PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Please help!!

OK guys and gals, I know this is a very unique post, and I thank you in advance for your patience and possible input/contribution to this project.
I chanced upon this post on the r/musicinthemaking subreddit, which I am reposting below (with OP's permission, of course):



Now, as an amateur bassist and guitarist, I use BIAB mostly for playing along with various chord progressions and to boost my musical lexicon with the excellent notated real tracks. The subreddit where this was posted is a place where musicians can collaborate on building songs together. You can choose your flair based on what you can contribute (e.g. guitar, bass, piano, vocals, production, etc.).

The fragment OP posted sounds as though it would make a great Dixieland, Big Band Swing/Crooner, New Orleans circa 1920s track, and I know BIAB could handle this like a champ.
Furthermore, my sister-in-law sings professionally, and is particularly talented in the style I have in mind. I don't know for sure whether she has the time and resources to devote to it but I have a backup plan just in case.
The problem is that as I am better versed in the chord progressions and theory of progressive rock/metal, blues, and funk. What's more, I am woefully ignorant in the vast capabilities of this wonderful program, and, while I know enough to know that the steps outlined below are possibly doable (from watching hundreds of YouTube videos on BIAB without understanding 95 percent of it), I have never once done anything remotely like it.

So here's what I was thinking, and I would really love to hear if your opinions and whether someone would be willing to assist in the process.

1. Transcribe the vocal fragment here into Midi lines.

2. Infer and notate the chord progression implied by the vocals (maybe tastefully inserting some jazzy passing aug, diminished, voice leading chords etc. as well)

3. Remember OP mentioned incorporating her grandma's vocals into a second go-round of the song? I think that's so sweet, and would be a great tribute to her memory. In order to get this done properly, it would probably take someone at least moderately skilled in cleaning up the hiss and ambient sound, slicing them into individual fragments, and using plugins, Elastique 3 for example, to clean up, tempo map, and pitch correct the vocals. I'm also thinking that using TC Helicon to generate 3 part harmonies would be an added treat. (this would be required at a much later stage than 1 and 2, of course).

Please help make a random internet stranger's dream come true by preserving the memory of her beloved Nana and creating a musical tribute for the family she left behind!

Here is the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HToQLp9rwVk

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I would be thrilled to hear back from you folks!

I listened to Nana's Youtube song, D/L'd it and reduced the background hiss, run a HP filter to clean up the original recording. To use the recording on YouTube after that initial processing it would be best to gate her vocal track.

Nana is singing her song to an existing melody I am familiar with and so is my wife but neither of us have been able to recall the name of that song.

It is something similar to "99 bottles of Beer on the wall" but that is not exactly the melody.

If someone recognizes the melody she's singing, it will be a simple matter of getting a midi file of that song and using that chord progression to create a backing track.

Adding Nana to a new recording will require a bit of cut/pasting as well as time shifting and pitch correction.

I would suggest having Nana do the beginning of the song acapella into a fade out and fade in a new recording with another vocalist and backing track.

Hi Charlie. If you send me the cleaned up vocal I will try and produce a midi file and score. From there you could create some chords using the melody tones and create some backing?

I've emailed you an MP3 of the file gated, HP filter and noise reduction. It's better, only better and not great, but maybe it's useable. I also saved it in WAV format if you need that. Thanks for your help. I'm sure DeaconBlues09 and Nana's family appreciate your efforts.

Charlie

Thank you so, so, very much Charlie and Joanne! I'm so honored and grateful!

Hi deacon. No problem at all. I took the vocal that Charlie had cleaned up and imported it into melodyne. Did a bit of tuning and evened out the tempo to 54bpm. I then exported the vocal as a midi file and brought both the midi file and the vocal into RealBand. They lined up nicely. It should be possible to harmonize the melody with some chords (it is in Em) and put some BIAB backing to it. Charlie is going to play around with some more. I am happy to put some more vocals to it.

OMG, I'm speechless! OP and her family will be absolutely thrilled

What can I do to contribute at this point? Are the rest of the realtracks assigned?

Hi deacon. I think Charlie will work a bit on the realtracks so let’s see what he comes up with. Melodyne is an amazing tool

Thanks again Joanne!

P.S. Never heard of Melodyne until today, and checking it out right now. It's just amazing what a paradise of technology we live in these days!

Yes. I downloaded the file from Joanne last night. Haven't looked at it yet but plan to experiment some today..

Thanks Charlie! You guys are the best!

I have recorded some vocals and harmonies and between Charlie and me we will get something to you... it is sounding nice

Incredible! I can't believe how well this is turning out.

Hi Deacon. Have sent you a PM.

Now you do plan on sharing when the project is done?

Hi Dan
Yes definitely. just waiting to get permission to share.

Share away!!! This is the most fantastic thing ever! God bless you Joanne!

Collaborating is cool.
Believe it.


I've had really good experience doing that here. Lots of fun, creative, talented and open people.
You should know that by now!

Omg! Omg! Deacon, Charlie, Joanne, everybody - this is amazing! I'm crying right now. I don't even know how to begin to thank you. Sorry for not responding earlier I've been on work travel. But I cannot even begin to think how much my family, especially my mom, is going to love this! You are all so incredibly amazing to help out a complete stranger like this. Please please please tell me how I can ever repay you. I absolutely love how my Nana sounds in the cleaned up version - it gave me chills. Omg - thank you thank you. And thank you. Can I just type thank you a million times

I was glad to do a small contribution. The credit goes to Joanne who did the hard work. Joanne is an amazing talent; A great songwriter and arranger and is responsible for creating and performing the finished product. She has done an awesome job.

Thanks to DeaconBlues09 for bringing Nana's song to the attention of the forum.

Very glad you and your family are pleased with the project.

Charlie