That was fantastic Shane. You should sing more often as I thought your vocals were excellent!
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Not too shabby at all there Shane. Thought the vocals came across really well, despite you intro comments. You also dialed in a sweet tone on this one. Man this takes me way back, so thanks for sharing.
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First and foremost, most enjoyable, Shane. I’ve never heard of Dobie Gray but do recognise the song.
You are enviably as equally adept at play and sing as you are playing letting those bluesy lead chops flow.
You have a super smooth relaxed strumming action, knack for dialling up tone that suits the moment, and I’ve always enjoyed your singing, timbre, feel, feeling.
I know you set a high bar and like constructive feedback, so yes, vocal levels could have been more consistent, varying as you moved your head around.
Perhaps you could look at the mic position and adjust based on likely head movement as you play. Maybe also gentle compression on the vocal, make up gain to lift the softer bits while not crushing out the dynamics.
I liked the guitar tone but felt your vocal could have benefited from a light touch of reverb and delay, to give it a more natural sound. It sounded a little dry to me relative to the electric guitar tone. Just enough to deal that without it being drenched in fx.
My 2cs worth on how to make the great even greater … maybe.
Look forward to what may flow out thye pipe.
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That was really awesome Shane. This song is a karaoke favorite in the USA and you nailed it.
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Hello David
Thanks for the listen, and the kind feedback. A fun song, from a time when the world seem much simpler.
Now, onto the vocal audio. Very, very much appreciate your input here. I fiddled with those vocals for far too long; endlessly messing around with the mic placement, and particularly the vocal plugins. This accounted for about 80% of the time spent doing this. Getting the guitar tone, and actually playing it was the relatively easy part. I think its a big part of the reason I haven’t done more guitar/ vocal videos. As I said, I had to reacquaint myself with some basics. It is certainly a frustrating endeavour for me at times, and a dent to the ego that I can’t seem to get some basic audio principles in order. At least it feels that way.
Anyway, here’s what I used on this track, in order.
All Reaper plugins. I was guided by a Kenny Gioia video on vocal setup, as a means of reacquainting myself. So I had the following reaper plugins ; ReaComp, ReaEQ, ReaDelay, ReaVerbate. I basically input Kenny’s settings, and modified from there.
My understanding is that compression will, in part help with the ’ moving around the mic’ syndrome. I remember utilising this before with some success. I still had some fading in and out, so didnt quite get that right.
With the EQ, I basically took out the very bottom end, below say 100hz, boosted around 6000 hz a liitle bit, and left the rest alone.
I also had some slight delay, 2 channels, panned left and right, and some mild reverb. You say it needed more, but I found I kept dialling it down. Will have to revisit.
Re the mic placement. Yeah, well this is frustration city for me. I only have a dynamic, but thats fine I reckon. I had the mic pretty close, as I’m, currently, not singing with alot of confidence. Will just have to keep at it I suppose.
In the end, I feel like I’ve yet to bed down some basic principles that work in my environment. I could then adjust here and there, depending on the song/ performance. I’m sure my ears are OK, although my wife probably say I have hearing problem 
Sorry for the long post, but this area guitar playing is perhaps my most frustrating one; with a somewhat fondness for singing, but angst at all the messing about to get vocals recorded. Anyway, first world problems. Thanks again David for taking the time to provide some valuable input.
Cheers, Shane.
Much appreciated Jeff. Yep, great tune. Pretty straight forward too, as most of the great ones are I reckon.
Cheers, Shane
Thanks Eddie for the listen mate. Dont mind singin…will have keep workin on it…
Cheers Shane
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Hey Toby,
Thanks for the listen, and feedback mate. The voice actually went alot better than I thought. I’m now several months off the old fags, so thats probably helping. That’s cigarettes…just to avoid any ambiguity 
Cheers, Shane
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That’s a great song, Shane, and I enjoyed your cover. I’ve played this one as a campfire strummer, could never figure out a way to play the riffs that I thought fit in nicely. So - nice work on those riffs! I did hear a couple of those things you mentioned in the last chorus but you know what it’s not a big deal when you just keep playing and don’t highlight them by making a face or whatever. (Not that I can ever not do that!) so a very enjoyable late night tune to listen to. 
