My daughter’s newest tune: “Perspective”

[Flyguitarfish]

My 15 yo daughter has the songwriting bug, like me! Here’s her newest tune.

This one was a little tricky to put together; she wanted the tempo to change back and forth in a few spots (between 98 and 110 I believe). So it feels a little off and I was struggling to make the transitions perfect when I was recording the drums. This is the 40th-ish drum take so this is what you get!

She insisted on real piano so I put a single SDC over the piano and we double tracked it.

She did a great job on vocals. I’m jealous of her pitch and ability to change instantly between notes. Even though it sounds like it, there is zero pitch correction on any of it. She just has this ability to vibrato between notes that sounds almost auto-tuned in a couple spots…but nope!

I played drums, bass, and guitar. She did the rest. Recorded everything yesterday afternoon. I was looking forward to a relaxing Sunday afternoon but she said “Dad, let’s record my whole song today!”

I appreciate any feedback on the mix!

Perspective

 

[PorterhouseMusic]

I will listen on better speakers when I get a chance - but, compositionally speaking, I would say this is excellent. It's a good song! I'm impressed.

 

[Flyguitarfish]

I will listen on better speakers when I get a chance - but, compositionally speaking, I would say this is excellent. It's a good song! I'm impressed.

Thanks for taking a listen! Interested to hear your thoughts with better speakers.

 

[PorterhouseMusic]

I listened several times - mainly because I like this song so much. It's excellent. I don't have any critiques for the mix. Sounds generally pretty solid. Keener ears might nit-pick this or that but I'm just not sophisticated enough to give any helpful feedback - sounds good to me. Maybe the kick drum might need a little low end rolled off - but I find myself hearing that in a lot of modern mixes.

Not sure what your daughter's goals are - but she should be very proud of both the composition and the performance - and you should be very proud of her because this is very good. Your parts sound good too, sir.

She might want to consider marketing this song to a big league artist, imo.

 

[Flyguitarfish]

I listened several times - mainly because I like this song so much. It's excellent. I don't have any critiques for the mix. Sounds generally pretty solid. Keener ears might nit-pick this or that but I'm just not sophisticated enough to give any helpful feedback - sounds good to me. Maybe the kick drum might need a little low end rolled off - but I find myself hearing that in a lot of modern mixes.

Not sure what your daughter's goals are - but she should be very proud of both the composition and the performance - and you should be very proud of her because this is very good. Your parts sound good too, sir.

She might want to consider marketing this song to a big league artist, imo.

Wow, high praise. Thank you for taking a close listen. We just like to make music that we love with people we love! I would never wish fame on anyone! That being said, I think that helping an artist write music would be fun and a neat career.

 

[HumanPlanet]

My 15 yo daughter has the songwriting bug, like me! Here’s her newest tune.

I like the song, your daughter is doing great!

This one was a little tricky to put together; she wanted the tempo to change back and forth in a few spots (between 98 and 110 I believe). So it feels a little off and I was struggling to make the transitions perfect when I was recording the drums. This is the 40th-ish drum take so this is what you get!

I don't think the tempo change idea is bad in itself, I've done it on various stuff over the years but the timing needs to be right and tight otherwise it 'feels a little off' as it does here.

She did lay her vocal down very well!

 

[Flyguitarfish]

I like the song, your daughter is doing great!


I don't think the tempo change idea is bad in itself, I've done it on various stuff over the years but the timing needs to be right and tight otherwise it 'feels a little off' as it does here.

She did lay her vocal down very well!

Agreed with all of the above!

This is the first time we tried to make a “tempo map” so she could follow a metronome but still feel natural. When it’s just her on the piano it’s easy to be all over the place with tempos and starts/stops; really loose. We wanted to put drums on this so we knew we had to have some sort of structure behind the whole thing.

I wasn’t totally sure how quickly the tempo should transition from one to the next. Looking back I’d do it a little differently. I could try to go back and re-record the drums at that one awkward transition to see if it helps.

Thank you!

 

[Slouching Raymond]

It is all good. Another one to go on the album.
Would it benefit from a short instrumental solo, maybe sax?
Perhaps add contrasting backing vocals, to give it some thickness.

 

[PitchTempoAndriy]

On the tempo-map problem you described: before doing another full drum take, I would isolate the change with a couple of bars on either side and play the piano plus click, without drums. If the click itself feels awkward there, another take is unlikely to fix the underlying cue.

For a fresh guide, compare a definite 98 → 110 change at the intended downbeat with a short ramp into it. Neither is automatically more musical; the question is where she wants the phrase to land. Once that feels right, rehearse the drum entry with enough lead-in to feel the old pulse and the new one.

For the existing recording, work in a project copy and check the DAW’s tempo-follow/time-stretch settings before changing the map, so the piano and vocal do not unexpectedly move or stretch. A local drum repair against the existing performance may be the smaller job. Which DAW are you using?

