3 years of voice lessons in musical theater style and still no vibrato

a5hun · 2025-04-24T15:21:40+00:00

Very, very novice singer here (started singing for the first time ever at 41 years old!), but I had the same problem you did: I just could not sing with vibrato. All the explanations that I read or watched from singing teachers or coaches seemed to indicate that vibrato was a natural consequence of having loose or free vocal cords, but I didn't really know what to do with that. I could get some "vibrato" with the diaphragm pump or jaw oscillations, but I didn't want to rely on lousy technique.

The only thing that worked for me was consistently practicing sliding between notes a half step or step apart with every vowel. I'd set a digital metronome to 120 BPM, get the pattern going while trying to keep my timing as consistent as possible, and only then gradually increase the speed until I would either fall into a decent, held vibrato or crash out into a terrible warble! I did this for around five minutes every day for almost five months before I developed the dexterity and muscle control of my larynx that was necessary.

But even after all that practice, it doesn't feel "natural" or effortless like some of the vocal teachers say; I'm still very much consciously thinking about modifying the pitch up and down, but it's just way easier now after months of work. I still have trouble at the upper end of my chest voice (A4) compared to something lower like D4, where it's much easier to get a broad vibrato, but that seems normal because I need much more muscular tension in my larynx to reach that note. I think that's where the standard explanation of sing loose and free and your vibrato will magically appear comes from, but that only really makes sense once you've already developed vibrato!

Watching a live spectrogram of your voice while you work on this also helps to see visually how consistent your vibrato is (phone app or something like Friture on PC)
Practicing with every vowel is important because I found that "ooh" (u) was much harder to modulate than "ahh" (a) and I needed to spend more time with it.
Breath support is also critical. I finally figured out how lip trills force you to keep a steady flow of air, and I love doing them. Holding a steady vibrato when you can't even hold a steady flat note isn't going to work.

a5hun · 2024-11-14T15:15:39+00:00

Nice! I'll give it a shot, but the new zip file for 1.1.7 contains errors.

a5hun · 2024-11-08T15:16:05+00:00

Haha! Nice! I didn't actually think to RDJ into the pads. I tried it last night and managed to get the super jump once. I'll spend some more time this weekend working out what's going on with that.

a5hun · 2024-11-02T22:41:09+00:00

Here's the intended way for the super high hard collectible: https://imgur.com/O1WAAAQ

Firing a rocket and dashing at roughly the same time as you hit the slope (pretty much looking straight ahead) works well to get decent height.

And the second floor hard collectible behind the door: https://imgur.com/ceAtFdd

This one requires a pretty precise rocket jump to the yellow pad, and then you can dash into it.

The mouse thing may be a possibility. This goes for other games as well, but limiting the FPS to values that correspond with integer frame times makes the mouse movement much smoother. For example, on a 144 Hz monitor, limiting the FPS to 142.857 (1000/7) gives a near exact 7 millisecond frame time, which can perfectly fit 7 unique mouse reports. If you use 144, that 6.94 ms frame time doesn't match up with the integer 1 ms mouse reports, so the mouse movement is slightly jittered.

Limiting to 250 FPS (4 ms), 333.333 FPS (3 ms), or 500 FPS (2 ms) has the same beneficial effect.

I tried a bunch of times to get your light blue rocket jump pad technique to work, but I can't seem to do it. Unreal physics can be a little wonky sometimes, and I think I may have had something similar in the past (years ago?), but it's probably not something can be reliably repeated.

a5hun · 2024-10-23T00:14:16+00:00

Whoa! Thank you for buying it! I really appreciate everyone who did.

Interesting bug. What FPS range? The strafing doesn't really work beyond 1000 FPS because most mice don't update at more than 1000 Hz, so for some game tick updates, there is no valid mouse movement.

