PG Music Home Forums General Discussion User Showcase Labor Day Pt. II

Editing to update link to the right version on Soundcloud
https://soundcloud.com/user-423212678/labor-day-pt-ii-1


So, as someone who pretty much only used BiaB as a utility to learn, and jam along with, guitar and bass, this is my second ever submission (first with vocals/lyrics) of an actual track. It's basically a companion piece to my first submission Labor Day: Old Friends Passed (which I submitted under the Jazz category).

RealDrums:
CloudRap^03-KcClSnEch,HHRdCSEch
JazzFunkFiery^1-a:SideStick, HiHat , b:Snare, HiHat
RealTracks:
1826:Bass, Electric, PopModernGrooveSync4s Ev16 075
1837:Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm PopModernGrooveHeld Ev16 075
3019:Vocal Aahs, Background Pop3-partFemale2 Ev 085 (1TrackVocalSection)
3024:Vocal Oohs, Background Pop3-partMaleLow2 Ev 085 (1TrackVocalSection)
1856:Cello, Background PopCountry Ev 085

Effects used:
Native Instruments Guitar Rig 5, Traktors 12, Molekular, and Supercharger GT. Also various stock Reaper and other freeware plug-ins/effects for the mixdown.

(Fun fact, other than the bass and drums, the only audio track in the first 2 verse sections is 3024:Vocal Oohs, Background Pop3-partMaleLow2 Ev 085 [1TrackVocalSection]…all that shiny electric organ/synth sounding stuff is audio, modulation, and pitch-based effects applied to the vocal track!)


So, as someone who pretty much only used BiaB as a utility to learn, and jam along with, guitar and bass, this is my second ever submission (first with vocals/lyrics) of an actual track. It's basically a companion piece to my first submission Labor Day: Old Friends Passed (which I submitted under the Jazz category).

Hope y'all enjoy!

Deacon,

Lyrics:

Verse 1
It's half past 5 on a labor day,
and your trying to make most of the remains of the day
1 hour, 2 bottles, 3 sheets to the wind,
howling through the gaps of your phony rictus grin,

Got the trophy wife, the white picket fence,
pushing wagyu flesh on the Grillworks mesh
Tis the American dream, the ultimate life,
but a million regrets, carve you up like a knife

Verse 2

You could have tried harder, could have pushed and shoved
to do something that you believed in, something that you loved
but when opportunities arose you just turned the other cheek,
always had an excuse, but really you were weak,

And you see with crystal clarity through impotent tears,
It’s the path of least resistance you've been sliding down for years,
Maybe for the thread count, for more and more things
20/20's always there, waiting in the wings.

Final Verse

A sharp sudden pain slices through your ire
slides through your chest like tentacles of fire
off in the distance you can hear the bells chime
they toll for you, C'est la vie , you've run out of time,

Lying on your back, send silent pleas to heaven
But mortgaged to the hilt you’re served a writ of replevin
And the last thing you see before you slip into the night,
is a whole lot of nothing flash, before your eyes.

Deacon,

A strong lyric. Vivid and interesting.

Cool to have another BIAB user using it to do some rap (or hip/hop?).

Sound good.

fj

Deacon, I absolutely love that you posted this. You definitely have a strong command of language and vocabulary.

Did you program the hats in that or is it from the loop you indicated? I'm not at a computer to find out. I've always loved that ultra tight fast blast done tastefully. Either way, you used it masterfully.

Great use of effects to create interest as well.

You really have NO idea how pleased I am that you posted something from this genre. It's not what I listen to all the time; but that's part of why I love it. There's not much like it on here; YET it's a genre that a good portion of the globe is listening to.

Keep 'em coming' and bring what you're bringing. MUCH appreciation for what you're doing.

Thanks, FJ!

Although as a middle-aged white dude, I'm not sure I'm qualified to weigh in on this, but from what I can gather, the term Hip Hop pretty much replaced rap in terms of common parlance.

Wow, thank you so much HTL!

To be completely honest, Hip Hop really wasn't much my thing either, but I was inspired by all those posts you, (and IIRC JohnJohnJohn ?) made sometime back about making modern type music and hip hop in BiaB, so thank YOU!!!

