Harmonies

[thewonders]

This is my granddaughter singing some lyrics she wrote about a dream she had.

I'd already laid the backing tracks over the course of a week or so. Then when she came over and we got to jamming, she just improvised over them.

Very nice - cool track!

 

[mixedbymatty]

The Antares Harmony Engine plugin is great for creating harmonies. You can pick the note you want be it a 3rd, 5th, Octave etc. And can get pretty "computerized" sounding, but if you tuck it and blend it in the mix just right it can really bring the life to some songs.

 

[TAE]

I have about 30 minutes into this...3 shots live to get an acceptable "take" a few minutes sort of pulling out the dead mic air..( not all of it ;( ) run through audacity to compress and convert to mp3 ...done

So keys and vocals performed live with the voicelive converting the vocal into a harmonized vocal...just scratching the surface of what I'll be able to pull off with the VL but for this mellow diddly it worked..

Autumn an old Edgar Winter Band / Danny Hartman tune....

Wow over 2 1/2 years ago! Little did I know the medical malady's that awaited me....dang! So it's been about 4 months since my last fun with the MD's and there slice and dice ways....I think I'm finally seeing daylight at the end of tunnel...well I'm hoping it's daylight and not "the light"

There was some really rough patches where I was not able to sing and that was bumming me..but I'm 98% back... radiation on my neck and face has lowered my range slightly both on the highs and lows...being an alto mainly it's workable..

The Harmonizer thing is fricking amazing...I came up with a way to use it unlike I've seen anyone else use....and now I know why. MY cool MO is I have two sm57's facing me @ 6" apart ...one with a little verb on it and one that goes to the TC Helicon voicelive...connected to my keyboard midi port ..the harmonies are made via what notes I play e.g. I play a major cord I get a major harmony..I move one finger and one of the harmonies follows... instead of turning the harmonies off and on as needed...the harmonies are always on and I slide back n forth from mic to mike blending...Using it as such It in of its self is like learning to learn to play a new instrument ..but it's with vocal harmonies......So the reason you'll never see anyone pulling off this cool trick live is because you can't DANG! Try as I might it just can't be done as the harmony mic picks up all the audio going on and loops it back into the mix...With just headphones and no outside audio...this set up is amazing...turn on the PA you're toast everything sounds all screwed up....so alas...This is only going to be something I can do in my studio...with the social distancing and everybody doing streams maybe that is the path I'll have take...it's the only path using the harmonizer with it on all of the time...

So since the Autumn cover quoted herein that I posted, I have probably worked on @ 100 covers where I blend harmonies...several originals too....Having so much fun just playing n singing but up to this week...I haven't pressed the red button seriously in the last 2 years...guess it's time to lay down some of these mini masterpieces ( in my delusional mind ) while I am still breathing and can remember the chords....

By posting here I have put a gun to my head and either have to put up or shut up....... To be continued!

 

[TalismanRich]

Sorry to hear about the med troubles. Radiation has some pretty nasty effects (I went through mine in 2011). I have notice the same thing, notes that I used to be able to hit just aren't there. Its hard to know if it is because of old age or the radiation.

I love doing harmonies. Its one of the things that I wanted to work on when I got into multitrack recording.

I did this one a couple of years ago. Me, my Taylor 310ce, and my Studio Projects B3 into the Zoom R24.

 

[TAE]

I did this one a couple of years ago. Me, my Taylor 310ce, and my Studio Projects B3 into the Zoom R24.

Great playing man.....You did a good job doing your thing on the harmonies...I went and listened to a few versions of CSNY and or CSN and of course they're different ...One thing that really stood out to me was the difference of the placement in the mix between theirs and yours...I can't explain it exactly but your's seem more up front, there's are laying in the middle of the mix..... CSNY harmonies are part of the Holy grail group of rock harmonies along with the Mama's and Papa's, The Beatles, The Eagles..I guess the list could be a long one....

That silly little voice live is giving me harmonies close to that holy grail level of sound ...sometimes ...as long as I play the right notes..That where the craft has had to be honed ...I can't just play the notes / chords I would normally play because sometimes it makes the harmonies totally suck ...what I have learned with playing a lot of songs this way is in many cases "less is more" it's the notes I don't play.....

 

[TalismanRich]

Thanks for the comments.

I agree about CSNY, the Mamas and Papas, and Eagles.

Another great "harmonies" group was the Association. They did some phenomenal vocals. They also sounded great live. Those were the days when you had to be able to SING. No Autotunes back then. Requiem for the Masses was one of my favorites.

There was one of their songs that had a barbershop quartet break in the middle. I can't remember the name of the song, but when I first got my Dokorder 8140, I plugged my little Shure Unidyne B mic in and tried to do that. Absolutely sounded like RUBBISH! Maybe if I had a clue of what I was supposed to be singing, it might have worked. Working with that syncing on the 1/4" 4track was a pain.

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It was bugging me, so I spent the past 30 minutes going through all the Association songs before I found it. It was The Bus Song from the Birthday album.