This guy!!!!

[ntom]

So 2 things:
1) this is a rant partly because I am just frustrated at this person, but I am not going to point fingers at who.
2) I need to kill some time.

So now that everyone who is entirely uninterested has left the post and those that remain are either going to leave their sentiments or just make an observation that I'm a bitchy individual who frequently likes to publicly post rants to KVR, let me get on with the story:

So I partnered up with a rather creative artist in doing a collaborative album. Primarily driven by me, he was suppose to be there to fill in the gaps of what my creativity lacked. I asked to make sure he was okay with this idea and he loved it. Good. He's on board.
So thankfully he did make a rather, singular hefty contribution and after much deliberation, we both agreed the contribution didn't fit the project. This was disappointing as I loved his contribution very much and it only reinforced the idea that I chose the right person to help me. Unfortunately the project is very specific and it just didn't quite work with the rest of the project.
So, we took a break from the project to think of other stuff. I wanted to let some craziness out because the project I had been working on is primarily a fairly dark piece, and frankly, I'm not that dark of an individual, so I needed a lighter piece. So I cropped up something, liked what I had written and realized "Wow, I can literally hear the lyrics that need to go with this song!"
Mind you, I am a horrific song writer so the fact the lyrics seem to come so easily to me seemed a bit of a blessing. I wrote them down, and talked it over with my collaborator as I figured; He can actually sing on key without the aid of software, unlike myself and asked if he wanted to break from out dark project for a wee bit and have him sing the lyrics. Once again, he thought it was a great idea and so I gave him the lyrics to sing, he expressed his thoughts on the lyrics and I made the revisions to the draft - this went back and forth a couple more times until now where I believe I have the final draft of the lyrics. This process didn't take long, in it of itself. However, this is where the frustration started brewing:

Okay, I'm a reasonable person, I KNOW shit can go down and interrupt projects - especially if the project you are working on is being done for free - so I gave him reasonable about of time to practice and sing the lyrics while I continued to work on the music of the song. And yet, here it is....3 months I believe since I sent him the lyrics and I am still friggin waiting on him. Frankly, just communicating with him over the past months has become difficult as he keeps disappearing from Facebook - which aside from Soundcloud (how I originally got ahold of him) is the only other method I have to communicate with him - then when I actually am able to get a message to him it's like a week later.

I'm losing my patience with this and I'm about to rip out my own hair because I want THIS STUPID SILLY PROJECT DONE so I can get back to the main project I had originally invited him to aid me with. If he wasn't actually all that interested, then why the FRIK couldn't he have just said, "No man, sorry, I don't have the time," or "No man, I'm just not interested," or "No man, I want to do my own thing," or "f**k off and go suck a dick," or any manner of ways of turning me down. I would rather be told "No" - even rudely - than to be stood up.
And you know what? This isn't the first time it has happened. Last time i wanted someone to sing in one of my songs it took OVER A YEAR to finally get the lyrics. And they were just the first take! It took so long just to get the first take of the lyrics I just gave up on giving any feedback for them because I didn't want to wait another year. And I am so thankful he did do the lyrics, he got the free pass on my patience. Now this other guy, he's unfortunate enough to not have the same advantage over the last time I had someone sing. I WILL NOT wait a whole year for some lyrics.

Needless to say, I sent him a message on Soundcloud first telling him to start emailing me since he keeps deleting his facebook, and secondly telling him to get the lyrics to me by Wednesday next week. I am pretty certain if he hasn't gotten them to me by that point he is off the project. Unfortunately that means I need to find someone with his kind of voice, it was perfect for this song. If I HAD THE money to pay I would, sadly, I'm broke. So that limits me to finding only artists that are willing to contribute out of the kindness of their hearts, and let's face it, there are like 3 of those in the entire world.

Thank you for reading. Looks like that killed exactly enough time. I need to run. Not enough time to proofread this article, so deal with all the typos. Sorry!

[LimboLoves]

People change their minds. While you thought he was a great fit, maybe he didn't think you were a great fit. I don't like making light music, and wouldn't want to spend a lot of time writing it. He might not want to disappoint you or have a confrontation. I agree, he should vocalize whether he wants to finish the project or not. Sometimes we cut our losses and look for the bigger honeycomb.

[ntom]

maybe he didn't think you were a great fit.

Fair point I probably should have considered. I think, if that were to be the case, it's masked that frequently he has told me he is impressed with my work. Then again, maybe this is just the "tone of voice" I associated with the message, considering all our conversations have been through text messages through Facebook and Soundcloud.
It is disappointing, but I guess that's the way it goes when you ask someone to do something for free.

*Micro Rant*
It's just irritating sometimes because I have frequently gone out of my way to aid people with their projects for free. Maybe I am one of the 3 people in the entire world who will stick through a project either until the Artist drops it or finishes it. If I was recruited for the project, if I like it: YES, of course! if I don't like it: no. I know how to use my words.
I saw this happen to my brother who was writing a comic series when he recruited his best friend to help him with the story arc, he agreed, but then later just vaporized into the ether without a single word of disinterest.

There have been projects I tried starting in the past that never got to see the light of day for this very thing: People just vanishing off the face off the earth and this DRIVES ME UP THE WALL.
I guess REALLY what I am more upset about that I needed to do this rant on is just people's lack of communication. Would I be frustrated if in the middle of the project he informed me he couldn't continue? Of course. But a lot less so than being stuck in limbo of knowing if he's actually going to contribute or not. And I've been fair; I've given him plenty of time to get his act together, and still there is little to show. So, yeah, like I said, I think I'm at the point where I just need to cut my losses and find someone else. We'll see what progress we have made by Wednesday. If that falls through I guess I'll ask random churches' choir members for help.
*End not-so micro rant*

[dune_rave]

Reading this story, I think now I understand why people "invented" things like Vocaloid ...

[ntom]

Reading this story, I think now I understand why people "invented" things like Vocaloid ...

Yeah, and frankly I wouldn't be ashamed of using something like that, or autotune. I don't think it's an excuse to forego real singing, but when you have as much trouble as me holding a note and you can't seem to find someone to do it for you, you have limited options but to resort to using these utilities. While I don't own Vocaloid I do have an autotuner that I have frequently used. Unfortunately, it's not professional grade and frequently result in a more robotic pitch snapping than something more natural like i have heard come from Melodyne, and so when you are going for a rock-esque kind of sound....it doesn't really work. It really only works with heavily electronic music in most cases due to how robotic the result is.

I also lack a decent mic. I have a Shure 58 which does the job and nothing much else. Maybe I should just start looking into getting Melodyne and a good mic. As I have been told many, many times in the past: If you want it done right, you got to do it yourself.