Round 4: BiDS vs Gilad (484 views)

[Steve]

This is Breakfast in D-sharp v Gilad in Round Three of the Clip-Off. You have five days exactly to submit your clips, and until 23:59 EST Monday, December 23 to vote. December 24 is the Results Day.

Round Four is the mid-Clipoff Full House round, in which all three of your singers must be used. The categories for Round Four 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

[Breakfast in D-sharp]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Best High Singing}
Lorraine Ellison uses a variety of vocal textures and dynamics up in the 5th octave (topping at B5) in No Matter How It All Turns Out, with plenty of melismas of course, because Lorraine.
1:10-2:53

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{Best Low Singing}Some girthy lows here from Thomas Quasthoff in Some Enchanted Evening, including multiple sustained C♯2s. The clip stays within a low range throughout, mostly in the 2nd octave (highest note is E♭3).
1:05-3:34 3:04 VERY BELATED EDIT, which I hope is allowed: I didn't realise until someone recently pointed it out to me that I had significantly exceeded the time limit. Idk what I was thinking, but I may have meant 3:04 as the end time (or maybe my migraine brain told me that 3 - 1 = 1 or something). Anyway, it doesn't really change the nature of the clip, so if there's anyone doing extra belated votes to make up the quota, if you could just judge the 2-minute version that would be great.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Best Usage of Mid-Range}Buzz Clifford - (If You Cry) True Love, True Love
An endearing performance with a few lovely little melismas, spanning about D3-E4 (lead vocal - I'm not sure if any other singers are involved in the backing vocals, but they're pretty mid-rangy anyway).
0:14-1:44

[Gilad]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Best High Singing - Chester Bennington}
2:30 - 3:39, in "No More Sorrow", Chester is a masterclass in vocal resilience, blasting through this difficult number with tons of heavy, distorted, sustained singing in the Bb4 range. Most singers' voices would give out by the third line, but not ol' Chester. Also an unbelievable C#5 scream at the very end. There's not much variety in this clip, but Chester's power and ability is undeniable.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Best Use of Mid-Range - Matt Bellamy}
0:11 - 1:23, "Explorers" sees Bellamy showing his theatrical side. Spanning from quiet C3s to light F4s, I think he sounds quite nice here.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Best Low Singing - Conor Mason}
1:45 - 2:31, alright, none of my singers would've done well in this category, that's my fault for only picking tenors. Conor drew the short straw, so here's a clip of him singing at the bottom of his range: B2 lol. Fwiw he still sounds pretty good.