Oh! What A Friend! with Clifford Amundsen, Russ Whaley, Tim Smith & more...

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Beagle
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Re:Oh! What A Friend! with Clifford Amundsen, Russ Whaley, Tim Smith & more... 2012/03/17 17:36:00 (permalink)
Hey Mark!
No hard feelings for you being honest as long as you're not being mean!  I welcome honest comments.

this song has been the hardest one for me to sing than any of the other songs I've done in the last year!  I've retracked the vocals 5 times because I've not been satisfied with them.  I can't personally find any more off pitch problems myself.  I've combed over it using v-vocal and have either pitch corrected or re-sang anything that was off that I can find.  I DO know there are several places that I've "wavered" or drifted or the tone of the vocal did not sound right.  I will likely try to redo the vocals again, but this has been a real killer song for me to sing.

again - no problem pointing that out.  if everyone above you had the same comments but kept it to yourself, then I wish you hadn't!  I prefer honest and constructive critiques.  don't let the subject (tribute to a friend's passing) keep you from being honest about the performance or mix, please.

but technically this isn't a cover.  the hymn itself is public domain and the part between the first traditional verse and the last 2 traditional verses is all new, so it doesn't really qualify as a "cover."  just being pedantic there, I suppose.

I am sorry you're disappointed in the vocals, but I do appreciate you saying so!  I will see if I can rework them again.  I'm not sure I can do any better, tho, this has been my best so far!  (Clifford was not happy with the final vocals, either and told me so, but I didn't feel I could do any better and wanted to be done with this song).

If I can't get this reworked any better, I might not put this one on the CD I'm working toward.

http://soundcloud.com/beaglesound/sets/featured-songs-1
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#31
SteveStrummerUK
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Re:Oh! What A Friend! with Clifford Amundsen, Russ Whaley, Tim Smith & more... 2012/03/17 18:35:41 (permalink)

Excellent job by all concerned

 Music:     The Coffee House BandVeRy MeTaL

#32
mgh
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Re:Oh! What A Friend! with Clifford Amundsen, Russ Whaley, Tim Smith & more... 2012/03/17 18:37:57 (permalink)
hey Reece - thanks for not chewing me over this, i find it so hard to put negative comment (British? nah, just hate making someone feel bad) but i was surprised because your vocals have improved so much over the years i have been here, i guess it's not your key...sorry, by cover i mean 'non-original', though actually you make it into a more 'pop' song by what you do, and i like that a lot...unfortunately when it is such a well known tune, it has to be spot on because we all know it. i know you can do it though! keep at it!

Memorare debut album 'Philistine' available now http://blackwoodproductio...philistine-digipack-cd
#33
mgh
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Re:Oh! What A Friend! with Clifford Amundsen, Russ Whaley, Tim Smith & more... 2012/03/17 18:40:01 (permalink)
oh, and you will be able to get your own back fairly soon when my next song is posted - it's a prog/pop thing and i am very much dreading having to sing on it...with my much-worse-than-yours vocals!

Memorare debut album 'Philistine' available now http://blackwoodproductio...philistine-digipack-cd
#34
Beagle
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Re:Oh! What A Friend! with Clifford Amundsen, Russ Whaley, Tim Smith & more... 2012/03/18 06:59:17 (permalink)
Steve - thanks man!

thanks again Mark - and I look forward to crtitquing your vox! 

http://soundcloud.com/beaglesound/sets/featured-songs-1
i7, 16G DDR3, Win10x64, MOTU Ultralite Hybrid MK3
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#35
Danny Danzi
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Re:Oh! What A Friend! with Clifford Amundsen, Russ Whaley, Tim Smith & more... 2012/03/18 10:00:42 (permalink)
Hi Reece,

Man, this is really a tough one to critique due to the nature of it. I will say as a regular listener, I really enjoyed this and am deeply sorry for your loss. I think you and the others did a wonderful job on this. As an engineer etc, I'd like to give you a different side...and of course, I'll never be mean about it. :)

I give mgh props for having the guts to lay it out like that. I actually agree with what he said in some instances. However, your lead vocal isn't as bad to me as he sort of felt about it. I think the problem is this may have been a bit too low in range for you at times. When a part is in your range, it sounds really good. When it's a little low, you had to reach down in your register which made it sound pitchy.

I also felt you may not have been comfortable with the melody completely. Would I be correct in that assumption? Sometimes it just sounded like things were a little pitchy because you may not have been feeling it yourself. And of course...we all must keep in mind how hard a song like this is to sing. You broke down how many times? You don't have to answer that...but I know how it goes. I've been there myself. That emotion alone is soo hard to control. So realistically speaking, we have to cut you some slack there and appreciate the beauty as well as the meaning of the song. And that said, you did quite well with this without sugar coating it my friend. :) But from another perspective in hopes of helping you...setting emotions aside...

