Promo video, ya dig! =D Makes it real easy to share on Facebook and everywhere else. Hope you guys like it, even though it’s not an actual video where we’re acting everything out. That may happen in the future. Who knows?
Let’s see what the future holds. =]
-mnshyn
If you have been following this blog, you’ll notice that the first ten blogs were about this particular song which took almost 2 years to create when you include all the delays (no pun intended) and the different versions and iterations.
Well here is the final song, in all its splendor and glory, [at 96k though, CD quality available from iTunes on March 1, 2010 ;o) ] and I hope you guys like it. Considering it’s the first song where every active MsP member’s voice is on it, this is a very important song to me and one of the ones I’m most proud of. =]
Order of performers:
0. GnP’s Takewun on the prologue.
1. Cocoa
2. DiMpLeZ (MooN ShynE and ADM in the background)
3. K-Maculate
4. Less with a cameo by GNP’s Boy Gnyus yelling “Aiyyo back the f*ck up!”
5. Harmony Speaks (on the walkie-talkie, talking to MooN ShynE)
6. FoRcE oNe
7. Brian Bullion
8. ADM (with MooN ShynE)
9. Destiny Soprano
10. MooN ShynE
Some blog posts of importance to this song, for anyone wanting to ask about production techniques:
History of the song
Robot voice used for DiMpLeZ
Vocal notes for Harmony Speaks
Comp’ing Destiny Soprano’s vocals
Hope you guys like it. =] Remember, to get the CD Quality version, get it on iTunes when it comes out on March 1, 2010 when “Phase 3 – L.Y.R.I.C.A.L. Without Fear” makes its debut.
-mnshyn
Yeah, so I messed up. Vincent is in the credits section of this outro, but I forgot to shout him out as part of GNP. I know that doesn’t seem like a big deal, but when you shout out a full crew and you miss a person, indirectly it’s almost like you’re saying he isn’t a part of it. So my apologies to Vincent. I want to redo the outro to put him in there and mention some others I want to name as well.
I mention at the end that I never mean to forget people, but if I really wanted to put everyone in, it could be a 12 minute track, and I wanted to avoid that. The first take of it actually was almost 15 minutes, and that wasn’t going to go. So some parts I was rushing through, and later on I realized I didn’t put in Vincent with the rest of GNP as well as other people that I hang out with that I should’ve shouted out in with my baller people from Dumont.
So anywho, here it is. I just wanted to post this up because when “Phase 3 – L.Y.R.I.C.A.L. Without Fear” does get released on iTunes on March 1st, I want it known that I am aware that I forgot to put people in and I will try to resubmit it with the names in the right places. =] So my apologies to those I missed in this outro.
Anyway, more to come. =]
-mnshyn
Last night, Destiny Soprano came over to re-record her part for “The Bomb Squad.” She had previously recorded her vocals, but we both had gripes with that session. Her gripe was her performance, as she felt she could have done better. My gripe was that I felt I could’ve recorded her voice better.
My main issue with the recording was the fact that I forgot to change the preset on the Samson CCom16 Compressor from Aggressive Vocal to Smooth Vocal or just to bypass. This caused her vocals to sound like they hit a wall, and I didn’t get the fullness of Destiny’s vocals. That was my first conclusion, but by the end of the second session, I found out that wasn’t my only issue.
We met up this past Thursday to try to re-record. Unfortunately, this time, Destiny had done her share of raising her voice a couple of times for various reasons throughout the day. The result was Destiny’s throat hindering her performance.
Her part on this song (at least for the first half) was singing the first four bars of the chorus to “Alone” by Heart. Anyone who knows this song and has tried to sing it knows that following Ann Wilson’s vocals is not an easy task. Ann Wilson has a very strong voice with that definitive presence and the ability to reach very high notes.
Destiny’s presence in general when singing has a slight similarity in terms of strength that Ann Wilson does. The notes on this half of the verse are relatively high, and after making quite a few attempts, we settled on a few takes, and moved on to the second half. I wrote the second half, and it was slightly lower in range than the first half. Problem is, however, after going at the first half really hard, she found it difficult to adjust to singing lower because she had already strained herself trying to do the first half.
To salvage the session, I ended up having to comp the vocals, using a combination of the first session and the second.
For those who don’t know what comping is, comping is taking parts of different takes of the same verse, and putting the best pieces from all the takes together in sequence so that it sounds like what would be the best possible take.
To do so, you just have to cut and paste the snips you need from the different takes together in your multi-track mixer on your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation [if you do your audio on a computer, that is considered a DAW]). You have to listen to each take carefully, jot down which parts you consider the best, then do the actual comping.
Figure 2010-01-24/1: Comping vocals, notably track 2 and 3.
As you can see, what’s on track 2 and 3 are similar, except that track 2 has little snippets from different takes put together, and track 3 has a single instance recorded take. Note also on track 2 that each snippet crossfades into adjacent snippets slightly overlapped so that the transition between snippets are smooth.
