Your way with a complex melody is impressive, sir, as is the arrangement! Fun and engaging.
Hi, Mark.
Perhaps a bit
too complex at times.
I really like the interaction among the voices, it's well-written and it sounds good.
That's my favorite part of the writing, although I worry that I overdo it more than a little.
The lead singer, though, makes me uncomfortable. She sounds "low energy" to the point of indifference or outright depression.
You're absolutely right.
Although I really like the low register, it is, as you said, "low energy", and so doesn't fit the song well. Plus, I've got a number of "swoops" where the vocal slides from one note to the next, and that adds to the sound.
So I've gone back and bumped the song to a higher key, and increased the tempo slightly. I wanted to keep the laid-back feel, but it was just a touch too slow.
I probably need to go back and match the background vocals a bit better. I'm not sure I want to pitch them up too high on the first verse, but I haven't had a chance to try it out much.
Not to overdo the "uncanny valley" thing, but I do suspect that might be the scene here. Make the singer just a little more robotic-sounding, and the "depressed" affect would totally disappear. Unfortunately, the implication would seem to be that as bots continue to improve and approach humanity asymptotically, they'll sound more and more disturbing.
I'm not sure how much weight to give the "uncanny valley". When that term was being bantered around, people were mainly talking about CGI. We're good at detecting what's
wrong (for example, dead eyes in "The Polar Express").
It turned out that a lot of it had to do with poor animation, and I think that's the case here as well.
And with that cheery thought, winter (or summer) 2021-2022 is upon us!
Yes it is! I figured I'd try to get one last song in under the wire, and I'm sort of amazed that it finally came together.
The best of the season and New Year to you!
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