Old 07-09-2015, 12:09 AM   #1
hamish
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Default Ballad 'Where's my little girl?'

Written and performed by 'The Masked Man'. Recorded and mixed by me.

https://soundcloud.com/electricladyl...-v9-2015-07-27

[edit] New mix.

This one is still being worked on, with mixing and edits and even arrangement changes to come.

General comments and discussion welcome.

Last edited by hamish; 07-27-2015 at 05:56 PM.
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Old 07-11-2015, 03:29 PM   #2
jopatius
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Basics, like the guitar, bass, the non-conventional drum stuff, are OK.
One technicality in the recording: at least soundcloud sounds the waveform to be non-balanced, you know, it's more on the top than on the bottom. The english technical term for this espaces me know. You should fix this, it's trivial on any sound editor.

On the vocals side, on the first 50% the recording,
- the low male vocal was fun
- the lead male vocal was a turn-off

On the second half of the recording, the lead vocal was working much better. If I had heard this from the beginning, my impression of the song in total would be much better.
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Old 07-11-2015, 11:55 PM   #3
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Thanks very much for your impressions, the balance will get changed with arrangement changes. As you say it's a trivial thing.

That brings me to your point about the 'intro' vocal lead, which you didn't like. I really don't know what to do there, because it's not my songwriting. If I could ask a question here, was it the falsetto voice or the lyrics or the arrangement that put you off (or something else)?

The main arrangement change we have planned is to add a female choir in that section, to make it very dense and lush.

BTW, I just found your 'I Arise (PB Shelley to a disco beat)' on YouTube - really fun piece!

Last edited by hamish; 07-12-2015 at 12:01 AM.
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Old 07-12-2015, 01:13 AM   #4
Timothy Lawler
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I like the song. The main vocal sounds good when it's in the lower range. In the higher range it's noticeably out of tune much of the time. Some retracking or tuning needed there IMO.
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Old 07-14-2015, 02:22 AM   #5
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An unusual number.Sort of country western but not quite. The high vocals were not quite in tune I fear but maybe this was deliberate?
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Old 07-14-2015, 05:01 AM   #6
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Thanks for the observations, Tim and bob. The falsetto vocals weren't out of tune on purpose, no.

Since the feedback from you I went over it with ReaTune in manual mode, but there were only really three or four notes much out of tune. Probably that vocal just sticks right out at the moment. Also I think this means that something/things else are out of tune.

Once we add the choir it should blend better. Before we do that I think I will give a few more things a hit of ReaTune.
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Old 07-14-2015, 06:47 PM   #7
Timothy Lawler
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"I think I will give a few more things a hit of ReaTune." Please post the results.
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Old 07-15-2015, 06:39 PM   #8
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Wasn't particularly a favorite song, but I really like the mix and the musical elements. Got a lot of depth and space and I love that. Actually, the song did grow on me by the last third. That was my fav part of the tune--"the little girl" section and the emotion in the singer's voice.
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Old 07-15-2015, 07:26 PM   #9
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Hey Sammy! Thanks for the listen.

Quote:
Originally Posted by sammydix View Post
Got a lot of depth and space and I love that.
Great! That means you're going to like some of the others too, there are a couple with even more depth than this. Also this one will have an added layer of vocals before we're done.
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Old 07-20-2015, 11:33 AM   #10
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Like it! nice job on the board there Hamish!
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Old 07-26-2015, 10:19 PM   #11
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Default Added choir

We had a session with a ladies choir, about 12-16 singers I think there were.

I tracked with just 2 small condensors in XY, Rode M5's.

I have just given those tracks soft HPF, LPF and Reacomp on the peaks.

In addition in the new mix I have, as promised, given the male vocal parts a 'healthy' dose of ReaTune.

I hope you find it improved, thanks for listening.

https://soundcloud.com/electricladyl...-v9-2015-07-27
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Old 07-27-2015, 09:57 AM   #12
Timothy Lawler
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The choir is perfect for this. What a performance by them! Also, the tuning you did on the male vocal was very effective. It sounds in tune but not autotuned... except for one spot at 1:04 where, to my ear, it sounds unnaturally perfect given the melodic ascending leaps in the line. I wouldn't even mention that except that the rest of it sounds so natural.

Very nice work!!
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Old 07-27-2015, 04:16 PM   #13
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Hey thanks very much for the listen and detailed comment Tim. Yes I think the leader Jacqui did a great job with her arrangement, and they sung it really well. Luckily the room was quite nice sounding too.

I'm happy with the ReaTune results on the male voice parts. I've never used it much before, but that 'manual' mode that I used can be effective to sweeten things like this in a very natural way. (I'll check out the place that stood out to you, I do remember a couple of spots that had a bit of the 'robotic' sound when soloed).

He's really a pretty good singer, it's just that we are often pushed for time when recording, and usually only do a couple of takes.
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