Nur Ein V: Round 4

[Ross]

Sid is an "Everyman", railing against this tyranny, and in doing so becomes almost a Christ-like figure. He refuses to be "The Ice Cream Man". In Sid we see hope. Beauty. Love. He puts his foot down and stands up for what he believes in, which is what makes this more than just a song, it is a powerful illustration of the triumph of the human spirit. With swearing.

I wish someone else had written this, just so you could use it in your sig without looking narcissistic.

yeah, like he cares about looking narcissistic

[glennny]

Jon Eric wrote:

On repeated listens, you "miss" the same notes in the same way each time they come up, so it's more likely that you're singing the melody correctly, but it clashes with the instrumentation in some way. The ones I'm talking about are all in the chorus: The first syllable of "Sorry," the upward slide on the word "ask" (which hits the right note eventually, but has to edge up into it), and the first syllable of the word "pausing."

ask- yeah the scooping is indicative of my weakness as a singer.
pausing- OK struggling w/o a pop screen , it is a bit shakey, point taken.
Sorry- i disagree, however this is the note and the time where we change from minor to major, perhaps you're anticipating a C or D and i deliver a C# that says "welcome to A major".

[Caravan Ray]

I wish someone else had written this, just so you could use it in your sig without looking narcissistic.

yeah, like he cares about looking narcissistic

My signature line features a link to a personal web site that does not exist. I think that is more pseudonarcissistic

[Billy's Little Trip]

I assumed it was intentional, and it didn't bother me. But since I'm not a judge, that's probably not much consolation.

Me too. I figured it was his artistic expression, so I took it as that. It became very annoying, but I don't want to be one of those closed minded old guys that shoot teenagers for walking on their lawn. ...damn kids and their music! etc.

...I do not want to ever become that. So as far as I'm concerned, who fly was delivering his creative expression, and I'll leave it at that.

[Billy's Little Trip]

Billy's Little Trip - This segues neatly from the BSS track. The vocals are loose, which normally works for you, but the saxomaphone is also playing a little loose (it sounds fake, but it also sounds off-key... is that possible?), so the combination of the two doesn't work very well. The verses have some interesting stuff going on, and though the melody is somewhat tenuous, the performance has plenty enough oomph to sell it. The chorus, on the other hand, seems like haphazardly cliches strung together. Like, we were given a cliche for a title, and you decided to combine that with "What you see is what you get," and then played with how those two fit together, when the combination of the two is actually kind of unintuitive. I don't know why, but it feels to me like those two sayings just don't go together very well. Totally subjective. I wish you'd let your lead guitar abilities speak for themselves. Between Steve's trumpet last week and the sax this week, I'm starting to wonder whether you still have faith in your own ability to carry a song with your axe. Shred a little, dude! It's what you're good at! One bit of positive reinforcement I feel compelled to give, because no one ever notices stuff like this - your bass playing is solid. Always is, but this track especially.

This may be a first for me, but I'm going to wait until after coffee tomorrow morning to respond to this. Tonight was poker night and I'm a bit fdrinkd. (I lost $28 bux but got frdrunkd, so yay) You hit on several sensitive issues I have with myself here. Funny the only thing you didn't mention were the horribly pitchy vocals, lol. I refuse to cheat with the meladone..dyne, what ever crap. Like it or hate it, I don't have a choice on what god gave me (or the micro orgasm'izm that I like to call DNA dad) or what I decide to practice, because I'm lazy. But practice is too much work. I am what I am, so hate what you don't like. It's your freedom. I hate stuff too. Like taxes. But I manage.

...wtf? See, I need to wait until coffee in the mar'nin las.

...oh great, now I'm feelin' Irish. It's going to be a long night, it is, guvnuh. Oh great, now cockney? Wtf is this all aboooot?
.....Ahhh, Canadian!!!

汉字 / 漢字.....

..ahh, I don't even know what I'm saying now, but I think it's Chinese! *runs into a wall*

[MintyHandy]

Hey BLT, when all this is over, let's work on a song together -- because I will never, ever, in twenty years of practicing, be able to play the guitar like you or sell things with your level of sincerity, but I sometimes write decent lyrics and melodies, and I'm not too sharp or flat. I bet we could make some interesting things.

[Billy's Little Trip]

Hey BLT, when all this is over, let's work on a song together -- because I will never, ever, in twenty years of practicing, be able to play the guitar like you or sell things with your level of sincerity, but I sometimes write decent lyrics and melodies, and I'm not too sharp or flat. I bet we could make some interesting things.

Sure, I'm always up for a collab.

