KVR Audio

lingyai · Post by **lingyai** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 6:04 pm

(This one, by Robyn Hitchcock, not the one in my signature)

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 6:10 pm

what does your ear tell you?

why do you expect someone to take your baby steps for you?

lingyai · Post by **lingyai** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 6:21 pm

jancivil wrote:what does your ear tell you?

why do you expect someone to take your baby steps for you?

Auntie Hedwig, err, sorry, Jan, PLEASE, not again, with this ongoing vendetta.

I knew you would pounce within a few minutes. Whenever I post something here, like clockwork you pop up to say something gratuitously nasty, and never helpful.

I won't speculate what moves you to behave this way. But if you don't want to answer, please, do the adult thing and just refrain from saying anything, as much as it may pain you. If you need to feel better, go kick a kitty or something instead.

If my ear told me, I wouldn't ask the question. Get it?

***

We now resume our regularly scheduled broadcast.... could anyone tell me what key this tune is in?

Grateful for any help

lingyai · Post by **lingyai** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 10:38 pm

So.... anyone else?

sjm · Post by **sjm** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 11:10 pm

lingyai wrote:So.... anyone else?

Have you tried playing along to the song with an instrument?

While I understand your frustration, Jan has a point here, which is that you won't learn how to determine the key if you never try. You might get it wrong, but at least you need to try on your own first.

Giving you the answer won't help you in any way

If you tell us what you've tried, we might be able to help you get there. It'll take longer, but you'll actually learn something on the way. Which means that it'll be quicker next time and at some point you won't be dependent on others any more.

lingyai · Post by **lingyai** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 11:45 pm

Sjm, I appreciate your point. However, I don't play any instrument and don't compose. I have no music theory training whatsoever. I sing. I cannot tell you the names of the notes that I sing. I can only tell whether or not I am in tune.

Giving me the answer actually would help me, as I am asking for a very specific reason. I recenlty got a very cool FX unit, the TC Helicon VoiceLive 2, which does a great job generating harmonies if it knows what key is involved. If you have instrumental backing, it knows when you feed that track in through an aux. But in the case of this tune, it is a cappella. So I have to dial in the key.

I am not going to study for months or years so that I can cover this tune.

I do not wish to rehearse the very well-worn debate one sees here re whether one should do everything the long, slow, formal hard way, or whether using such a FX unit is "cheating" as others prefer to craft their harmonies themselves, etc. To each his own. I just want to make this recording.

Here is an analogy. A while back a newbie asked in the Effects foum what Q is on an EQ. Rather than tell him to start from ground 0, and do a course in auditory physics, and then read a book or two on mixing, a non-newbie simply told him what Q is. As in, just helped a brother out, without getting judgmental, paternalistic, abrasive or prescriptive, which are the norm for Jan, in his posts to me and others.

So yes, I am asking a favour. Would someone simply tell me what key this song is in, so I can make the recording? I would be very grateful.

Bobbotov · Post by **Bobbotov** » Mon Feb 06, 2012 12:23 am

The song is in C flat major:-)

Shabdahbriah · Post by **Shabdahbriah** » Mon Feb 06, 2012 12:29 am

Bobbotov wrote:The song is in C flat major:-)

Ogg Vorbis · Post by **Ogg Vorbis** » Mon Feb 06, 2012 1:26 am

Shabdahbriah wrote:
Bobbotov wrote:The song is in C flat major:-)

OMFG

lingyai · Post by **lingyai** » Mon Feb 06, 2012 2:56 pm

Here's a PM to me from an onlooker:

"Wow. Everyone piles on. Why the heck can't people just be a little nicer. The smart ass who wrote Cb was actually right. Of course, he meant B. The song is mostly in the key of B, although Robyn is often off key in the tune (his pitch is really awful). The bridge uses the notes G#,F#,F, E and B (of course, I'm not adding the harmonies), which isn't a scale that I know of -- it just adds F as a "blue note" -- maybe you can post that question in your thread.

Sorry that people are being such a**holes."

sjm · Post by **sjm** » Mon Feb 06, 2012 3:55 pm

I'd have replied "B" earlier today if the Cb hint hadn't been posted after I went to bed. I assumed you'd already figured that bit out as you hadn't replied in the meantime.

A few months ago, you posted ( http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=329680 ) that you were looking into music theory and playing around with instruments, have you given that up? You seemed so eager to learn

Edit: I wonder if Bobbotov is a harp player...

lingyai · Post by **lingyai** » Mon Feb 06, 2012 4:06 pm

sjm wrote:
A few months ago, you posted ( http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=329680 ) that you were looking into music theory and playing around with instruments, have you given that up? You seemed so eager to learn

Well, the onset of 70 hour workweeks, and a publishing contract to fulfill on the side, doesn't leave me enough time for everything I'd like to do; until things ease up, I'll devote what little free time for music I have to producing with the tools at hand (i.e. my voice and ears) rather than studying for future use.

Anyway, I really was asking a very narrow question. Glad to have provided some amusement, anyway.

What key(s) is (are) this song in?