Puteo Ergo Sum (The Stink Reviews)

jeff robertson · Post by **jeff robertson** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 9:16 am

Kweep wrote:Truth and Regret - I'm not usually a fan of autotuning vox but it works here... just wish you would've dropped the auto-tune during the distorted vocals.

Is that what "autotune" sounds like? My god, the things I'd read about it make me think it was a much more subtle effect than that, like it made you sing in tune so nobody would ever know you didn't hit all the right notes. I've heard this effect in many, many songs, but I always thought it sounded like a vocoder. It works in this song as an effect. If this is what autotune sounds like, then singers who don't need it have nothing to worry about.

furrypedro · Post by **furrypedro** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 10:11 am

jeff robertson wrote:Is that what "autotune" sounds like?

That's what autotune sounds like when it used really heavily, as an effect rather than a tool. It can be used subtly to clean up a bit of mild pitch wavering on a vocal take. I dunno but it's possible that Truth&Regret was just using a plain old vocoder there.

anyway, to the reviews.......

Steve Durand: my immediate thought was â€œyeah, straight in with the trumpet!â€

blue · Post by **blue** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 8:52 pm

furry pedro is my new target audience.

Jim of Seattle · Post by **Jim of Seattle** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 12:16 pm

Blue Lang
Holy crap you've got to be kidding me. Extremely unpleasant. [bad]

Doscientos
You guys have to give your singer a chance to sell the song. She always sounds like she's singing about 20 feet from the mic. Either that or there's WAY too much processing on her voice. Week after week I struggle to hear her lyrics. which is a shame, because they're clever and fun when I can make them out. Also, boost your bass more. Then when you've fixed your recording problems, go back and re-record all your other good ol' tunes, dangit. I'm glad Madi didn't ask me what it meant when she heard "country without any O". [okay]

Drunk Todd
This is good and all, but I hate fuzz guitar, so you lose points. Sorry. Good vocals, fun catchy song. It's all working, but, well, I just plain old hate fuzz guitar. [okay]

Fourth Grade Gladiators
All good, matter of taste. A little relelntless. [okay]

Kweep
you're crazy for making yourself hit that leap over & over. Well, you manage to pull it off, so kudos. The song is fun for about half of it, and then after the solo is over I start to get tired of that repeated tune fragment. [okay]

Melvin
You guys are very good, but this is less inspired than some of your others. It stays too long at the same energy level and wears on my ears after not too long. [okay]

Phunt Your Firneds
I am made automatically very uncomfortable whe I hear myself sampled. Can't get past that. [okay]

Soylent Spuds
I appreicate the attempt, but it's not really very funny to me. Pretty young. [bad]

Steve Durand
Nice channeling of Joe Raposo and Kermit, of course. Raposo's genius was that he could write songs like this without coming across too bitter or angry, which this one does. It's all good, but this song wouldn't have made it on Sesame Street because of the bile in the lyrics. [okay]

Those Meddling Kids
I can't get past the sloppy vocal. But i'm reminded of XTC for the ambitious meter and overall British-ness of it. [okay]

Truth and Regret
This has a lot going for it, but the distorted vocal makes that little crease between my eyebrows and I can't wait for that part to be over. The vocoder effects in general, though are kind of fun. Someday over-processed vocoder and auto tuning is going to be used as this nostalgic techniques to evoke the early 2000's. [okay]

No [good] songs in this fight at all. I had very low expectations with a title like this, though. If I were a votin' man, I'd vote for Doscientos.

furrypedro · Post by **furrypedro** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 12:55 pm

^ Ha!

oh, and blue; I decree...............nah, do whatever you want. but make it good

Smalltown Mike · Post by **Smalltown Mike** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 8:48 pm

truth and regret
This seems like a cookie-cutter approach to this genre, and the vocals seem really loud, especially in the chorus. The effect is grating.

those meddling kids
I started to groove on this about halfway through. All of a sudden I got it. I think the rhythm seems a little weird for me most of the way through, but I like your voice.

steve durand
Even though Iâ€™ve got two sons, Iâ€™ve never let kidâ€™s music in the house. As far as kidâ€™s music goes, this is clever enough, and a good take on the title.

blue lang
For all your trash talking, this song is a real piece of crap. This is what youâ€™re going to battle Melvin with? This?

soylent spuds
Nice intro. â€œThe dance craze sweeping the nationâ€

Kweep · Post by **Kweep** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 10:01 pm

everybody wrote:*paraphrased* [...]needs variety[...]

i completely agree. i'll prolly work on it in the future cause i like the riff...