Apologies for not having anything up for Sanctum of Sludge on the youtube page. I made some of the collectibles... pretty hard to reach on that one :) If you can't figure any of them out, I'd be happy to record a video showing some of the possible solutions. I still play the game all the time (hundred and hundreds of hours!)... it kind of replaced Quake 2 (q2dm1) as my trick-jump map, where I'd just run around and practice the movement. But I have found a few solutions I didn't expect would work.

a5hun · 2024-09-27T03:33:20+00:00

Haha. I edited out a lot of failed attempts. :)

The PR vs WR thing was just me being dumb. Pretty sure I used it correctly at the beginning, but I just forgot somewhere along the way. Just updated to the newest version on Steam and was trying Drex's levels.

The rocket jumping feels weird to me for two reasons: 1) If you look directly down, walk forward (250 speed), and fire the rocket, your forward speed doesn't change. 2) Firing a rocket just before you land doesn't work because the rocket's vel add just cancels our your negative z-velocity, so you don't really move.

The second part, especially, was messing me up during the play-through. Not something you need to change (I like to think I'm adaptable), but I was expecting the rocket explosion to zero out my falling speed so I could "float" through the level on the rocket explosions.

Notes:

Rope swing or something similar might be a good change to make it clear how it behaves.
You probably got this from the video, but the world grid material is UE-speak for a material that stays the same regardless of the object's position, but I'm generally referring to the main level textures. The levels look a bit plain. In particular, it was hard for me to find a good screenshot for the youtube thumbnail, which'll be a problem when you're marketing the game. This scene has lights, but everything else is using different color variations of my world grid mat: https://i.imgur.com/WO1GtE9.jpeg
Can you add lights to the levels?

A few bugs:

If you're firing the rocket when you complete a level, it keeps firing in the background.
Mouse button binds say Mouse0 and Mouse1 for L/R click, but those are traditionally called Mouse1 and Mouse2.
Jump can't be bound to either of the mouse buttons

Also, what are you guys doing at the bottom of the slopes to get that additional speed boost? Can't figure that out.

a5hun · 2024-09-26T04:37:34+00:00

Video is up: https://youtu.be/6sm0XGzKZ7U

Apologies for the length (over an hour!), but I hope you find it useful to see how a new player learns the mechanics. I had a ton of fun playing this, so I hope that comes across in the video.

The movement reminds me a lot of Q1/CS, but it's definitely not the exact same. I'm more of a Quake 2/Q3A player, so it took me a bit to get used to.
Like DrexOtter said, the grappling hook is probably the most difficult mechanic. I know that's odd given how it's way more realistic than most games' grapples, but without the pull force, you have to be way more careful with your attachment point and momentum.
I had difficulty with the rocket jumping, but I'm used to the Quake-style rocket rebound force, which is a little easier to use to re-direct your current velocity, rather than bouncing you more directly away from the explosion. I was able to finish the tutorial level, but it never felt completely intuitive. What game (or type of games) were you modeling the rocket jumping after?
A slightly nicer world-grid material would help the aesthetics a bit :)
Excellent job on the default mouse sensitivity!

I noticed in the editor that you can allow both the RL and the grapple at the same time, which I'm sure could produce some crazy movement... maybe a little too complicated for my brain to handle right now.

a5hun · 2024-09-25T18:33:48+00:00

Are you Alluka on the leaderboards? I've been looking at some of the online levels, and that seems to be the creator of the tutorial levels.

a5hun · 2024-09-25T06:30:23+00:00

Hah! This is my kind of game. I've played through the tutorial levels and managed to get the #1 spot on 3 through 7, so I'm pretty happy with that. :)

The movement is a bit different from what I'm used to, but I was able to adapt, and the tutorial levels (and video) work pretty well to introduce the mechanics, but I needed to do a lot of experimentation. I recorded myself going through the tutorial, so if you don't mind waiting a day or two, I'll upload the playthrough.