 

[BTStudio]

Nice job as usual. Sounded good just on the iPad speaker. Will take a better listen soon

 

[BTStudio]

Sounds pretty well perfect. I didn’t have a problem with the meter change at all. I think there could be one note on the bass at about 42 sec that’s a bit late. Mix sounded great. Damn good talent

 

[Flyguitarfish]

Sounds pretty well perfect. I didn’t have a problem with the meter change at all. I think there could be one note on the bass at about 42 sec that’s a bit late. Mix sounded great. Damn good talent

Glad you noticed! The off timing of the bass in that section was bugging me too so I punched in and fixed a couple spots. I also punched in and smoothed out that awkward drum transition. Still a little funky but maybe 50% better so I’ll take it!

I also pulled back a little of the vocal reverb to sound more natural, and thinned out the solo-ish guitar towards the end to sit better.

I’m feeling better about the new mix. Subtle things but definitely improvements. I appreciate the feedback!

 

[Flyguitarfish]

On the tempo-map problem you described: before doing another full drum take, I would isolate the change with a couple of bars on either side and play the piano plus click, without drums. If the click itself feels awkward there, another take is unlikely to fix the underlying cue.

For a fresh guide, compare a definite 98 → 110 change at the intended downbeat with a short ramp into it. Neither is automatically more musical; the question is where she wants the phrase to land. Once that feels right, rehearse the drum entry with enough lead-in to feel the old pulse and the new one.

For the existing recording, work in a project copy and check the DAW’s tempo-follow/time-stretch settings before changing the map, so the piano and vocal do not unexpectedly move or stretch. A local drum repair against the existing performance may be the smaller job. Which DAW are you using?

I’m using Ableton. I ended up punching in and re-recording the drums at that awkward transition. I’d say it’s about 50% better so I’m happy with it. Anything more would require re-recording all of the parts so we’ll go with this.

I’ll definitely do it differently next time…taking your advice about matching the rate of tempo transition to the phrasing of the music.

Most importantly she’s super happy with it and is very proud of her creation!

Thank you for your input!

 

[dobro]

When I comment on vocal level, I usually ask people to up it a dB. But this one... maybe down a dB?

 

[TAE]

How cool! Love it! I have 2 daughters they both have great pipes and the one writes lyrics when motivated...but damn they're both in their 40's now.. ( that means I am ancient )

Your girl has a ton of talent...Refreshing not to hear any AI and love that she wanted a "real" piano...

All the best to her and you and hope she continues to create good tunes...

 

[Flyguitarfish]

How cool! Love it! I have 2 daughters they both have great pipes and the one writes lyrics when motivated...but damn they're both in their 40's now.. ( that means I am ancient )

Your girl has a ton of talent...Refreshing not to hear any AI and love that she wanted a "real" piano...

All the best to her and you and hope she continues to create good tunes...

That’s awesome! I can’t imagine having a 40 year old kid…but the day will come!

I really think there’s a big push by kids these days to reject AI music and find stuff that sounds real…mistakes, warts, and everything. Pretty awesome!

 

[TAE]

Took the audio from your copy, split the tracks into stems then ran your daughters vocal track through the Finneas vocal FX chain from Ocean eyes...This is the exact settings used on Billie's main vocal track. this took about 5 minutes in Logic.... Lemme know whatchya think. Listen to it in cans...I'm old and half deaf but I like it...It is a cool song hope you dig it.

 

[TAE]

Perspective Eilushsized

 

[Flyguitarfish]

View attachment 153667

Perspective Eilushsized

Very cool that you can separate the tracks!

I think it’s a bit much in terms of effects. And too bright for her voice, which is naturally bright. It does sound good though. Very cool, thanks for sharing!

 

[TAE]

Very cool that you can separate the tracks!

I think it’s a bit much in terms of effects. And too bright for her voice, which is naturally bright. It does sound good though. Very cool, thanks for sharing!

It's a cool song and she is very talented....The music business today is a sad clustered up AI mess ...Unsure how it is all going to pan out but the game has surely changed. Hoping talent like your daughters still have opportunities to make a living at it if they want to. For sure the odds have gotten a lot worse than when I was a young man. Back then the odds were like winning the lottery. Today Oy!

I am about 3 weeks into Logic Pro and I love it / Hate it but it is super powerful. The online stem splitters do a more refined job e.g. separate the harmonies from the main vocal line but in literally maybe 20 seconds your track was split into vocal (that also included the harmonies) , bass, guitar, piano and drums. I just added a audio track dragged the vocal into it and inserted the Eilish vocal FX chain...boom done

I dinked around with the piano part this morning but I am still fighting the routing set up stuff to get everything running smoothly...for some reason my piano audio was way low....Ugh technology!

I also tried to use the session drummer but haven't figured out how to sync with the tune though I believe it is possible.

So far learning a lot but there is a ton to learn and playing with your track is good exercise in the learning process of using Logic.

All the best!