Round Four: Alex61 v BassSquared (358 views)

[Steve]

This is Alex61 v BassSquared in Round Four of the Clip-Off. You have five days to submit your clips, and until 23:00 BST Time November 8 to vote. November 9 is the Results Day.

The categories for this round are:
1. Best High Singing: A performance that places particular importance on singing high notes. The clip doesn't have to be exclusively high singing but the more high notes are utilized and the higher they are (relative to the singer), the more appropriate it is for the category.
2. Best Low Singing: A performance that places particular importance on singing low notes. The clip doesn't have to be exclusively low singing but the more low notes are utilised and the lower they are (relative to the singer), the more appropriate it is for the category.
3. Best Usage of Mid-Range: Singing that's made interesting despite (or perhaps because of) not placing particular importance on either high or low notes. There are no concrete thresholds to mid-range, but your best bet is to try and gauge whether the singing sounds mid-rangy.

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

Vote here.

Current Vote Count: 4

[BassSquared]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Best High Singing- Noa Gruman}

4:36 to 6:07. So yeah you may have figured this out already but this woman's high range is fucking ridiculous. Some very well-controlled soprano lines over a tricky melody that keep going higher until they climax in a positively glass-shattering Eb6, followed by her singing in an octave unison above an already pretty high vocal part. She simply cannot miss.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Best Low Singing- Steven Page}

1:56 to 3:10, skip 2:21 to 2:39. Steve's strongest lows by a fair margin, with multiple beefy F#2s and a very solid D2, as well as some good second octave singing throughout. Not bad for a high baritone.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Best Use of Midrange- Eva Noblezada}

0:41 to 2:30, skip 1:20 to 1:33. Honestly, this category, more than any other, has always stumped me. How high or low can a singer go before it stops being "proper" midrange? What does a 5/5 midrange performance even sound like? That said, I think this clip is pretty nice. A ballad with Eva's usual gorgeous tone on full display throughout, she wrings a lot of power out of notes that aren't particularly high for her, with B4 being the highest belt and just the one soft falsetto C#5 at the end. A performance that sounds lovely without going out of its way to show off.

[Alex61]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Best High Singing}
THIS CLIP (3:54 - end) from Maureen McGovern. Highs up to G6 with a lot of variation - it's not easy to sing with this kind of agility!

SPOILER: Click to show

{Best Low Singing}
THIS CLIP (1:54 - 2:39) from Yma Sumac singing in her i c o n i c gravelly low vois. Lows all the way down to C♯3 with pretty surprising depth.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Best Mid-Range Singing}
THIS CLIP (0:42 - end) from Cher. Lots of dynamic changes, it's one of those clips that feels like it covers more range than it does. The clip climaxes on A4, which is literally the SHN threshold for her and I wouldn't consider out of her mid-range necessarily.