My Dr. Demento / BLUE Mic Silly Song Submission

dafduc

dafduc

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Here's where to read about the contest:
http://bluemic.com/contest/

Here's the Songwriting thread where I posted the lyrics:
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=&threadid=96379

And here's the Singles page with the recording (look for Blueblue):
http://www.nowhereradio.com/graytail/singles

I'm not sure if I'm going to submit this version - could't figure out why the verb on the vocs was so weird, then realized it was probably getting processed before the (super) compression. So I really need to bus the vocs and put the verb on the bus, but the postmark deadline is Sunday. Talk about down to the wire...

This was my test of Autotune (demo version) - saved me a bunch of takes. A couple notes still sound out of tune - vibrato was probably so heavy the AT didn't know what to do with em. There are artifacts, but they aren't bothering me much.

The other thing I gotta admit is that either there's a timing problem with latency offsets in Acid - or else there's a problem with MY timing. Clav part kept sounding late, so far off that I couldn't quantize! Did about 5 takes. Finally, in desperation, I pulled the clav track up 1/32 note - that mostly did the trick.

Oh, and thanks to Harvey Mason and Paul Jackson for sitting in...:D J/K - bass & drums were freebie Cyclick tracks from Computer Music mag. Clav was freebie from BigTick, EP was Emagic's EVP-73. Tracks all built in Acid 4.0, then ported into Cubase 5.1, where I added vocs (compressed, tubed, and verbed), threw some EQ & verb on the EP, and limited the whole mix.

Interestingly, the supposedly full-featured Autotune demo seemed to prevent me from rendering the vocal track - When I did the Cubase render thing, the track came out sounding great - but with no vocs. So I used Sound Forge 6.0 to record the Cubase playback, then normed to -1db.

mp3 is at 128k, using realplayer's built-in --- I usually use CDex, but RP popped up, so I gave it a try.

There's a lot I wanted to do with this - background vocs (with Steely Dan style part swaps), horn lines, more clav work --- but I just had to do the "pencils down" thing and move on. The 3-minute thing was a challenge, too - had to cut some intro.

If I redo this (still undecided) I might drop the refrain before the bridge - Listened about 30 times (really!) on my commute this morning, I'm thinking more & more that nobody really needs to hear that refrain FOUR times. It'll mostly depend on how the verse-bridge transition works if I yank the chorus there.

The other thing I noticed on the drive was how great the EQ sounded - then realized after about 20 listens that I had my "jazz" EQ preset on my car stereo, which boosts highs & lows - when I went to flat it sounded a bit boxy.:rolleyes:

Oh, and if you haven't listened to the scratch version of Toki & Daf's HRC4 collab (Lift) it's up there on my singles page too - final version promises to be way better, after Toki and his choir of angels are done with it...:D

Any & all feedback on Blueblue welcomed - especially advice about quick tweaks I can do between today and tomorrow.:cool:

Thanks in advance, guys,

Daf
 
No takers?:(

BTW - I used my Baby Bottle on this - not my first choice for my so-called voice, but seemed like the right thing to do in a BLUE contest.

Seriously, I was hoping for some feedback so I could punch this up a bit before I ship it tomorrow...

Daf
 
Keep yer pants on, d! Er... well.. take 'em off, if it makes ya more comf'table :confused:

COOOL a$$ bassline... what's the cellophane crackle stuff in the intro?
Hey, this is way decent singin', daf... maybe its' the fact you're not hoarse
this time :D

The mix isn't really too bad.

Great funk... lovely tones... the organ patch, and bass in particular.
Food blues, eh? Eh.... I guess that gets blue, too... Labatts bottles? Those
are blue... so's milk of magnesia... ugh, need it after the singin' bout
premasticated pancakes :(

Really tight...


C
 
hey Daf,

...Not sure what cyclick is. ...are those full length loops? The playing in those does sound nice. I love that style of bass playing, and that was done gootentight:D ! Im not sure what i can offer re: the mixing of the drums and bass 'cause i dont know what control you had over the samples. The cymbals on the kit sound a little loud here (Im guessing that you cant do much there). ...and from here the bass might come up a touch...(but that might be bass players preference). I like the clav... nice and fittin. Im not sure from this listening source, but a low cut on the vocs might help thin em out a touch, from here they sound a little low heavy. Cool content...... .....damn blue food :D
g
 
Thx to Chad & his pimp:eek:

Chad: I listened for the crinkle, didn't hear it - it's definitely not on the CD. Thx for not beating me up about my voice again...:D There's no organ - you're probably hearing the rhodes - I eq'd it down a little - not to improve the tone, but the high notes were cutting through way more than the low ones. "Mix not too bad"? So yer sayin' I don't sweat much for a fat girl??? Hee hee. Seriously, thanks for the listen, Mr. Partypants.