As for the hats, they all come from the cloud rap RDs. Looking back, I'm pretty sure I used a few other variations of that beat (other than the 03 variation the style came with,.. FYI, the simplest way to switch between variations is by left clicking at the bottom of any chord cell.

That said, in order to further enhance the rhythmic pulse of this track, I duplicated and layered various beats on separate tracks, and applied all sorts of filters, effects, eq, and even distortion in vastly different ways to each track. Then I sliced em up, and along the length of the track, muted and unmuted various layers in order to keep a sense of shifting dynamics throughout.

Thanks again for your glowing compliments :-)

Not a genre we much listen to BUT it's easy to appreciate the creativity and use of BiaB that went into this production. We never cease to be amazed at what BiaB and talent can create (HTL much better articulated our feelings).

Nice! And that cello was a heckuva cool touch.

J&B

Thanks, J&B!

One of the thing I love so much about BiaB is the sheer scope of feelings, textures, and emotional dynamics you can get by mixing-and-matching a wide range of instruments you wouldn't normally expect to see together, and the incredible ease with which this can be accomplished.

So glad you enjoyed this :-)

Really creative! I enjoyed all the different sound combinations you used. I'm not an expert on this style, but it seems to me that you really dove in deeply and worked it hard.

One question...why did you wind up on a major chord? That was the only disappointment, I thought it was a little out of character for the main sense of the track.

And your lyric--lurid, I would say! I'm going to have to listen to something happy and sunny before I go to bed in order to turn my mind around--this was powerful!

Thanks for your work!

Glad you enjoyed it Tano. :-)

As for why the song ended up with a major chord: as a mentioned earlier, this song was meant to be a "companion" to my first submission Labor Day: Old Friends Passed (https://soundcloud.com/user-423212678/labor-day-old-friends-passed), and I the bare bones of the song was launched from that SGU, which ended on a major chord.

I enjoyed your initial instrumental post of this song -wow, you really worked on those lyrics! ( nice to have them to read as some slip by in the vocal effects).

"Tis the American dream, the ultimate life,
but a million regrets, carve you up like a knife"

my favourite among a number of nuggets.
wagyu?? I`ll look it up.

As others have said this is creative and well crafted "modern" use of BiaB.
Its also an interesting blend of hypnotic backing with hard edged vocals/lyrics.

Robert

What a tune! Really captivating, both lyrically and musically. I found it really creative. It is simultaneously an earworm, and somewhat abstract too. Love the percussion - it has a bizarrely addictive groove.

Great work - thanks for sharing

Want to join in with the appreciation for the post. This really lays it out there bare lyrically, and the evolving backing kept interest up. Much enjoyed.

Thank you so much, Robert!

The lyrics did, indeed, take a fair amount of time to get where I wanted them to be... Glad you enjoyed them :-)

Thanks Deryk!

One of my favorite things to do when messing around with BiaB (usually when I boot the program up with the intention of practicing guitar or bass before getting lost in the vast capabilities of the program that have nothing to do with my practice schedule, lol) is layering loops or the more static Realdrums (generally one the "Great Oz" beats), over the deliciously organic jazz funk/fusion drum styles.

For instance, in this track, in the drum break right after the final verse ends, you have those sample-sounding strings of high hat rolls from the Cloud rap style playing under the oh-so-cool 16th note cymbal rides from the Jazz Funk Fiery style which, to me, is almost reminiscent of early Massive Attack or Portishead.

I gotta say, as someone who's used BiaB for several years now, I was pleasantly surprised to see how much more I learned how to leverage this program by simply putting my nose to the grindstone and actually going about producing a full complete song!

Thanks Tamgo!

I've often felt that a fair amount of the User Showcase submissions "shot themselves in the foot," not because they selected/utilized the wrong tracks, but because they kinda threw all the instruments onto the track right off the starting line, and had them run on autopilot through the entire song.

IMHO, this made it difficult to appreciate what was actually going on with each instrument, all the nuances and contributions they made to the overall sound and composition of the track.

As such, with this submission, I took extra care to phase in and out various elements so each could grab the listener's attention and shine to the best of their ability.

Thanks again for listening and for your kind comments :-)