What This Love Is All About

Tadpui

Tadpui

Well-known member
I might regret this in the morning...

I went all Daft Tad and hammered out this tune the other night, mainly out of a curiosity about how to use a vocoder. I've tweaked it over the last couple of days, but I'm not sure where I'm headed with it. I'm so far out of my comfort zone, this is way out there for me. But it's been a fun learning experience. I learned how to use a vocoder (ReaVocode), how to use sidechain compression (ReaComp), how to adjust the envelope decay of drums in Superior Drummer, it was my first attempt at doubling vocal parts, and I got to throw in a little bit of my new EZKeys electric piano and some SampleTank Free saw-wave and pad synth.

I'm having trouble with the spanky electric guitar that comes in near the end. It gets buried and my attempts to resurface it without simply cranking the gain failed. And I think that I missed a beat or two when it first comes in.

So, um, yeah...here's this:



Latest Version:


Lyrics in their entirety:
I don't know what this love is all about
Maybe it's all about me
 
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Pretty cool. Here's some stuff to consider: the backing vocals sound skewed right to me. The vocoder sounds both spritzy and over-cooked a bit. (By spritzy I mean it's adding a crackle to the sound.) I haven't used a vocoder yet, so I don't know how it's done, but can you dial back on the effect at this point so that the words can be made out a bit more clearly? Also, I'd be really tempted to put a great whack of delay on that snare so that you could hear the repeats, just to see.

Nice tune.
 
Very 80's Disco! Way out of my comfort zone too, but it's very cool. Lots of travel around in the stereo field bringing your attention to other pieces coming in. Don't hear much of a problem with how the guitar sounds at the end. It could be just a bit brighter, or maybe hit it with an auto-wah? Dunno. Agree the vocoder sound is a bit harsh, but most of the vocoder sounds were. Lots of good vocal layering going on. Everything is clear and in it's own space. Nice job!
 
I like that 'driving' feel to the recording. it does have an 80s feel, but you have it working well. no real nits on the mix, nice n clear...and short!
 
dobro said:
Pretty cool. Here's some stuff to consider: the backing vocals sound skewed right to me. The vocoder sounds both spritzy and over-cooked a bit. (By spritzy I mean it's adding a crackle to the sound.) I haven't used a vocoder yet, so I don't know how it's done, but can you dial back on the effect at this point so that the words can be made out a bit more clearly? Also, I'd be really tempted to put a great whack of delay on that snare so that you could hear the repeats, just to see.

Nice tune.
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Thanks dobro, you touched on a few things that have been bugging me. A few of the bg vocal parts are panned 30% right, and I only did that because of what's becoming a persistent problem for me: the hihat clicks away continuously over on the left and I wanted something happening elsewhere to draw a little attention away from it. When I focus on it, it starts to bug me to have it over there tap-tap-tapping. Not sure what to try next to break it up a bit.

There is a slap-back delay on the snare, but I must have kept it more subtle than I intended. That's another new one for me, I haven't used much slap-back stuff so I'm never sure how much is too much.

BroKen_H said:
Very 80's Disco! Way out of my comfort zone too, but it's very cool. Lots of travel around in the stereo field bringing your attention to other pieces coming in. Don't hear much of a problem with how the guitar sounds at the end. It could be just a bit brighter, or maybe hit it with an auto-wah? Dunno. Agree the vocoder sound is a bit harsh, but most of the vocoder sounds were. Lots of good vocal layering going on. Everything is clear and in it's own space. Nice job!
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Thanks BH! An auto-wah is actually a great idea. I'll have to root around in my FX pile and see what I can come up with. At very least I'm curious how it would sound.

I agree with you and dobro about the sizzly vocoder. There aren't a lot of controls on ReaVocode other than wet/dry sliders. There's a slider for number of bands, which seems to act somewhat as a resolution and a max frequency low-pass kind of thing. I tried to strike a balance between lo-fi and richness. It could be the sawtooth synth I fed in as the carrier signal is too harsh in the first place. I have much more experimenting to do! I have another freebie vocoder VST, maybe I'll give that one a try as well.

sammydix said:
I like that 'driving' feel to the recording. it does have an 80s feel, but you have it working well. no real nits on the mix, nice n clear...and short!
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Thanks! Yeah, I figured that this idea would wear out its welcome pretty quickly so I kept it to just a few repetitions and exited before the crowd turned angry :D
 
This is really cool, and very different from what I've heard from you before Tad. It reminded me quite a bit of Daft Punk, especially with that Nile Rodgers guitar later on.

I enjoyed the vocals, the layering and the synths were good too. I think the Nile Rodgers line is a bit messy and out of time until it resolves really nicely from like 2.18 onwards. The other nit that stuck out for me was that I wasn't crazy about the first 25 seconds before the synth comes in - I think it's just a bit ploddy and static. Some autopanning wooshy synth effect sweeps would give it more movement and lift that section before it all kicks in I think. Not sure if that makes sense, but I can hear it in my head.

