2020

February 15, 2007 6:33 PM

prince wrote "nothing compares 2 u", and I wrote this. Sorry I missed V-day. Stylistically, let's call it something like: male fiona apple vs. ben folds in bed with my grainy-ass drum loop. Did I mention there's more here? { the edison carter project } 'become a fan' there, won't you? e!

posted by bitterkitten (4 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite

and thanks for the previous song compliments, mefites!
posted by bitterkitten at 6:35 PM on February 15, 2007


The kitten has a handle on the song. What did you use to vocode? It is nice, subtle and I wanna know your secret to it. V nice.
posted by isopraxis at 9:41 PM on February 15, 2007


Thx iso! Nope, no vocoding here! I have experimented a bit with vocoding since the reigning recent vocoding champ appeared (that imogen heap 'hide and seek'), but haven't actually recorded anything using my vocoder doodad yet.

On "2020", if you are referring to the very last chorus where I sing "alarms", I just copied and pasted a double of my vox and applied the standard pro tools 'vari-fi' plugin, (although I'm sure other companies must make this thing now), which people typically use to make things sound like vinyl spinning up or slowing down. In other spots throughout the song I periodically boost vox with bits of delay and/or some reverb, but I don't leave them on full force throughout the whole tune (automate).

Other wacky things I do to make vox more interesting

1. duplicate same vocal track, and effect the hell out of it with whatever I got, eqs, freeware plugs, etc so that it is barely recognizable as a vocal track, but only mix in just barely enough to be heard

2. ever since I was pleasantly surprised the first time I heard trent reznor doing his high background vox in 'closer' where he goes 'help me' in the chorus (which I can't totally determine if he sang in a falsetto or used gadgetry for) instead of doing that, I will mess with my vox severely just using my crappy came-with-the-sw Pitch Shifter plug-in, and jack it way the hell up or down in octaves then mix, instead of doing a regular harmony vocal

3. Auto-tune is cool to make vocal effects, but if you aren't careful then people go "yep, it's that damn Cher 'Do you Believe In Love' effect. Again."

4. There's a plugin, forget who makes it that automagically duplicates your vocal part on the fly and then makes it sound like there's 8, or 16, or 32 of you singing the same part, which you can adjust so that the voices are each slightly detuned to make it really sound like you have 32, er, twin brothers/sisters singing with you in unison. I have used some of that periodically here and there, but not sure if I used it on "2020" or not.
posted by bitterkitten at 8:16 AM on February 16, 2007


I like your style, man.
posted by Ynoxas at 10:25 PM on February 16, 2007


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