The low end in your voice was a bit much at times...a nice high pass would have done really good here or the removal of the frequency causing the vocal to be a bit muffled. A bit more compression done differently would have helped it also. I would have clamped down on the vocal just a bit more and ran some automation and if it was there, probably a bit more. This is where really good compressor plugs can make a difference. For example, if we clamped down on the vocal using a Sonitus and then really clamped down on it using a NEVE or something and compared, the clamping I'm mentioning isn't something that sounds like it's "too much". My NEVE 33609 would have brought that vocal to life in a good way.

I like the sounds of the other instruments. They fit the tune well. My only other pet peeve is the snare drum. I can't tell if it's a snare, a rim shot or a side-stick. It just sounds a bit strange to me and doesn't compliment the song the way it could at times...but this is just subjective opinon really. I do also hear some of the timing anomalies that mgh mentions. Nothing stuck out to me as "ahhhh!" just a little loose in spots.

But over-all this turned out pretty nice. The back-ups were a nice touch too. I heard a version of this song that Clifford shared with me weeks ago. The vocals had not yet been implemented into the tune. This is 100% better than what I heard before. So to you, Clifford and all that were involved, really nice job. This came a long way from what I heard weeks ago and you should all be proud. Thanks for sharing...and again, my sincerest condolences.

-Danny

My Site
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#36
drumstixkev
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Re:Oh! What A Friend! with Clifford Amundsen, Russ Whaley, Tim Smith & more... 2012/03/18 10:25:22 (permalink)
Your song and delivery really tell the story. Sorry to hear your loss.

Kev

VoxBoxStudio music made with SONAR & SONiCA AUDIO LAB computers.   Website http://drumstixkev.wix.com/voxboxstudio 

#37
Scottytunes
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Re:Oh! What A Friend! with Clifford Amundsen, Russ Whaley, Tim Smith & more... 2012/03/18 17:00:43 (permalink)
Nice tribute, Reece. I'm sorry for the loss of your friend. Beverly's BG vox are beautiful. You might want to redo yours with some attention to pitch, but otherwise a nice track.


String Jammer
#38
Beagle
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Re:Oh! What A Friend! with Clifford Amundsen, Russ Whaley, Tim Smith & more... 2012/03/18 18:33:03 (permalink)
Danny - I truly appreciate your honest (and not mean) critique!  Maybe I shouldn't have said anything about this being a tribute up front and let everyone give me their honest crits without worrying about hurting my feelings because of the nature of the song.  I'll know better next time.

personally I don't feel this was too low for my range.  I have a pretty wide range and didn't struggle with the low notes on this at all as far as trying to hit them for the sake of them being low.  you ARE correct, however, that I am not 100% comfortable with the melody.  I am more comfortable with it than I was when I laid down the scratch vox which I initially gave to Clifford, but still not 100% comfortable with it. I think my main problem with not being comfortable with the melody is that some of the notes are dissonent with the chords they are playing against and that dissonance is messing with my "inner pitch."  a friend suggested that I play the melody on piano and have that piano part playing along with just the drums and one rhythm instrument for the headphone mix for tracking and see if that helps. 

it was also difficult emotionally to sing, yes.  and that didn't help.

thank you for the suggestions on the high pass and compression.  I will certainly look at changing that in the manner you suggest.  thanks for the help and the great comments!  I appreciate it and your offers of condolences.  we do still miss him.

Kev - thanks very much!

Scotty - I do plan to rework the vox based on comments here.  I wasn't 100% happy with them myself when I released it here, but didn't think I could do any better with it.  I will try again, however.  thanks for listening and the great comments!  I'll pass on your comments on Beverly's BGV's (and Yvonnes, I assume, too - there are 2 BGV singers on this). 

I've not forgotten about our collab - I am enlisting more help for guitars and drums on that one, it will likely be a while before we finish!

http://soundcloud.com/beaglesound/sets/featured-songs-1
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Yamaha MOXF6, Hammond XK3c, other stuff.
#39
Scottytunes
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Re:Oh! What A Friend! with Clifford Amundsen, Russ Whaley, Tim Smith & more... 2012/03/18 20:43:39 (permalink)
Oh, yes...Yvonne's too.

String Jammer
#40
geeare1
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Re:Oh! What A Friend! with Clifford Amundsen, Russ Whaley, Tim Smith & more... 2012/03/19 12:12:01 (permalink)
Hi Reece,

So sorry to hear about the loss of your friend.  This is a lovely tribute with great, heartfelt performances from everyone involved.

-gr

'There's two kinds of music: good and bad. I like both.' - Duke Ellington

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=943338&content=music
#41
Beagle
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Re:Oh! What A Friend! with Clifford Amundsen, Russ Whaley, Tim Smith & more... 2012/03/19 12:32:42 (permalink)
Hi Gary,
thanks, I guess you got the song from clicking on my soundclick site.  I decided to pull this one for now until I can rework the lead vox, but thanks so much for finding it and commenting!

http://soundcloud.com/beaglesound/sets/featured-songs-1
i7, 16G DDR3, Win10x64, MOTU Ultralite Hybrid MK3
Yamaha MOXF6, Hammond XK3c, other stuff.
#42
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