The Gang of Five
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Gang of Five Karaoke Project

action9000 · 103 · 10723

Littlefoot Fan

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Sounds good :D

And sorry about my sister :/ Meh, I should've expected this, hehe


Petrie.

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I couldn't do more recordings until May 18th at the earliest if you really want to wait for me to do something else.  Otherwise, just use what I've given you I guess.  :^.^:

That latest rendition was cool.  I didn't think I was THAT out of tune.  :o  :P: Damn illness...and now allergies....so that will make it hard too.


action9000

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See a change above, RR.
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RR, I would be happy to give you more lines (as singer 4) but I'm afraid the only recordings of you that I have, are from "In the dark we'll feel the light..." to the ending. I don't have the first part of that section ("When we are out there in the dark...") from you, so I cannot make that whole section a solo for you. Therefore, I'm splitting it between you and Malte.
Is this alright, or do you want to send me a recording of you in the first part of that section so you get some more solo lines?  I can work with it just fine as-is (as a matter of fact, it's all complete as-is, except Littlefoot Fan).

I've attached a link here to another update of the mp3 (Revision 006).  The update contains much of the final balancing, as well as everyone's final singing lines, except Littlefoot Fan, who is not yet in the project. Everyone else is basically complete.  If you have any comments, let me know and I'll be happy to look into it :yes

anywho, here's a link:
http://www.angelfire.com/az3/action9000/lbt.html
Bottom of the page B)

We're all good to go, guys.  Everyone's waiting on you, Littlefoot Fan! :p

We need recordings from you, LF Fan, of the lines:

(last part of the the first verse)
"Live believing dreams are for weaving.  Wonders are waiting to start.  Live your story, faith, hope and glory.  Hold to the truth in your heart."

(the first chorus):
"If We Hold on Together
I know our dreams will never die.
Dreams see us through to forever
where clouds roll by
for you and I."


(The Final Chorus:)
"If we hold on together
I know our dreams will never die.
Dreams see us through to forever."

(Optional: the end of the song)
"as high as souls can fly
the clouds roll by
for you and I.")

I decided to assign you to the last part of the first verse instead of the first part (Remember, I asked you on MSN if you wanted to sing the first words in the song).  This is because the later part of the verse is sung slightly higher, overall, and therefore will be more easily in your voice range.


Petrie.

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^ If you really are going to wait for me to tackle the first section of the bridge, you must realize you'll be waiting another week, bare minimum.  I just don't have the stuff here to do anything.


action9000

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Considering the fact that I don't have all the components to complete the song right now anyway, I can wait.  If I do happen to receive LF Fan's recording before you get a chance, would you be happy with the way it is now, or would you want me to wait?


action9000

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Our project is now Officially a Gang of Five project!  :wow    Tobeysan has joined our ranks, and the five (this includes you too, LF Fan :lol ) vocalists for this song can now all be traced back to our forum :yes


Petrie.

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^ And you'll be waiting for a new recording from me sometime next week....I'm pretty positive I can get it done on Thursday, god willing...


action9000

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I'll get Littlefoot Fan to confirm this for us, but he tells me that his sister is, once again, interested in getting into our karaoke project :lol

This means, unless I find out otherwise, she's back in, and we're back to our old plan of vocal assignments:

Singer 1: "Don't lose your way with each passing day.  You've come so far, don't lose your way.

"Singers 1 and 2: "Live believing dreams are for weaving. Wonders are waiting to start.

Singer 2: Live your story, faith, hope and glory.  Wonders are waiting to start.

Singers 1 and 2: If We Hold On Together....(first chorus)


Singers 3 and 4: second verse, second chorus

Singer 5: When we are out there in the dark, we'll dream about the sun.

Singer 6: In the dark we'll feel the light.  Warm our hearts, everyone.

All 6: If We Hold On Together (don't forget to record this part, LF Fan and Duckyfan!)

Singers 1 and 2: Littlefoot Fan and Duckyfan.  I"ll leave it up to you guys to decide who gets which parts.

Singer 3: Tim
Singer 4: Tobeysan
Singer 5: Malte
Singer 6: Adam


Petrie.

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*drums fingers*

Well, he's going to have to make up his mind pretty quickly...I don't have a big window...Thursday is probably it, so hopefully he'll have an official answer by then.


action9000

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I asked him to post here when he finds out for sure.  I informed him that we need a decisive answer Before thursday.


action9000

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Any word, Littlefoot Fan?  We need an answer before tomorrow :P:

RR, in case he doesn't respond, you might as well make some more recordings.  It can't hurt to have too much data, but it can be a probem if we don't have enough.  I'll make the necessary changes to the song once I know for sure who will be in it.


Petrie.

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action9000

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^Excellent

Looks like Littlefoot Fan is going to be offline for the day.  I never saw him on MSN nor the Gang of Five.  Go ahead with some recording, RR.  Thanks a ton B) Everything from the beginning of the bridge to the end of the song would be potentially useful.  If LF Fan's sister drops out, we can stick you solo on the entire bridge and let Malte sing with LF Fan in the first verse.

It is important to know whether or not your sister will be taking part, LF Fan.  If she's not going to be in, I'll need to make a number of changes to the layout of the song, which will take some work and some time.  If she will be in, I won't have to change anything :D The way its set up right now, it's ready for 6 singers.  I just need the final 2 recordings.