[MintyHandy]

[wanders in, hands in pockets, whistling a jaunty tune, looks around, sees no updates, wanders away to eat some pita chips]

[Generic]

[wanders in, hands in pockets, whistling a jaunty tune, looks around, sees no updates, wanders away to eat some pita chips]

yeah, you BETTER run.

[Caravan Ray]

Here's how I'd score them:

9. Milo Dunderville
8. BLT
7. Therman
6. Chris Cogott
5. Boop Boop
4. Minty
3. Jon Eric
2. Berkley Social Scene
1. Whofly

I expect Sid to win the immunity.

[Generic]

Then the joke's on Sid; there won't be an immunity this week.

[Caravan Ray]

Sid stands by his decision not to use the sample in the actual song.

Listening to these - I got thoroughly sick of the sound of that sample - especially where it sounded shoe-horned in (Hi BLT! - loved your song, but it could have done without the sample). Only in Milo's song did it actually sound like it belonged - though Reist also did a good job of using it in a bastardised way.

That is not to say it was not a good challenge. It was an excellent challenge. It was a difficult challenge. Which is why I went for a tangential way of using it

[Caravan Ray]

You barely used the challenge.

Pots and kettles Jon Eric!

I didn't even notice the sample in your song! I was listening while driving - maybe I just missed it - but I missed it (and your song was better for it).

[frankie big face]

Sid stands by his decision not to use the sample in the actual song.

Listening to these - I got thoroughly sick of the sound of that sample - especially where it sounded shoe-horned in (Hi BLT! - loved your song, but it could have done without the sample). Only in Milo's song did it actually sound like it belonged - though Reist also did a good job of using it in a bastardised way.

That is not to say it was not a good challenge. It was an excellent challenge. It was a difficult challenge. Which is why I went for a tangential way of using it

To a certain extent, I agree with you. I thought people would do more with it than they did since we gave a lot of leeway to change it up. I like the way Reist used it and I liked what Boop Boop did and Milo and Minty Handy. But it certainly did get annoying after a while.

For the record, I created four different samples and let the others choose the one they wanted to use. I found this one to be one of the less interesting, but probably the one that offered the most flexibility for all the participants.

As for your song, I didn't like it but I'm fine with your lack of regard for the sample. It reminds me of when I got kicked out of Nur Ein III for refusing to play kitchen utensils (or whatever) on what I thought was a pretty good song. There are more important things than winning.

[Ross]

Whether or not Sid used the sample in his song depends largely on how you define where the song begins. I'm sure there are many examples(I can think of a few right away) where there are sounds that proceed a song proper thhat I would consider part of the song, and even integral to the song.

As for how a sample was "used" in a song - we have no way of knowing what role the sample played in the composition of the song as opposed to how it was used sonically inside the song, that is, it may have shaped chords, key, structure, melody, all in ways not immediately detectble by the listener.

It was an interesting challenge.

[BenKrieger]

If my mix was better, it might be easier to tell that I used all the sample speeds in the beginning with a ton of looping/delay. I think Glen is right that the 6/4 loop got in the way of the rest of the song. Since we only have to use the sample once, I should have edited it down to 4/4 for the rest of the song.

Does anyone else have a horse voice from singing along to Dio this week?!

[BenKrieger]

Also, I'm a little bummed that nobody--including myself--used the sample as a doorbell sound in a King Diamond-inspired epic about reincarnation.

[Niveous]

As for your song, I didn't like it but I'm fine with your lack of regard for the sample. It reminds me of when I got kicked out of Nur Ein III for refusing to play kitchen utensils (or whatever) on what I thought was a pretty good song. There are more important things than winning.

The judges didn't eliminate you for the lack of kitchen utensils. It was because you did that two-song faux-live deal that ended up with two short average songs and a silly interruption in-between that limited the song's replay value.

[Niveous]

Hey folks.

We all know the deal by now. One late judge. (And it's a super close race too.)

Gonna post the next challenge while we wait.

[Caravan Ray]

Whether or not Sid used the sample in his song depends largely on how you define where the song begins.

It began just before the sample.

[Billy's Little Trip]

especially where it sounded shoe-horned in (Hi BLT! - loved your song, but it could have done without the sample)

Truth be told, that sample inspired the entire song. The bridge was written and recorded first, then the rest built around it. I went with the faster bpm for the sample (184) of the beat and cut it to 4/4, to give it a feel of urgency with the stagged beat at half time and the eery sax to give the bridge it's own independence from the rest of the song.

Your shoe-horn theory is my mood change theory.

[jb]

Hey folks.

We all know the deal by now. One late judge. (And it's a super close race too.)

Gonna post the next challenge while we wait.

It's the same judge every time. Sorry everybody. My votes are in.

JB