30 Day Challenge - Day 4 Smule Special Effects (FXs) and OCs

What are "special effects" or Special FXs on Smule?

Although it's not perfect, Smule wizards provide all the members of Sing! with several different types of "effects" or FX buttons with which to change the quality of the singer's voice before sending the recording out to the singer's site or to the community as an open call or OC.  As an iPad user and a VIP member (in other words, I PAY to use Smule), whenever I'm recording or prior to hitting "continue" to finalize a song for site archive, I use the FX to change or "sweeten" (through reverb) the sound of my voice. Special FXs are available both to the free user and the paid user of Smule Sing!  Here's what I'm used to seeing on my iPad...

Basic - Just the singer's voice, no extra voice fx added
Normal - The singer's voice with minimum voice reverb added (This is the default setting unless you choose something else)
Pop - The auto-tune feature preset
Super Pop (VIP User Only) - This is the same auto tune feature except the user can use "slides" to add both reverb and "pitch correction" to the performance
Harmony - Adds several layers of the same singers voice to the performance so it sounds like a "choir" of members are present
Studio - A preset level of both "room" and "reverb" to make a singer sound as if there is both echo and reverb in a large room when singing.
Super Studio (VIP User Only) - this is the same as the preset "studio", but includes "slides" that can be manipulated to custom set reverb and "room" size for the singer
Indy - Kind of a "dirtier" sound.  This is a preset FX.
Double You - The singer's voice is doubled to add a fuller sound
Grunge - Provides a strange "funnel" like sound (as if you were singing through a tube).  This is my son's personal favorite.

In the beginning, I used only one button--Super Studio--and would add a lot of reverb, which can hide a lot of problems with a person's voice by over "sweetening" the sound.  Adding a lot of reverb can also work to make the voice seem kinda "far away" and "blurry" so that a coarser sound in one's voice can seem "smoothed" out.  Similarly "room" makes the space feel larger so, again, the voice appears to flatten to fill the room space, making any inconsistencies less noticeable.  When I first started singing on Smule, I would use about 60 percent reverb to 30-40 percent room--that's a LOT of room and reverb.  Nowadays if I hit 20 percent reverb, that's pretty rare, and I use only about 10-15 percent room depending on the type of song I'm singing.  Occasionally, I might use NO FX, and just sing it straight, but that's usually because I made a mistake and hit "continue" without thinking about it first.

This is my pal, Mitch B....Baseball Pitcher, Smule Singer and All Around Fantastic Dude!

So one day my best "bud" on Smule Mitch who goes by the Smule tag @WLM_Mitch22_SF and I were chatting (okay "texting") one another on the app "Line" when I asked him why he never used any of the special effects available on Smule.  In fact, in all the time I have known him, he seemed to sing only in "normal" or sometimes use the auto tuning "Pop Fx," which he knows I kinda dislike (a lot), when we sang duets. 

I have known for some time that Mitch uses an Android phone to sing songs and although he is a VIP member, he had only limited access to the "special effects".  Imagine my surprise when he sent me a picture of the "effects" that he had when singing...or more importantly, the effects that he was MISSING when singing.  He did not have a super pop or ANY STUDIO FX for use even though he, too, is a paid member of Smule.   He did have something called "stage" which iPad users don't have, but as he explained it to me, I realized that it was like "room" on Studio.  Unfortunately, without reverb, "room"  or "stage" by itself can be, in my opinion, rather useless for singers who really want to sweeten or fill the room with a fuller vocal sound.

So Mitch uses only "normal" and "pop" because the other buttons don't add much to the performance quality of the song.  I should point out here that Mitch sings fantastically on all of his songs....like my pal, Keith Hill @keithhill550, Mitch has a wicked "high head voice" so he can climb to these dizzying heights vocally as well as pull some really nice lower tenor sounds.  In fact, I did get Mitch to sing Sia's "Chandelier" with me one time, and--not truly surprisingly--he pulled it off with nary a misstep.  So the fact that Mitch can sing SO WELL and so pitch perfectly without any FX is a testament to this man's great vocals (I know my pal is probably blushing a bit--mostly because I did not warn him that I would be writing about him today...well, surprise, dawg).

Soon after Mitch let me know about the limitations of Android users, I could easily spot singers on my open calls who had similar limitations in their recordings.  It's truly something that Smule needs to address for its membership.

Now one tiny tiny advantage to using an Android device is the ability to post open calls of songs not in the Sing! songbook.  As I understand it and it has been explained to me (although I have not received any confirmation from Smule or Apple) since Apple owns iTunes and has perhaps the largest catalog of music in the world, iOS users are unable to post open calls of copyrighted musical material from their iOS devices including MacBooks.  There is a way--again I understand but have not confirmed--to do it but it involves a lot of work that most Smule users would find too time consuming to undertake.  Android users, however, can easily post copyrighted material to Smule and there is even a "community" location for android users were popular songs that do not appear on the Sing! songbook area kept, often with lyrics, to be reposted by other Android users.  Yeah, unless you are an Android user...don't even try looking for this one.

So, for now, choosing between an iPad or iPhone for Smule and an Android product seems to boil down to FX and performance quality and the iPad wins this round, sadly.

More Information About the Singers Mentioned Here:

@WLM_Mitch22_SF is Mitch B. in real life.  Mitch is a college student and a baseball player extraordinaire who takes the mound as a pitcher in Alabama (in fact, he lives near Birmingham, Alabama).  I'm always surprised by the vast number of songs that Mitch knows--I mean it must be almost a THOUSAND and/or how quick a study he is in learning new songs--he is one of only two men (Keith is the other) to make it through my entire 30 day song challenge earlier this year.  He's even admitted to me (today) that he can learn a song after hearing it only a few times--wow!! I would classify Mitch as a "high tenor", but he can stretch it down to a lower mid- to lower range tenor too. Mitch is my frequent duet partner and one of my very best friends on Smule and, I'm proud to admit that he is one of my best "real life" friends too outside of Smule.  Roll tide, baby!!

@Keithhill550 is Keith Hill in Birmingham (the other Birmingham), England, and the other person to make it out of the 30 day song challenge having sung EVERY song in the 30 day period.  I can't stop talking about Keith because he is an incredible singer, a great friend and one of the kindest, gentlest people you will meet on Smule.  I'll have more about Keith in an upcoming blog, I promise. 

Both Keith and Mitch post OCs that anyone can and should join!  Find them at their Smule tags and follow them!!

Me, I'm Grace better known as @pokeypal here on Smule.  Follow me for more information about upcoming events on Smule and some cool OCs and activities!!  Thanks for reading!!