Technicals: Song Form: A-A-B-A-A-B-A-A-Outro Tempo: 70 BPM Key: Em
BiaB: Style MIDI Instruments are : Acoustic Piano (1), Acoustic Guitar (26), Voice Oohs (54), RealTracks in song: 1856:Cello, Background PopCountry Ev 085 MIDI Drums :1 Standard Drum Kit (1) RealDrums will be substituted :RockEven16: a: Snare, HiHat b: Snare, Ride
Me: Bass Guitar Korg: “Infinite Voices” Open Source Audio
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's briefing on 2/24/2022
Recorded and mixed in Studio One. Listening and commenting are much appreciated.
Edit: Warning: This is not a 3 minute arrangement and may not be suitable for those with short attention spans. I consider this a “docu-song”; an arrangement not meant for short term entertainment purposes but rather one that attempts to educate, enlighten, inspire and capture historically meaningful content.
Last edited by Bass Thumper; 11/08/2206:10 AM.
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
That crying baby really got to me. The NATO guy, OTOH, got a little tedious. I wasn't expecting him to be the focus of a seven minute song. It was fine otherwise.
Windows 11, Intel Core I5 10400, 16 gig ram, Scarlett 2i2, Sony Acid Music Studio 10, BIAB 2020 UltraPlus Pak
That crying baby really got to me. The NATO guy, OTOH, got a little tedious. I wasn't expecting him to be the focus of a seven minute song. It was fine otherwise.
I'm sorry you found this tedious. It is intentional that "the NATO guy" is the focus, that is the point of the song.
I edited my post to warn others that are similar.
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
This is a pretty good song, I love how you put all the individual parts together into one cohesive song. It's a bit too long for my taste though.
Thanks for the listen and comment. Putting the individual parts together stretched my mixing skills to their limit but was worth the learning experience. Yes, this is not a 3 minute song . . . intentionally.
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
A dramatic piece - thanks for your support of Ukraine.
Best Regards Nigel
Hey Nigel, thanks for the listen. Some may not have heard the briefing in its entirety. So my goal was for it to be dramatic and to capture the entire briefing.
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
Personally liked yours better but I thought you might be interested in hearing it.
Hey Mario, "brilliant", "super", "liked yours better" . . . all I can say is WOW ! (and thanks). I'm glad you get what I tried to accomplish.
I really struggled with the mix. Did I want the baby to be featured? Yes The bombing? Yes Jens? Yes Cello? Yes Female vox at the end? Yes Everything else? Not so much. It was a challenge but my new headphones helped tremendously and Studio One is amazing.
And thanks for the 7 O'clock News video. Somehow I never heard that before . . . "Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to talk with you again"
I wonder if there are other songs in the vein of voice-overs out there.
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
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Much appreciated guys. The good news is that Ukrainian forces have entered Kherson, hopefully the tide will continue to turn in favor of the freedom-loving Ukrainian people and that they won't suffer very much this Winter.
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
Very impressive! As a matter of fact this music needs a video. Then it will become a real documentary.
Great work!
Rob and Anne-Marie
Rob & Anne-Marie, thanks so much for the kind words and the idea to add a video, what a great idea. If you know a creative person with video skills that would like to collab on this, let me know. --Steve
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
Really sad song, feels like the final news broadcast in an apocalyptic movie but unfortunately, it's all happening in our real world. You have captured that sadness in the excellent backing track, cello, bass and drums work hauntingly together and those choir voices are served suitably.
Really sad song, feels like the final news broadcast in an apocalyptic movie but unfortunately, it's all happening in our real world. You have captured that sadness in the excellent backing track, cello, bass and drums work hauntingly together and those choir voices are served suitably.
Janne
Many thanks for the listen and feedback. You're right, there is nothing Hollywood about this, it's as real as real can get. We're in the 21st century and still witnessing war crimes. Calling Putin barbaric is an understatement and we can hope he will be brought to justice in a criminal court. So many innocent lives lost but one day Ukraine will be a part of NATO and the Ukrainian people and culture will not vanish.
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
Really well done. The music supports the speech perfectly. Quite effective. Dramatic. Nice job on the Bass.
An Excellent mix.
fj
Hey fj, many thanks. The mix was challenging, especially at my skill level.
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
Yes it is long, but I'd not heard this speech before and I thought your backing of it made it all that more powerful. I thought it was great.
Hey Brad thanks for the listen.
You put your finger on something that was on my mind while designing this arrangement. Like you, not everyone has heard this breifing in its entirety and so making the trade-off between a lengthy "song" vs a snipet of the briefing seemed to make sense to not truncate it. Not everyone will agree, hence the warning.
Hopefully, for most people this will be a positive use of some of their life-minutes.
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