It was a little bit inspired by this scene from Casa Blanca:


During a little bit of my free time I wrote a little monologue, and then decided to record it (after some practicing) and add some effects to it.
http://www.fature.net/tracks/ntom_Cigarette.mp3

Well, I was going to add music but after very brief discussion with one of the members, I have decided to upload the individual dry vocal tracks in a super high quality WAV for you guys to scratch and splice and deface or whatever you want to do. And to motivate you I have decided to make this a contest. So, with all contests come rules:

1) This contest isn't much different from the KVR contests. However, I am providing a little more leeway, such as more time to your tracks: Please limit your tracks to no more than 6 minutes (but it's okay if you go over a little bit - no more than 15 seconds)
2) The track must use the more than three quarters of the monologue.
3) you must provide a download link and a listen link (Best idea is host the song somewhere like soundcloud or post a .mp3 link)
4) file can only be in WAV or MP3
5) Please include your name (your KVR user name) in the file name and then Cigarette. You can change the songs title if you want, but please leave "Cigarette" in the file name. After Cigarette you may include your own title.
6)Contest starts the minute I hit post and ends the minute I get out of bed on...well I want to say the first of January, but that isn't enough time, so I will give you one month. You have until January 19th.
7)Any of the above things not followed properly (even the tiniest bit off) and the entry is disqualified!

I seperated the seperate voice files into 3 different parts. You do not need to download all of them to unzip the file! Click the "Part x" link to go to the download page. A description of what the zip file contains is below.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Part 1 file zip contains my voice normally and my voice deepened a little.
Part 2 contains my voice deepened by quite a bit and my voice heightened by quite a bit.
Part 3 contains my voice heightened by a lot and contains all 5 voices layered on top of each other (so you can hear the effect properly)
You can also download the monologue here in case you need it for help. It is password protected (For different reasons I don't care to explain) and so the password is: kvr

Lastly, let's discuss the prize; I am not exactly the richest man, and since it's not like I have a strong backing sponsor for this, nor am I a successful (or semi successful) software company, this reward comes straight from Nolan Murillo's pocket. So, I was thinking, winner gets $20. Doesn't sound too bad does it?
So for that case a new rule is added:
8. You must be willing to either A) Provide a correct shipping address, or B) Have a paypal account. (And to be honest, I would prefer snail mail over paypal - call me ol' fashioned if you will)
--And for those outside of the US, I will give you 20 US dollars worth of credit to any software or online purchase. (that's 15.30 euros)

Get crackin'! You can do any style from blue grass to rock to ambient to techno.

_________________________

Heres some text from the old post:

I still want to use this little passage as an intro, but...I probably won't use all the effects.

Quick little side note; there are 10 audio tracks of the same vocal part to make up this little "song".

SOMETHING ELSE RELATED TO THIS TRACK:
I was thinking...I would kind of like there to be a fast tempo (maybe not too fast, but atleast 110 BPM) part after this, so I was wondering; is it possible to make techno sad? I know it's possible to make it feel dark and scary, but what about a sad feeling while still moving fast?

AN EDIT:
Changed up this entire topics text to make it into a contest!
-Also added a prize for those outside of the US since I don't think Dollars would be worth much or do much outside of the US
-Also added a download link for the words to the monologue
Last edited by ntom on Sun Dec 19, 2010 2:53 pm; edited 5 times in total

Pretty interesting effect. I wouldn't call it a song though...there's no music...anyway...
You can make anything moody or sad by using a 'minor key'. (minor scale over a minor chord in some sort of arrangement.)
I sped this track up x1.4 in my windows media player. It sounds shit so I'm giving more of it. You'll get the 'minor' idea.
http://home.comcast.net/~newdabranck/music/deadmau5-strobe.m p3
Original speed at mp3 end.

I'll say this - the approach here was not well done. It could have been great if: you put in at least a rhythmic element and a supporting vibe - I'm thinking "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" here - the reverb quickly becomes annoying - you'll need to work on this to make it musically valid.

Your voice can support this premise - there was some promise in that. Create tension with your voice - manipulate it more, bring the reverb in and out - make it more electronic, and less predictable.

As an intro, I would say - I'm not sure I would follow what you are introducing.