Let your sister know how much her voice will help our song.  So far, it consists of 4 (5 including yours) male voices, all singing in the same vocal range (and even the same notes, as we aren't good enough to sing in harmonies without being in the same room :lol No worries though; that would be Really tough to coordinate).  The presence of a female voice would do wonders for the sound.  We'd love to see her take part. :yes


action9000

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Hey all!

First of all, here is the latest version of our project roster:
Malte
Adam
Tobeysan
Littlefoot Fan
Amethyst
Action9000

For some time, Adam has been talking about attempting to get the group to harmonize together.  I agree that this would be an interesting idea, however difficult to coordinate.  

Here is the plan I have to attempt to organize it:
I am currently writing the sheet music for all of us to sing to.  I shall assign each singer here to one part on this sheet music.  I shall pass around both the sheet music and a MIDI file to each singer, that may be used as a reference to sing along with.  The sheet music will be a .nwc file which will require Noteworthy Player or Noteworthy Composer to open.  Click here to download Noteworthy Player, and ask me if you're looking for Noteworthy Composer.  As long as you sing to the sheet music I give you, this should work (in theory, anyway :lol )! :wow

The sheet music is still in the development stage, but I do have a sample for you that may be of some interest.
http://www.angelfire.com/az3/action9000/index.html
(hmm, this sounded better on a piano :lol )
Check out the link at the top of this page for the mp3 download.  *Note*: The version we will be singing to won't be quite this complex.  This is just a "prototype" to help me figure out what I'm doing.

You will see (well, hear) that the score is quite thick.  By that, I mean, there are many voices singing many parts at one time.  I need to adjust this for our final project.  Notice how rough and bulky it sounds sung by the synthetic choir instrument.  My concern now is How to adjust it.  Well, here is my plan:

Instead of trying to cram everyone together like in the above sample, I am going to simply do what we have been doing all along: make most sections either solo, or a duet, instead of trying to layer 6 people at a time in a complex choral passage who can't even work in the same room together.  I shall keep the arrangement simple, using no more than two voices on the melody at any one time (except the very end, as we have done already).  If we have two singers on the melody (one singing the actual melody, one singing a harmonic line to accompany it), that still leaves 4 people with nothing to do.  What we're going to do now, is give them something to do! B)

The remaining singers (or as many as useful/necessary) will pretend to be a choir, singing an "ahh" sound (similar to the choir sound used in the MP3 above), singing simple chords below the melodic and harmonic singers.  In other words, everyone else will act like "instruments" instead of like lead singers until it is their turn to sing either a melodic part or a harmonic part.  I shall try my best to give every person participating a melodic solo and a harmonic line, as well as a choir-like role.  I've learned enough about the range that everyone here can sing in, to give them notes in their appropriate range.

I shall post a sample up shortly, demonstrating what I'm attempting to describe in words.

You know, I'm wondering if this would be better-suited to its own project, as I'm not sure how well our current background music suits the depth of a 3- or 4- voice choir.

P.S.  Littlefoot Fan, you were saying before that the melody of the song is out of your range.  What if we try to find parts of the melody that Are in your range, and give you harmonic parts on the rest? B)
Are you and your sister still going to do this with us? :P:


action9000

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To Littlefoot Fan:
You mentioned today, before I left for work, that you were going to try to get a recording done.  Do you have one (or more) for me? :D


Petrie.

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action9000

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I've got it and it's all but complete, in our mix. :D

I just want to see if I can still get Amethyst in our project, or if she's a no-show, before I post the final song up.


Littlefoot Fan

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Oh, are you still expecting my sister to participate? I think you can just leave her out since she just ignores it anyway :rolleyes:


action9000

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Oh, are you still expecting my sister to participate? I think you can just leave her out since she just ignores it anyway 
Ok, that's good to know.  Thanks for the info! B)

Here's our current situation:  the voices (minus Amethyst) are recorded and complete, however there is an issue with the last chorus.  Simply put: It's too disorganized and muddy.  It sounded pretty clean with 4 amatuer singers, but it appears that 5 amatuer singers is just too many at one time. :lol

I am playing with ways to work around this, but it's proving to be a challenge.  The buildup going into the final chorus is such that the listener will expect something big to happen, and I don't want to disappoint them.  It actually sounded pretty good with the 4 singers, but the introduction of a 5th voice is adding a unique challange to the balancing of the final chorus.

I propose putting two or three of the best-sounding recordings on the final chorus (I'm still working out which combination sounds best), alongside Amethyst (a female voice) when I get her recording.  That will be 4 voices (maximum) in the final chorus, which shouldn't sound too muddy and cluttered.

As for the other singers, I don't mean to disappoint you; the final chorus is simply sounding too cluttered.  This is due to a huge number of factors:  Different microphones, slightly different timings, different pitches (we're all off-tune at some point, but every time a voice goes off-tune, it jumps out.  With 5 voices simultaneously, voices are jumping out everywhere and it sounds mushy).

I'm also playing with the idea of splitting the final chorus into two groups of three singers each.  If this works, no one will be left out. :yes


Petrie.

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I could live with that.  :)  I heard that sample, and yeah, five of us at once didn't work too well.  :lol: