world problems, ya know?

So today I shook off some of the lazy and hauled my desktop to my living room to get some recordings done. I actually managed to get 2 videos recorded, Cold Kiss and Passing Bells; both by Amberian Dawn.

RB Vid: Field of Serpents & New Mic!

It's been a while since I have posted an Amberian Dawn video. As you may recall, I have complained a lot about having issues with recording videos in Rock Band from this artist. Any time I try to sing lyrically my notes are so high and loud that there is a horrible crackle and popping sound on the notes. So I started singing soft, flat and without much effort which resulted in videos I was unhappy with.

Recently I had to purchase a new microphone for use in my band (I bought a Shure SM58 A Beta). It seemed to work wonders in practice (the mic we had wasn't working very well for me), and I started to wonder if it might be useable in Rock Band.

RB3 DLC: Red Hot Chili Peppers- Californication (+ other stuff)

Here is one of the 4 videos I recorded of the Red Hot Chili Peppers DLC that was released a few weeks ago. I haven't had much time lately, and I'm quite busy with other things, but thought I would release one from my stock.

Rock Band 3 DLC: Red Hot Chili Peppers- By The Way

The second of 4 Red Hot Chili Pepper's DLC videos I recorded. Honestly this one has a chorus that is fun to sing but the verses are "WTF? XD"

It was hard to try to sing it "seriously" too. Anyway this one should be worth some LOLs. You get to hear me semi-rapping and singing nonsense.

Rock Band 3 DLC: Red Hot Chili Peppers- Otherside

Here's the first of 4 upcoming Red Hot Chili Pepper's DLC videos I recorded and my favorite from the pack.

This song is also the first and only song I've ever sang in a Karaoke bar O_o so it brings back interesting memories.

Also, I've received a lot (well for me) of nice feedback about this video. The like/view ratio is much higher than usually and the comments are nice. Also had a couple of people tweet the link. I had no idea people missed my videos or even cared about them.

Thanks! ♥

Why I Sing Soft in Rock Band (RB Video: Lost Soul)

This is a video/blog combo I have been meaning to do for a while but it always ended up on the back-burner. Yesterday while trying to record Amberian Dawn- Lost Soul (at the request of the lovely Seli) I unintentionally ended up with decent enough footage to demonstrate what I mean.

To give you some background I've been doing Rock Band videos since May 4th, 2009 when I used to use my digital camera to record my tiny tv (I have a new one now lol) for my videos. In fact here's a link to my very first video: Forever (Rock Band 2) Expert Vocals 100%. My singing has improved since then (or at least I hope so O_o).

I've had lyrical singing lessons (only 7 hours mind you and I hope to take more, but I learned something that was life changing) and I was told that I was placing my voice incorrectly thus giving me a false lower voice and potentially damaging my vocal cords. I've since stopped... and although I pretty much seem to have good natural projection my projection has improved. I know how to not sing "weak".

However the game forces me to sing soft and weak. Thanks also in part to the removal of the sensitivity adjustment on Rock Band 3, if I sing at full (or even partial projection) I get horrible mic distortion, especially on high notes (which due to the nature of high notes are naturally louder).

The Importance of Calibration in Rock Band 3 Vocals

Overall I love Rock Band 3, but it seems every day or so I find something else that I either hate about it, am annoyed by, or wish there was a patch to correct. I could get into that long list of things (and I will eventually) but right now I'm going to talk about one of them: calibration.

You may remember last week's post: Video of the Week: Song of the Damned (Army of the Damned). Despite all my best efforts I kept getting a 99% FC. I say "FC" because I had managed to keep my combo throughout the entire song (getting "awesome" at the end of every phrase and never seeing a visual break in combo) but ending with a percentage of 99%. Never having encountered such an issue in the other Rock Band games I played, I assumed this was a bug. I wasn't sure if it was a bug with the song itself or with the game, but I assumed it was a random issue with the game because the scores on the leaderboard for this song showed SOMEONE had FCed it.

So I posted my videos and my blog and I got A LOT of responses, help and feedback. My issue wasn't a bug at all, in fact this problem had been encountered in other Rock Band games I never purchased (Rock Band: Beatles & Rock Band: Green Day), so it's been around for a while actually, but being that I wasn't a fan of band-specific games, nor those particular bands, I was afforded the luxury of being ignorant to its existence. Those were happier times.

