Seven years in the making - here is the first single from "Pippi is dead. And we killed her."

[JurassicJakob]

Dear friends of KVR.

I would like to hear what you think of my new track. I've tried to create minimalistic & intimate indiepop with the vocals at the center of attention.

In your honest opinions, what do you think could make the song better?

https://soundcloud.com/karljakob/on-repeat

[kloon]

Hej Karl Jakob!
Great track i like it alot. I get what you are going for with the rather dry vocals and mix. But, personally i would try a little bit more reverb. And also, when you mix the vocals this upfront and dry you should probably put a little bit more work in cleaning the vocals from smacking sounds in you mouth.

But those are just friendly advice, great song either way!

/Kloon (from Trelleborg)

[JurassicJakob]

That's great advice, thank you Kloon.

I have always struggled with reverb. I found that most software plugs make it sound epic but sort of 'cheap'. That is, you can always hear the digital simulation of the reverb rather than the real thing. Do you have any software reverb you would recommend? Right now i'm mostly using the Valhalla (VintageVerb, Room, Shimmering, Plate). Or should i record vocals in a church?

Ps. Hälsningar till Trelleborg! -- Jag bor i Malmö.

[Vortifex]

..

[fastlanephil]

I thought it was a real solid effort. The close vocals give it an intimacy that compliments the theme. Maybe pulling back from the mic a little would fix the mouth clicks or at least lessen their presence. I imagine there also is software that might scub out that sort of thing, hopefully with out dulling the vocal. I’ve heard mouth noises on tracks that actually complimented the vocals.

Good work!

[JurassicJakob]

I thought it was a real solid effort. The close vocals give it an intimacy that compliments the theme. Maybe pulling back from the mic a little would fix the mouth clicks or at least lessen their presence. I imagine there also is software that might scub out that sort of thing, hopefully with out dulling the vocal. I’ve heard mouth noises on tracks that actually complimented the vocals.

Good work!

Thank you fastlanephil for lending me your ears. I found that the closer I am to the microphone, the more intimate it sounds, so mouth clicks/noises might be inevitable or something to be fixed afterwards.

I thought it sounded great, no issues with reverb for me. Agree with the mouth noises, but apart from that nothing stands out as needing improvement. When the beat and vocoder kicked in at 1:16 I thought it was building up to a louder climax but it went somewhere I didn't expect. Overall a very nice track indeed.

Thank you Vortifex, I'm glad you like it.

[Frantz]

Strong songwriting. Fantastic arrangement.

The vocals are excellent but a little too loud for my tastes.

Very professional overall.

[Unfocused]

I think this is excellent. There should be more "minimal production" like this "out there" in general. I think it's great that the arrangement dominates this rather than the production. When I listen to a song, I don't want my first thought to be, "wow, that was great production." I want it to be," wow, that was a great song."

-u

[Bansaw]

Very good song. I think what you have that is most powerful is uniqueness.
Improvement:
Are the "female" vocals, just your vocals pitched up? If so, consider using a vocaloid, or EmVoice to add female vocals as a contrast.
The ending is a bit abrupt. Leaves you thinking that the internet connection was lost!
Those two things I mentioned were minor, I still love the song.
Loved the changes in vibe throughout the song. Keeps you engaged.

[Harry_HH]

AFAIK, Pippi Långstrumpa is kicking and alive, performing as a adult dancer.

[JurassicJakob]

Strong songwriting. Fantastic arrangement.

The vocals are excellent but a little too loud for my tastes.

Very professional overall.

Thank you Frantz! Yes i think you are right, the vocals are a bit too loud. In previous productions I have tended to hide the vocals behind layers of other instruments, so my idea was to 'turn it the other way around', not hiding behind anything. But perhaps I overdid it.

I think this is excellent. There should be more "minimal production" like this "out there" in general. I think it's great that the arrangement dominates this rather than the production. When I listen to a song, I don't want my first thought to be, "wow, that was great production." I want it to be," wow, that was a great song."

-u

Dear Unfocused, thank you for your lovely response. I totally agree with you. I've found that the artists in this 'genre' that I love the most -- e.g. Bon Iver, Frank Ocean, James Blake, etc -- combine unique productions with great songwriting, although in the later years the former tends to take a bigger and bigger piece of the cake. It is not interesting to listen to the same generic 'guy with a guitar'-music anymore (although still very prevalent in our culture i guess). However, and perhaps i'm a bit conservative in this sense, one should never forget how much strong melodies can express on their own. As long as the song is great, production can be shitty. I hope you will like the EP that I plan to release next year (having some even more minimalistic productions).

Very good song. I think what you have that is most powerful is uniqueness.
Improvement:
Are the "female" vocals, just your vocals pitched up? If so, consider using a vocaloid, or EmVoice to add female vocals as a contrast.
The ending is a bit abrupt. Leaves you thinking that the internet connection was lost!
Those two things I mentioned were minor, I still love the song.
Loved the changes in vibe throughout the song. Keeps you engaged.

Yes, you are sort of right. At first I used simple pitch shifting, but then I used Logics "varispeed" and recorded the vocals in a lower speed (which made them pitched up once played in the original tempo), which i think yielded better results. Thank you for recommending vocaloid and EmVoice, I will try both for sure (having looked for that kind of software before). The ending is intentionally left abrupt, as a play on the idea that the person singing stops playing 'your song on re-' (-peat), and moves on with their life. It might come of as a bit weird in the context of the seriousness of the song, but I was convinced by a friend to leave it like that. I'm glad that you love the song & thank's for the great feedback!

AFAIK, Pippi Långstrumpa is kicking and alive, performing as a adult dancer.

And here I thought she was doing time in jail. On a more serious note, the "Pippi is dead. And we killed her." "Pippi is dead. And we killed her." refers to the famous "God is dead"-quote by Friedrich Nietzsche, who used the phrase to express the idea that the Enlightenment had "killed" the possibility of belief in God. In my version, Pippi Longstocking -- being the symbol for youthful strength and adolescent naivety -- is the one being killed. This marks the end of a happy childhood and the beginning of real life.

[Bansaw]

"Thank you for recommending vocaloid and EmVoice"

Emvoice is better than vocaloid, and if you're on MAC, its free in Beta testing right now. Its a new plugin

[alvin81]

Beautiful track!

[vurt]

nice track
gentle pop rock, i like the dry vocals and don't think the pops detract, they give it a more natural feel to me.
perfection is over rated and removes the human touch

[JurassicJakob]

Emvoice is better than vocaloid, and if you're on MAC, its free in Beta testing right now. Its a new plugin

That's perfect, cheers. I've already played around a bit with it. Very creatively stimulating. Reminds me of that Radiohead song on Kid A (i guess it's even called Kid A). Or a bit of the robot in the Portal games. It occasionally crashes my Logic... but I guess that's a consequence of keeping "Lucy" (the computer voice) trapped in the computer. Can't wait to use this in a production!

Beautiful track!

Thanks Alvin81!

nice track
gentle pop rock, i like the dry vocals and don't think the pops detract, they give it a more natural feel to me.
perfection is over rated and removes the human touch

I'm glad you enjoyed that. I've intentionally left some 'cracks' in there so the light can shine through. That's the way i look at it. For many years i've tried to make perfect pop music, but it just lacks too much humanity (or maybe this is just an excuse because i just can't do it hehe).