EricMilligan

Thanks. One of the very few instances where I actually came up with a complete set of lyrics for a song. All my life I've focused only on instrumentals. I never, ever paid attention to the lyrics of a song. Actually preferred instrumentals over vocals. Now that I really want to make songs that require vocals, I'm paying the price for my foolishness. :)

After letting the track "sit" for a few weeks, I listened to it again. I think you are right about the timbre of the vocals. I think I went a bit overboard on the processing, at least in parts. Fresh ears.

Thanks, Ronabo. I left you a lengthy comment on your latest track, which I liked a great deal. You do really nice keyboard work! :)

Eric

Orchestral Essentials for the legato strings. NI Session Strings Pro for the violas. I generally find that combining different VSTs on strings and brass and duplicating the midi tracks seems to work better. Each instrument brings a different timbre and articulation. In this case, however, I didn't double track the string parts.

Merci, Bleep. Oui, la voix est filtrée. Aussi double-tracked, compression légère, un peu de reverb, un peu de delay, et "stereo spreader". Peut-Être trop?

Eric

Merci, Laurent! Yes, hard work, but very enjoyable if the acapellas are good and the track ends up sounding OK. I've definitely had attempts that didn't work out very well. Sometimes inspiration seems to dry up, and then it comes back. Good thing I'm not trying to make a living doing this. Would be starving for sure! :)

Hey, Spudsy! I really appreciate the constructive advice on this track. Thanks for taking the time to critique it. The kind of help is actually kind of unusual here, but it is exactly what I need to improve my stuff. Haven't listened to this track for quite a while. I'm going to work through it with your comments and do some experimentation.

I've kind of avoided using side chain compression because I'm very unsure about setting it up, although I have done it successfully in the past. I guess its like programming automation on tracks, once you get the hang of it, it isn't so scary.

No question that drums is a serious weak spot in my tracks generally. I tend to find a midi loop that seems to work and I get lazy and don't work on variation like I should. Your comment raises a different point, of course. Just a bad choice of extra drums.

As far as the lead sound is concerned, I think I know how to give it width in the mix, but not sure about movement, except to experiment with chorus or phaser effects?

Thanks again for your advice on this.

Eric

Thanks, Monterage. Piano solo is a bit clunky I think. My piano technique has really deteriorated. I play everything in via midi, but then I have to spend a lot of time tweaking the midi track fixing wrong notes and getting phrasing so it sounds right. Have decided I need to start practising my scales and arpeggios again. I have a friend (an economist) who is a pretty good jazz pianist. Plays gigs on the weekend in a jazz trio. He practices his scales for 1 hour every day. Real dedication! :)

I AM in luck, Steve. Not only because there apparently is an app that can help me figure out the key of a song ( I usually don't have this much trouble), but also because there somebody like you who point me in the right direction and to actually make the effort to jam to my track to confirm the key for me! :) Thanks very much, my friend! You just demonstrated the value of the Looperman community.

This is all a bit embarrassing, frankly. I can't even figure out what key the track I composed is in. I think at some point early on I did wonder if Eb was the actual key, but for some reason decided it probably wasn't. And, then when I played in the piano solo and mute trumpet part using a blues scale that seemed to be in the key of C, I figured the whole thing must be in C minor. Which is, of course, the relative minor for Eb. I must be getting old. Wait! I AM old! :)

Thanks again. I will check out Mixx for sure. I wonder how it will work on just the acapella alone. I think most acapellas on Looperman don't indicate the key, so figuring that out is the first step. In theory, makes developing a appropriate chord progression easier, although I've never done it that sequence.

Thanks, Steve. I did try to voice the chords not in root position, at last part of the time. That's a change for me because I'm not really good at inversions.

Also , it is possible that the complex chords that Logic was saying I was playing were actually mis-identified due to the fact that, in Logic, I might have specified the key of the song incorrectly. I wish there was some app that could analyze an audio file and tell you what key it was in.

I set this remix as being in A minor, but the piano solo and mute trumpet were playing a blues scale in C. Those are related keys, of course, so who knows what key it really is. Could be both, with a key change?

I actually found this one really confusing. Took me a couple of weeks off and on to get it finished.

Thanks for the link. I wasn't aware of ANYBODY doing a LOTR TV series, so this is potentially very good news.

Thanks, Wayne. Sorry for the delay in responding to you comment. Haven't been on for a while. (Working on a new track that proved to be a bit more of a challenge than I was expecting.) :)

Hi, Jamie! Nice to hear from you! I definitely felt the emotion as I was constructing this track. I guess "constructing" is a strange word to use, but as you well know there's a lot that goes in to developing a decent composition. I had no idea, when I first started out trying my hand at EDM, how complicated and detailed it would be. Doing cinematic pieces is no different. Actually, a bit harder I think because I really have no idea how to properly develop an orchestration/arrangement for this kind of music. I know I should be playing in each part (first violin, second violins, cellos, basses, etc.) separately in their own tracks in the project. Sometimes I've done that but it is a whole lot more work! :).

