Musicians Collaboration Studio
Virtual Music Studio => Finished Works => Topic started by: LMK on May 01, 2013, 08:02:08 AM
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Hey everyone,
George and I went into mad scientist mode for this one. George actually went the 'method acting' route, I just hope his loved ones and friends are reasonably okay ;D
Mr. Hyde / Lead Vocals: George
Music/Lyrics: LMK
File attached. I hope you enjoy it.
Mr. Hyde
I'm hardly ever honest, but now I must confess
Just making Caesar salad ends in a bloody mess
The coin appears so shiny, but there's another side, Mr. Hyde
It started with a potion, I had to drink it all
But now it comes so easy, the doctor's curtain call
With him you cannot argue, with him you cannot fight; Mr. Hyde
Chorus:
You're not safe, so why are you pretending
Run away, the wolf will howl again
And the night for me is never ending
Wrong and right, Doctor J, Mr. Hyde
Well, every human being consists of yin and yang
And if you separate them, you wind up half a man
They give me adoration, they scream at him in fright; Mr. Hyde
You need an operation, and came to me that's swell
You made a wish and stumbled, fell down the wishing well
You think the doctor's with you, but who is at your side? Mr. Hyde
Chorus:
You're not safe, so why are you pretending
Run away, the wolf will howl again
And the night for me is never ending
Wrong and right, Doctor J, Mr. Hyde
How will it end you ask me, it isn't hard to tell
'Cause I'm the king of sinners, and sinners go to hell
He has to share the grim fate with all the ones who died, Mr. Hyde
Chorus:
You're not safe, so why are you pretending
Run away, this is the final roar
And the night for me has reached it's ending
Say goodnight, Doctor J, Mr. Hyde
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LMK
I loved working with you on this. The end results were excellent, and I learnt a lot.
:)
George
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Wow, guys, that's really nice. I loved it from the first note! :)
Great job, both of you. Sounds perfect all around. And so it goes on my next car CD! :) Thanks for sharing!
Regards,
Steffen
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Thanks Steffen.
:)
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this is so cool.
it belongs in a musical...
i can easily hear this in a stage production musical of sorts.
nice...
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Thanks lot for your comments and for listening Steffen and Mark
George, I appreciate that you enjoyed to work on this. For me it was one of those tracks where every aspect from the writing to the playing, to the mixing (especially mixing those vocals) was a blast.
I think there is potential in an adaptation of this classic story, sort of as a dark piece with a good amount of humour. A little bit like those rare horror comedys, such as Gremlins or The Burbs, but done as a musical.
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have you ever seen the movie forgetting sarah marshall?
the main character is working on music for a musical about dracula and at the end is the stage performance of it.
it's pretty good...this has a similar flavor.
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LMK, the problem is that there is a already a musical about it, which is on tour in UK currently with Marty Pellow (of Wet Wet Wet fame) in the lead role. I'm not sure the world wants two musicals on the same topic!
http://www.jekyllandhydethemusical.com/
But.... how about Frankenstein?, nobody has done that one!
George
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have you ever seen the movie forgetting sarah marshall?
the main character is working on music for a musical about dracula and at the end is the stage performance of it.
it's pretty good...this has a similar flavor.
No I haven't seen it, but thanks to youtube I found a clip. I found a similarity in the "horror theme", otherwise not so much.
There's been many adaptations of Dr. jekyll and mr hyde, but not the kind of horror/comedy Joe Dante type I'd love to see. If you could make something funny, in essence a comedy, and scare them at the same time, in a musical context I think you'd have something very worth while with this theme.
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Yes George, I believe there are several musicals covering this topic, not just one. But not one in the style I would want.
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Frankenstein is a decent idea too, although I don't find it as compelling a story personally. Not as fascinating. And it would be trickier to do it the way I want to, with comedy.
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Fun one guys. Well written, performed and produced.
The Producers?
Andy
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Fun one guys. Well written, performed and produced.
The Producers?
Andy
Thank you very much Andy. I was in charge of the production but it wasn't a very tricky mix. I got lucky I guess.
By the way George, you gave me some very good clean vocal tracks to work with in the mix. I was meaning to ask, what mic did you use for your vocals?
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LMK
I read the Jekkly and Hyde novel while we werre working on this track. I only knew the story by the movies before that. It's quite interesting. It's good all the way through, but the ending was a too downbeat for my liking.
How about "The Call of Cthulhu", by H.P. Lovercraft, or "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allen Poe. More recently we have "Hell House" by Matheson.
My mic is a "MXL 2001" large diaphragm condensor, through a solid state pre-amp (Omnitronics LH-045), into an M-Audio 2496 sound card.
In my audio editor I silence out non-value-add breathing and any background noise between verses and lines before I supply you with vox. I record in the study at my house, which has mix of hard surfaces (walls, wooden floor) and soft furnishings (sofa, rug).
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Ive always fancied the Fall of the House of Usher...
