Previous Thread
Index
Next Thread
Print Thread
Go To
Page 1 of 2 1 2
#464493 03/28/18 03:56 AM
User Showcase
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 7,294
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 7,294
This song was a production and engineering experiment for me. I had never done anything in this genre. First, the story. There's ALWAYS a story with me!

In a Google Hangouts chat with 5 other people, I made the comment that "If you give them a good beat, you can sing ANY kind of lyric you want and these kids today are so stupid they will buy it." That led to a Mary Had A Little Lamb rap freestyle complete with proper vulgarities.

So I decided to put that theory to the test. What I found was that this is harder than a "normal" song because it really requires a lot of texture and precision with samples being inserted. I got it to a point and Rog finished it.

Some of the experimentation included some industrial sounds I snagged from the internet, a metal door slam sample I did myself, a lot of automation for panning and reversing some of the sound bytes. It was actually kind of fun!

The lyrics... The song is called "Titles", because the lyrics are 90% titles of other songs woven into a narrative. It's all done in sprechstimme (speak singing) to mock the rappers. The vocals were recorded into 2 mics at once. One was a Shure 58 that was placed ball down into a 2 quart pitcher, and the other an XML condenser. The echo inside the pitcher was exactly what I wanted.

The whole idea came to me because of a guy who came through Cleveland along his career path. I can't say his name because if it got to him he would sue me, as he is very litigious. Some of the stuff he put out was really just noise to me, with banging spoons on pots and such. So I did some of the same thing!!! I will only say that if this was a band it would be called Six Inch Spikes. Draw your own inferences.

Song info:

_HVYBEAT.STY. Heavy Rap Beat w/ Synth

RD: UrbanPopEv8GoodGirl^1-a:Kck1, b:Clap :Ed (Great Oz) Clare - kept drums and shaker - augmented with drum machine
RT1936: Synth, Rhythm, EuroDance Chorus7Hit Ev16 120 cut out a section and looped
RT1825: Bass, Electric, PopModernGrooveHeld Ev16 075 - removed and replaced with live bass
M36: Fretless Elec. Bass - removed and replaced with live bass

Manual tracks:

hi hat from a drum machine
African drums from an RB loop
high shaker with small shaker eggs
kick from a drum machine
snare from a drum machine
low shaker from a larger home made shaker
chord aahs from my ESQ-1 synth
counter rhythm aahs from my ESQ-1 synth
Rog's guitar tracks, part of which were snipped, reversed, and put back in
chant aah to mimic Gregorian chant - left side
chant aah 2 to mimic Gregorians chant - right side
aah1 autopan.WAV these 2 autopan channels panned the 2 Gregorian chant tracks randomly
aah 2 autopan.WAV
drone guitar - this was a loop I did with my ebow
RT 1936 synth loop from RB
bass from Rog
booming anvil on the downbeats is a sound I sampled from the web
Screech is a metal screeching sound I sampled from the web
high anvil plays on the 2s and 4s (comes and goes) against the booming anvil

It was a fun piece and good learning experience. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but try to remember that this is a spoof and was done with my tongue as far into my cheek as it can get.

Titles

Crank it up and get your groove on!!! Phones might be a good idea because there is a LOT of panning on this one. grin




Last edited by eddie1261; 03/28/18 04:49 AM.

I smashed the hell out of my car today. When the cops came I told him "Officer, that guy was BOTH texting and drinking a beer." The cop said "Sir, he has every right to do that. I mean, it's HIS living room..."
eddie1261 #464497 03/28/18 04:29 AM
User Showcase
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 9,301
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 9,301
Yo Bro..... that's cool.

There were some country songs years ago...decades more likely, that used a similar concept..... titles from the other hits to tell a story. Novelty songs.

This is not easily identified in that "novelty" category.

That's brilliant work.


You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add 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.
eddie1261 #464502 03/28/18 04:39 AM
User Showcase
Joined: Feb 2017
Posts: 3,414
PG Music Staff
Offline
PG Music Staff
Joined: Feb 2017
Posts: 3,414
This was actually really interesting to listen to, Eddie! Even though it is allegedly a bit of a mockery, it is pretty unique sounding especially for the showcase. I do enjoy music that is rather "noisy" at times and I'm also a big fan or rap/hip hop, so this actually catered to my tastes somewhat!

