A Hard Day's Night initial vocals....

[64Strat]

Got the vocals into this project today. Still working with them but this will give you and idea of where this one is going.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11397443

[woodman]

Great start, Dave! Good to see/hear you back in the saddle again after your ordeal. Man, that high part at the end of the bridge is a bear, ain't it! I'm sure you'll keep us posted as you go along — good luck with it. You've got the seeds of a great tune here.

[64Strat]

Thank you Woody! I need a 20 yr old that can sing, to do the McCa part though.

So, this one is now a work in progress.... but yes, I can tolerate the standing in the studio again. Yayyyy!!!!

Next tune is, The Word from Rubber Soul and we have most of the tracks done already, except for drums.

The follow up to The Word, is going to be Strawbery Fields Forever. It is very scary!! and we have tracks down already for it too.

Where does the madness end?

[Geoff738]

Originally Posted by 64Strat

Where does the madness end?

Hopefully before you get to Silly Love Songs!

Glad to hear you're back up and running (or at least standing, or hopping or something!)

Cheers,
Geoff

[woodman]

Originally Posted by 64Strat

Strawbery Fields Forever. ....
Where does the madness end?

Well, if you're gonna take it this far, I'd say at "I Am the Walrus"!

[64Strat]

Originally Posted by woodman

Well, if you're gonna take it this far, I'd say at "I Am the Walrus"!

It's funny you mention Walrus.... we both cherish that song. We played through it acoustically Friday night at Mimi's house working out the chord changes and bridge but did not speak of recording it. Yet. I love the cellos in that song and I know Sir George prolly had that influence on it. We also "walked" through doing Help! Friday night too. We have a couple more in mind though.... A very modernized version of Hold Me Tight is a possibility and we went through it as well on Friday. Then redoing Lennon's cover of Leave My Kitten Alone has always been on our mind. And quite a while ago, we laid down the tracks to There's A Place and never finished it.

Alright, back to work! Gonna work on smoothing out AHDN today.

[ScatMan]

I'm looking forward to Revolution 9.

[64Strat]

Today's effort of mixing and pitching....
A Hard Day's Night - initial mix

hehehe... Revolution 9!! y-a-k-o!

[acalan]

God ,You would think it is John singing. Great!

[ScatMan]

Sounds like you might need to work on the timing of the middle solo a bit.

You could even do it like the Beatles did (being as big a Beatles fan as you are, you probably know this):

They set their tape recorder to half speed. Then George Martin played piano and Harrison played guitar; each of them playing an octave lower. Then they set the tape back to normal speed.

Something like this.

[64Strat]

Originally Posted by ScatMan

Sounds like you might need to work on the timing of the middle solo a bit.

You could even do it like the Beatles did (being as big a Beatles fan as you are, you probably know this):

They set their tape recorder to half speed. Then George Martin played piano and Harrison played guitar; each of them playing an octave lower. Then they set the tape back to normal speed.

Something like this.

Hey Kev, I knew they did some studio half speed trick to get that done but I hadn't tried that yet. Obviously I was doing it normal speed and failing.

[64Strat]

Originally Posted by acalan

God ,You would think it is John singing. Great!

acalan,

Thanks! it is my best buddy Mimi, he's really good at singing the Beatles catalog (and his own originals too). ME?!?!? not so much.

If you want to hear more impersonations....
more Beatles covers here...

[ScatMan]

Originally Posted by 64Strat

Hey Kev, I knew they did some studio half speed trick to get that done but I hadn't tried that yet. Obviously I was doing it normal speed and failing.

Because they used tape, reducing speed by half also lowered pitch by an octave.

They did do some half speed recording as a practical matter (if they couldn't play the part up to tempo).

..but they also used the technique to get different sounds. For example, the keyboard solo in "In My Life." It sounds kinda like a hybrid harpsichord/piano. Martin played that half speed and an octave down on piano, but it wouldn't have sounded like it does if he coulda/woulda played it at tempo.

Check it out at half speed/pitch (if your DAW does this), sounds like just a piano; not a totally different instrument like on the final recording.

Same for the half speed/pitch guitar/piano in "Hard Day's Night." Just sounds different recorded at half speed and then sped up.