Anyway, thanks again for the encouragement.

Eric

Hello, Kargalar! Thanks so much for the positive feedback on this track. It's nice to hear that the music seemed to fit the scenario I set out. No, not multi-talented. Am a lawyer by training. Most of what I write in my day job is pretty boring. Music is my escape from the mundane world. Always has been.

Take care.

Eric

Thanks for the vote of confidence, BeatMaker! The scenario actually started to emerge for me after the music was pretty well advanced. That's the opposite of how it would work if somebody was composing music to work with a film, I guess. It has just occurred to me, after reading you comment, that some time I should try to compose something to go with a scene that has already been filmed. Might find something on Youtube. A challenge! :)

Hi, Neuromancer. I'm happy to hear that the track connected with you. What Netflix LOTR series? Have I missed something?

Eric

Hi, Robbie. Yeah. Vocals are definitely still a dark art for me as well. I'm glad to hear that you thought the track fit the scenario. I suspect I've actually seen that scene in a movie some time, some place.

Well, got that cinematic thing out my system for a while. Working on a pop/R&B track right now. Need Luther Vandross to sing on it, though. Or George Michael. Or Sam Cooke. Or Roy Orbison. Some things just will never happen. :(

Eric

Hi, Brado. Yes, I've been on LM less frequently in the past while, that true. I did post another track recently, another 80's recreation. So, perhaps I'm on a roll! :)

I just read that Witcher 3 had some seriously good musicians involved in its production, including the Brandenburg State Orchestra That's a very high compliment.

Thanks again.

Eric

Thank-you, Danke. I do appreciate the kind words of support. Was just going through my many unfinished tracks to find a potential collab candidate for Looperman member ChadJ and re-discovered this one. Figured it was worth posting.

Hi, Chad. Thanks for the comment on the track. I am getting rather amused by the various comments which suggest that my vocal was actually OK. Nobody would ever say that if they heard the raw vocal track I recorded without all the effects I had to put on it. I suppose that, as Silverman suggested in his comment, the use of technology to make a sow's ear into a silk purse is fair game. But I am under no illusions about the true situation. I'm in the process of listening to your Dodging Dove tracks on N1M. Wasn't aware of that site previously. Yo've got a nice distinctive timbre to you voice. A little bit of roughness which gives your delivery a really authentic feel. At least, that's the way I'm hearing it.

I actually think I may have some other tracks that will fit even better with your vocals, if you'd be interested in considering them. They were meant for a voice like yours. Sent me a PM via Looperman if you are interested and I will start locating some possibilities. There one in particular that I have kind of an electro-trucker piece about an 18-wheeler doing dangerous runs on "Thunder Road". Yes, I know that was a famous Robert Mitchum song. The title just seems to work for this track, so I've not been able to come up with anything more original! :)

Regards,

Eric

Thank-you, Wayne. You are one of the true "authorities" here on Looperman and I respect and appreciate your input and advice. I did manage to reasonably successfully disguise my wretched vocals with multiple plugins and tracking the melody line with a synth part. Autotune simply doesn't work really well on my vocals. I have a really hard time keeping a note on pitch and you can really see itinerary the pitch display in Autotune. That's a function of age I think, although I was never allowed to sing even backup in the bands I was in back in the day. :)

That being said, I think your advice to be original in approach and style is very sound. I've been thinking the same thing recently, as I come to realization that I'm not really good at creating trance, or any other genre of EDM. I particularly like trance, but getting it "right" continues to elude me. So, am thinking that perhaps I should accept reality and find an original path. Not necessarily 80's recreations, either. But, perhaps influenced by them.

Anyway, enough of my philosophizing. Have a new R&B track underway and it needs a lot more attention. Definitely won't be adding a vocal to it.

Thanks again,

Eric

Hi, Perko. Thanks for the support on the track. Vocals are, I agree, not great but I did try to capture the essence of this kind of genre. My main objective in doing vocals on my tracks, something I really hate doing frankly, is to hopefully inspire better vocalists to collaborate on the track and replace what I did. Looks like it has worked in this case, thankfully. :)

Thanks for the feedback, Damian. I'm glad you liked the track.

Eric

Yes, backup singers is a thought that has occurred to me as well. But, I'm still hoping to find different vocalists who can work on the tracks. Seems that most of the ones I do are meant to have vocals. I've got quite a range of styles semi-finished. Am reaching out again to some vocalists including Aiden Walsh who has offered to re-do the vocals on this track. Found a really good Norah Jones-sounding vocalist from Calgary but I think she mostly focuses on her own compositions, all posted on Soundcloud, not here unfortunately. Maybe I'll get lucky. I'm trying to convince vocalists to join Looperman and come here. You get more listens and more support here than on Soundcloud, that's for sure.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Dan. I am on a quest to get more vocalists on to Looperman. There must be thousands, literally thousands of decent singers out there who could join our community if only they knew how much we would appreciate them! I'd settle for just a dozen or so.