PG Music Home Forums General Discussion User Showcase World of her own

Hi JCJazz,

Thanks you for your very nice comments!

Regards,
R & AM

Hi Floyd,

Thank you!
We were very glad to be able to use parts of the Ssoosay's picture collection for this.
As for the vocal, I've done my utmost to make it sound "rough" (I'm not really a rock singer )
We used the Cubase guitar amp simulator for this.
About the lyrics, I did some more explaining about this in response to Charlie's comments.

Regards,
Rob

Hi Josie,

Thank you, creating the videos is another hobby of mine.
Glad you like them. I hope to make many more in the future.

Anne-Marie

Hi Guenter,
Thanks for the "1".
Regards,
R & AM

Well, I didn't like it when it started. The distorted guitar...I've played around with that very real track and to me it sounds so canned.

HOWEVER...... when the pad synth came in, it seemed to temper the sound of the rhythm considerably. the more the song went on the better the mix was.

So in the end, it was rather well done. I like this song a lot.

You guys really have a talent for writing and recording good stuff. I'm a fan.

Hi, Rob and Anne-Marie !


+ 1 from me too (chuckle) !!!

Cheers
Dani

Thank you Dani,

every + helps !

Regards,
Rob

Hi Herb,

Thanks for your comments.
I agree, the metal realtracks have kind of an 'artificial ' sound.
We also had the problem that every now and then they suddenly sounded too sharp (kind of depending on which bar they were placed). We put some subtle eq on them to cover this up.
And yes, the sound suddenly changes when the pad comes in. Than it becomes more like 'a love like blood' from killing joke (I find that such a cool song!).
The next challenge was to make the vocals sound kind of 'rough'. Since I'm not exactly a rock singer this took quite some vocal processing!

Regards,
Rob

"Approach mechanisms of men versus filter mechanisms of women.
Wanting and needing, but at the same time trying to keep your self-esteem.'

Well that alone is enough to invite a listen! I'm light years away culturally from the night life (city or small town) but I can appreciate many genres of music and there is a LOT to appreciate here. The vid is very supportive of the song and the entire product, audio and video, has an extremely polished and finished feel. I may have said this before about your productions....but they are a showcase for the power of BIAB in the right hands when accompanied by good writes and vocals.

Outstanding.

J&B

Thank you J & B,

Well, these two mechanisms have been revealed to me about three years ago, before that, I kind of was 'in the dark about all these things', of course I was vaguely aware of them. But still... I was pretty much unable to 'bend them' properly, in the sense that it was to my own benefit. Thanks to Joshua Pellicer this finally changed. But I take it you guys don't go out much?
The music then. Yes, before the final mix down of our songs it is all a matter of listening, listening again, and again and again. Sleep on it, then listen again the next day, then listening again preferably at my own place (the vocals are usually being recorded at Anne-Marie's place). Doing lots of tiny adjustments in the meantime. I myself prefer to not use headphones. When you listen to a mix through your speakers the sound is different and develops more, depending in which room your listening. At my own place the sound is very dry, virtually no natural reverb. These are the best mixing conditions.
We use Cubase essential 5 and Cubase 7 elements for recording. We have both grown into this program. I think it is the best DAW for home recording.
Personally I like a very polished sound, but this is of course just a matter of taste. Also, I'm not exactly new to this, have been doing home recordings for over 20 years now. Besides that, I've never been able to listen to (whatever) music in a normal way. I was always busy analyzing every song. What's the drum doing, the bass, keyboards, guitar etc. Why does this arrangement work etc.

thanks again, for your support.

Regards,
Rob

Hello Charlie,

I just responded to a comment of Janice & Bud on World of Her Own.
I told a little about about our way of recording. Since you asked for some more info on this previously, here are some more details:


When we've created something in BIAB (we either use the melodist or enter chords by ourselves) we export every track as a separate wave file. Next we import all of them individually into Cubase.
There we can do some subtle but very precise editing of every track. Add vst FX, eliminate tiny mistakes etc. This part is actually most of the work. Since we are both perfectionists.
For the vocals recorded at Anne-Marie's place we use a Shure microphone (don't know the exact type, it's actually meant for recording acoustic instruments). At my own place I use a AKG D310 microphone.
The other tough part is the mixdown, but I've already explained something about this in my reply to J&B.
Although most used tracks are real tracks or user tracks, we also use MIDI tracks sometimes. We both purchased the Forte DXI synth which definitely enhances the midi quality. The piano on Through the Years is the DXI Forte grand piano. On top of that we sometimes use GM Soundfonts for MIDI tracks, like we did in London Town. Biab won't let you export MIDI tracks which are routed to a Sounfont, but you can save to entire song as a Midi file and then import this into the program Synthfont 2 (which I purchased - there is also a free version). Next you can export the midi tracks to wave at a 192.000khz/32-bit format.
Another reason why we sometimes export in midi is the fact that we can change the sound using various VST instruments.
On mixdown we always export at 96.000khz/192.000khz with a 32-bit (float) bit rate. Although our BIAB version only exports at 16-bit 41.000 khz this higher bit rate does seem to have an effect, at least on the vocals anyway.

