everything is better auto-tuned :U

I honestly dont approve of auto-tune in most cases, but in the cases of "Auto-Tune The News", that cool voice effect that nearly alla dat hippity hop music uses these days, and in projects like these where the music is used as an example for those who wish to recreate it, I find it much more acceptable.

oh, and awesome job ^^;; I love the chords throughout it :3 runs very smoothly

*claps!* That was outstanding!

Yes, it is VERY Barbershoppy. were the melody not on top, it would sound EXACTLY like barbershop.

That was one voice duplicated and retuned several times, right?

Just so you know, barbershop has several hallmarks:

1) NO vibrato
2) Melody in the middle, below the tenor, above the bass
3) Bass does not always sing the standard bass line, usually filling in missing chord notes

There are others. I would love to investigate how it is done, because I love barbershop.

The original wasn't actually one voice duplicated and retuned... it was 8 separate takes on 4 parts. I just sound oddly strained at the extremes of my range, which might lead one to believe that it was a digital trick.

If you love barbershop, have you checked out the Dapper Dans at WDW? My other half is a part-time baritone Dan.

I just wish I could go down to WDW.

Been there once, ten years ago, saw the Dapper Dans then. Don't remember what they sang.

OH!! And whoever composed this originally did a very good job of following the book's description of the song--a cross between La Cucaracha and Clementine.

Thank you... that was exactly what I was trying to achieve, and you're the first person to ever notice it!

So, you did all the composition of all these songs?

DUDE!!! Have you had this produced on stage? And if not, why not???

1.) Yes, although my writing partner gets partial credit. He's currently reworking "Work Harder" to try to wrangle some more early 20th century Russian angst out of it.
2.) Not yet.
3.) Because we only started writing it last month, and we're still writing it. I often upload a demo five minutes after I perform it. This is as WIPpy as you can get!

Let me know when you produce it. This could really be a hit off broadway.

sheer unadulterated awesome!

Awesome!

I keep listening to this, trying to figure out the chords used, as well the wonderful suspensions.

This is really good harmony.

I had to put those two semesters of 18th century harmony to good use somehow! Heaven knows I haven't needed any of this stuff since '82. There might even be a mistake in there somewhere, but no one will ever care...



There should be a way to upload PDF files; that's how I usually share my Finale notation files.

I'm pretty sure you can if you just set the upload to "story" :p

D-damn..........

You-it.. it.. they- you.. *sputters*

If someone turns this into a full blown musical.. *thinks* ..
God..
*faints*

Actually, the book has been adapted into a full blown musical, but not with my songs. The show we're writing borrows the setting and history, but with modern characters. And it will be considerably funnier, though not without a dark moment or two.

Shall I break out the smelling salts?

Yes please. *faints*

I don't know why everyone harps on the use of production tools like Melodyne and Autotune. There's nothing wrong with sharpening something that will be listened to over and over again a little bit. Melodyne does not fix bad performances, it makes good ones even better, and if you get a great take, it can really polish it and make it professional. There aren't many artists at all these days who don't use it, so you should never be afraid of admitting you use it or when you have.

It's all contextual. They're great, powerful tools, although I must admit that I actually prefer the pitch-drawing tools within Digital Performer for the most natural results on vocals. It's easy to leave large sections of a take undisturbed and focus in on a drifted note or two. I sometimes like to slap an automatic plugin on, say, half the horns in a horn section to pull them more into focus without obliterating the natural phasing that makes them sound real and unsynthesized.

The thing that I actually don't like much is when the tools are used for effects which a human voice couldn't physically do. And I'm not talking about the obviously robotic stuff where it's used as a blatant effect. I mean that I hear scoops too fast to be possible, landing on long, glass-smooth notes which sound like they're being generated by oscillators rather than vocal cords. Country radio in particular has gone completely overboard with this kind of thing, to the point that I'm left with a real curiosity as to what the singer actually sounds like! Unless they're processing live (and maybe they even go to the trouble to do that, good luck to them, what a nightmare), their live shows can't possibly be that tight.

I'm not actually trying to be a fine professional singer; I do it for the challenge. So I generally leave my own vocals raw and rough. When I record other singers, I'm more likely to polish them up a bit. I try to make them sound like they were simply having a really good day.

O no its the apocalypse
everything is out of order

chaos rains supreme
instead of raining cats and dogs its raining bunnies and rabid squirrels
Sarah Palin is president
MrMagoo is leading search parties and is training to be a sharp shooter
Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes...
The dead rising from the grave!
dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA head for the hills :P


now that that is off my chest
Great job :D

Hrm... a good cross between organ-ish and barbershop quartet.. I love it.