[64Strat]

AHDN Ver.03

Today's mix effort....

[woodman]

Dave, do you have access to Melodyne in any quarter? It could really help those impossibly high harmonies. It's much more than Auto-Tune with blobs. Just a thought!

Also (no jokes please), the cowbell sounds pretty in-your-face where I'm sitting.

Keep swinging the hammer!

[64Strat]

Originally Posted by woodman

Dave, do you have access to Melodyne in any quarter? It could really help those impossibly high harmonies. It's much more than Auto-Tune with blobs. Just a thought!

Also (no jokes please), the cowbell sounds pretty in-your-face where I'm sitting.

Keep swinging the hammer!

Today I spent most of my time fixing the the main vocal track conversion timing errors going from 48kHz to 44.1kHz. I still don't know why it does this and it caused me a lot of work to fix.

Yes, the current McCa part is a placeholder and will be replaced by someone I know that can actually get there and deliver the vocal. I'll fiddle with it a bit for now but prolly won't spend a lot of time on that track knowing it's going to be replaced.

I played around with the guitar parts today and messed with EQ an level.
I'll also try to get the piano/guitar solo working better too.

More COWBELL!!! (j/k... I'll back it off.)

[64Strat]

You know the old adage... "you can polish a turd.... but it's STILL a turd." So, I decided to cut new bridge vocal tracks this morning. I did 5 new takes and picked the best two and mixed them in. This will have to do until my ex-bandmate vocalist gets here to re-do the McCa part. Seems to be better to my ear now but the delivery could be so much better yet. Mimi's delivery of John's vocal is so much better by comparison.

By the way, much to my chagrin, I did subdue the cowbell.

A Hard Day's Night ver.04


By the way, Mr. ScatMan (aka Kevin) ....I just fixed the piano/guitar solo and uploaded just now. I did it in real time, not half speed but did notice that I had one extra triplet in each section. It should now sound more true to the original.

[ScatMan]

Originally Posted by 64Strat

...I just fixed the piano/guitar solo and uploaded just now. I did it in real time, not half speed but did notice that I had one extra triplet in each section. It should now sound more true to the original.

Hey Dave, that's one thing that's throwing this off IMO. There are no triplets, just 1/16th notes.

Here played slow with drums for timing reference

[64Strat]

Originally Posted by ScatMan

Hey Dave, that's one thing that's throwing this off IMO. There are no triplets, just 1/16th notes.

Here played slow with drums for timing reference

10-4 Kevin!

I just spent most of the day re-doing the dang piano & guitar solo.... and an improved bass line. I had missed some signature McCa bass fills.

AHDN take 5

See what you think now. And as always, thanks a million!

[64Strat]

After several attempts to get the pian/guitar solo sounding right, I think I finally got it this morning. Further studying the original some more and ScatMan's tutorial really helped, playing it in real time speed has proven difficult for my skill level. I can see why they did it at half speed originally now.

Take 6

As far as the mix, I have the vocals, drums & bass centered. The two guitars are panned one left, the other right. The solo piano and guitar are also panned one left, the other right. Compression is normal, which is moderate for me, on the bass and drums..... and everything else, like guitars & vocals is very lightly touched. The solo piano and guitar are not compressed. The vocals have the Real Space convoluted reverb at a level that matches what I hear on the the original. The guitars have a touch, except at the end, the 12 string outro has a fair amount.

We used a Ric V64 360 12 string through a Vox amp mic'ed and a '63 Esquire for the other rhythm guitar, same amp and mic. The bass is a '72 Guild JSII that was parallel DI/Mic recorded through a G-K rig. The main vocal was done with a Mojave MA-300 tube mic, through a Golden Age pre-73 tube pre in a portable booth. The McCa vocal was done with a Rode NT-2000 straight into the RME FF800 preamp.

The drums were recorded in my project studio using 5 mics. One dynamic in the kick, a LDC over the snare, another LDC over the toms and two overhead SDC's all fed into the RME FF800.

The project was recorded at 44.1kHz at 24 bit, except the main vocal track was done at 48kHz and had to be converted to 44.1.

Any further feedback is always appreciated!