Taylor Swift - Love Story (First Attempt at Mastering a vocal track)

[Tara St. Michel]

For my school's talent show this year I performed an original song and Taylor Swift's Love Story while playing the piano. A few days ago I decided to record the vocals and piano part and mix and master them together along with the official instrumental. There are a few places where the mic peaked because I was recording with my ipod and a few pops (which I tried to fix with no luck), but otherwise I'm happy with how it turned out. Here's the result:

Listen and Download (http://www.4shared.com/file/161061297/d858de21/Love_Story.html)

Instrumental: Official Instrumental and Piano performed by me
Vocals: me

Audio Level Editing: Audacity
Effects (reverb, etc.): Audacity and Garageband
Vocal Recording: iPod 4th generation nano with iPhone headphones
Piano Recording: Audacity
Mixing: Garageband
EQ: Settings from iTunes and Applied in Garageband
Compression: Audacity and Garageband


EDIT: Now that I look at this... it was NOT a good idea to record a song with my iPod. I remember his was freaking hard to mix and I think what I did just made it ridiculously sound effected.

[SharpCookies]

This was really pretty! Your voice is pretty, and your piano playing is very good! You have a pleasant voice and good enunciation.

Some things I noticed about the recording: throughout your voice sounded a bit whiny. This is a song where a lot of emotion can be shown, especially with the just-piano accompaniment, but instead of sounding sad/emotional, you sometimes came off as whiny.

I also felt that there could have been a bit more power in your voice. As I said before, you DO have a pretty and pleasant voice, but at points it could have come off as a bit stronger. Don't be afraid to show off your voice!

Also, sometimes the piano and other backtrack sounded a bit odd together. I would have suggested you keep it to just the piano accompaniment.

But this was good! I hope to hear more from you, and I hope I helped. If I remember any other things about the performance I forgot to mention, I'll edit this post with it. :3

[McTricky]

This was pretty good. I'll agree with SharpCookies on the fact that there were a few parts that lacked power from your voice, especially when the chorus kicks in. But other than that, I thought it was a good performance, and you have a sweet voice ^ ^

[Tara St. Michel]

Thank you for the comments Sharp Cookies and McTricky!

I'll try to use my voice a bit more and put in some power. Part of it could have been my mic. I was trying not to overpower the input. I think I'll be able to give my singing more energy when I get a better mic cause the one i'm using gives me static from damaged waveforms when I go too loud or make it too strong sounding (example: last chorus with the static sound). As for the other backtrack and the piano, I think it did sound odd in a few places as I was recording it but I guess I got used to it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming my faults on my mic. I have a bit of a quiet voice naturally sometimes and I believe that I can make it stronger when I want to. I was just a bit hesitant about the mic because I can't set the input level and I was a little scared it wouldn't work out right since this is my first songdub using my ipod and iphone headphones as a microphone!

[Ryea]

Thank you for the comments Sharp Cookies and McTricky!

I'll try to use my voice a bit more and put in some power. Part of it could have been my mic. I was trying not to overpower the input. I think I'll be able to give my singing more energy when I get a better mic cause the one i'm using gives me static from damaged waveforms when I go too loud or make it too strong sounding (example: last chorus with the static sound). As for the other backtrack and the piano, I think it did sound odd in a few places as I was recording it but I guess I got used to it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming my faults on my mic. I have a bit of a quiet voice naturally sometimes and I believe that I can make it stronger when I want to. I was just a bit hesitant about the mic because I can't set the input level and I was a little scared it wouldn't work out right since this is my first songdub using my ipod and iphone headphones as a microphone!

I'll give you a hint on going louder if you have a naturally quiet voice, I know this from personal experience, if you push it too much while going louder, you might end up going sharp. I know I do when I push it too much when going louder, but that might also be because I'm a soprano...., but I can sing other parts too, but I only do generally if I like the part. Also, you might want to experiment with holding it at different lengths from your mouth, because some of the cracks might be because it's too close, I know that that's the case with my "microphone" (I currently don't technically have one, I do, but not that I can actually use without getting yelled at by my mother, so I'm using the one on my camera.). But other then that, I think that's about it, at least, that hasn't been said already.

[Monotori]

The one thing I noticed was that you tend to accent your words a bit too much. ROME. EE. OH. should just be romeoh (sounding). As for having more power behind your voice, it could be simply that you're not breathing right. Of course, if you're worried about your mic peaking this isn't going to help, but when you sing you should collect your breath in your waist (feel like you're pushing down in your stomach; by the physics of your body this will give you more air to breathe with, so try to expand your lung capacity). Practice breathing longer so you won't have to take a breath in the middle of a line.

I do like your voice, though. It sounds delicate. Maybe a little too delicate right now for a song that's basically begging for a guy to notice you, but keep working at it and you can develop a very beautiful tone.

[~*Melancholy-Of-Scheris*~]

Oh wow, An awesome cover!! Your Piano is really good and vocals good~
But as it went on it seemed like you where putting less and less emotion in to it, I'm nitpicking.
Wow just wow to the Ipod recording, the quality isn't half bad for it. Hopefully when you get a new mic it will help you improve too