New project

[Newc]

Ok, so this chick at work wants to be a singer, and I told her I'd cut a demo for her.

See what you think:

http://autumn-frost.com/mp3/Laurens-song-with-solo.mp3

She wrote the words, I did the music based on a rough idea of what she wanted ("dah dah dah DAH dah dah" - the old Strongbad routine [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img])

Drums: Alesis SR-16 preset pattern/kit
Intro/Outro: MIDI Soundfonts in GP3 - Acoustic Grand Piano, Nylon String Acoustic, Steel String Acoustic, Electric Jazz guitar
Guitar: NASL into Digitech GSP-21 Legend
Bass: No name bass she had around the house into GSP-21
Recorded into Akai DPS-12, vocal tracks dumped into PC, backing tracks mixed and dumped into PC.
Heavy production work on the vocal tracks - shortening sectioins, expanding others, Chorus, EQ - I shoulda wrote a tutorial while I was at it [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

She hasn't heard this version yet. All she heard was what we recorded last night (guitar, drums, bass). It was also arranged slightly different (vocals didn't start until after the intro).

Luckily I left myself enough room to do a short solo [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Newc]

Re: New project

Version 2. I like this one a lot better. I made her sing it about 5 times until she got over being nervous about singing, and to have a few tracks to take snippets from if I had to Newcenstein a vocal track out of the best bits and pieces.

Biggest difference on this one is the shorter drum intro and tighter verse arrangement, and an ending keyboard passage rather than leave the vocals hanging by themselves.

http://autumn-frost.com/mp3/Laurens-song-final.mp3

I never did find out the title she gave it [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[jjw]

Re: New project

well i hope she sucks better than she sings mate!She is going to need singing lessons mate-but as long as she enjoyed it then no harm done

[Newc]

Re: New project

Yeah, but she's a better singer than the one I had before - at least I could patch hers up in 1 day - his took 2 months, 56 retakes, and some heavy-duty editing magic to get it sounding half this good [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Besides, it ain't about her career, it's about mine [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Newc]

Re: New project

Been playing around with Cool Edit's Pitch Bender feature. It's doing a good job so far, but the more I tweak the more I realize I'm gonna have to chain her to a mic stand and make her sing it 1000 times [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Besides, she'd die if I patched it to be perfectly in tune, knowing she isn't [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[jjw]

Re: New project

lol thats cool mate,i have had my share of tone deaf singers to record over the years!
have you tried autotune on it?-lol at making her sing it 100 times

[Nuclear Vampire]

Re: New project

Dude, she needs to take singing lessons. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Good demo track though. Digging the lead. Nicely done!

[mhalsey]

Re: New project

Hey Newc, I hear Ashley Simpson is looking for a producer for new cd. Sounds like you da man for the job. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Newc]

Re: New project

As long as she's still selling CDs, I'll take the gig [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

I think the Chorus on the vocals might be a bit too heavy, but it does clean up the tuning a bit.

She's sending this to some place called Incubator. I've never heard of it. Sounds like an artist development thing to me from the name.
But like I said, if they call her and say "your singing needs work but we wanna talk to the producer", that's fine by me [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Besides, she won't make it as a singer: She's Pentacostal, which means floor length skirts, long sleeves, no makeup, longer hair than anyone needs, and no jewelry. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
Nevermind the fact she wears shirts that are one size too small which accentuate her C-cups [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[StukaJU87]

Re: New project

[img]/images/graemlins/what.gif[/img]

[Newc]

Re: New project

We're re-doing the vocals this week. I'm gonna try to build a melody line for her to follow. As long as she's close, I can pull it in with CoolEdit, then dress it up.

It'll make an interesting Advanced Digital Editing tutorial [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[khabibissell]

Re: New project

I think you did a great job with the guitars, production, keys, etc... Unless I'm competely pitch deaf (which could very well be [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]) she didn't do that bad a job singing it. There were some sour notes, but not too bad. I've heard alot worse.

The biggest thing for me was the structure itself. It seemed to be lacking a verse/chorus formula, unless I'm missing something? [img]/images/graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]

[mogar]

Re: New project

She has a nice voice, but she has to learn to sing in key.

Nice little solo there newc.

[Newc]

Re: New project

Steve - I think she did have a verse/chorus structure, but we're from two totally different musical directions - I'm Maiden and Priest and she's Greenday and No Doubt [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
Plus she's not a musician, so she can't tell me what key she's in (had her sing it a capella so I could find the melody and make up some chords), and all she can give me for reference is Strongbad stuff like "duh. duhduh duh DAH" [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

But I'm working on developing a structure - changes for the chorus and some other stuff - to make it sound normal [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

And she does have a nice voice, and since she goes over AND under the notes, I know it's not a lack of ability but a lack of training - my old singer was way flat, but she's just got bad aim [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

I'll see if I can tweak the bare vocal track (without the chorus) and pull it closer to what it should be, then have her learn it that way.

[Shawn Lutz]

Re: New project

what does she look like? that's the important thing, pictures not mp3's that is what makes the female vocalists [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]