Good work on this, and thanks for sharing smile


Cheers,
Deryk
eddie1261 #464522 03/28/18 06:26 AM
User Showcase
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 6,576
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 6,576
That was a fun listen! laugh

And I agree with your theory - if the song sounds good, people won't care that much about lyrics.

But that doesn't mean that lyrics aren't important at all. In fact, I think part of the charm of your song is the cleverness of the lyrics.

I've not played a Ensoniq ESQ1 in some time. It's good to see yours is still getting used.


-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?
dcuny #464525 03/28/18 06:41 AM
User Showcase
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 7,294
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 7,294
Originally Posted By: dcuny
I've not played a Ensoniq ESQ1 in some time. It's good to see yours is still getting used.


And it's the original one from 1988!!


I smashed the hell out of my car today. When the cops came I told him "Officer, that guy was BOTH texting and drinking a beer." The cop said "Sir, he has every right to do that. I mean, it's HIS living room..."
eddie1261 #464528 03/28/18 07:19 AM
User Showcase
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 2,659
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 2,659
hi eddie love this great job very engaging thanks eric


AMD (TM) 5950 4.9 GHz 16Core Processor 64 bit 32 bits of ram windows 10 pro 64 bit os. sound card Antelope ZenQ guitars Ibanez 2202a 1968 les Paul Custom and Cavin ae 185 Guitar boss Gt-100,GT1000 pedal Yamaha HS8 studio monitors
F.M.M. #464532 03/28/18 07:32 AM
User Showcase
Joined: Dec 2017
Posts: 783
Journeyman
Offline
Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2017
Posts: 783
sounds great I cant do anything with keyboards or synths, my son has an ensoniq MR 76, and I had a sq1 back in 91 I think, I could not play it, sold it quickly.

eddie1261 #464533 03/28/18 07:41 AM
User Showcase
Joined: Feb 2018
Posts: 65
K
Enthusiast
Offline
Enthusiast
K
Joined: Feb 2018
Posts: 65
Definitely tres cool. Nicely done!

eddie1261 #464605 03/28/18 12:37 PM
User Showcase
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 3,311
ROG Offline
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 3,311
My involvement in this started out as simply supplying a bass riff and some random guitar,
but as a bonus I got to finish the mix as well.

Eddie had got it about 90% done, but felt that there was still something missing, so I got
sent the SEQ file - 22 tracks with an amazing amount of stuff going on. A lot of the tracks
were very percussive and it was hard to maintain a decent level, so I moved the project over
to Harrison Mixbus 32C where I had sweep EQ, high and low pass filters and a buss compressor
on every channel. By compressing at track level the whole thing tidied up nicely and I used
an Eventide Ultra Harmoniser plugin for effects and a Harrison G-Plus reverb. The only mastering
needed was a Teletronix LA-2A compressor plugin on the main stereo buss.

I thoroughly enjoyed helping out on this project and my hat goes off to Eddie for an amazing,
original and inventive track.

ROG.

eddie1261 #464608 03/28/18 12:41 PM
User Showcase
Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 7,664
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 7,664

This is a lot OF FUN!

I think you reached that state of perfection everyone is talking about!

smile

David Snyder #464620 03/28/18 01:49 PM
User Showcase
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 7,294
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 7,294
Originally Posted By: David Snyder

This is a lot OF FUN!

I think you reached that state of perfection everyone is talking about!

smile


If nothing else, I know now how many roads a man must walk down before people call him a man..... Or in this case, how many tracks I have to add before I can call it a song.


I smashed the hell out of my car today. When the cops came I told him "Officer, that guy was BOTH texting and drinking a beer." The cop said "Sir, he has every right to do that. I mean, it's HIS living room..."
eddie1261 #464621 03/28/18 01:51 PM
User Showcase
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 6,581
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 6,581
Eddie,

Very cool and creative - I really enjoyed this!

