NecroMusic

[rayc]

I wrote a lyric a decade or so ago & my college friend Eric wrote a melody and an arrangement.
he was happy with it but, to me, it was way too samey/boring as the chords barely changed. I know this can be done but it taks someting else to provide the excitement & I couldn't see/hear that.
I decided to rebuild it the day before yesterday added some extra chords, dynamics and harmonies to give it a bit of a lift. Eric's not too fussed...he reckons it needs to be "rocked up" but, again, I don't hear that in the source material.
Here's the original:

Apparently by the Newlings SoundClick.mp3

and here's the rebuild:

APPARENTLY011123full.mp3

The rebuild has BIAB drums, organ, piano & guitar, (hoping Eric will play a couple of parts and replace the gts).
I played a couple of guitar tracks & bass.
Eric's just vocal in this one - I had to dice & splice from the original but it fits for what it is.
Harmonies are via a tuner.

Here's a tweak based on vhSteve & David's suggestions/observations:

APPARENTLY031223.mp3

I think I've done enough if it's going t
I don't suggest that I've "saved" the song or taken it anywhere great but it's shorter, brighter & sounds a bit better to my ears. Yeah, silk purses etc. I know.o sit in the naughty corner I've at least done what I could with it.

[vomitHatSteve]

Shorter? The timestamps say the new one is 30 seconds longer. Anyway, songs about necromancers are supposed to be 12 minutes and 3 movements long. So you're about 8 short, right?

The new vocal chain sounds way better. So much cleaner

Is that a banjo that comes in on the chorus? That's a nice touch.

Whenever the drums go back to a hat pattern from rides or crashes, it sounds like there's an abrupt cutoff. Are you chopping some tails?

[Lt. Bob]

welll ..... the original didn't sound very good at all and the rebuild sounds pretty good so I'm gonna say that's a step up ...... good rebuild.

[rayc]

Shorter? The timestamps say the new one is 30 seconds longer. Anyway, songs about necromancers are supposed to be 12 minutes and 3 movements long. So you're about 8 short, right?

The new vocal chain sounds way better. So much cleaner

Is that a banjo that comes in on the chorus? That's a nice touch.

Whenever the drums go back to a hat pattern from rides or crashes, it sounds like there's an abrupt cutoff. Are you chopping some tails?

RUSH EEEEEK! Oh how I've tried to like that band - I fail every time.
Tails - yeah, that's BIAB but I can drop some cymbals in to fix that - ta.
No banjo - it's a treated 12 string...aiming for the banjo sound though.
The new one's half a verse shorter than the original but the in & outros add length I suppose. Sorry.

[rayc]

welll ..... the original didn't sound very good at all and the rebuild sounds pretty good so I'm gonna say that's a step up ...... good rebuild.

Thank you.
Eric's still unhappy with it - referring to it as "an interesting listen". As a result I'll have to leave it as a rework for my own listening purposes.
I'm going to send him the Whole Reaper project & he can do with it as he wishes I suppose. I reckon it'd be hard to rock up two chords into something satisfying - even I yearned for a resolution of sorts.
C'est la guerre!

[Lt. Bob]

welll ..... the original didn't sound very good at all and the rebuild sounds pretty good so I'm gonna say that's a step up ...... good rebuild.

Thank you.
Eric's still unhappy with it - referring to it as "an interesting listen". As a result I'll have to leave it as a rework for my own listening purposes.
I'm going to send him the Whole Reaper project & he can do with it as he wishes I suppose. I reckon it'd be hard to rock up two chords into something satisfying - even I yearned for a resolution of sorts.
C'est la guerre!

well .... four chords to be accurate

[rayc]

Thank you.
Eric's still unhappy with it - referring to it as "an interesting listen". As a result I'll have to leave it as a rework for my own listening purposes.
I'm going to send him the Whole Reaper project & he can do with it as he wishes I suppose. I reckon it'd be hard to rock up two chords into something satisfying - even I yearned for a resolution of sorts.
C'est la guerre!

well .... four chords to be accurate

Yeah, in the original it's just G & C until the change/bridge thing which adds a couple of different ones.
I tried making a riff to sit with G then C and it's doable but repeating it across 32 bars until the chorus proved unpleasant.
I'm happy enough with the rebuild, with the machine tuned vocals to match the changes I made and to create the vocal harmonies.
The lyrics are simple enough - I was searching for inspiration and education from classic pop n rock so spent a few weeks taking a classic lyric and rewriting it but retaining the same prosody, rhyming scheme etc.This song is based on those elements of Along Again, Naturally bu Gilbert O'Sullivan - I also borrow the basic narrative too.

[Armistice]

Shorter? The timestamps say the new one is 30 seconds longer. Anyway, songs about necromancers are supposed to be 12 minutes and 3 movements long. So you're about 8 short, right?

The new vocal chain sounds way better. So much cleaner

Is that a banjo that comes in on the chorus? That's a nice touch.

Whenever the drums go back to a hat pattern from rides or crashes, it sounds like there's an abrupt cutoff. Are you chopping some tails?

I swear if I was the engineer at the Rush Necromancer sessions I would have hit the stop button and yelled 'Stop. Stop. What the fuck are you doing you pompous fools???"

Most dated band ever. Except possibly Dream Theatre...

[Armistice]

There's a fundamental disconnect between BIAB's lead guitar and your musical style, but I'm sure you're aware of that given you're always getting help replacing it.

The rebuild is far superior. You've done well. Who cares what Eric thinks, he's just the singer. They're not important.

If you've got a slapback on his vocal - only listening on the laptop - turn it off and see if you don't like it better - at least in the non-chorus sections.

[Lt. Bob]

The rebuild is far superior. You've done well. Who cares what Eric thinks, he's just the singer. They're not important.

also anyone named Eric

[rayc]

Shall look at the reverb on vocals...I suspect it is the room and mics combined - recorded in front of a linen closet with the two built in mics of a Zoom R16 if I recall correctly...that provides two signals with one probably bounced off a door. I wasn't there for the recording but that was his set up at he time.
Tweaked as per observations.

[TheTestingYak]

good choon brav