Round Eight: Alex61 v BassSquared (402 views)

[Steve]

This is Alex61 v BassSquared in Round Eight of the Clip-Off. You have five days to submit your clips, and until 23:00 GMT Time Tuesday, August 18 to vote. August 19 is the Results Day.

This is the final round! You must use separate singers for Best Live Singing/Best Studio Singing, but you can use any of your singers for Free Choice.

The categories for Round Eight are:
1. Best Live Performance: A live vocal take done during a live show, a stage show or live in studio, etc.
2. Best Studio Performance: A studio take of a vocal, which may include backing and/or harmony singing.
3. Free Choice: A clip you thought was interesting in terms of its vocal that you just really want to show off; you can use a song here that you were perhaps saving for a category but didn't get to use.

The teams are free to post their clips, voting commences as soon as they have.

Vote here.

Current Vote Count: 4

[Alex61]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Best Live Performance: Annie Haslam}
My favourite Annie Haslam performance! Hurrah! Annie's voice here is completely siren-esque, singing consistently in the sixth octave with impressive sustains and runs all the way up to G6 before ending on a climactic E5. I've listened to this performance so many times and every time I'm just completely in awe of Annie's voice - she barely sings any lyrics here but you can really feel the depth of her voice.
0:56 - 5:47. Skippable instrumentals are 1:53 - 2:10, 2:58 - 3:13, 4:06 - 4:34 and 5:08 - 5:28.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Best Studio Performance: Axl Rose}
Fun fact, I spent aaaaages trying to find which song had this piano part opening before realising it was a goddamn Guns N' Roses song. There's a reason why this was Axl's #1 vocal performance on TRP 3 - dynamics, range, some clean singing and some grittier singing.
0:27 - end. Skippable instrumental at 2:17 - 3:00 and 3:34 - 3:50.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Free Choice: Marcella Detroit}
This is kind of a weird choice I suppose because even though it has Marcy singing a plethora of highs, the main reason I like this performance is because Marcella's light, agile tone really contrasts against Siobhan's darker, (in this song) more sinister tone. Marcy reaches all the way up to F6 and her melismas at the end are amazing, and though the first two minutes are gorgeous on their own, the song gets better as it goes on.
0:12 - 2:35 / 2:52 - end

TO BE CLEAR 1:58 - 2:35 isn't Marcella so feel free to skip it, but I think in this song the juxtaposition of Siobhan really works

[BassSquared]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Best Live Performance: Rachael Price}

Entire song. Arguably Rachael's greatest vocal asset is her sheer consistency in pulling off strong, smooth, studio-quality vocals in live performances, and I'd say this live-in-studio clip is one of the best illustrations of that. In one unedited take, she shows off butter-smooth tone from soft croons to powerful belts, all while keeping immaculate control over her pitch and vibrato. This may be less outwardly showy in terms of range and "big notes" than most other clips, but it's no less of a showcase of technique.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Best Studio Performance: Josh Ramsay}

1:47 to the end. There really wasn't any question it was going to be this. Ramsay's best vocal performance bar none, a gloriously overblown album-closing epic that, over the course of its many dynamic peaks and valleys, covers basically the entire spectrum of Ramsay's voice. It's got soft, lower-ranged stuff (though I unfortunately couldn't fit the F#2s from the intro), an abundance of crazy fifth-octave belts up to a huge G5, and even a contingent of tight harmonies that includes a quick reprise of Eleonora from last round. Enjoy the ride, it's a wild one.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Free Choice: Rachael Price (again)}

1:04:05 to 1:05:10. Honestly, I probably could have picked something objectively better for this, but I feel it's only right to give this clip its due after a combination of unfortunate circumstances and my own stupidity led to it *almost* being in this competition repeatedly. (It likely would have done better in Sustained Highs than that other thing I posted but whatever). This is mostly an interesting clip because it's Rachael "Polite and Tasteful" Price, the most range conservative member of my team, just saying "fuck it" and improvising a live passage in full eaglevois- and not doing too badly at it either! She gets all the way up to the sixth octave too, with multiple sizable C#6s and a brief D6 even.
(also I know her mic is weirdly far away from her mouth at points, but since Lake Street Dive are about as far as you can conceivably get from the type of band to lip-sync live performances, I'm almost entirely sure she's just projecting that strongly.)