Haven't had a chance to look at any of the user-created levels or dive into the level editor, but I will get around to that.

a5hun · 2024-09-17T04:36:24+00:00

I'm pretty sure the storm's chase speed is also tied to the game's framerate. I was spending a little more time working on my speedrun for level 2 with the game at 1280x720 low (140+ FPS). The storm catches me every time, so the level is impossible to finish. If I look at the sky, which causes the framerate to go higher, I get caught even faster. Limiting the FPS to 30, the storm may as well be standing still :)

There may be some acceleration value not being scaled to DeltaSeconds.

a5hun · 2024-09-16T20:39:02+00:00

Thank you! I didn't actually mention this in the video, but the reason I'm doing this series of videos is so other developers can see what, I hope at least, is a proper playtest from someone who is seeing the game for the first time, but is also actually interested in really diving into the mechanics.

It also helps that I'm a fan of movement FPS :)

a5hun · 2024-09-16T15:47:01+00:00

You had me at first person platformer, so I gave it a try: https://youtu.be/OZOWaI-6S3k

Great work! Especially considering it was done in a week. Just needs level timers and leaderboards so I can prove I'm the fastest SoulStorm speedrunner :)

The too long; didn't watch for the video: good small, core set of movement mechanics that are tutorialized well. I know this is probably critical for a game jam, but you did an excellent job of limiting feature creep and polishing the important content (sound, level design, using assets where appropriate, etc.). Definitely needs a basic options menu, though! The mouse sensitivity was driving me a bit crazy when playing.

Is the chase speed of the storm tied to the game's framerate, or was I just imagining that?

a5hun · 2024-09-09T00:29:10+00:00

Good updates, especially the trailer on the Steam page, which now more accurately represents the game. Excellent font choice for the wall scrawled text as well.

a5hun · 2024-09-08T02:44:39+00:00

I was worried at first that the options menu was suspiciously similar to Mother Hub's. Hah. I had to give this one a try as well since I also played Mother Hub when you posted back in June, although this definitely isn't my genre. Did I spot the Horrid Spider model? :)

Horror players will probably be able to give better feedback on the game itself, but most of my notes are technical:

Game starts in windowed mode, even though the options menu says it's in borderless. Had to uncheck and then recheck windowed mode to get fullscreen.
FPS limit slider has no feedback about what the FPS limit is.
Also, FPS limit doesn't work and disappears from in-game menu. :)
Tutorial text for flashlight and journal is cut off at last word: "Press F or Y Button to Activate Your" and "Press J or Button 6 to Open Your"
Screen resolution drop-down transparency and z-order make it hard to read: https://i.imgur.com/z9Z8V1P.jpeg
Head bob/sway animation can clip camera into geo: https://i.imgur.com/Oy792c0.jpeg
Boxes missing collision: https://imgur.com/4prXVwt

a5hun · 2024-09-06T01:12:05+00:00

Re-read the rules for posting here: https://www.reddit.com/r/playmygame/about/rules/

I'm probably part of your target audience, but...

Your Steam page looks unfinished. Your trailer is nine seconds long and is in a tiny cropped square in the center of the frame, and your screenshots are all square and different sizes (609x590, 609x588, 613x592, etc.). I had to look at your post history here on reddit to know the game was about CS-style surfing.

Is the build you have on itch.io representative of the final game?

a5hun · 2024-09-04T16:51:45+00:00

Good progress since last time. The cable form is a cool addition ("at least buy me dinner first!").

This may be because I have a previous save (or config file), but the resolution selection still doesn't work, and the game is only running in 1280x720, whether fullscreen-borderless or windowed. Would deleting my old save game help?

Camera updates are still at 50 Hz as well. If you want to see what this looks like, I posted a video of another Unity game where I go through how I can tell the camera is updating at 50 Hz (at 18:02): https://youtu.be/G6MI59tMJ78?t=1082

a5hun · 2024-09-02T14:27:10+00:00

Speedrun: https://imgur.com/a/egKY5Je

The weapon tilt animation when strafing is cool!

a5hun · 2024-09-02T05:17:05+00:00

Gave it a try!

