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Voices Wanted, Apply Within

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10:04 / 11.02.03

Who wants to put their voice on top of a load of bleepy bloopy noises?

You don't have to be able to sing.

I've got a CD's worth of tracks which are about as finished, instrumentals-wise, as I can be arsed to make them. The one thing they could do with is some vocals. Now, I'm not absolutely certain that it would work, but it would be nice to try. Anyone fancy having a go?

I'd welcome any sort of human, vocal contribution - 'proper' singing, bad singing, speech, rapping, screams, muttering, operatic wailing, shouting, whistling... anything. Given the nature of the tracks themselves, I (or you) might have to process the vocals - cut them up, muck about with 'em - to get them to fit.

The tunes themselves are mostly very short - from just under a minute to 2 minutes long - and some are more finished than others. Style-wise, I'd say that the majority are what you'd call "dumbass", but meaty, with a lot of jumpy rhythms.

Any takers? I'm not after one voice, btw. The more the merrier. If anyone wants to hear the tunes first, or wants to have a go at adding their own noises, PM me and I'll send a CD.

Whisky Priestess

12:53 / 11.02.03

Yes, me, I can sing. At least I think I can. Do I have to come to wherever you are or will it be recorded in London?

13:18 / 11.02.03

I'll do it. Definitely. have to record remotely, but still - I've got the gear.

13:45 / 11.02.03

Hooray! Thanks for the responses, chaps.

Whisky Preistess:
"Do I have to come to wherever you are or will it be recorded in London?"

Ooh, good question. This is a completely amateur project, and because the only time I have to do this sort of thing is between 11pm and 2am in the morning, everything will have to be done by post. There are several ways to do it, but the simplest is for you to commit your voice to a tape and send it to me, so that I can mix it in with the original track or tracks. All you need is a mic and a tape deck (I can clean up the sound if it's a bit rough).

Or, if you've got the right equipment, you can do your own mixing as well, and have complete control over how it's used.

Another point I should make is that you make up the tune and any lyrics yourself (if you're singing, rather than screaming etc).
You can even just sing any old thing you've made up (or someone else's tune for that matter, doesn't have to be original) and send that to me, and I'll have a go at crow-baring it in. That would be quite an interesting challenge, thinking about it...

14:10 / 11.02.03

I'd be very interested. I can sing in a way, and haven't really experimented much with my voice, having been too concerned with instrumental end of things.

I'd also really like to hear the music. I've got a mic with me here and various odds and ends including Sound Forge, though the real meaty studio equipment is at home... but I'd be very keen to contribute anyway.

I'll PM you.

Whisky Priestess

14:24 / 11.02.03

I can record on minidisc but nothing so low-tech as tape. Ironically.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

14:47 / 11.02.03

I'm absolutely tone deaf and have a voice roughly akin to the seriously depressed bloke in Chris Morris' Blue Jam, only not as funny. I'm yours if you can find a use for me...

15:50 / 11.02.03

grant and paleface> PMs on their way

Whisky P> Bah! I'll see if I can find someone who could convert it. Can you record to CD?

My Izzardlike Transvestite of the Flowers> *rubbing hands with glee* Sounds good to me! How do you want to go about it? Are you happy to plop a load of stuff onto a tape, or would you like me to send you a CD?

21:20 / 11.02.03

I'm very happy to send you some noises and some singing. I can easily give you early music stuff so if there's anything specific you want please ask. However I'm with Whisky on the minidisc thing.

13:42 / 12.02.03

I can't sing for shit but in the spirit of cross pollinating threads. Anyone who wants to lend their voice to saveloy but doesn't have any lyrics to read, whisper, sing or scream... can use any of my tarot poems. They aren't brilliant but maybe sung and with added music they won't be half bad.

Just, you know, as an option.

14:46 / 12.02.03

I could do some spoken word - I've been working on my William Burroughs impression.

And I've got a friend who can alternate between some great death metal "UURRRGGH"ing and an impression of Doc from Back to the Future.

16:13 / 12.02.03

harmony> That sounds great, shame about the lack of tape-ability. How much is a mini-disc player these days?

impulsivelad> Cheers Guv, that'd be cool.

Rizla> Do it, please! Send tapes asap.

If anyone who wants to do spoken word or proper singing feels self conscious or can't think of what to say, just go for the newspaper or phone book, anything. It can all be cut up and buggered into incomprehensibility.

16:21 / 12.02.03

I'm in.

