Dancing In The Dark

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JD01
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Dancing In The Dark

Post by JD01 »

Did a song with my niece today... fortunately I'm playing and she's singing!
MegaMac - Dancing In The Dark.mp3
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Greg_L
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Re: Dancing In The Dark

Post by Greg_L »

What's all that popping in the vocals? Sounds like you have some mega compression turning on and off or something.
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JD01
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Re: Dancing In The Dark

Post by JD01 »

Greg_L wrote: Sun Oct 15, 2017 1:46 pm What's all that popping in the vocals? Sounds like you have some mega compression turning on and off or something.
I think they're clips. She was really quiet and shy at first. She's only 15. So I had a fair bit of preamp gain on.
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rayc
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Re: Dancing In The Dark

Post by rayc »

Interesting choice to cover - wouldn't have picked it for you.
I reckon an alternate punkish arrangement would've worked better with that voice.
You need to edit those clicks.
Oh, I'd have felt very uncomfortable working with a 15 year old singing about sex.
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JD01
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Re: Dancing In The Dark

Post by JD01 »

rayc wrote: Sun Oct 15, 2017 5:44 pm Interesting choice to cover - wouldn't have picked it for you.
I reckon an alternate punkish arrangement would've worked better with that voice.
You need to edit those clicks.
Oh, I'd have felt very uncomfortable working with a 15 year old singing about sex.
Lol. She chose it! I don't mind a bit of Bruce though.
I didn't think it was a sex song.

I've no idea how to get rid of the clicks
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Re: Dancing In The Dark

Post by rayc »

James,
are the clicks on the vocal track/s? If you send it/them to me I'll declick it for you with a program I use for LPs or you can cut narrow Vs into the volume automation.
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JD01
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Re: Dancing In The Dark

Post by JD01 »

rayc wrote: Sun Oct 15, 2017 7:02 pm James,
are the clicks on the vocal track/s? If you send it/them to me I'll declick it for you with a program I use for LPs or you can cut narrow Vs into the volume automation.
Yeah - the clicks are on the vocals. I won't be at my computer for two weeks now though. I'm away at work and then on Friday I'm going on holiday/surf trip to Cornwall.

Meg wants to do Mr Brightside next - I worked it out on Saturday afternoon - its actually really complicated with loads of little intricate bits on it. Gonna take me ages that one.
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rayc
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Re: Dancing In The Dark

Post by rayc »

James,
I spent an half hour on the track just to suss out if I actually could deal with the clicks. I managed to removed the 1st dozen before I became bored - it's a little more tedious looking for the issue within the wave pattern with so much going on in the back ground. I did manage to manually removed them though - with minimal damage to the overall sound so clearing them for the solo vocals will be easy IF you want me to. Have a good Wax'n'Pasty week away & let me know if you want it done later.
Here's the result (converted from MP3 to .wav - declicked and then converted back so there'll be some signal degredation.
MegaMac - Dancing In The Dark.mp3
She has an odd voice - almost like a dialectic accent pisstake but not.
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JD01
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Re: Dancing In The Dark

Post by JD01 »

rayc wrote: Mon Oct 16, 2017 8:10 am James,
I spent an half hour on the track just to suss out if I actually could deal with the clicks. I managed to removed the 1st dozen before I became bored - it's a little more tedious looking for the issue within the wave pattern with so much going on in the back ground. I did manage to manually removed them though - with minimal damage to the overall sound so clearing them for the solo vocals will be easy IF you want me to. Have a good Wax'n'Pasty week away & let me know if you want it done later.
Here's the result (converted from MP3 to .wav - declicked and then converted back so there'll be some signal degredation.
MegaMac - Dancing In The Dark.mp3
She has an odd voice - almost like a dialectic accent pisstake but not.
Cheers Ray - I was surprised by how odd she sounded recorded too. She didn't sound exactly like I expected her to when she was singing in the room but we were both quite surprised when we listened to it back. Her Welsh accent is noticeable in a few spots, if we do a few more songs and she gets more relaxed with it, he accent will probably come out more. She's actually got a very high voice, I actually put quite a significant low-pass on it 'cos there was loads of really high up stuff what made your eyes water. She doesn't know anything about recording but she was saying "Uncle J can't you stop me sounding like a cat!"

Ray - just listening to this through. You've made a great job of it, there's a few artefacts in there but you've certainly de-clicked it.

I actually really pleased with the acoustic guitars on this... just realised some of the clicks and clacks would well be clipping the body of the guitar with the pick. One of the drawbacks of using a 2mm pick when playing acoustic.
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Re: Dancing In The Dark

Post by rayc »

JD01 wrote: Mon Oct 16, 2017 8:44 am Ray - just listening to this through. You've made a great job of it, there's a few artefacts in there but you've certainly de-clicked it.

