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Joined: Apr 2020
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Journeyman
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OP
Journeyman
Joined: Apr 2020
Posts: 310 |
I'm a HUGE fan of Tower of Power so after listening to some of their tracks I was inspired to write what I thought would be the type of song you would hear from them. I based the song off of the "Feel" (I'm a huge fan of capturing the "Feel" of a song) from the old soul track "Backfield in Motion". One of my favorites. https://youtu.be/WG7BXgQZ6xQ I really had to focus on the "Chord Push" feature in BIAB and the overlapping horn arrangements. Doing horn phrases of this type require a fair amount of manual manipulation. This is not MultiRiff stuff but listening, and cutting and pasting phrases in the DAW that I thought fit. That was the purpose of me creating the tutorial "How I create SOLOs) on my channel. Anyway I think the song came off pretty well. Back in the TOP heyday their lead singer was Lenny Williams (So Very Hard To Go). Hell I ain't no Lenny but I also thought the vocals came across OK. :-) This was just me playing around. It will not be released. It'll go in the can so no point suggesting I remix. I'm done with this one and on to the next. Still constructive comments always welcome. Style: Monday.STY Slow Swing 8th Blues (of course speeded up almost double the time) Bass: Electric Blues Organ: B3 Guitar 1: Acoustic Rhythm Guitar 2: Resonator Rhythm Blues Muddy Horns 1: Rhythm Blues Shuffle Horn 2: Background Blues Shuffle Piano 1: Acoustic Piano Drums: Nashville 128 Synth Pad 1: Pop Believe Synth 2: Rhythm Pep Squad Horns Equipment: Usual stuff, Shure PG-42, Sonar Producer, Focusrite USB Vocal Stuff: Antares, iZotope Nectar, AVOX Suite, CLA Vocals
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Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 1,825
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Joined: Aug 2004
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Hi Henry,
This is a good song, well sung, mixed and produced.
Congratulations.
Best Regards
Nigel
Nigel Spiers
Christchurch, New Zealand
info@nzacoustics.com
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 720
Journeyman
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Journeyman
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 720 |
This is awesome!
Great job!
-rob
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Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 24,475
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Joined: Dec 2003
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Henry, I am another TOP fan and I think you did them justice with this piece. Your vocal is excellent and the horns were arranged perfectly.
This is your best to date IMHO
Loved it.
The bumper sticker said "I'm a veterinarian, therefore I can drive like an animal".
Suddenly I realized how many proctologists are on the road.
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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Posts: 2,357
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Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 2,357 |
Henry...great tune...I love the arrangement...the vocals are top-notch...everything is so tight...I would love to hear the brass a little more on their emphasis points but still a very cool mix.
www.soundclick.com/firesongBiaB 2024, Steinberg Cubase Pro 13, Wavelab 11.2, SpetraLayers Pro 10, Audacity, Steinberg UR44 Interface, Yamaha Genos, Roland FP60 and FP10, Windows 10 You are who you are because you do what you do because of what you believe.
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I'm a huge Lenny Williams/TOP fan, also familiar with the Mel and Tim tune from Teen Club dances back in the day. This was closer to Backfield in Motion and had enough of that "Henry Clarke goodness" to satisfy any R&B fan. Great work, Henry.
Windows 11, Intel Core I5 10400, 16 gig ram, Scarlett 2i2, Sony Acid Music Studio 10, BIAB 2020 UltraPlus Pak
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Fantastic! What a great mix. Your vocals blend in so well with the music. Well written too. The band hums along nicely too. Top notch production.
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Hello Henry
Great song
As always excellent sung
great melody and song structure
If you want to know what you can get out of BiaB you just have to listen to your songs ;-)
It was really fun to listen
Many greetings
Andi ;-)
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Posts: 201
Apprentice
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Apprentice
Joined: Mar 2012
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Smoooooooooooooooth ear candy. Yummy!  Bouncy, catchy, and fun to listen to. Love it.
