Dress Warm
mp3 (2:50 / 4MB) or ogg (2:50 / 3.3MB)

My contest entry from last month. There's some (read: a good deal of) out of key singing.

The lyrics are these:
There's the devil you know and the devil you don't
They'll both probably kill you but what devil won't?
It's what devils do
The pictures you keep pressed close to your heart
Are a timebomb waiting to tear you apart
But what else can you do?

What else is there?

And if another bitter winter follows every fall
Dress warm and walk through it, that's all

You can weave a rope from backwards glances
Build a gallows with the wood from unmended fences
But what good would it do?
It's not much, but keep it in mind
Like everything born you are doomed: be kind
What else can you do?

What else is there?

I will beat my head against this wall
Eventually one of us will fall
Good luck to us all

Edited to add: ("Dress warm and walk through it" is a possibly misremembered line from one of Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder novels.)

I used this stuff:
MU.LAB, BootEQMkII, PSP Springverb, GHi, VocEQPro-C, Hybrid Reverb 2, Ferric TDS, acoustic guitar, Studio Projects B1, Shure SM57.

The theme or challenge for the contest was to redo one of one's previous entries in a different style. I did a number on the vocals (with CMFuzz) on the earlier version. It now sounds fairly unpleasant to me and I didn't want it in the regular KVR music player, but if you'd like to hear it, you can find a link here: http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=298833&start=1 5 (The green link under "Old".)
Last edited by D.H. Miltz on Tue Nov 16, 2010 10:06 pm; edited 2 times in total

The acoustic guitar sounds really, really nice & has a great sparkle. Also really like the vocals, even with some rough spots

i really like this. the vocal parts that, um, wander off somewhat don't bother me (it never stopped will oldham) as they don't detract from the feeling of the song.
yeba!

neil.

this song is really great, I love it. Thank you!

Thanks for listening and commenting.

Also, I edited the first post to credit the source (I think) of the second line of the chorus.

Fabulous! And yeah, that's a character vocal, so some Waitsian scruff just adds to the mood.

I always thought you were English, or are you just affecting that accent?
Last edited by polyslax on Wed Nov 17, 2010 5:27 am; edited 1 time in total

Thanks very much, polyslax.

Nope, not English. American (Minnesota).

This is actually a really good song. Your voice has incredible character, and the occasional off-key note doesn't really affect the song all that much. But if you're concerned with singing off-key, Melodyne is a wonderful tool to acquire.

Here's another question though- did you really do this tune live at the school? What preamp were you using? I hear a lot of hiss in the background. If you did this live, there's not a lot you can do. Maybe you can try using a noise gate like Floorfish to cut down on the hiss.

All in all, I really like this song. I think you can do more material in a similar fashion to establish a signature sound for yourself.

Thanks for the feedback, MikeInOttawa.

The recording was done in my bedroom (the album title was just to amuse myself). SM57 to Edirol DA-2496 to computer for the vocal, SP B1 to Edirol to computer for the guitar. I played around with ReFIR a little for noise reduction but got impatient and submitted it to the contest hiss and all, and that's the version here. At some point I'll probably rerecord this one.
Last edited by D.H. Miltz on Tue Nov 16, 2010 11:27 pm; edited 1 time in total

Yeahs, how could one not like this (as to its possibilities). think I'll remember it when the aliens invade earth. (just read too much sifi, but whats the real story to this tune?). - steve

"Out of tune" singing often has its own charm. I think the singing style works really well here.

Nice song. Very good voice for this style too, sits beautifully with the guitar (wandering tuning aside).. actually a good antidote to the amount of autotune we get subjected to these days

Thanks for the kind words.

trewq, no real story to it, just part of an ongoing argument with myself.


Edited to add "an"--insomnia is not doing good things to my typing skills (not to mention the thinking ones).
Last edited by D.H. Miltz on Wed Nov 17, 2010 8:20 pm; edited 1 time in total

Interesting... sometimes you have this little avatar of someone in your head and it just gets totally rewritten. For the longest time I thought Ronnie (core) was Australian!

Your mic choice is interesting. I have the exact same mics, but would've gone B1 for the voice and SM57 for the guitar. Did you solo each track to see which one the hiss was coming from? Might be the SM57, as it takes a lot of gain to drive it.

I know all about re-recording tracks. Too much