I actually really pleased with the acoustic guitars on this... just realised some of the clicks and clacks would well be clipping the body of the guitar with the pick. One of the drawbacks of using a 2mm pick when playing acoustic.
I quite like the voice - it's sort of extreme Lily Allen - I'd love to hear it on something original & sparse.
As I said, send me the files when your back & I'll fix em for you.
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JD01
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Re: Dancing In The Dark

Post by JD01 »

rayc wrote: Mon Oct 16, 2017 9:16 am
JD01 wrote: Mon Oct 16, 2017 8:44 am Ray - just listening to this through. You've made a great job of it, there's a few artefacts in there but you've certainly de-clicked it.

I actually really pleased with the acoustic guitars on this... just realised some of the clicks and clacks would well be clipping the body of the guitar with the pick. One of the drawbacks of using a 2mm pick when playing acoustic.
I quite like the voice - it's sort of extreme Lily Allen - I'd love to hear it on something original & sparse.
As I said, send me the files when your back & I'll fix em for you.
She did actually mention that she wants to do a Lily Allen song too. I quite like her voice too, took a bit of getting used to at first 'cos she doesn't seem to sound like that when she's just singing along with a guitar.

Trying to work out why she has that odd lilt to her voice... nearly everything she listens to (aside from her parents music) is modern pop stuff that's had the life auto-tuned out of it. She sounds almost like she's emulating it without realising.
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Re: Dancing In The Dark

Post by vomitHatSteve »

The big thing that sticks out in the mix is the vocals. In addition to the clicks, she's also way darker than the rest of the mix. I'd lower the low-mids to mids and boost some of the high end, plus maybe throw more 'verb on her.
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JD01
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Re: Dancing In The Dark

Post by JD01 »

vomitHatSteve wrote: Mon Oct 16, 2017 12:13 pm The big thing that sticks out in the mix is the vocals. In addition to the clicks, she's also way darker than the rest of the mix. I'd lower the low-mids to mids and boost some of the high end, plus maybe throw more 'verb on her.
Cheer's I'll look into that when I get back home - I put a pretty savage low pass on the vocals 'cos she's got such a high voice.
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Re: Dancing In The Dark

Post by TripleM »

Nice version. I like the guitars. I really like the bass.

Some weird clicking with the vocal (as mentioned). Sounds like a chipmunk effect? Something like that.

Drums sound good.
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Re: Dancing In The Dark

Post by Bubba »

I listened to this the other day, JD. I'm afraid I'm +1 on the weird vocal effect comments! Otherwise, a solid recording and mix.
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JD01
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Re: Dancing In The Dark

Post by JD01 »

Cheers, Bob - hoping to get some more recording done (my own stuff) this weekend - to try out some of the techniques you were explaining to me the other day.

Was chatting to Meg last night and she's up for re-doing the vocal now that she's more used to it and now that some of her friends at school and her parents have heard it she's not so shy about it anymore.
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Re: Dancing In The Dark

Post by rayc »

I have noticed that compressors can cause those sorts of clicks - Blockfish does it on some settings with female vocals - I really like the sound of Blockfish but now have to be careful. It seems to only come out in the render.
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JD01
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Re: Dancing In The Dark

Post by JD01 »

rayc wrote: Mon Oct 23, 2017 11:27 pm I have noticed that compressors can cause those sorts of clicks - Blockfish does it on some settings with female vocals - I really like the sound of Blockfish but now have to be careful. It seems to only come out in the render.
The clicks are definitely clip artefacts from Meg's beginner mic technique.
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Re: Dancing In The Dark

Post by rayc »

Try the sticky taped pencil trick along with the spit screen and wind sock.
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Re: Dancing In The Dark

Post by WhiskeyJack »

JD,

Gotta echo all the comments on the vocal mix. On my end I am getting some heavy pumping in addition to the clicks and stuff. And my ears lose the acoustics in places too. Usually the choruses. I fall victim to that too. they are a bit of a bitch to mix into a busy mix with out having them take over 100%

around 0:39-0:45 on the right channel something either sounds like it is clipping my monitor. At any volume. and on my ear cannons i really notice it between :40-:41Right side? Could be a different kind of click from the vocal compression maybe?

I'm digging the bass tone. A little more upfront than i would place it but it sounds really good.

Performances all around were really good. Kudos to your Niece. keep her motivated and singing. Great cover dude.
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