(80's synth-pop) Depeche Mode cover - Fly on a Windscreen

[malictus]

Here is my cover of the Depeche Mode song "Fly on the Windscreen"; a nice juicy synth-pop track with lots and lots of layers.
All sounds created entirely within Reason 9 or by my voice. Heavy audio processing to cover up my lack of singing skills

I also did recorded video and ran screen capture throughout the entire song creation process. I plan to turn that into a little tutorial next.

[Benedict]

Congrats on getting it done.

The vocal. I am gonna say that the over-processing of the vocal is probably doing you no favors. I don't dislike your voice as such - and let's face it, DM was never known for being Roy Orbison - but the processing is probably squeezing the life that you do have in your voice out. Mostly I hear a voice that a) is fearful, b) is crushed. Both are fixable.

The fear thing is simply by
a) thinking WTF does it matter and
b) doing it enough that you get over silly yourself (silly because you are limiting yourself on a thing you want to do)

The overprocessing thing by
a) handing vocal prep to someone else so you are not letting your personal fears undermine you
b) mixing your voice as you would Mick Jagger's vocal. By the time it is on tape, it is not you, it is a voice on tape. Might as well be Mick - he won't punch you anywhere near as hard as you are punching yourself.

[malictus]

Thanks for the constructive comments. I think you're right - I really hate putting my voice in there, and I'm doing it simply because I'm doing this whole thing one-man-band style in my tiny bedroom studio. I'll try to keep that in mind making tracks in the future if I decide to use my voice again.

[Some Desperate Glory]

This sounds really nice. I love the bass and the synths. Don't love the drums, I feel they are too light-weight and flighty for such a heavy song.

Also agree you could consider giving your vocals a change. Dave Gahan is a great singer now, but he wasn't so good in early days. And think of Ian Curtis. Not what most people would call a good singer but the emotion and depth in his performances carried the day.

[robotgard]

[FHtH]

I liked everything except the vocals. I do not want to say that the vocals are bad. Most likely you sang close to the microphone and (or) with a very loud voice in the headphones. Thus, the pressure and “elasticity” in the voice were lost. This gives the vocals a “microphone fear” effect, as noted above. I am sure you can sing more powerfully.

[gullum]

really love the musical aspect and my thought about DM vocals are more like well one of use has to sing kind of agreement in the band, so maybe try singing again and just relax then don't process the vocals that much