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How about "The Call of Cthulhu", by H.P. Lovercraft, or "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allen Poe. More recently we have "Hell House" by Matheson.
Yeah, there are many good possibilities, definitely. The mix of horror and comedy is what interests me.
I do have a particularly fondness for this story though, and the fact that it already exist as several musicals is not a factor. If that was a deal breaker, we wouldn't have the best versions of any of the classic tales , stories like Beauty and the beast (a musical long before Disney!), Treasure island (several versions)..or even the current uk version of this one.
These all time classic tales are sort of up for grabs, it's all about which version works for different contexts. High schools and local theater get to decide which version they want to do. I think if you did this one as a comedy first, but with dark humour and genuinely scary elements, it could be a much bigger hit for high schools for instance than the current most famous version.
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LMK
My mic is a "MXL 2001" large diaphragm condensor, through a solid state pre-amp (Omnitronics LH-045), into an M-Audio 2496 sound card.
Wow...
Well, I haven't had any personal experience with it myself, but it certainly sounds way more expensive than it's price tag.
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LMK, I got the mic second hand from a recording studio that was closing.
I just googled it, and can see that there are several popular ways of modifying the electronics to make it sound much better, with comparison to Neumann 67.
Perhaps mine has had that done before I got it.
I love it :)
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Yeah, it could very well be a modified one, or maybe just a great fit for the voice.
My favorite mic is a mod as well actually, it's one of those cheap Oktava MK 319, modded by the great Michael Joly.
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I loved this, best production I heard all night from trawling through the finished songs.
It's only a shame there's not more songs to make a complete story/musical. Really strong performances topped with a good mix. My only nitpick is it sounds like the de-esser is making GG lisp a little in places. Better to snip the offending 's' sounds onto their own track and treat them independant of the rest of the vocal.
CD
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Yeah I love this one too, right up there with Crystal Shiny Mercury Ladies :)
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Darn great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
George is getting better and better!!!!!!!!!!
Fantastic job, LMK!
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I'm really happy you guys like this musical number, thanks a lot for the comments!
CosmicDolphin I didn't process the vocals very much, and I never use a de-esser for the exact reasons you gave, so there is no de-esser here either.
I like to keep vocals as pure as possible, sonically. These vocals have a lot of "handwritten" automation, not just volume (to avoid compressing too much), but in terms of reverb and delay used for effect.
And I agree that George gets better and better.
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CosmicDolphin I didn't process the vocals very much, and I never use a de-esser for the exact reasons you gave, so there is no de-esser here either.
It does have sound to it..maybe it's caused by something else, or some processing George put on the recording ???
I agree it's well worth the effort doing micro-automation to keep vocals up front.
CD
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I apply some light compression to the vocal track myself as part of my own trackign process before I gave it to LMK, so I guess it may be me.
Mark - I'm having trouble hearing what you are referring to, please supply one or more specific references :) it may be the fault is in my singing ;)
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I apply some light compression to the vocal track myself as part of my own trackign process before I gave it to LMK, so I guess it may be me.
Mark - I'm having trouble hearing what you are referring to, please supply one or more specific references :) it may be the fault is in my singing ;)
Hi GG
I don't think it's your singing, I've heard you plenty of times by now. 8)
I mostly noticed it at the beginning ...the first word that struck me initially was ' honest' then ' confess ' 'casaer ' & 'mess' ...it sounds like you have a bit of a lisp, if it's not a de-esser in action then it could be the compression, or maybe the sum of different layers of compression...often we have a little on the recording, then some on the mix, also the two buss and then maybe even more during mastering which can add up and be audible on exposed sections in a way it wouldn't on the busier parts of the song.
Once the extra instruments kick in it isn't so noticable...I'm probably more sensitive to it than most because I'm always trying to make listen out for it when mixing myself. But it kinda jumped out at me right off the bat. the more you listen , the more you get used to it - I don't think it's a deal breaker though 8) Just something to be aware of.
CD
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I apply some light compression to the vocal track myself as part of my own trackign process before I gave it to LMK, so I guess it may be me.
Mark - I'm having trouble hearing what you are referring to, please supply one or more specific references :) it may be the fault is in my singing ;)
Hi GG
I don't think it's your singing, I've heard you plenty of times by now. 8)
Well, there was no de-esser or other hocus pocus here that could in any way have affected those sounds, and I doubt that George's light compression did anything to the S's. This is just the way it was performed/recorded, I think it's just part of the character of the vocals.
It's such a tiny, micro issue if at all. I mean, I listened to the holy grail of audiophile recordings Deacon Blues by Steely Dan on Aja the other day, and there the lisp was 10 times more pronounced than the few spots in this performance. That's the way the vocals were delivered in our case, and it didn't bother me. It's all about the performance itself, the emotion and how the singer relates to the material. No one, other than people working with audio, listening out for de-essers will notice this at all. ;)
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