Considering Destiny’s throat, this was the best option considering also that we were trying to meet the deadline for the 1/23 and a supplementary recording session would not be possible before deadline. Also, because the takes from both sessions had very solid performances in various parts of different takes in different snips (the second session had 209 takes, each take having it’s solid points), it was very possible for me to find very good recordings of every phrase in different parts (it’s best to cut and paste by phrase, and not by words or syllables, because cutting in between phrases can sound choppy), and after comping, the combination would sound like a single instance solid take.
Aside from this though, there is still the issue of the recorded quality of Destiny’s vocals, as the second take also felt like some nuances of her voice were not being recorded accurately on the mic. I concluded that it might be a good idea now to upgrade my mic to one that may be able to more accurately record Destiny’s voice and improve the recorded quality of others as well.
So right now, I’m eye-ing the Audio-Technica 2035, which is an upgrade from my Audio Technica 2020. The Rode NT-1A is also on my short list, as well as one or two others. I’m looking for the best mic under $200, and those two have been recommended to me.
Let the mic search commence!
Also, “Phase 3 – L.Y.R.I.C.A.L. Without Fear” was submitted today through TuneCore. Looks like March 1, 2010 is the day we will publicly announce that it’s available on online through iTunes. After five long years, it’s finally done! =D
And yes, there will be a Phase 4. Tentative Title:
Phase 4 – Response.Redirect
As always, stay tuned for more!
-mnshyn
EDIT 8/23/2010: Phase 4 has a new name: SymboLYRICism. Peep here for details.
All the tracks on the album are done. All I’m waiting for is Destiny Soprano to re-record her part on “Bomb Squad” and it’s a wrap! She’s coming by tomorrow to record her part, and as soon as the mixing is over, it’s being sent over to TuneCore and it’ll be on its way to iTunes. March 1, 2010 is the tentative release date, as it usually takes 4-6 weeks for iTunes to have stuff up via TuneCore.
I released “Phase 2 – Lyrics to an Identity” almost 5 years ago. It took 5 years to make this album, and it’s gone through so many iterations and name changes that at one point, during a low point in my life, I didn’t think the album was going to come out. I have to thank God for that one (and everything else), because ever since I started playing in the church band every Sunday and cleaning up some of the stuff in my life that needed cleaning, I became revitalized and re-inspired. I’m not exactly making Christian music right now totally, though I have made Christian songs in the past, but He’s blessed me anyway with inspiration, wisdom, and freedom of creativity.
The acronym in the title of the album, “Phase 3 – L.Y.R.I.C.A.L. Without Fear,” stands for Leave Your Regrets In Christ And Live. This is the basically the approach I took with the album as time went on. The songs that were going to originally be part of the album were all pretty standard, and although I love every song I make, it was the songs that were different from what I’m used to doing that were the most enjoyable to make. There were three guitar solos (“Mostly Boast,” “Found Me,” “The Bomb Squad”), a video game sample (“Call to Arms” from Final Fantasy VI), a symphony orchestra (courtesy of Project SAM Symphobia, on “Round and Round”), capoeira rhythm (“Roll Your Windows”), blaring choirs with my “Bleeding Heaven” technique (on “Devastator,” more on the “Bleeding Heaven” technique later), multi-layer samples (“Roll Your Windows”), Beatles style build up and scream (“Mostly Boast”), live drums, bass and piano recordings (“Live Hip-Hop,” available on the iTunes version of the album) and other things. Although some signatures of mine are there, this album sounds distinctly different from my past two, and I think it’s for the better.
As far as concepts go, I think “The Bomb Squad” was the most fun. You also have “Found Me” and “Round and Round” which are both incredibly personal to me. “Mostly Boast” was the record that I let loose on and I stopped caring about what people would say if I did certain things in my music. “Call to Arms” was actually inspired by a crew of people I was running with that was finally getting over past beefs to go have fun again. “4 My Ghostwriter” actually makes the idea of a ghostwriter a more positive thing (listen to the song and you’ll see why). “Do Something” was my declaration that I wouldn’t just sit around and do nothing, especially after my best friend Rain past away in 2007. “Every Move” was me slowly getting to the point where I wouldn’t let people dictate what I rhyme about. “Handle Our Biz,” “Spear,” and “You Need To..” were getting my people involved with some 5fam love. “Devastator” was simply me kicking ass and getting you to want to kick ass too; in some ways an “I OWN YOU” part two.
I had a lot of fun with this album, and about just as much frustration. All the frustration was worth it though, and what resulted was an album that I’m most proud of and can’t wait to show the world. I’ve even got a plan for the songs I will perform, and hopefully I can gain some traction with some new listeners.
I have to thank everyone who helped me on this album with their contributions: Harmony Speaks, Destiny Soprano, CoCoa, DiMpLeZ, Brian Bullion, FoRcE oNe, Less, K-Maculate, ADM, Boy Gnyus, Vincent, Takewun, JC and SL. Each recording was a fun (and funny) experience. Especially “The Bomb Squad,” which took two years to complete and everyone in MsP had a role and their voice recorded on it.
Hopefully, when you listen to it, you’ll learn some things from it, whether it’s personal to you or on a musical/lyrical level if you are a musician. Either way, most importantly, I hope you enjoy the music when it comes out on March 1, 2010.
Thanks for reading also! More to come!
-mnshyn