I can do some texts alone, but it'd be great to hear the tracks, as well. The postage for a CD to the States, though, might prove prohibitive. Might it be more cost-effective to find some web-space to host the tracks as MP3s?

What are you using to mix? Is this one physical tape, or on the 'puter? Would .WAV files or MP3s be useful? Cos I could record some texts directly to my PC and burn you a disc of those files, or throw 'em up online for download...

17:41 / 12.02.03

Saveloy - I can, as long as I'm not too busy, do MD->CD through my computer. If anyone would like me to.

23:31 / 12.02.03

i would gladlty add a voice to the throng.

and i can sing, scram, nd even if hammered enough, rap.

i can also beatbox, but that really needs to be done either acappela or with knowledge of the track. well, maybe it is possible, but i would feel wierd, and it would be really unstructured.

one idea i think you might be worth trying would be to add a bit of cohesion to some of the submissions by printing lyrics online. if you want we could even do a 'consequences' style workshop of them, letting peopl add a line each.( the exact science of it would be worked out, obviously, but perhaps deciding on a meter and rhyme scheme, and also maybe having several songs running in creation.)
the reason i like that idea was that it means you can overdub the voices together and get a far more varied texture.
they would obviously need to be singing the same lyrics for this, but not the same tune.

10:28 / 13.02.03

More recruits! Excellent. I'll PM for addresses to send CDs to shortly. In the meantime:

Jack Fear:

"Might it be more cost-effective to find some web-space to host the tracks as MP3s?"

A good idea, but I wouldn't want to risk uploading big files from work and I suspect my ancient laptop web connection at home would be too feeble to cope (or it would take so long to upload that it would be cheaper to post anyway). I post stuff to the US fairly regularly and it's not too pricey. I sent a packet containing 7 discs recently and I think it came to about 3 quid.

That said, I'd be happy for anyone with fatter pipes than mine to put the tracks on the web as well, so long as they're accessible only by us lot, or at least not public. I could send someone a disc of mp3s.

"What are you using to mix? Is this one physical tape, or on the 'puter? Would .WAV files or MP3s be useful? Cos I could record some texts directly to my PC and burn you a disc of those files, or throw 'em up online for download..."

It's on the computer, so WAV files would be brilliant. Having them on the web - and this goes for everyone's contributions - would be great too, so more of those involved have the chance to access them and do their own mixing if they fancy it.

Paleface: Combat Model Alpha:

"I can, as long as I'm not too busy, do MD->CD through my computer. If anyone would like me to."

Wow, that would be great, thanks for the offer. I'll PM Whisky and Harmony to see if they're still up for contributing.

toksik:

"one idea i think you might be worth trying would be to add a bit of cohesion to some of the submissions by printing lyrics online. if you want we could even do a 'consequences' style workshop of them, letting peopl add a line each.( the exact science of it would be worked out, obviously, but perhaps deciding on a meter and rhyme scheme, and also maybe having several songs running in creation.)
the reason i like that idea was that it means you can overdub the voices together and get a far more varied texture.
they would obviously need to be singing the same lyrics for this, but not the same tune."

That sounds like a cracking idea! I suggest the first person to think up a beginning start a thread for it (with enough lines to establish meter etc.)

Whisky Priestess

12:15 / 13.02.03

If it's randomly generated lyrics you're after, try this site:

www.spoonbill.org

10:37 / 14.02.03

Right, I think I've PMed everyone for addresses and that, if I've missed anyone out, please PM me. I'm aiming to send discs to those who want them on Monday / Tuesday.

13:25 / 14.02.03

I can scream really fucking loudly, if that helps at all. I also howl quite well.

pointless and uncalled for

19:22 / 14.02.03

If you're interested in some semi-lucid ramblings and can record in London, I can manage the late night.

15:29 / 24.02.03

Quick apology: I've been laid up in bed with flu since last Sunday so I've not been able to send anything out. I'll sort it out as soon as I've shaken off this "hit repeatedly over the head by a massive ape" feeling. Gruuugh...

Cholister> that would be faaaantastic, thank you, I'll PM you shortly.

Potus> Hmmm, getting about is a bit tricky for me, but I'll let you know if that changes at all. Thanks for the offer.

03:27 / 25.02.03

A friend of mine who lurks on Barbelith (I don't even think he's a proper member) is interested in lending his voice. We also speak Spanish over here so if you want to add some flavor to some of your clicks and whistles just let me know and we'll add some stuff in sexy Spanish.

22:50 / 26.02.03

I would love to do this. Obvisouly, I have no talent and so doing this would be stupid. Also, recommend me things to get for my lovely new laptop that would enable sound mxing type things.

