Hi everyone,

Here is a song of mine, wrote a couple of years ago, but just finished to record with BiaB and RB. It marries Neitzsche and Mark Knopfler

"Ainsi Parlait Sarah"

You probably know that Neitzsche is a philosopher whom most famous phrase is "which does not kill us makes us stronger" ("Ce qui ne tue pas, rend plus fort" in french). It is what says all along Sarah, the main character of my song. The expression is derived from "Thus spoke Zarathustra" ("Ainsi parlait Zarathustra" in french).

I hope Sarah will forgive me for having made her a very unfortunated girl : loose father gone before birth, furthermore premature, bad father in law, then orphan, bad boyfriend, prostitute, then homeless and finally vanished (for the worse or the better, it is where is the hope...)

Regarding Marc Knopfler, whose I've always been fan, I have of course use the RTs "Dire" guitars Rhytm and solo played by Darin Favorite, to give a Dire-Straits aspect to the tune. The solo parts was long reworked in RB.

The base is _ACCNTRY.STY where I have kept 518:Basse, 405:Strumming Guitar and RDrums NasvilleEven8.
I have added : 509:Rhytme Guitar Dire and 511:Solo Guitar Dire

Don't hesitate to give your opinion and advice to improve the tune, I am open to any critical.

By the way, I have one thing to ask to you : I have saved the mp3 file directly from RB but I find that the volume is not very loud, is there a trick to get it louder ?

Thanks
Pascal

Very nice Caloo.

The vocals are really great quality - never mind that I couldn't understand! Your description was great to allow me to follow the song.

And you choice of style really complements your songwriting skills.

Nice job.

Enjoyed that - vocals well produced - backing nicely put together.

Enjoyed your song Pascal. You have a very nice voice and your harmony is very smooth. I am not sure what you mean about your volume for the song is plenty loud for me. Maybe someone can answer your question for you.
Sonny

Hi Pascal,

nice song, vocals and harmony.
Volume is ok for me.
Enjoyed it.

Guenter

Bonsoir Pascal,

ta chanson elle me plait vraiment

Great voice, very well sung. I think I used the style once, but I don't remember
for which song.

Good job very pleasant.

Sergio

Thanks for all these compliments :-)
Et même en français par Sergio !! sorry I don't speak Italian, maybe just "Grazie".

Regarding the volume, you reassure me, it is normal.
Some other tunes on soundcloud are louder and when I pass to mine, I note the difference.

Have an excellent weekend everyone.

Nice mix. Everything sounded really nice and in the proper place. Good levels and tone, and the vocal sets in the right place.

Since it's French, I didn't understand a single word... due to the language there wasn't a smooth lyrical flow in a few places.... things sounded rushed to get it all in the limited space. But it is what it is in that respect.

As far as loudness, it sounded to be at the proper level of loudness to me. Don't make the mistake of thinking everything needs to be loud. This song, for it's genre and style were appropriately loud enough. Often, if you try to squeeze every last dB out of a mix, you end up totally ruining the dynamics. I'd rather have a lower volume with a nicely dynamic mix than to have a loud mix that has no dynamic range left.

That said... you can export the mix as a wave and move it to a DAW or to a Wave Editor where you can apply normalization, compression and limiting to the wave before you convert it to MP3.

Here's 2 screenshot photos. The first is over-compressed.... all the life and dynamics have been compressed out. It's loud and the entire song stays at the same volume level. The second photo is fairly loud but as you can see still has lots of head room left. You should aim for the second photo when mixing and mastering the music you write.

Enjoyed my listen. It is a good arrangement and production. A very good recording of the vocals and harmonies.

Thank you very much Herb for this constructive post.

I'll take in account your advices about the compression. Although I know this noun, I have a lot to learn (to not say all) about it. I should look into that now.

About the lytric flow, I think I understand well what you mean. Indeeed, the sense of the words plays an important role in their resonance. If they are not understood, just the musical side remains.

For example, in the first verse, there is a long phrase to sing quickly (8 syllabes not eludable):

"Etait-ce pour rattraper son père,
qui avait pris la fuite,
que Sarah arriva deux mois trop vite ?"

means about :

"Was it to catch up her father,
who had run away,
that Sarah was born two months too fast?"

Sheers
Pascal

Bonjour Pascal.

Une très bonne chanson qui vraiment a l'air de Dire Straits.

Comme d'habitude, j'ai besion d'écouter plusieurs fois à comprendre tous les mots, mais j'y arrive. C'est un peu noir je crois, mais il me fait penser.

Comme les autres ont dit deja le "arrangement and production" est excellent et tu le chantes très bien. J'aime beaucoup le solo guitare.

Je connais que tu comprends anglais, mais c'est une bonne idée pour moi à pratiquer mon français!

Cordialement, ROG.

Very enjoyable song - Well done

That's the thing about languages.... I have studied a few, and know just enough of Spanish to get myself into trouble but not out of trouble. French, I know nothing about.

In English, I can say something in 3 words that takes 7 in Spanish and vice versa.... so when writing musical lyrics in one language, the song doesn't necessarily work in another language with the same meter and groove to the lyrics. The number of syllables in a phrase, and the rhyme pattern of the words matter. Things get lost and changed in translation.

Salut Pascal,
J'apprécie le talent que tu as de raconter des histoires dans tes chansons. C'était aussi le cas dans "l'oiseau blanc". Ta voix chantée est excellente. Elle a quelquechose de captivant. Dans cette chanson, j'ai apprécié la deuxième voix sur le refrain. Tu as su rester sobre dans tes arrangements ce qui est d'autant plus efficace. Le style de Dire Straits est pleinement adapté à cette chanson. Salutations musicales. Christian

Allo Pascal,

This is a very nice combination of that classical Dire Straits sound and a French chanson (of course a Frenchman singing French sounds like a chanson already )

Very well done!

Merci Christian, Rob et Anne-Marie, pour vos encouragements en français (even partially).
Et Vive la Chanson Européenne ;-)

Also Thanks to all who say my voice is pleasant, there is no better encouragement because she's mine so, ordinary for me; you are the best judges.

Pascal

Pascal,

A very enjoyable listen.

Good mix and nicely sung. Everything sits nicely in the mix. The bass is quite nice. It sounds very good - which is all that matters - I'd say "you know what you are doing"...

floyd

+1 . He said what I was thinking. Good job, Tom

Floyd said it all...."you know what you are doing..."

We enjoyed it. Nice work!

J&B

Bonjour Pascal,

Elle me plait vraiment ta chanson.
It reminds me Michel Delpech.
I love French music very much, especially the rhythm of les paroles françaises.
Thank you very much for your song.

Shigeki Adachi

Still compliments, too nice all !!

The "Michel Delpech" comparison is not the least, Shigeki. I like his mild voice too. I guess you know that he passed away some weeks ago.
I didn't know that the french music could be broadcasted in Japan. I must confess than the japanese one is totally absent from the french medias; But maybe, your interest in it is personnal, that would be worthier.

Sheers
Pascal