Bob

eddie1261 #464628 03/28/18 02:40 PM
User Showcase
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 3,613
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 3,613

This is very clever. I love the mood this a develops as the song continues.
Reminds me a little of Pink Floyd. Great production well done with the mix.
Excellent all over. Rob

eddie1261 #464635 03/28/18 03:18 PM
User Showcase
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 7,522
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 7,522
This was really good. Have to agree on the lyrics. Proof is in the pudding. Super backtrack. Some excellent guitar and a well delivered vocal. Well done


Scott Collingwood
https://soundcloud.com/scottt709
https://soundcloud.com/spiritlevel-ca
https://www.youtube.com/@SpiritLevel-ge3hm/
eddie1261 #464668 03/29/18 01:23 AM
User Showcase
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 7,294
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 7,294
I should have said this in the original post but I will do it as a PS here. You will not get the true experience of this song if you listen to it on a cell phone with the speakers 2 inches apart. There is a lot going on with panning and movement and cell phone speakers will flatten that.


I smashed the hell out of my car today. When the cops came I told him "Officer, that guy was BOTH texting and drinking a beer." The cop said "Sir, he has every right to do that. I mean, it's HIS living room..."
eddie1261 #464693 03/29/18 04:52 AM
User Showcase
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 3,700
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 3,700
Very clever idea nicely implemented, the backing track kicks hard, very lush arrangement, the groove is catchy, and the spoken vocals really fit in. Well done, must have taken some time to put all this together.

Janne


Hear My Music:

Soundcloud
YouTube

jannesan #464708 03/29/18 05:58 AM
User Showcase
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 7,294
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 7,294
Originally Posted By: jannesan
Very clever idea nicely implemented, the backing track kicks hard, very lush arrangement, the groove is catchy, and the spoken vocals really fit in. Well done, must have taken some time to put all this together.


Probably 12 days from head to toe. And mostly on my end. Rog turned it around in a day from the engineering side. We had been going back and forth about guitar tracks for a month before though. Trying to explain to someone what you hear in your head is like is like trying to explain what "red" is to a person who can't see. I was like "I want it ANGRY". "I want it dirty." "I want it to scream." "I want short, stabbing parts that do all of the above." I mean, given that, it's pretty hard to interpret what my mind's ear hears. He sent me a good long sample of phrases put together and I cobbled a solo out of it by cutting and pasting. And on his first phrase, I actually took the sound waves and flipped them so you are hearing guitar played backwards. Doing that added "passion" to it because the attack was different when reversed. He did a great job on a very difficult piece that I did not think was going to be that involved. That was 22 tracks, my record.


I smashed the hell out of my car today. When the cops came I told him "Officer, that guy was BOTH texting and drinking a beer." The cop said "Sir, he has every right to do that. I mean, it's HIS living room..."
eddie1261 #464918 03/30/18 02:25 PM
User Showcase
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 4,218
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 4,218
Eddie, you did a fabulous job on everything here. It sounds spectacular in the headphones. The time spent really paid off in a big way. ROG played some great guitar lines and put some of his magic in the final mix. I really enjoyed it! Tom

eddie1261 #464925 03/30/18 02:53 PM
User Showcase
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 7,294
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 7,294
Thanks to all for the kind words and feedback. It was almost funny that what I thought would fall together quickly and easily took MANY days of tweaking and adjusting. Then I had to do all the automation to get the panning to move just right. When it went to Rog it was okay as far as balancing instruments. He did a lot of hi and lo pass filtering, as well as applying some compression at the mastering level. It came back sounding HUGE and very much more alive then when it went over.

Making those song titles fit together as a lyric took some work too. It was one of those things that looking at the bands I referenced, they had SO MANY song titles to pick from, yet as I sat and wrote that I drew a blank because there are too many.


I smashed the hell out of my car today. When the cops came I told him "Officer, that guy was BOTH texting and drinking a beer." The cop said "Sir, he has every right to do that. I mean, it's HIS living room..."
eddie1261 #465356 04/03/18 07:52 AM
User Showcase
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 13,978
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 13,978
Man, I can't imagine how long it took to think that through and put it all together.

Yeah, it makes a great statement but as others have mentioned it has legs of it's own.

Fascinating.

Previous Thread
Next Thread
Go To
Page 1 of 2 1 2

Link Copied to Clipboard
ChatPG

Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.

ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.

PG Music News
Band-in-a-Box® 2024 Review: 4.75 out of 5 Stars!

If you're looking for a in-depth review of the newest Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows version, you'll definitely find it with Sound-Guy's latest review, Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows Review: Incredible new capabilities to experiment, compose, arrange and mix songs.

A few excerpts:
"The Tracks view is possibly the single most powerful addition in 2024 and opens up a new way to edit and generate accompaniments. Combined with the new MultiPicker Library Window, it makes BIAB nearly perfect as an 'intelligent' composer/arranger program."

"MIDI SuperTracks partial generation showing six variations – each time the section is generated it can be instantly auditioned, re-generated or backed out to a previous generation – and you can do this with any track type. This is MAJOR! This takes musical experimentation and honing an arrangement to a new level, and faster than ever."

"Band in a Box continues to be an expansive musical tool-set for both novice and experienced musicians to experiment, compose, arrange and mix songs, as well as an extensive educational resource. It is huge, with hundreds of functions, more than any one person is likely to ever use. Yet, so is any DAW that I have used. BIAB can do some things that no DAW does, and this year BIAB has more DAW-like functions than ever."

Happy Easter! Holiday Hours...

2024 is well underway - it's already Easter Weekend!

Our Customer Service hours this weekend are:

Friday, March 29: 8-4
Saturday, March 30: 8-4
Sunday, March 31: closed

Regular hours resume Monday, April 1st - no joke!

Convenient Ways to Listen to Band-in-a-Box® Songs Created by Program Users!

The User Showcase Forum is an excellent place to share your Band-in-a-Box® songs and listen to songs other program users are creating!

There are other places you can listen to these songs too! Visit our User Showcase page to sort by genre, artist (forum name), song title, and date - each listing will direct you to the forum post for that song.

If you'd rather listen to these songs in one place, head to our Band-in-a-Box® Radio, where you'll have the option to select the genre playlist for your listening pleasure. This page has SoundCloud built in, so it won't redirect you. We've also added the link to the Artists SoundCloud page here, and a link to their forum post.

We hope you find some inspiration from this amazing collection of User Showcase Songs!

Congratulations to the 2023 User Showcase Award Winners!

We've just announced the 2023 User Showcase Award Winners!

There are 45 winners, each receiving a Band-in-a-Box 2024 UltraPAK! Read the official announcement to see if you've won.

Our User Showcase Forum receives more than 50 posts per day, with people sharing their Band-in-a-Box songs and providing feedback for other songs posted.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed!

Video: Volume Automation in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows®

We've created a video to help you learn more about the Volume Automation options in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows.

Band-in-a-Box® 2024: Volume Automation

www.pgmusic.com/manuals/bbw2024full/chapter11.htm#volume-automation

Video: Audio Input Monitoring with Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows®

We've created this short video to explain Audio Input Monitoring within Band-in-a-Box® 2024, and included some tips & troubleshooting details too!

Band-in-a-Box® 2024: Audio Input Monitoring

3:17: Tips
5:10: Troubleshooting

www.pgmusic.com/manuals/bbw2024full/chapter11.htm#audio-input-monitoring

Video: Enhanced Melodists in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows®!

We've enhanced the Melodists feature included in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows!

Access the Melodist feature by pressing F7 in the program to open the new MultiPicker Library and locate the [Melodist] tab.

You can now generate a melody on any track in the program - very handy! Plus, you select how much of the melody you want generated - specify a range, or apply it to the whole track.

See the Melodist in action with our video, Band-in-a-Box® 2024: The Melodist Window.

Learn even more about the enhancements to the Melodist feature in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows at www.pgmusic.com/manuals/bbw2024upgrade/chapter3.htm#enhanced-melodist

Forum Statistics
Forums66
Topics81,399
Posts732,551
Members38,442
Most Online2,537
Jan 19th, 2020
Newest Members
danielsk, Mark Morgan, zagrajbarke, Ernest J, Izzy
38,442 Registered Users
Top Posters(30 Days)
MarioD 199
Al-David 132
DC Ron 115
rsdean 85
dcuny 83
Today's Birthdays
(charlie), WobblyGstring
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5