Velvetmoss is a seven-song indie pop EP featuring Natalie on all vocals.
Listen to Velvetmoss on Spotify
View Bill Hamilton’s profile (links to major streaming platforms are included in the bottom-right corner)
I’m interested in hearing which track makes the most convincing use of Natalie and whether the vocals feel consistent across the EP.
Would be helpful for you to put links to multiple platforms. I found it on YT Music, so I know its out there, but I can’t hear it on Spotify without an account so if that’s the only link you give, I’m likely to just move on…
I think the songs themselves have lots of potential and overall I think the songs stylistically suit Natalie. Also, congrats on getting seven songs together into a finished product. That’s a significant achievement.
The voice sounds consistent through the album, but the phrasing/cadence is unnatural in lots of places, there’s no space for breathing and it sounds a bit one dimensional/square. There are places where the vocal sounds intentionally insecure. I’m all for raw exposure of emotion, but I don’t think this is it - if I heard a real singer sing in this way, I’d think they don’t know what the melody or the words are. there’s something weird happening in the vocal in the last couple of lines of New Favorite Feeling.
I’ve included information about how to find the album on other streaming platforms.
I appreciate the listening notes. This was my first exploration of using SynthV and I hope that I’ll be able to improve my abilities to make the performance more realistic on an upcoming EP in early September.
Thanks for the thoughtful comments - Bill
I listened to some of the tracks all the way through, and did needle drops in the others. I agree with the previous comment that there often seems to be no time for the singer to breathe, which does not help if you are going for a “real” voice effect.
And the vocal melody and word timing does often feel too strictly tied to the music timing, like every note and syllable starts on a beat, whereas a real singer would probably lead or follow the music timing as appropriate to a more natural phrasing.
Lastly, the vocals seem to sit outside the rest of the mix to my ear. I would guess that is a reverb issue, but maybe there is something else happening. Overall I found New Favorite Feeling and Velvet Satellite to be the better sounding songs, primarily because they seemed least affected by the vocal phrasing issues.
Hey Keith–thanks for the thoughtful and helpful feedback. The singer definitely needs time to breathe and I’m still working on the new (to me) challenges of mixing and mastering vocals. I think I can improve these elements as well as loosen the singer’s timing next time around 
-Bill