TruthAndRegret · Post by **TruthAndRegret** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 10:09 pm

jeff robertson wrote:
Kweep wrote:Truth and Regret - I'm not usually a fan of autotuning vox but it works here... just wish you would've dropped the auto-tune during the distorted vocals.
Is that what "autotune" sounds like? My god, the things I'd read about it make me think it was a much more subtle effect than that, like it made you sing in tune so nobody would ever know you didn't hit all the right notes. I've heard this effect in many, many songs, but I always thought it sounded like a vocoder. It works in this song as an effect. If this is what autotune sounds like, then singers who don't need it have nothing to worry about.

Yeah, it's intended purpose is to tune up the vocals to the correct note. I don't normally use this for that purpose. I use the free GSnap... don't know how it compares to AutoTune. I usually sing with lots of vibrato, so it tends to mess up my vocals rather than fix them. But for this song... it was dysfuncional subject matter, so, dysfunctional vocals sounded right.

The song I did this week, first of all, was recorded at about 3 in the morning. I live at college, so I gotta watch the volume. I added the distortion so that I could ramp up the vocals... make it seem like I was singing louder, even though I wasn't. And, yes, that "grating" thing y'all are talking about... that was intentional. I only did two takes on this song, and all the effects were added live, as I recorded it, so I couldn't go back and change anything. Overall, this song was about 3 hours from conception to completion, so... I'm fairly satisfied with the result. If I would have had a few more hours in the middle of the day, I would have done the vocals somewhat differently... probably toned down the distortion and the vocal tuning.

Steve Durand · Post by **Steve Durand** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 10:14 pm

Jim of Seattle wrote: Steve Durand
Nice channeling of Joe Raposo and Kermit, of course. Raposo's genius was that he could write songs like this without coming across too bitter or angry, which this one does. It's all good, but this song wouldn't have made it on Sesame Street because of the bile in the lyrics. [okay]

It was intended to be a bit satirical. The cheerful music vs. the harsh lyrics. Of course I realize it wouldn't have been on Sesame Street. With lyrics like "Dead fish corpses rotting in the sun" it was never intended to be.

Thanks for the review.

Steve

blue · Post by **blue** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:00 pm

Smalltown Mike wrote:blue lang
For all your trash talking, this song is a real piece of crap. This is what youâ€™re going to battle Melvin with? This?

you were expecting maybe Alice in Chains covers?

j$ · Post by j$ » Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:09 pm

Ah, man this Blue song is awesome. More proof for me that Smalltown Mike seriously doesn't know what the f*ck he's talking about.

Just needs a more prominent bass in the chorus. Then it would sound just like sos if the bass player (stephen?) hadn't forgotten to turn up...

Leaf · Post by **Leaf** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:43 pm

Blue should write a song some time.

blue · Post by **blue** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:57 pm

now what does that mean?

j$ · Post by j$ » Wed Mar 15, 2006 8:11 pm

Gert look after their own?

blue · Post by **blue** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 8:18 pm

well, of course, but other than that.

is he saying that my stink wasn't a song, which, OK, it's not great but it's pretty song-like, or that i just can't write or haven't written a song in general, which, being Leaf, is the more likely insane pop-off.

or.. i guess it's even possible that he didn't know i submitted this week and was saying i should get in the ring and get laughed at...

cuz you know.. it's Leaf..

The Anchors · Post by **The Anchors** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 9:41 pm

blue wrote:well, of course, but other than that.

is he saying that my stink wasn't a song, which, OK, it's not great but it's pretty song-like, or that i just can't write or haven't written a song in general, which, being Leaf, is the more likely insane pop-off.

or.. i guess it's even possible that he didn't know i submitted this week and was saying i should get in the ring and get laughed at...

cuz you know.. it's Leaf..

I see your cryptic messages.

blue · Post by **blue** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 1:59 pm

congrats Steve!

Kweep · Post by **Kweep** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 2:22 pm

congrats senior durand! the right one won! (unlike with our presidential elections... i know my vote counted!

)

furrypedro · Post by **furrypedro** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 2:50 pm

Bronze has never tasted so good.

and bigup Ker.....I mean Steve!!!

Nigel (spOOn) Clements · Fri Mar 17, 2006 2:52 pm

Well Done Steve Durand, for rising to the challenge, and making us all smile.

Steve Durand · Post by **Steve Durand** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 7:43 pm

Hey! Thanks for the votes.

I'm no longer on a path to become the biggest Songfight loser ever.

Steve

rone rivendale · Post by **rone rivendale** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 8:58 pm

I offically annouce a protest of this song's voting.... 2 votes for Melvin?!! Omg I was one of those 2.

(Yes I'm joking about a protest)