a strange little song..

[James Stone-2]

Hi everyone,

I just recorded this song last night on qtractor.. guitar thru vamp2
bass direct in, vocals thu Sampson C01 and Behringer minimic800. Drums..
  soundfont.. and spent 2 mins on them !!:)

http://drop.io/jjoskmy

I think the song is way too high for my vocal range, and the mix seems
very suspect, but I'm not too sure about how to resolve it..

This is actually a song I wrote for my band (with a female singer),
which never seems to work very well, and I wanted to record it myself to
see where we are going wrong - I think I recorded it way too fast which
isn't a good start - should be more like 100bpm.. beyond that, it also
needs to be really tight to sound even slightly OK. I'm really
considering dropping it - but suggestions about how to improve the
overall sound/composition would also be appreciated!

James
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[Leslie P. Polzer-2]

Hello James,

> I think the song is way too high for my vocal range,

Yeah. :)


> and the mix seems very suspect, but I'm not too sure about how
> to resolve it..

I don't think it's bad, although it could use a little bit
of love.

What don't you like about it?

The worst thing is the tempo, I concur. But surely that's
easy to fix. Would love to hear this with a matching singer
and in proper tempo!

  Leslie

--
http://www.linkedin.com/in/polzer

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[Bengt Gördén-3]

On torsdag 08 oktober 2009 12:22:01 James Stone wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I just recorded this song last night on qtractor.. guitar thru vamp2
> bass direct in, vocals thu Sampson C01 and Behringer minimic800. Drums..
>   soundfont.. and spent 2 mins on them !!:)
>
> http://drop.io/jjoskmy
>
> I think the song is way too high for my vocal range, and the mix seems
> very suspect, but I'm not too sure about how to resolve it..
>
> This is actually a song I wrote for my band (with a female singer),
> which never seems to work very well, and I wanted to record it myself to
> see where we are going wrong - I think I recorded it way too fast which
> isn't a good start - should be more like 100bpm..

I think that might be a bit to slow. At least for my taste. It seems that you
recorded it at 128bpm. If you try something around 110 it sounds more relaxed.

You can test other tempos with mplayer. Just calculate 110/128 and put that as
speed-option.

110bpm
mplayer -af scaletempo -speed 0.85 the_end_new.mp3

100bpm would be.
mplayer -af scaletempo -speed 0.78 the_end_new.mp3



/bengan
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[Folderol]

On Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:22:01 +0100
James Stone <jamesmstone@...> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I just recorded this song last night on qtractor.. guitar thru vamp2
> bass direct in, vocals thu Sampson C01 and Behringer minimic800. Drums..
>   soundfont.. and spent 2 mins on them !!:)
>
> http://drop.io/jjoskmy
>
> I think the song is way too high for my vocal range, and the mix seems
> very suspect, but I'm not too sure about how to resolve it..
>
> This is actually a song I wrote for my band (with a female singer),
> which never seems to work very well, and I wanted to record it myself to
> see where we are going wrong - I think I recorded it way too fast which
> isn't a good start - should be more like 100bpm.. beyond that, it also
> needs to be really tight to sound even slightly OK. I'm really
> considering dropping it - but suggestions about how to improve the
> overall sound/composition would also be appreciated!
>
> James

 Hi.
I'm late to the party (as usual).
This is quite a fun quirky little song. To me, the relatively minor
defects enhance rather than detract from it. I wonder what reaction
you'd get from a real audience. Have you tried it?

--
Will J Godfrey
http://www.musically.me.uk
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[James Stone-2]

On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 4:37 PM, Folderol <folderol@...> wrote:

> On Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:22:01 +0100
> James Stone <jamesmstone@...> wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> I just recorded this song last night on qtractor.. guitar thru vamp2
>> bass direct in, vocals thu Sampson C01 and Behringer minimic800. Drums..
>>   soundfont.. and spent 2 mins on them !!:)
>>
>> http://drop.io/jjoskmy
>>
>> I think the song is way too high for my vocal range, and the mix seems
>> very suspect, but I'm not too sure about how to resolve it..
>>
>> This is actually a song I wrote for my band (with a female singer),
>> which never seems to work very well, and I wanted to record it myself to
>> see where we are going wrong - I think I recorded it way too fast which
>> isn't a good start - should be more like 100bpm.. beyond that, it also
>> needs to be really tight to sound even slightly OK. I'm really
>> considering dropping it - but suggestions about how to improve the
>> overall sound/composition would also be appreciated!
>>
>> James
>  Hi.
> I'm late to the party (as usual).
> This is quite a fun quirky little song. To me, the relatively minor
> defects enhance rather than detract from it. I wonder what reaction
> you'd get from a real audience. Have you tried it?
>

Thanks for your lovely comments!