If you have any questions on this, let me know.
Regards,
Rob

Thanks Rob for the additional information. It's very helpful as well as interesting getting insight on how such professional results are achieved.

Your technique is similar to how I created practice tracks for a band I worked with until recently. (the band split up). I used a Tascam DP-24 to record practice sessions and used those tracks to duplicate the arrangements of cover songs the band performed using BIAB/RB and Studio One 2. My DAW of choice is Studio One 2 Professional. Each song normally took 3 to four days to complete. The thought was to have the playlist available to use for backing tracks eventually but we never got that far along. However, the songs accurately duplicated the band arrangement of each particular song.

I haven't had the same patience for original songs I post here on the forum. One issue has been the huge variety of styles available to preview. Another is the ease that chord progressions can be changed and experimented with. With only one exception, all of my original material has morphed into a song that is a lot different than the idea and song in my head.

What happens at that point is that rather than spending time polishing and correction, I usually create, mix, set levels, pan and use the reverb effects of BIAB and export a stereo file that I do very little post work other than balancing with the vocals recorded in Studio One and using the Project master feature of Studio One to eq this vocal/stereo music track and add a bit of compression and a limiter across the whole mix to bring up the loudness. Vocals and music many times are completed in one take. Sub-par, if one considers the tools available don't you think? Part of my excuse for that is that I convinced myself I was just learning my way around BIAB/RB/Studio One but I will soon be starting on my ninth month of using these programs and my songs are getting left in the dust by other artists so I actually resolved today to change things up on my original songs and put more effort into creating the song in my head rather than a cool style song I was influenced by BIAB to produce. Getting back to my roots in a manner of speaking. This is no way intended to disparage BIAB, the fact is the opposite is true. BIAB has given me the tools to produce music way beyond anything I could do otherwise at home. If I need steel guitar, Dobro, fiddle, mandolin, strings or horns they are all at my fingertip any hour and they don't charge by the hour.

At any rate, I enjoy the professional songs you and Anne-Marie submit and envy your work ethic and pride to push yourself to produce the best product you can. Your unselfish kindness in sharing some insight to how you do what you do is greatly appreciated.

Charlie

Hey there, I really like this song. And hello Herb Hartley, the guy who turned me on to BIAB!! Thanks to you Herb!

Pretty amazing tool set for laying down basic beds. I am finding it extremely useful as well to use real acoustics, and other live mic'ed guitars (using Real Band for the complete audio package which makes it a no brainer), or import sounds from other sample libraries. I totally freaked when I found that BIAB midi is compatible with the Garritan libraries for Finale as a VST plug-in. No Way! I said! Way!!! they answered. It opens up ENDLESS possibilities. For example, you can write and score your own drums in midi, run them in BIAB, with real tracks on different tracks we well, and then open up the drum kit in Garritan, tweak to your heart's content, or touch up with Ozone. Or, do the reverse: import a midi drum file you wrote yourself into a BIAB template, choose a real drum and BIAB real drums will say "Got it. Let me take it from here." It plays the drums you wrote with their kit. I don't think everyone knows that but it is an awesome feature. There is no a style restriction. There are so many ways to make your own styles and add in real audio that there really is no limit on the sound you can get of these tools.

Anyway, great song guys and a great mix.

David Snyder
www.reverbnation.com/davidpsnyder

Thank you David!

We agree, Biab is a cool program.
We are looking forward to hearing what you create with it.

Regards,
R & AM

Rob & Anne-Marie ...

We're trying to catch on listens on some of the songs we missed in our recent hiatus from the site.

Quite a bit different, as you mentioned. But different in the best of ways. Someone else mentioned the first thing that caught our attention ... the excellent blend of the 80's Rock sound along with strong hints of contemporary Rock.

Having grown up in a big city (St. Louis, Missouri) I (Alan) am quite familiar with the flash of colored, late night neon. Also, I played in bars and lounges for about 40 years. So, there was no confusion on my part about what you meant by the flashing lights.

Another great production of an equally great song. Super video, too! Best to you ...

Alan & Di

Hi, Rob & Anne-Marie !


I´ll echo all the superlatives
said about this tune and your
songwriting and -performing
ailities ! Brilliant and impressive !:))


Cheers
Dani