Anyway, good to hear something new from you. Don't suppose you've ever put your stuff up onto some kind of music host have you, would be nice to listen back to some of your music?
 
robgreen said:
This is really cool, and very different from what I've heard from you before Tad. It reminded me quite a bit of Daft Punk, especially with that Nile Rodgers guitar later on.

I enjoyed the vocals, the layering and the synths were good too. I think the Nile Rodgers line is a bit messy and out of time until it resolves really nicely from like 2.18 onwards. The other nit that stuck out for me was that I wasn't crazy about the first 25 seconds before the synth comes in - I think it's just a bit ploddy and static. Some autopanning wooshy synth effect sweeps would give it more movement and lift that section before it all kicks in I think. Not sure if that makes sense, but I can hear it in my head.

Anyway, good to hear something new from you. Don't suppose you've ever put your stuff up onto some kind of music host have you, would be nice to listen back to some of your music?
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Hey thanks Rob!

Thanks for calling me out on the timing of that guitar, I sat down and fixed it tonight. And you've got me thinking about how to "punch up" the intro a bit. I've got a few ideas, and I'll sit down tomorrow night to try out a few of them. Since I'm not in my comfort zone, I'm too tempted to throw more disco and dance tropes at it. I'll see what I can come up with.

You know, I haven't really established much of a music host page. I have accounts at most of them, but I think I only have maybe 1 song amongst them all. I really should start collecting stuff on a SoundCloud or SoundClick or ReverbNation. All of my tracks just live on my Dropbox folder. Being a computer programmer, I've even tossed around the idea of getting my own domain and making my own hosting site, because the audio compression at most of those sites just irritates me to death. But jeez, I can't seem to even finish a mix, much less code up a new website :D
 
I think its really cool. As already said..very Daft Punk. I think a slap bass would sound really good in parts of...other than what was already said, I have no other suggestions. Great job. You should have no regrets lol
 
rayc said:
Kraftwerk - the Narcissist years?
Interesting stuff.
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I'm so ashamed to admit that I haven't listened to much Kraftwerk. I get into listening to electronica from time to time, and while I keep hearing their name dropped, I always forget to go and explore their catalog. Thanks for the listen Ray.

Bruthish said:
I think its really cool. As already said..very Daft Punk. I think a slap bass would sound really good in parts of...other than what was already said, I have no other suggestions. Great job. You should have no regrets lol
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Hahaha, at least I feel better now about this than when I posted it. Thanks for your listen and comments. Jeez, if I could slap a bass without fear of being called in for bass abuse, I'd totally give it a try. Given my bass abilities, it would sound like Flea having a seizure.

I've fiddled with this one a bit more, tried a different vocoder, experimented with a couple of things. I'll hammer away at it for one more night and post the results either tomorrow night or late this weekend.

Thanks again everybody for the comments and indulging me on a trip down the rabbit hole of an unpopular music style :D
 
I liked this a lot. I've got electronica in my brain at the moment because I'm really into Public Service Broadcasting's "The Race For Space". Can't get it out of my head! :D Mix-wise I agree with dobro about the BVs being too right-skewed, and I thought the vocoder had too big a halo of reverb, but it's your baby - it's not really a fault. :)
 
I thought it sounded good.

Really not much to complain about. I'm not an expert in the genre. But I thought things sounded good.

How did you do the vocal effects?
 
Bubba po said:
I liked this a lot. I've got electronica in my brain at the moment because I'm really into Public Service Broadcasting's "The Race For Space". Can't get it out of my head! :D Mix-wise I agree with dobro about the BVs being too right-skewed, and I thought the vocoder had too big a halo of reverb, but it's your baby - it's not really a fault. :)
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Thanks Bubba, I get into electronica moods every once in a while, but it's few and far between when I find something that really captures my interest. I'll have to have a listen to PSB.

TripleM said:
I thought it sounded good.

Really not much to complain about. I'm not an expert in the genre. But I thought things sounded good.

How did you do the vocal effects?
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Hey thanks Trips. In this version, I used Reaper's included vocoder ReaVocode. The carrier signal is some generic sawtooth synth from Sampletank 3 Free, and the modulator is a vocal track that I recorded. Then there's some ping pong delay and Lexicon MPX large plate reverb on it.
 
***Updated mix***

I'm currently unable to edit my original post, but here's an updated mix:



Here are the changes that I can remember making:
- tried a different vocoder. This time it's TAL vocoder, a freebie. It's much less "spritzy" than the ReaVocode track. The middle repetition is the same vocoder bit sent through my Marshall DSL40C amp.
- moved the background vocals more towards center
- moved the synth pad part a little more to the left
- cut a bit of 3K from the kick and snare
- fixed the off-beat spanky guitar bit during the 3rd repetition of the vocoder bit, it should be in time now
- added a reverse cymbal hit to the intro. First try at this, hopefully it worked out.
 
Listening again. I like it better than before, which is good. But when that snare comes in, it can have a *lot* more body. Right now, it doesn't sound like a real snare - it sounds like more of a half-size snare. Grow the snare.
 
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