Video of the Week: Evil Inside Me (RBN)

This week's video is another Amberian Dawn song. What can I say? They are probably the songs that are the most fun on vocals. Plus it is nice to have music you like in one of your favorite games. ;)

I really like to listen to this song, but sadly (and oddly) it wasn't as fun for me to sing as LionHeart or Kokko (which I didn't really like to listen to as much as some others). I think my main problem is I just don't like the way I sing it.

Also I think it is charted weird.. generally I don't have issue with anything Rock Gamer Studios has charted, everything is pretty good and rather accurate. I've noticed that often the lyrics are slightly off on the Amberian Dawn songs, but it's generally really minor.

Video of the Week: Lionheart (RBN)

This week saw the release of TWO Amberian Dawn songs, Lionheart and Evil Inside Me.

I had intended to do both today but I ran out of time, so you only get one :p

Like Kokko, this song really wasn't one of my favorites to listen to.. again, not that I hated it.. just there were other songs I liked more. However, Lionheart has grown on me.. BIG TIME. I REALLY like it.. vocally it is fun, lyrically it is awesome.

I never pay too much attention to lyrics, I generally read through them once when I get the album and then they end up forgotten. However playing the songs on Rock Band

Video of Last Week: Kokko- Eagle of Fire (RBN)

I was bad last week and let this one slip by without blogging about it.. naughty me.

Honestly I didn't really have too much to say about this video anyway other than MORE AMBERIAN DAWN (insert fan-girl squeal)!

Kokko has never really been one of my favorite songs, it's not that I hate it.. I just like other songs more, but ya know.. Kokko is really fun to sing.

So this song earns 5 stars on my "fun on vocals" scale.

I think it came out pretty well other than the mic distortion and am happy with it. It got good ratings

Video of the Week: I Will Not Bow (DLC), nor will I scream or growl.

This week's video is Breaking Benjamin- I Will Not Bow. This song is actually fun to play in game even if it's not my favorite.

Difficulty wise this song isn't hard at all, so I can't really offer any tips or major problems I had with it.

The song does however contain screaming and growling which honestly is not something I'm good at, nor do I enjoy doing or listening to it. So the "talkie" parts of the song are meh. I didn't scream or growl for those parts.. I just can't and when I try it sounds like ultra crap in a can.

Video of the Week: Shallow Waters (RBN), Eating My Oxygen

This week's video is more Amberian Dawn! This time, Shallow Waters and as you can guess from the title it isn't an easy one.

Hardest problem I had was managing to sing that fast and high without that many chances to get a breath. Really really hard on that level. If you're doing the song in a lower octave though, it's a piece of cake. I played it in a lower octave the day it came out because I was a bit congested and I just didn't have it in me to try to sing it in a higher octave physically.

I did this song over and OVER and OVER again trying to make my struggle to breathe sound less obvious and it did indeed become easier the more I did it (yes, yes, I know practicing helps!) but still it's a killer.

Video of the Week: Incubus (RBN), I sense and know its presence yet I'm asleep.

 Incubus is out for purchase today via the Rock Band Network on Xbox 360, yay! I was starting to get impatient for some new Amberian Dawn songs, so it's about time another makes it out of Peer Review.

This song took me a few tries before I managed an FC. I guess most of it is I'm really out of practice with singing. I didn't have a mic for a long time and I've been having a hard time FCing any Amberian Dawn songs when it used to be so easy in the past. :/ I also did this song as soon as I got up so my voice wasn't really awake yet.. but I was so impatient to play it that I tried anyway.

Anyway after I got the FC my new problem was "How to FC this and not sound like crap?". I hate to say it, but it's something I didn't find the answer to.

My voice is weak in the song. It's especially noticeable in the phrase: ".. to take over me and choke me!"

Video of the Week: Wytches 2010.. (Isis Astarte Diana Hecate Demeter Kali Inanna...)

So in other non-WoW related news I have acquired a new microphone! Yay! I actually got this while visiting a friend in Amsterdam for cheaper than what it would have cost online (double yay!)

It's basically the one I had before (previous to the purple one): The Logitech Vantage.. you'll notice though that this one is black. It is in fact the one for the PS2/3 (it was all they had) but clearly it works with the xbox 360 as well.

Anyway this week's video is Wytches 2010 by Inkubus Sukkubus.

