Mildred Monday

[rbcp]

I put this together tonight:

http://www.phonelosers.org/stuff/monday_with_clips.mp3

I was going to stick it on the next PLA Radio, but thought I would post it here first and find out what everyone thinks.  I think I'm going to turn down the instrumental part a bit, since the annoying backup ladies drown out the new lyrics.  And the prank call clips are a bit loud but I'm tired of messing with it tonight.

[rogueclown]

the instrumental is loud...you're right to want to turn that down.  the lyrics were really amusing, but sometimes almost obscured by the music in the background.  [there was also a part about midway through the song where the lead and backing vocals seemed to be clashing, almost drowning each other out.]

the prank call clips, however, i found to be at a perfectly fine volume.

all in all, nice work.

[rbcp]

Thanks!  I don't know why, but it sounded a lot better through my headphones than it does on my laptop.  The levels are extra shitty on my laptop.

[MattGSX]

You should try to play the music through external, non-laptop speakers to see how the low and high band play out. I have a feeling you'll be surprised.

Unless you have studio headphones, they're not always the best indication of levels. And if you do, then you should be okay if you mix according to what sounds good there.

[Nod]

Do my Phillips SBC HP250 headphones count as studio? Being studio headphones is the only reason I can think of for them having the twenty feet of cord. No, I'm not exaggerating. There is literally twenty feet.

[rbcp]

Do my Phillips SBC HP250 headphones count as studio? Being studio headphones is the only reason I can think of for them having the twenty feet of cord. No, I'm not exaggerating. There is literally twenty feet.

It's so you can walk all over your house while it's still plugged into your 8-track player.

[Nod]

Do my Phillips SBC HP250 headphones count as studio? Being studio headphones is the only reason I can think of for them having the twenty feet of cord. No, I'm not exaggerating. There is literally twenty feet.

It's so you can walk all over your house while it's still plugged into your 8-track player.

What if I don't have an eight track player? Will my cassette player work? What about LaserDisk?

[rbcp]

http://www.phonelosers.org/stuff/monday_with_clips2.mp3

I used an equalizer and tried my best to eliminate the backups.  I mostly just succeeded in lowering the overall volume in 4 parts.  I was able to replace the lowered volume in 2 parts with other bits of the song.  In the remaining 2 parts, it's impossible.  Now I have jumps in volume all over the place.  I suck at this.

[rogueclown]

the lyrics are far more intelligible in this version than the last.  i wasn't really distracted by any jumps in volume...i was listening for them, and nothing jumped out at me.  maybe that's just my speakers, which aren't the greatest, but still.  i'm not quite sure what you were complaining about.

[Tachyon]

I think it kicks ass.

[rbcp]

Thanks, Tachyon.

Matt, do you know of a good way to eliminate those background vocals?  I tried a lot of different stuff with Cool Edit, but nothing seemed to work out really.  I ended up just using the equalizer to lower the 2k area, but that still took out a lot of stuff I didn't want to.

[Tachyon]

Where'd you get the sweet music? Did you make it yourself?

[rbcp]

Where'd you get the sweet music? Did you make it yourself?

Nah, I downloaded it from http://www.karaoke-version.com and paid $3.00 for it.  Seems like a lot of the songs on that site let you choose background vocals or not.  But Manic Monday didn't have that option.  I tried to make my own music for it a year or so ago, but it didn't sound that great.  Guess I just don't have the patience to create music from scratch.

[Tachyon]

Me neither, but I've got lots of ideas for raps and parodies and stuff and background, lyric-less music is a great idea for me.

[MattGSX]

If it's already mixed with the background vocals, I wouldn't be surprised if the company did it in such a way that you can't completely remove them.

Generally, when mixing, the vocals (lead) are the only thing panned 50/50. Because of this, it's very easy to remove lead vocals for the purpose of karaoke. Listening to the backups, you might be able to do this. Nero used to package a tool with studio 4 or 5 for making karaoke CDs. They may still have the rights to that software.

Otherwise, I'll offer to make a background based on what you have and then never follow through. That's what friends are for.