-- David Cuny My virtual singer development blogVocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
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I like Tower of Power and I've seen them alive too. You have really captured their sound and their soulful mood is present. Nice and catchy melody, very good arrangement, horns sound good. Excellent vocals.
Janne
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Cool mix.... Listening on my buds this sounds really sweet.
Love the "feel" to this song.
Everything is in it's place and tasty.
The vox sound like they have the slightest touch of AT on them.... while I'm not a fan of blatant AT, this, if that's what I'm hearing, is interesting. Kind of like a teaser. Of course, it could also be artifacts from the streaming or MP3 conversion ..... IDK....
I liked it.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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I love this Henry.. I am hearing what I think Guitarhacker mentioned in the previous comment about "AT Artifacts"
The track still sounds great to me... Feel good music.
Bandcamp Win-11; BiaB-2026 Audiophile (latest version)
Cakewalk Sonar; Melodyne-5; Scaler 3; NI Komplete:
Focusrite Scarlett 18i20
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Journeyman
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OP
Journeyman
Joined: Apr 2020
Posts: 310 |
I love this Henry.. I am hearing what I think Guitarhacker mentioned in the previous comment about "AT Artifacts"
The track still sounds great to me... Feel good music. Thanks. You may hear a slight touch of AT since I absolutely hate any flat notes and it does provide a lift but I think it could also sound this way because I usually cut anything around 200 Hz for my vocals to eliminate and floor noise and any booming sounds coming through on the vocal. I could probably have cut a bit of highs in the 13k range. It was a bit difficult competing with the horns :-) Either way I'm not opposed to having a tinge of AT on my vocal to give it a more modern sound. Just my personal preference. Thanks for the kind comments about the track. Cheers folks.
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Cool song and love your voice. Backfield is one of my all time favs so I dig the inspiration. I'm just not into the robotic modern stacks or any of what they used to call the Cher/TP autotune vox fx. Don't get me wrong you did a great job on them - I'm just old school. I can't help it. Great job.
Josie
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Never heard of Tower of Power (and why should I look them up when I can listen to you instead?).
Your productions never disappoint which is probably a testament of your attention to detail. Keep up the good work!
Ghostgum
ProTools; Ableton Live Lite; Reaper
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 MK4 interface
Novation Launchkey 61 Mk4 midi controller
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Journeyman
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OP
Journeyman
Joined: Apr 2020
Posts: 310 |
Cool song and love your voice. Backfield is one of my all time favs so I dig the inspiration. I'm just not into the robotic modern stacks or any of what they used to call the Cher/TP autotune vox fx. Don't get me wrong you did a great job on them - I'm just old school. I can't help it. Great job.
Josie Thanks for the comment. I'm also old school but enjoy all forms of creativity. I think you're in the camp that all autotune is the Cher/TP effect when essence it is not. AT is on almost every recording being released from major studios today. It's just another tool and doesn't have to sound robotic. That's the main misconception. It appears you think my vocal stack is AT when in essence it is not. There's only slight AT on the lead vocal. Nothing else. Here's my opinion on the use of AT or Melodyne https://youtu.be/Hd16ie1gQAw
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Man, did that work on the horns ever pay off. They sound great. And speaking of great you can apply that to your vocals, arrangement and mix. You really grabbed that TOP vibe ... their early 70's releases were everywhere. Back when you could hear R&B, blues, soul and country on the same station  Well done and enjoyable indeed. J&B PS This is the first song we've listened to on the forum with our new monitors. Great way to break em in!
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos
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Is that TOP (Tower Of Power) or POC (Power Of Clark)?
Nice job.
Horns rock and vocals come off beautifully.
Smooth as a velvet hammer!
Moto
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I've heard this song many times since the day you posted it, Henry, so now have a chance to come here and tell you I love it, man. Such a great feel and so well sung and mastered. I've already told you how impressive those horns sound. the whole thing "feels so good to me."
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