"The River Queen" featuring Teddie Tapawan on Vocals

Really cool. I think you did a fantastic job Teddie - Great work. Ben - Great song, interesting style.

Emeric
 
Checked this morning... low-fi file was updated, but the hi-fi one hadn't been. I'll check it again later.
 
Wow... I really like this Teddie... you are quite the Cowboy!! What does everyone think?? Did he do it justice?? Should he change over to Alternative Country full time?? I really think he got that Louisiana bayou sound down!! Thanks Teddie!!
 
mp3.com has been bitchy but I finally got it....this a great collaboration...made a lot of difference from the original...great playing as before, but the new vocals give it a real feeling...Ben/Teddie mixture rules!...gibs
 
Thanks for the mp3 link to the song, Emeric... guess I spaced on the signature... I thought it did that automatically... but glad you liked it... pg, I think the Hi-Fi version is up... I'de like to hear your thoughts... and gibs, this is my first online collaboration experience and I'm excited about the possiblities... it rules, hu?? Ben
 
Thanks, Emeric and Gibs.
pglewis, it should be updated now.

Ben, this was a load of fun, man, and I appreciate you letting me sing to your song.
 
Yes, we have achieved successful download!

Good job blending the dubbed vocs IN with the existing tracks. It didn't feel like they were "sitting on top" of the rest of the mix, which can be tricky to avoid sometimes (at least, it is for me). I hear some subtle differences in the instrument mix, too. Maybe it's just louder. The original mix was already pretty organic, but with the new vocal mix the whole thing sounds really open in stereo. I'm fond of that sound, it's like sitting on the front porch with a bunch of guys just pickin' away for the fun of it.

I already liked the instrumental part of it before, and I'm a fan of Teddie's tight harmonies (makes it easy to pan things around without it sounding too weird, doesn't it?). It makes it harder for me to give objective feedback, though. I noticed some hiss creeps in, but this style doen't have to have pristine clarity. On a lyrical level, I have to admire the pure optimism of the main character ;).
 
pg, thanks for your comments :)

Actually, I did remix and master the song before I converted it to mp3 and emailed it to Teddie... I'm a little new at this but have been experimenting with the mixing and mastering toolkits that are part of the Roland VS880EX that I use... it obviously takes a little practice to develop your "ears" for this process and think I'm getting better.. I think Teddie did a little re-mastering himself, but not sure... I'm glad you picked up on the lyrical aspect of the song as I feel that composition (songwriting) and orchestration are my best assets... maybe I should post this song on the Songwriting Forum for further critique and review?? its obviouse that I should leave the singing to Teddie!!! Thanks for the comments... Ben
 
Good job guys! This was a good collaboration. Teddie, your voice is more versatile than I thought...and I thought it was pretty versatile to begin with. Ben, you've got a really cool tune here. Well written. This seemed to work out pretty well for you guys. Maybe I should get a little more serious about finding a drummer?
 
Thanks CM... and if you find a drummer send him my way too!! I try to hide it way down in the mix but the drummer on The River Queen is an cheep old Casio keyboard from the 80's... ok, I admitted it!! the problem is, I STILL don't have a good rhythm solution!! Ben
 
pglewis, glad you were able to have a listen. This is the way it went... I downloaded Ben's mp3 with his vox so I could use it as a reference. I didn't want to stray too far from what Ben had originally invisions for the vocal parts and the way they were sung by him. Ben then sent me an mp3 of the song without his vox. I imported the stereo mp3 Ben sent me into my multitrack software and panned the imported channels L/R. Then I sang the basic vocals for the verses, kept it center. Then I sang the chorus vocals, kept it center. Then I sang 2 harmony parts for the verses and kept them center. Then I sang 1 harmony part for the chorus, then I duped that track and panned the original harmony and the duped harmony L/R and moved one of them just a wee bit for the wide stereo effect. I tried some verb on the vox, but that really made it sound like I had tacked the vox on top of Ben's music. It worked out better dry (although I used some compression)... so I mixed it and blended it to his music as best I could and then merged the tracks down to one wav then converted to mp3 and sent it back to Ben, hoping he'd dig it :)

Ben, hiya. Besides mixing my vox into your mix, the only thing I did after merging the .wav as up the level of the whole thing a bit before I converted to mp3. You had the music mixed quite nice in the first place :)

Ric, you started all this buddy! Thanks for recommending me to Ben. Like I said, it was a fun thing for me to do.

CMiller, hey guy... long time no type :) Thanks for the kind words. You're going to trip out on the next song I post... I'll post it in a couple of days. I'm waiting for mp3.com to update it.

Ben, I'm surpised about the drums... they sounded good to me.
 
Hey Teddie... you spend a lot more time and effort on vocals than I ever have... actully, I never even considered all those techniques for getting that sterio vocal thing going... pretty trick!! I will look for you new tune when it comes out Teddy... I have a new tune up as well and will post it for review when mp3 gets the lyrics layed out right... not sure why but they keep squishing them into on big paragraph... its hard to read that way.

Ben
 
Ben, I look forward to it. I was going to ask you how you got your lyrics for the River Queen to show up like it does...
 
Well I figured it out Teddie and they are up right now... apparently, MP3 deletes all the "returns" of your text (I copy and paste in from MS Word) when you also have a "story"... I deleted the story and then resubmitted the words a few days later... anyway, "The West Texas Wind" is up at:
www.mp3.com/benwalter

let me know what you think, Ben
 
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