Whatever You Take Away

  • Thread starter Thread starter groucho
  • Start date Start date
Well, you just blew me completely to smithereens with this one. Its absolutely perfect. Incredibly effective simple melody, the lyrics are a stroke of genius, the vocal is very moving. The piano is recorded beautifully as is the voice.

It wouldn't have mattered if your sonic skills had fallen short--(they certainly haven't)--its the song that is the power of this one, equally supported by the performance.

I find myself lacking words to compliment you properly. Maybe if I told you the honesty of this song moved me to tears, that would be enough.
 
Damn guys, I sure appreciate the feedback. Sincerely.

Crawdad, that was maybe the nicest comment anyone's ever given me (electronically or otherwise) about a song.

Just wanted to say thanks a bunch.

Chris
 
Well, I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon here. I realize it's not my taste in music, but I listen a good ballad from time to time like the next guy, and I started wondering when it was going to end halfway through.

I guess it's about breakup/divorse or the like, so I'm also guessing that most of the people this touches will relate to that morose feeling the song had. Lyrics were a little disjointed, you tried a different rhyming pattern but the tempo's too slow to sustain it. Simple AABB or ABAB would likely work, you were doing somthing else and I found it waning.

Piano sounded good, as did the the rough vocals. Kinda love/hate the voice at times during the song, but overall the recording was done well.
 
Nice song and a distinctive voice. I would like to hear a bit more 'sparkle' to the piano.......it's a little dull sounding but otherwise this is a fine song.
 
Very nice !!!!

Groucho - sounded great. Question: What effects did you use on your voice? Additionally, what were your reverb settings? It's subtle, but effective. The reverb is "there", but "not there" (kind of a yen thing).
 
bpoco: I'm afraid I can't tell you the reverb settings I used for this one since I never save my presets after I'm done with the song. I can tell you I used the Full Reverb in Cool Edit Pro - I generally just tweak the paramaters until I find what I'm looking for, but I'm terrible at remembering the settings later.:)

Otherwise, there was a little compression, a dash of limiting, a sprinkle of eq - that's about it. Recorded with an SM57 through a dinky little ART preamp into a Boss BR532. Mixed in Cool Edit.

Thanks for the other comments all. I see Pinky noticed my bizarre rhyme pattern. I don't know where I got the brilliant idea of rhyming the 2nd line of every *other* verse but uh, it just kinda came out like that...

Chris
 
Can I get an "AMEN" on that SM57 and Tube MP combo!? Next time somebody starts yakking about how you can't get pro results with such gear, I'm sending them right to this thread. Makes me wonder if some buy high end gear just to try and cover up a lack of talent:D. Disclaimer: I said SOME, as in a few--not everybody! So, don't get mad at me, you Great River owners.

Yes, Groucho--you advance my theory that people CAN make records with consumer level gear. Oops, wait a minute--somebodys whispering something....

OK. That was just a pro studio owner telling me to tell everyone its impossible to get quality results with inexpensive gear at home. He says if they don't keep the lie going, he's gonna lose a LOT of money.

I told him to get into the cheap preamp biz!
 
crawdad said:
Can I get an "AMEN" on that SM57 and Tube MP combo!? Next time somebody starts yakking about how you can't get pro results with such gear, I'm sending them right to this thread. Makes me wonder if some buy high end gear just to try and cover up a lack of talent:D. Disclaimer: I said SOME, as in a few--not everybody! So, don't get mad at me, you Great River owners.

Yes, Groucho--you advance my theory that people CAN make records with consumer level gear. Oops, wait a minute--somebodys whispering something....

OK. That was just a pro studio owner telling me to tell everyone its impossible to get quality results with inexpensive gear at home. He says if they don't keep the lie going, he's gonna lose a LOT of money.
Click to expand...

Dood! I've been trying to say that for months now!~ :D Thanks for articulating that.

I also use an SM57, through the pre amp in my Phonic mixer, and I can't see why I need anythnig "better" as whatever might be "wrong" (and there isn't much) I clean up immediately with proper EQ'ing and compression.

I've been doing (albeit stoopid) recordings for the past year on less than $1000 in gear. I just don't see the need to spend thousands on external devices when I can do much of that with software.

At the same time, especially when mic'ing, you still need to practice steadfast placement principles and have proper gain set, but that knowledge is priceless anyway, no gear can compensate bad technique.
 
Groucho - Lyrics

I have continued to listen to your song - liking it more and more. Any chance of posting the lyrics? I always enjoy reading lyrics as poetry. This song has really interesting ones.

PS - Of course you know the obvious title for this song is "Yours, Ours and Mine". But I appreciate your "thumbing of the nose" at the obvious.
 
Re: Groucho - Lyrics

bpoco said:
I have continued to listen to your song - liking it more and more. Any chance of posting the lyrics? I always enjoy reading lyrics as poetry. This song has really interesting ones.
Click to expand...

Sure thing:

WHATEVER YOU TAKE AWAY

whatever you take away
my car and my watch and my ring
when we come to the end of the day
and evaluate everything

I won’t argue or try to reclaim
the pieces I brought to the ending
you can sweep it all into the memory
that we’ll share later on down the line
it’s yours and it’s ours and it’s mine

whatever you keep for your own
of the lies and the truth that I told you
the stunted and those that have grown
far beyond what I meant for them to

into nails that rake at your eyes
into meanings I was never intending
I hope there’s a few that convey
the love that was there for a time
it was yours it was ours it was mine

whoever you wind up to be
and wherever you wind up to be her
in the fields or the dirty old city
I know that in time you’ll be better

than the mask that you tried on for me
than the dance we were bravely pretending
oh the dancers we wanted to be
like a wish on a star that won’t shine
it was yours it was ours it was mine

and whatever you take away
from this that I won’t wind up sending
I hope it’ll find you some day
it’s a clumsy and cowardly rhyme
but it’s yours and it’s ours and it’s mine
 
You should have a nice smooth and long reverb on the vocals.
Strings could be nice it they would get in after the first chorus ends ... you should add background voices as well and light percussion to colour things up ... just my taste ;-)

Oh and a low bass piano note at the end well sustainted ;-) light reverb on the last one as well ...

great tune.
 
...Very nice sir...lyrics very meaningfull to me at this time and the melody was perfectly somber and heartfelt,Stayin in my library for sure...aces
 
very nice song. Brilliant recording. Very 'American' vocal style which is something new and interesting for me :)

What mic/preamp are we hearing? That vocal is pristine!
 
Thanks for the lyrics, groucho. :)

Just listened to the tune again, checked the thread to see what was new, and look at that, lyrics. They read very well, too.

Great job, man. You give us all hope. :cool:

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