Round 4: BiDS vs BassSquared (497 views)

[Steve]

This is Breakfast in D-sharp v BassSquared 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: 3

[BassSquared]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Best High Singing: Georgia Train}
Timestamp to end. Georgia hammers out a damn fine assortment of powerful high notes in this melisma-riffic performance, both belted and in head voice. Tops out at C#6.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Best Low Singing: Ninet Tayeb}
0:50 to 2:44. Y'know I probably should have used this for Pleasant Tone instead of saving it for this round, but it is probably Ninet's best low singing on record. Incredibly smooth, gorgeous vocals down to some very comfortable-sounding A2s. Happy holidays, y'all.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Best Use of Mid Range: Will Wood}
1:22-2:19, 2:31-3:22. Every year I'm kinda stumped as to what to do for a category that is, by its very nature, kinda mid, but this performance fits the category as well as anything. A pleasant, character-filled vocal performance that sits squarely in Will's mid-range. Spans C3 - F4, and neither of those are particularly emphasized for much of the clip.

[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

SPOILER: Click to show

{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 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