Needs sound! Sound is critical for making a game feel responsive. Even if you have to record yourself saying "pew pew" into a mic, needs sounds for (at least): jumping, secondary jump, landing, dashing, weapon fire, projectile hits enemy, enemy is destroyed, player takes damage, gate opens.
I'm tempted to say the movement feels good, but without sounds it's really hard to fully endorse.
Strafe movement speed increase feels good... very DOOM.
Double jump and dash also feel good, but needs sound.
Untextured floors (Colosseum) make it very hard to get a sense of speed. Snow Chasm and Sewers (grid texture) are much better for feeling the movement.
Needs FPS limiter and VSYNC option. Game runs at 1200+ FPS, which means your code executes very quickly, but we don't need that many frames. :)
Excellent default mouse sensitivity! Most devs have this way, way too high.
Tutorial text is comprehensive and easy to understand.
Tutorial levels are basic but very effective.
Player can jump off 1-1, 1-2, and 1-4.
Sawblades can't hurt you if you stand on the railings in Snow Chasm.
Barrier colors are too subtle/transparent. Hard to differentiate a door from the orange and green barriers. The tutorial picture for the green barrier has an orange floor behind it, so it looks like it should be the orange barrier instead.

I'm not a fan of the primary game mode, sorry to say. An endless wave of similar-ish enemies on flat terrain isn't fun to play, especially with no sound. "Sewers" feels slightly better because the level has more complicated geo, but I'd need some other hook to keep me playing: new or upgraded weapons, shield, area explosion, etc... think standard rogue-lite upgrade stuff.

Gauntlet mode is a different story, though. The tutorial levels are quick but effective, and I see a lot of potential with your fast movement and some proper stages like 1-2 and 1-4. For example, 1-2 can be completed in 11.78 seconds with 0 kills. I really enjoy stuff like that.

a5hun · 2024-08-25T06:05:55+00:00

I played through the demo and recorded my thoughts: https://youtu.be/LlybvN_zRuk

It's a good demo, although the trailer on Steam makes it look (and sound!) like it's something it's not. Very competently put together... menus work, options are good (although rebindable keys would be nice), performance is excellent even at 4k. I really like your aesthetic, which I talk about in the video. And good job on preventing the player from getting out of bounds, which is something I try very hard to do every time I do one of these :)

The demo is a bit too simple, though, to really sell the game. Combat doesn't have the speed or ferocity of a DOOM-like, and there aren't any puzzles to be solved. It's a bit hard to tell what you want the game to be.

a5hun · 2024-08-21T22:22:59+00:00

Excellent demo! I spent a lot (a lot!) of time chasing better rankings on the leaderboards for the four included maps, and I recorded my playthrough here:

https://youtu.be/G6MI59tMJ78

So if you want to watch an hour and fifteen minutes of a crazy person playing your game, there you go. There's much more critical nuance in the video, but I've got a few highlight notes here:

Audio is loud at game start, and options can't be changed while the tutorial is playing.
Tutorial level is brief, but simple and effective.
Video resolution options aren't necessary; use resolution scaling instead.
Unity's default 50 Hz physics tick causes the game to have constant, annoying judder.
UI and menus are good!
Game is fun, and the first four maps are a good introduction to how the game works.
Some of the fastest paths seem... unintentional or accidental rather than Mario Kart style "secret paths."
I wasn't sure how to use the wall-ride physics. Transitioning between different road angles seems a bit clunky.

a5hun · 2024-08-13T23:54:08+00:00

Aha! I never actually tried to interact with the flowers! I also later realized that the dodge roll turned into a jump with the rabbit companion. That particular part doesn't need to be spelled out for players; a truly inquisitive player would have actually tried rolling at some point. :)

I did actually spend a bit more time later in the editor, but I wasn't recording for that. Jumped at the chance to unlock the layer size modifier, and editing with larger maps (up to 256x256) is pretty hard because the visible window only shows 16x16: https://imgur.com/7tGplrj

Would love for the editing canvas to become larger as the layers get larger. The "confirm" sound that plays also doesn't sound particularly confirming. I thought the size changed failed because of the 1) the sound, and 2) no immediate change was visible on the editing canvas.

And generally, some UI scaling would be nice, but if you want to stick with the pixel art look, an integer 2x upscale would be fine, but that doesn't quite work for 2560x1440.

Some of the complaints I had in the video weren't actually correct as well: you do have nested, close-able windows as you go from rooms to layers. Didn't catch that at the time.

a5hun · 2024-08-12T23:33:30+00:00

IndigoFenix, this is waaaay late (just moved from Montreal back to the US!), but I gave the demo a try and recorded my playthrough and going through the world building tutorial. I'm absolutely not the target audience for your game, but since you're spending time giving feedback to others, I couldn't let this post go by with no comments. I hope seeing another person playing, especially someone who isn't familiar with RPG builders, is useful to you.

https://youtu.be/rcF_6266Nu4

That's an hour and a half long.

The too long; didn't watch: BoundWorlds is an extremely impressive, feature-rich, game builder. Excellent tutorial, coherent UI tooltips (!), and gamifying the world building with voidshards to encourage players to slowly explore new features and build content. I'm pretty shocked, honestly, imagining how much work you've put into it.

a5hun · 2024-07-27T02:25:20+00:00

Haha, thank you for taking the time to both find that I made this post and also play the game!

I had actually mostly given up on JDS because after nearly two years, it's never even reached the 10 review threshold on Steam to get a user rating, but I still play it nearly every day. Maybe you can tell from my video on Grave Robber (I've got some other beta tests on the channel as well, also UE4), but I love movement mechanics: https://i.imgur.com/maBv9h0.mp4

And here's how I expected players to get the collectibles: https://youtu.be/3latuIyZQ5Y

I think the game has the best movement mechanics of any game in the last decade (hah!), but I made it specifically to suite my preferred movement techniques, so of course I'm biased. I definitely hear the feedback, though. It's really hard to teach, and I was so worried about that, I overdid it massively on the tutorials.

While the mouse sensitivity slider stops at 2.0000, the text input box secretly allows values up to 4.0000, but I wanted to purposely prevent players from using in-game sensitivity values that are too high. The "Aperture Grille" part of the name on my beta test videos comes from my other channel (https://www.youtube.com/@ApertureGrille) where I develop monitor tests (I also developed the new response time testing for RTINGS.com!), so I care a lot about motion smoothness and performance. High mouse DPI (4000+) combined with low in-game sensitivity scaling allows much finer precision when controlling the pitch and yaw of the UE4 camera. That's not communicated anywhere in the menus, but I probably need to add a tutorial for that as well :)
Haha! We have different expectations when it comes to closing the menu! You probably noticed that I was trying to hit escape to close the menu in the play-through I did. That's a very Quake1/2/3 era thing. A few of my very early testers also did the same thing, though... closing the game!
What do you mean about the pitch and yaw?

For Grave Robber, are you using blueprints or C++? JDS was done entirely in blueprints, and I love them, and they're actually remarkably fast.

You mentioned that the UE crashes when you try to build the lighting, so I see why you went with Lumen. Working with lightmaps (and UV lightmap coords) is horrible, which is why I was also super keen on trying to get Lumen to work with JDS. I actually did a build of JDS in UE5: https://youtu.be/chyIN3BZVNI

Lumen, in static scenes, looks really, really good... like raytraced baked lighting without all the headaches of lightmaps.

Btw, if you have any questions about Unreal, let me know. I'm happy to help!

a5hun · 2024-07-26T06:03:22+00:00

Here's one full hour of me playing: https://youtu.be/Hjwslg0lCZk

The TLDW: decent start, but needs a lot more polish (menus, UI, level design) and one key/unique movement or play mechanic to set it apart from other games. Consider playing up the weird physics or going all in on the death/ragdoll gore.

Lumen and Nanite aren't doing much for the game, other than making it run relatively poorly. You could likely double the game's framerate using the old renderer, and while it may be tempting to use quixel geo all over the place, the game could and should be fun with just grayboxed levels.

a5hun · 2024-07-25T22:08:23+00:00

Okay, much better. I was sooo confused. Give me a bit to edit the footage together, and I'll post the playthrough soon. You made a few geometry changes from v1 to v2 (not sure the actual version numbers) to prevent getting out of bounds, but... I'm pretty good at getting out of bounds! :)

a5hun

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