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Thanks Mari. Much appreciated. Re the flubs. I’ve just accepted they are going to be there for a while yet, so thats progress right there . And you’re, great song. A real classic.
Cheers, Shane
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Shane, happy to share my experience and learning.
Mic placement is hard to judge on video. What I have found is that increasing the distance from the mic seems to help minimise the impact of head movement. I know there is always those that advocate ‘eating the mic’ but I have found I get a better result from backing off. I try and find a suitable spot that is in the sweet spot that best accommodates likely head movement. I also use a dynamic.
Having done that, I may then have to turn the gain up on the AI to still get a decent signal. I assume that you applied the fx in Reaper post recording, so you have the option to amplify the recorded audio if it is a little soft. I aim for an average of around -12dB with the fader set at 0dB adjustment.
I use Waves CLA Vocals as a rule on my vocals in Reaper. Like you I use a couple of the presets which take care of EQ, compression, reverb, and delay with maybe some level tweaks. But sure you can do the same with Reaper stock plugs as you described.
Finding the level is tricky as I think it is firstly subject to the listeners taste and secondly the playback devices does have a significant influence. I was listening through JBL headphones that I use for work on a laptop. I might have felt differently if using my mixing headphones and listening through my AI.
And I must stress again, the end result was not bad at all. It sounded good. I suspect the same recording while playing an acoustic guitar and I might have thought differently.
Shane, that was sooooo sweet. Such a laidback feel to it. Very, very enjoyable. I also enjoyed your vocals so something you should do more of I think. Nice work on the riffs as well.
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Hello David,
Thanks for taking the time to give me some things to think about, and experiment with. It is much appreciated.
Re the Reaper vocal fx,ceq, compression, I had them all active during recording, with some ‘baseline’ settings. Just feels more in the groove that way. It’s the fiddling with them after that can be frustrating. I tend to mix with both headphones and studio monitors to get a more accurate view as to what I’m hearing.
The upside to it all I suppose is that, being very much a novice with vocals, and mixing in general, more experience will hopefully breed more consistent results.
Cheers, Shane
Thanks for the listen, and the kind words, Stefan. Yep, have a couple of other vocals lined up - just need to actually get to them.
Hope all is well with you mate.
Cheers, Shane
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Hey Shane, loved this! Sounded real smooth 
You have a nice voice, you should sing more. Look forward to the others you have in the pipeline.
Great job giving up the fags (cigarettes) too 
Hey Shane - great playing, great tone and great vocals. You make it look so easy my friend. That show’s you how far you have come along in the past couple of years.
Always a pleasure to share, Shane.
The crux here is where the fx plugins are in the chain. I am assuming that you added these as plugins on the track. In Reaper you can also add the plugins as input fx, in other words the audio recorded into the track as already had those fx applied. In the case of the former you can adjust after recording, with the latter it cannot be changed. I like the flexibility of the former.
And I do the same when recording electric guitar direct. I play with the fx on but like the recorded track to be dry.
Hey David,
Yes, the recorded track is always dry, whatever I’m recording. Can’t see a situation where I’d want to add any fx on the input.
Re the order. Comp, EQ, Delay, Reverb. My recent ‘refresher’ suggests this is the optimum way.
Cheers, Shane
Shane! Dude! What Mari says nails it! Listening at my desk on a stressful day at work with my eyes closed just chillin’ to the vibe thinking it should be late in the evening sittin’ with a cold one in my deck chair watching the moonrise!!! Love this rendition of one of my faves… you definitely need to sing to us more often!!! Thank you for helping to get me through a difficult day!!!
Tod
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Yeaaaaaaah!!!
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