Guer: I think I want to bring the bottom up, too. Just a touch. Cyclick is a company that does a lot of the freebie loops that Comput Music mag hands out every month. They tend to just be one or two bar loops - as these were. I did a lot of snipping and pasting of the bass lines to make them fit the changes - I think I used 7 different bass loops all together. Drum loops were more set-em-and-forget-em. I could eq them down a little, but I like that ride sizzle - rather have it high in the mix than lose that tone. Funny about the vocs - they're usually too thin. I'm still not 100% back from my Jamfest laryngitis (probably why I could hit those low C's - usually out of my range). Thanks for the critique.

Anyone else?

Daf
 
Oops - crinkle was there - just had to turn the fan ddown in the car to hear it.

Take 2 is up there now - this is the version I submitted to Dr. D. Vocal verb is post-compression now, so that bit of weirdness is gone. Noise issue is gone (thanks for the headsup, Mr. P.!), bass git boosted a tad, drums down a bit. Added verb to the EP (thought it was there before???).

Same link as above. Give it a listen, tell me what you think...

Daf
 
Zappa's in the house!!!!

Or Wierd Al....one or the other..........I'd like a little more presence on the keys ....bass sounds great........vocals could use a little teeny tiny bit more presence too......flapjack turned to goo.....pretty funny.........I'd like a more inspired ending......sounds like it just petered out all of a sudden rather than a scripted ending.

Nice work man.......makes me want to get a baby bottle. ;)
 
Damn, that turned out pretty good. Got a Popwell, Hancock, Feagin, Duke vibe to it.
Hope you win that thing man or get a box of cords at least, that was some work puttin it together.Brighten it up a tad.
 
Okay, I have to agree with the Zappa comment. He lives!

Nice drums. Excellent bass. That f-ing bass makes my balls ring.

Keyboards are a bit lost, but I'm not a big keyboard fan, so that's okay. :-)

This song grooves. I like grove. Groove is good.

Catchy, relatively funny.

Ooh, like the change at the interlude area. That was tre nice.

Very well mixed and recorded. I'm humbled. Again.

Why do all you damn people have to make me feel so inadequate?! :-)

Thanks for posting!
Piltdown Man
 
Cute little tune! I did make me smile, listening to it but, I don't quite hear the Zappa in it beyond the bass playing which was superb! Chad Whackerman, Zappa's last bass player would be impressed I am sure, totally...............................:cool:

I would do something with the vocals though to clean them up. They sound kind of lo-fi. Maybe double track them and pitch one down 2 octaves!! Then you would have a "Torture Never Stops" Zappa feel there too in the vocals!!

I enjoyed!:D
 
I like that.. the auto tune wasn't noticeable to me, and I usually always complain about it.. the cymbals have that sound of when you do too much of a tempo change in Acid.. I've noticed it gets a warbly sound.. could also be the real player encoding.. it's not helping.. I think the instruments are too low.. it's too much with the cymbals.. especially since they have that swishy sound it's even worse.. I like the vocals.. the clav is too low.. very cool song.
 
To everyone who said "Zappa" - I sure wasn't thinking that when I wrote this, but then I realized...

...I swiped my whole concept from Stinkfoot. Subliminally, but still...

Lt. Bob - Thank you. I was constricted by time requirements - had to be under 3:00, I clocked in at 2:59. But that WAS actually the ending I wanted - I know, I have issues...:D

Toki, my bruthah: Yer right, I did a lot of low end on this, shoulda brightened it up some. And absolutely a Herbie thing - hence my earlier Mason/Jackson commennt. Thx for the listen.

PDMan: Wow. Thanks. And you wouldn't WANT to hear my guitar playing...

Ghost - yeah, vocs were way lo-fi - supercompressed, tubed, limited... kind of the vibe I was going for. See above for the Zappa explanation. Thx for your input.

Sammy - Actually, drums were a 110 loop, and the song was 110 - but not a real hifi sample to start with. I like the clav mixed where you can tell it's there but can't quite pick out what it's doing - personal preference, but also adds a little mystery to it. I'll tell you this - it sounds like I'm playing way more notes than I'm really playing. Oh, and Autotune doesn't really color your vocs if you're close in the first place, and aren't trying to use it like an effect. I was close, but not quite on - AT gave me that last 5%. Thanks for the comments.

Daf
 
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The first time I heard this song it was about 5:30 AM Saturday after my band's "after party" for our show Friday night...I was so fucked up I could barely walk! Daf's like, hey I brought that Dr. Demento song I've been working on, and two minutes later we were in the van rocking out to this! Man this sounds great. Did you get the Rhodes going on this? I don't hear anything weird on the PC speakers I'm on here at work, it just sounds good. Catchy lyrical phrases. I love that. Really cool tune daf.
 
Thank you, Brother Rats!

Nah, I fixed the verb issue - you're hearing version 2. Verb works much better AFTER the compression. AFTER the compression. Gotta remember that...:rolleyes:

Rhodes was a VSTi. Probably won't record with the real Rhodes until daughter and granddaughter move out and I get a whole room for this. Gotta fix the sustain pedal too.

It was a blast partying with the SunRays. Nice bunch of guys, Brian's wife made me feel right at home. Cool tunes on the stereo (finally got to hear some Lipps), great beer, great company.

Daf the bandless
 
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