Finally getting brother on a project

  • Thread starter Thread starter therage!
  • Start date Start date
therage!

therage!

Wicked Machine
I've got songs here of my older brother whom I'm finally getting him over to start recording some of his material. He's mainly got a folk type background and grew up in the 60's. He's never done any recording before and so it's gonna take some time getting him to use a click track and not play and sing at the same time. he was struggling a little today so we decdided to just get some ideas down.

These were tracked with acoustic straight into console and voice was miked into a 4033. So obviously not looking for recording comments cause we will track these right later on. Just kind of looking for what anyone thinks of the basic song ideas. I plan on posting updates as the project develops to get opinions on mixing etc...

Thanks guys for any listens!

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=2377&alid=-1
 
BUMP!

blue train - nice and moody, but I'm missing the chorus, and thats why I'Ts too long

empty cracks and spaces -same thing

anyway, I think the voice has something 'original', which is very god!
 
Mmm... interesting voice. A little Neil Young-ish. Unusual - which is good. He's got good control of his voice - lots of character *and* decent pitch.

I like this a lot. Mic that acoustic instead of DI, add some ambience to the voice and you got some good stuff here.

Chris
 
Hey guys thanks for the comments.

These tunes are just a starting point that I will build on. He's got quite a bit of material but uses a lot of the same chords as he never really developed too much on guitar in that area. I appreciate the feedback because my job is going to be to produce his material and fill in with Elec GTR's and Bass where needed. As we get doing some real tracking I'll post more. I'm really hoping he can free his schedule up to work on the music. I'll pass the comments on to him, that will encourage him.

Thanks again
 
'Steps of Production' - Charting

As you begin to produce your brother, examine some tools you can use, away from the mics and mixing boards, the guitars and the headphones.

Charting is invaluable in a situation like this. Specifically making simple 'Structural Tally Mark Charts", and filling them in with notes and details as you proceed.

Example :

Tempo : ~70
Meter : 4/4
Instrumentation : Acoustic rythm guitar, Conga, Shaker, Fretless Bass

--------------------------

INTRO:
| | | | | | | |

VERSE 1:
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |


CHORUS (hook) 1:
| | | | | | | |


INSTRUMENTAL BREAK :
| | | |

PUNCHES (turn around):
| |
.
VERSE 2:
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

CHORUS (hook) 2:
| | | | | | | |

HOOKS OUT with HARMONY VOCALS :
| | | | | | | |

-----------------------------

In the chart above, each 'Tally Mark' is four beats or one bar, (one measure.)

These simple charts provide a reference to the structure so during the session, that is never an issue and you can move on to other elements in the 'Steps of Production'.

You can continue to 'fill out' the chart by adding chord signs, etc ...
Your brother will have a visual representation of where the chord changes appear, and you can gently and gradually introduce new chords to him in this fashion.

Before you actually begin tracking, answers to many question are 'forced' ...

How long will the click track be, and how will it be structured ... etc ... Where will the backup vocals come in. How long is the instrumental break ... and many more questions as the song matures.

Put them on the computer in wordpad and save them with a naming convention like :

SongName_Ver.01_07-25-2003
SongName_Ver.02_07-25-2003
SongName_Ver.03_07-25-2003

Or you can put them on 5x7 notecards and they will provide an invaluable tool for the 'artist', your brother ...
and the 'technician' YOU ... to be on the same page.
 
Blue Train

BLUE TRAIN
----------------------------

Nice guitar sound. Guitar is balanced sounding. He seems to play with a naturally gentle and balanced technique, and that's very good for your mix.

Vocal is nice and hot, riding well out on top of the mix, that's really important in an initial mix and you captured plenty of voice signal to work with, good job.

Keep your brother singing a little EVERY day, or at least every other day. He needs to WORK those chords :-)

I'd say you are doing fine at this point having recently ripped him away from the habit of singing and playing at the same time. He's got some vocal tension, and that's from being hunched over the guitar while singing. He's got to unlearn this. And it does affect his intonation in spots. On the word 'sidewalk' I can literally see him 'crunching' his neck to develop tension that he may 'think' will assist him in getting this higher note. Release the body and it will 'float' out.

Once we stand up, those muscles in our upper abdomen and neck we have been using to sing while hunched over the guitar in a seated position ... need to be relaxed. He's got good projection though.

I hear some pretty ... long notes on the violin for fill in the gaps between the lyrics. Possibly a full counter melody against the vocal mixed behind it ... throughout large sections of the song.

Ohhh and ahhhh, backup vocals to begin with in this tune will assist the writing of the harmonies and structure. 'train whistle' ... oooooooooo ahhhhhhhhhh

Be sure as producer that you get him to hold the last note as long as possible, let it ring and ring until there is nothing ... and then some, until his hand is cramping. No telling what you are finally going to be doing at the end, and as with every session, it could be your last. Maximize that session.

Good work so far, I look forward to hearing the other tunes I'm downloading.
 
Studioviols,

thanks for the help and those tips. I've gotta run right now but later tonight I want to look at your chart idea a little deeper.

These tunes he was sitting down but we don't intend to keep these and plan on retracking. It's gonna take a little work (but he made progress last weekend) to get him to play to a click track. I'm as excited about helping out someone else with their music as I am making my own. I just gotta get him busy!

Thanks!
 
When I read that this was another old guy, I had to listen. Good stuff! He does sound a bit like Neil Young.... only better. I only listened to the first two.. got my vote! Go man.

bd
 
LUCY...

Ah... the sound of breathing :D ... oxygen... guitar ...

This is your brother singing? Doesn't SOUND old ;)

Quite a bit of compression here on the vocs... you can hear them duck when they get LOUDER... if possible, back up on the compression a bit... it's just weird to hear the guitar nice and full... then hear it duck way down when the voice comes in.

"dying is just being born another way..." nice lyric. Sounds like you've got a good song idea to run with here. Go for it!! Have fun.


Chad
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top