Obviosuly if I do do stuff, it will take so long it will be late.

20:16 / 27.02.03

I would love to lend my voice to this -- I've got a mic and very primitive computer recording equipment, nothing very substantial. How can we actually execute this?

Imp, you write tarot-related poems? That's cool -- you should send me some!

22:47 / 27.02.03

Hunter, I'll send you the rest of the poems and you can record any and all you want. And Saveloy, if you use them and make them into songs you have to send the finished product to me cause my girlfriend would love them

15:59 / 06.03.03

Are you still looking for voices? This sounds really interesting, I'd like to get involved... (I'd've replied earlier but there was something up with my account. Thanks to Tom for fixing it!)

Suz

16:05 / 06.03.03

fidrich>

Yep, all collaborators welcome, there's no time limit on this really.

Apologies to everyone for the slow progress, but I will have finished burning CDs this evening and will start sending them out tomorrow lunchtime. (I'll PM everyone who has replied since my last post, too).

Pemulis / Dee Vapr / Hungrygho

20:34 / 06.03.03

Hey I'd love to have some input here - My flatmate and I have unrehearsed dreams of cooking up some vocal electronica too in the near future. I can sing - used to have an acoustic folk band type of affair in Bradford if it's any token.. count me in.

15:34 / 23.04.03

Update

Just seven weeks ago I said I'd have the discs ready. I NOW HAVE THE DISCS READY. For me, this is good going. I've PM'ed everyone who sent me an address, just to check that they're still interested and haven't moved house, flat, zoo or petri dish (except grant, who is always where he should be).

Anyone else interested, PM me please.

16:11 / 23.04.03

i need to hear it, but i'm sure i can contribute in an infinite amount of ways, if you could upload & email me the instrumentals at thears0nist@yahoo.com i gots pro tools n all dat sheeit and i'm an audio engineer

15:46 / 24.04.03

Phew! 6 discs went in the post this lunchtime, the rest will go tomorrow.

These are the details I would have put in the covering letter if I'd been able to print it out:

For future 'lith reference I've given the disc a title - "Flight of the Lummox" - and given working titles to all of the tracks (obviously these can be changed to suit lyrics etc)

Some tracks are more 'complete' than others (some are barely started). As I said earlier in the thread, I don't necessarily expect people to be able to put vocals straight over the top of many of them - some of them are pretty dense already and will most likely need to be thinned out or chopped up etc, and I'm more then happy for that to happen (all part of the fun). It's all just potential material.

A lot of the tracks can be separated into their constituent samples if need be, let me know if you want anything like that.

The first few seconds of "Grant Fu" feature the tonsilatory talents of our very own Mr Grant B!

Having listened to as much of it as you can stand, please don't be too polite to tell me it's rubbish, and that you want nothing more to do with it. (By 'it' I mean the disc, of course, not grant's vocal)

14:40 / 25.04.03

All discs have now been posted. Hoorah!

Pemulis / Dee Vapr / Hungrygho

12:48 / 26.04.03

Saveloy, well played there my son!

Just received mine - highly impressivvvvve - willingly diverse, perverse - excellent though. Love the use of film samples too. Think that the tracks lend themselves more to a hip/hop, spoken word attack vocally, rather than something melodic - kinda thinking along Doseone/Boombip lines maybe. Something less naturalistic, more affected. Some tracks are more apt than others - too much material here to extricate obvious highlights - but I'm excited. This is gonna have to travel around in mydiscman for a while I think.

Anyoneelse have input?

14:44 / 26.04.03

yes.

i have mine, i like it.

there are a lot of different sounds and styles on it, but i agree it is all fairly hiphop sounding.

i think that might be the tempo, and the breaks.

am i right in assuming that the tracks are for playing live?
i got the impression that you have them all on your hard drive and mix through them and others in a set, hence the shortness of the individual tracks? i was thinking it would be useful to know how the pieces will be used in the end, and how best to record(ie in chunks or whole song ideas)

what ideas is everyone else having?
i was thinking so far of rap stuff, or possibly spooky readings of obscure texts.

are we going to have any collaborative lyrics?
or any agreed texts to use?

one idea i had recently was for the participants to each rework a piece of prose as lyrics, starting from the same base text, but not collaborating on the process. this would give us very different angles on the same tale, and might work extremely well for a live set.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

17:13 / 26.04.03

I've had a listen through and nothing has sprung to mind yet, although I really liked the Boards of Canada vibe.

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