Yes I have played it live with the band.. generally the reaction is of
bemusement, and a half-hearted trickle of applause.. I was trying to
work out why (apart from the fact it ends in a strange way), as most
of our other songs seem to go down much better.

This little recording experiment has showed me that it needs to be
played quite a lot slower than we were doing it, and secondly, that
the rhythm guitar must be very simple to avoid conflicting with the
other rhythmic aspects of the song.. Not got round to re-recording it
though (or playing it with the band again).

James
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[Q-9]

James Stone wrote:
  Hi.

>> I'm late to the party (as usual).
>> This is quite a fun quirky little song. To me, the relatively minor
>> defects enhance rather than detract from it. I wonder what reaction
>> you'd get from a real audience. Have you tried it?
>>
>
> Thanks for your lovely comments!
>
> Yes I have played it live with the band.. generally the reaction is of
> bemusement, and a half-hearted trickle of applause.. I was trying to
> work out why (apart from the fact it ends in a strange way), as most
> of our other songs seem to go down much better.
>
> This little recording experiment has showed me that it needs to be
> played quite a lot slower than we were doing it, and secondly, that
> the rhythm guitar must be very simple to avoid conflicting with the
> other rhythmic aspects of the song.. Not got round to re-recording it
> though (or playing it with the band again).
>
> James
> _______________________________________________
> Linux-audio-user mailing list
> Linux-audio-user@...
> http://lists.linuxaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-audio-user

Oops, sent this just to James and not to the list by mistake...

I've only just got around to listening to this as well. I also enjoyed
it -- it's got promise and I'd say it's worth pursuing. I find it odd
that it doesn't garner a good reaction live, it must just be one of
those matters of taste: you do say it never works well, perhaps when the
whole band "get it", and you can do it with conviction, the audience
reaction may be better.

I actually quite like it at the pace it is at, but as you say, it'll
need to be tight. I'm sure it'd work well a few clicks slower though. I
like the lyrics as well, I think quirky is probably an apt word to use.

A thought that occurred to me regarding developing it: how about
alternating verses male/female (or vice versa) and repeat the chorus one
last time in harmony -- it might give a bit of a twist to the lyrical
tale. You could use a different melody line for the male verses, one
that better fits your range and which harmonises with the existing vocal
melody. Just a thought.

Q

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[James Stone-2]

Q wrote:

> James Stone wrote:
>   Hi.
>>> I'm late to the party (as usual).
>>> This is quite a fun quirky little song. To me, the relatively minor
>>> defects enhance rather than detract from it. I wonder what reaction
>>> you'd get from a real audience. Have you tried it?
>>>
>> Thanks for your lovely comments!
>>
>> Yes I have played it live with the band.. generally the reaction is of
>> bemusement, and a half-hearted trickle of applause.. I was trying to
>> work out why (apart from the fact it ends in a strange way), as most
>> of our other songs seem to go down much better.
>>
>> This little recording experiment has showed me that it needs to be
>> played quite a lot slower than we were doing it, and secondly, that
>> the rhythm guitar must be very simple to avoid conflicting with the
>> other rhythmic aspects of the song.. Not got round to re-recording it
>> though (or playing it with the band again).
>>
>> James
>> _______________________________________________
>> Linux-audio-user mailing list
>> Linux-audio-user@...
>> http://lists.linuxaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-audio-user
>
> Oops, sent this just to James and not to the list by mistake...
>
> I've only just got around to listening to this as well. I also enjoyed
> it -- it's got promise and I'd say it's worth pursuing. I find it odd
> that it doesn't garner a good reaction live, it must just be one of
> those matters of taste: you do say it never works well, perhaps when the
> whole band "get it", and you can do it with conviction, the audience
> reaction may be better.
>

Thanks Q!

We did a much better version at rehearsal last night. It was recorded,
but I haven't heard it yet. If it is suitable for general audience, I
will post it to get some more feedback about further improvements.

> I actually quite like it at the pace it is at, but as you say, it'll
> need to be tight. I'm sure it'd work well a few clicks slower though. I
> like the lyrics as well, I think quirky is probably an apt word to use.

Yes :)

> A thought that occurred to me regarding developing it: how about
> alternating verses male/female (or vice versa) and repeat the chorus one
> last time in harmony -- it might give a bit of a twist to the lyrical
> tale. You could use a different melody line for the male verses, one
> that better fits your range and which harmonises with the existing vocal
> melody. Just a thought.

I like that idea. Will have to see how it works out at next rehearsal!

James
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