Video of the Week: Valkyries (RBN), choosers of slain!

Just what I've been waiting for, more Amberian Dawn in Rock Band! Yay!

If you don't know already (shame on you) I am a HUGE Amberian Dawn fan and helped bring them to the RBN for the enjoyment of all.

Valkyries is actually one of my favorite AD songs so I was really happy when this went for sale yesterday on the RBN.

This song SHOULD be hard to sing, but since you don't have to sing it as high as Heidi does, it's not really as hard as it sounds. I managed to sight-read FC this yesterday but didn't get a video up as I had planned because my monitor died during the recording. I was forced to hurry my butt to the stores before they closed to buy another.

I chose to sing it as close to the original version as possible, for me that's the fun of AD's songs on vocals anyway so why ruin it?

Video of the Week: I Wanna Be Your Man (or WOman... in a hat)

Lucky for me I was thinking ahead and recorded TWO videos last week with the intention to save one for release this week because I'm SICK!

As if I haven't had a crappy last two weeks with the headaches etc (CAT scan came out normal by the way, they say my brain just needs time to recover) I now have a really bad cold. If not for recording last week I'd have no video to release today, so yay for thinking ahead.

This video features the famous "hat" that I'm wearing in my new twitter pic etc. My good old fedora that I bought many years ago and thought would be fun to wear in this video. I missed it, don't get enough chances to wear it and took advantage to take that picture. I've also gone ahead and used the picture for a new youtube avatar since people liked it so much.

Other than that the song itself again wasn't hard (headaches don't motivate me to try harder stuff),

Video of the Week: He Sleeps in a Grove (RBN)

This week's video is He Sleeps in a Grove by Amberian Dawn available for sale on the Rock Band Network, authored by the awesome people over at Rock Gamer Studios.

This is actually the first time I have ever FCed (full cleared) the song in expert. I had issues where I was stuck on a certain point and once I figured that out I managed to mess up on a part I usually make.

The song is difficult because it is high for a long period of time with little to no breathing room between phrases. In order for me to hold a high note I need a good amount of oxygen and I just wasn't getting must space to breathe. After a bit of practice (or should I say 10+ 99% runs) I got a little better at it although my voice is still a bit weak.

I feel like it has to be said that I am not a real singer, I have no training in classical singing (it's something I'm interested in though)

Video of the Week: Forever

This week's video is actually a re-do video.

I was working on this video last week when I got tired of getting 99% right at the end (I think I was slightly off pitch on the last "be" scream every time.) and was lured by the appeal of the Rock Band Network and the Amberian Dawn songs.

This week I MADE myself do it. I actually had a bit of a problem though.. my first run resulted in an FC (full clear, 100%) but my digital camera (for the picture in picture view) died during the song... I was ever so mad and tried over and over again to FC it unsuccessfully.

So as I was saying this video is in fact a re-do video

OMG RBN! Video of the Week: River of Tuoni

I totally had intended to remake my first ever youtube video but I had a change of plans.

It just so happened that while I was failing at FCing Forever by only getting a strong on the last note Dpritch sent me a message on xbox live talking about the ever spreading rumor that the RBN was coming TODAY!

I immediately decided it wasn't worth continuing to kill my voice for In This Moment- Forever and hovered over twitter watching for the latest news..

And then it came... Rock Band Network was listed under the Music Store and I instantly downloaded the 2 available Amberian Dawn songs (Hey! I helped get them in the RBN ok?) Naturally I went straight for River of Tuoni.. I mean I love Amberian Dawn but He Sleeps in a Grove is not one of my favorite songs of theirs. (I can't wait for the incoming 5 new ones)

I'm actually EXTREMELY lucky I got to play these songs at all because the RBN was not available everywhere.

Video of the Week: Interstate Love Song

This week's video is Stone Temple Pilot's Interstate Love Song.

I've always liked this song and it is short and sweet (like this entry about it will be) so that was definitely incentive to choose it for my video this week. The song is a bit on the low end and this is where I tend to have more trouble as I just fail so much musically that I can not find out how to make myself sing it in a higher octave.. I managed to make 100% anyway so I guess it doesn't really matter.

As before I have included external audio along with the capture for volume reasons. It does seem though that since filming this video I have found a solution that will allow me to use full direct audio for next week.. yay! ^^

Sadly I also had my camera too zoomed in and cut off part of my head.. ooops.