Don't be afraid to lay down your own vocals, you don't know how good you can sound until you practice. I hope you don't judge yourself on your first attempts. Watch some vocal coaches and practice it like you do your instruments and recording.

You'll probably be surprised that you don't sound half bad at all. That or you will learn a lot about how lyrics and vocals fit into your song as a focal point and you will write around that for the sole purpose of fitting in vocals that you kept room for with your instruments.

If you don't want to do your own vocals with a vengeance then you can always post your work in places that deal collaborations. I'm sure the right vocalist will hear your music and want to get in on it.

 

@Donut Nyamer - All very good points, and not things that I've really thought about. And yes I fell into the trap of thinking that I couldn't sing although I've had no training and no practice but I often quietly sing the tunes that I then play on the guitar, and I often find myself singing or humming the notes as I play - so yes your right - practice and training like any other instrument.

Any recommendations for the collaboration sites? I ask as I'm guessing it'll take a while before I'm happy with my singing voice let alone able to record it in a way I'm happy with, so in the mean time collaboration will be the way to go. (But I will be checking out those youtube lessons).

 

Here's a community especially for your needs.
https://www.reddit.com/r/NeedVocals/

Other communities for vocalists.
https://www.reddit.com/r/singing/
https://www.reddit.com/r/vocalists/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Singers/
https://www.reddit.com/r/femalevocalists/
https://www.reddit.com/r/IsolatedVocals/

Extra communities you could look into.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Songwriting/
https://www.reddit.com/r/composer/
https://www.reddit.com/r/MusicInTheMaking/
https://www.reddit.com/r/WeAreTheMusicMakers

Posting in these may get you you a collab too.
https://www.reddit.com/r/musicians/
https://www.reddit.com/r/WeAreTheMusicians/
https://www.reddit.com/r/musicproduction/


Just make a post asking for vocalists to collaborate with for whatever genre including a link to your music then wait and see.

 

Last edited: Jul 5, 2021

oh wow.... man, what can I say... Thank you for all those links. That's very much appreciated.

 

You're welcome. I edited my earlier reply to add more links. Also maybe make a separate collab post on here with the specific tracks you want vocals on because this site is vast as well and there have been songwriting types on here too I think.

Check these threads on a "collab" search I did in this community.
https://www.reddit.com/r/WeAreTheMusicMakers/search?q=collab&restrict_sr=1

Try doing the same search within different communities like I just did by going to a specific subreddit then typing in your search keyword then clicking search. Afterwards there will be a community link you can click so you can display searched posts within that community only instead of a general search in all the communities as a whole.

 

Last edited: Jul 5, 2021

thank you for all the leads and tips for collaboration, I'm amazed at the generosity here, and thank you again @Donut Nyamer

I'll do as you suggest - first time I've been able to say THAT in a while...!
Thanks again

 

Most of these start off with a 90's Verve Lucky Man or Oasis Champagne Supernova type vibe which should be commended from a performance and production standpoint.

But unlike the aforementioned tracks where those initial vibes build over time into an eventual epic sonic wall, most of these lack those additional layers or even a shift upwards in gear (apart from track 7). As others have pointed out, vocals would also give these tracks a lift.

Thanks for sharing.

 

You're very welcome! Best of luck getting vocals into your tracks however you decide it's best.

 

Many thanks for the compliment on the performance and production.

And yes I totally agree, they are very chilled and kind of "trance-ee" or meditative, and most were started out of a wish to try new instruments (vsts) and recording or mixing techniques - non of which I'd ever tried before. The chilled vibe or the "lack of shift" I guess comes from the lack of any kind of composition or writing, for most it was dive in and see what happens. you know just record some playing and then record over that, then maybe add some strings or whatever.

The next things I put together are going to be more funky (or thats the plan) so I'll have to concentrate on the musical journey for each piece - have that in the front of my mind less on the production - and new sounds / new toys... if you know what I mean.

I enjoyed the whole chill thing though and will probably return - maybe with less hypnotic-ness and more of a musical journey to the next pieces.

Thanks for listening and for the compliments and the critique - all appreciated

 

You can program drums as loose as you want but it still needs to be 'in sync' with the rest of the music.
I've listened several times and to my ears the backing track/at least the drums are out of sync between 27 sec and 47 sec of the first track.
The fact that the guitar is so loud up front masks it and the delay on the guitar might also contribute to the feeling I've got when listening.
Nevermind. It can always be that I'm mistaken but to my knowledge, I can still trust my ears.

In the end, it doesn't matter since the looseness was intended although it feels off.

 

thanks for pin-pointing it, I'll take a look and listen in the next few days. I'll take a listen to the guitar loudness as well - tough to predict other sound systems as I'm not using any reference tracks, something else I need to add to my knowledge base - what tracks I could use as reference for these... and I'm still mixing through my old hi-fi so maybe that doesn't help either...

I'll post here when I've take another run at it - wish me luck...

 

Hi Ed I've taken another look and reduced everything down to 7 flac files - I'd love it if you could give them a quick level and move the drum track slightly for the section that you mentioned - I'm asking because I cant get this any better and you've got better ears than me. If you could show me what you mean I'd probably have a eureka moment. Let me know.

 

thanks to everyone for the positivity, and just in case anyone's interested I've re-levelled the first track...

And the chill is just what I need after last night

thanks again to everyone here.... This place has become a special sanctuary for me so thank you all.

 

damn all of these tracks are awesome! it sounds so nostalgic to me and goosebumps at some parts!! the only complaint i have is that the drums on all of the track are not loud enough (maybe it's just me cause all the songs i listen to have drums at medium/high loudness). anyways great work on the tracks! i liked "Bar Dust" the most out of the 7 tracks, it sounded so nostalgic to me!

 

woo hoo thanks man I tried the first track with slightly louder drums and just didn't like it, so I turned them down a bit after a touch more parallel compression, and yeh I know what you mean about nostalgic - Thanks for the compliment