My favorite response! I love it when people give those brutal honest opinions, it helps me grow that much more.
I suppose what you would say is that this is an early version. But like I said, I would probably lessen the effect if I included music as well.
I know it seems bland and kind of boring, the I was really trying to make it like I was simply telling a story, and nothing more. Well it's really hard to say what I was going for in my acting, but I'm happy with it.
I am playing around with the effect a little bit right now. I kind of like it dry anyways, so I may remove and make the reverb effect EXTREMELY subtle. Like I said, I am playing around with it right now.

I am not sure how to work this melody part. I may just make it strictly ambient, but I really want some drums.

But what I was aiming at is that I will have the vocal track come in with some just soft background music to it. Then once the little monologue is over I'd fade the music up (gently), maybe bring in some drums too at that point. I'm not really sure, it's kind of touch and go with this song right now. Well suppose at this point I can't call it a song, so right now let's call it a passage...or monologue.

Make it do something interesting, let it take me somewhere, let it travel. After all, we'll always have Paris

Actually you know what I would like - and don't think this is the lazy way out - but I want to see what you, or someone else can do with it. I will provide a download link to the original (Without all the effects).

I'll give it a try myself, but I am not exactly the most capable digital music artist here. In fact I hardly consider my work that worthy.

It would be my pleasure. PM me when you are ready.

Oooh, this could be fun. I think I should make a contest out of this.
Anyways, the WAV quality is so high that the files are a bit large, so it'll be a little while before I have all the parts up.
What I did is I included just my voice and all the other variations I used of it (all the adjust semi-tones on my voice) as well. Which I there are 5.
1 normally spoken
1 slightly deeper
1 really deep
1 high
and 1 really high.

Once the files are uploaded, I'll post the links (PM you) and edit the original post with some info on this little contest, and of course what the prize will be.

EDIT:
and due to an immensely long estimated upload time, I won't be able to get around to uploading the parts until later. The upload was eating all my bandwidth.

Guess that's why you didn't see mine. You caught me on a non-brutal day. Today I feel a little edgy though.

Now now, I saw yours...I didn't have much of a response to it though. Plus, I know we don't all like to read a wall of text response, so I try to limit how long my responses are.
It's funny, I tend to write long responses, but then I can't read someone elses long response, ha ha ha.

But thank you for your response!

Oh and I adjusted the entire main post! Whoo hoo! So now you, sir, can download my voice and then you can listen to it and fall in love with my beautiful voice...er wait...that's not why I uploaded them.
Oh right, the contest. I mean, you can download the voice files and make your own song out of my voice, whoo hoo! Then if you do exceptionally well, you get paid $20! ( might increase the reward...not sure)

That $20 is mine! Might as well send it now.

But seriously, I've downloaded the parts. What I have in mind probably won't involve the entirety of your spoken parts - I'm going to be looking for a number of phrases of interest to me, and manipulate them heavily - and I'll be giving you the Finger treatment (Tim Exile's of course), so to speak You can expect to hear a bit of Laurie Anderson and a bit of Brian Eno in the final product.

Hell, I like it when people butcher text in techno, heres a couple of examples of remixed songs that were completely butchered that I just LOVE
Bag Raiders - Turbo Love (Shinichi Osawa Remix)
The Killers Human (Ocelot Remix)
(The killers isn't quite as buthered, but it has the little "glitch" - I guess you'd call it - in the vocals, and I LOVE that...not sure why.)

You didn't reply to my answer to your question 'cause you don't know what a minor key is i'm sure. I even went to the trouble to upload an audio example, as my suggestion to your last question.

Your whole page is nothing but exactly that.

You are seriously out of touch.

I do know what a minor key. I put one of my own songs in a minor key. And I listened to your audio example.
And what I mean by "a wall of text response" is when one person writes an ass load of text worthy of being a short novel. I don't maybe not many people are like that, but I am impatient. If someone posts a long response I skim through it to go to the next response.
I'm sorry. Look, I am working on the song too. If you are frustrated because I made this into a contest and think that I am totally going to ignore you and be lazy by not doing anything and letting the others do it then thats wrong, because I actually have my little passage opened in my DAW right now. I am going to have my own submission too.
I am not going to lie, I am certainly no pro when it comes to composing (I already said that in a previous post on this topic) but I have been playing music since I was 9, so I think I understand some of the basics.

Oh my, this post has fallen down the page and onto the next page quite some ways.
I just want to make sure everyone knows about this contest! Perhaps the Lunar eclipse tonight might have sparked some inspiration!
I wish everyone luck on this contest!