Project: Queen For A Day

[Aloysius]

Doesn't sound anything like Queen imho.
There is definitely a seventies kind of thing going on there.
There is an immediately apparent professionalism to what you're doing, from the very first note. Could be you're very experienced or alternatively you've copied some old song arrangements.
Something odd about your vocal sound. Something odd about the mix.
Your voice can carry a tune. If recorded and/or mixed properly, I'd enjoy listening to it more.
I love the 'backing vox' effect. I'd like to know how you achieved it.
The lyrics are pants.

[McLilith]

The vocoder lines definitely add to the ELO flavor. If I were to ever publish a song with my vocals on it, you can expect all those vocals to be vocoded, because I can't sing nearly as well as you.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm also getting a bit of a Jim Steinman feel from this.

Overall, I like it.

[AnX]

not bad actually, i wouldnt say it sounds anything like Queen or ELO tho. The vox is prob the best part (tho the vocoder parts could do with more sustain)

the rest sounds a bit "midi file" to me. Not very natural. I think a good string arrangement would fill it out nicely.

overall vibe is that is sounds quite English, and a bit like a TV theme tune...

[telecode]

Nooo!! Don't do ELO!!! I am a huge 70s fan and love all those records from the era, but ELO was one band who's output I hated. I don't know why. Maybe its because they sounded like a sensationalist Beatles rip off. I would rather take Ferrari's dog song over ELO music. At least they didn't pretend to be anything more than they really are and you got what you see from them.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytaDh6yxHrw[/youtube]

[AnX]

Maybe its because they sounded like a sensationalist Beatles rip off.

he was a big fan, i think he wished he was the 5th Beatle

ELO did some good tunes tho, Livin' Thing is great

[telecode]

Maybe its because they sounded like a sensationalist Beatles rip off.

he was a big fan, i think he wished he was the 5th Beatle

ELO did some good tunes tho, Livin' Thing is great

I was (and still am) a big fan of the Jeff Lynne productions of the late 80s/early 90s. I also saw some very very early ELO performances online and I was very impressed with how they sounded in early stages. Sort of T-Rex meets early Fleetwood Mac during the Peter Green era. But the later ELO records just sounded too polished and commercial for my tastes. What can I say. I am guy who wears Ramones and Todd Rundgren t shirts..

[enCiphered]

What can I say. I am guy who wears Ramones and Todd Rundgren t shirts..

Oh, come on dude! This is so old school!!

This is what cool people wear today:


\m/

[telecode]

What can I say. I am guy who wears Ramones and Todd Rundgren t shirts..

Oh, come on dude! This is so old school!!

This is what cool people wear today:


\m/

I am not cool. I am old. I am fuggin 100 years old!

[enCiphered]

[wagtunes]

Doesn't sound anything like Queen imho.
There is definitely a seventies kind of thing going on there.
There is an immediately apparent professionalism to what you're doing, from the very first note. Could be you're very experienced or alternatively you've copied some old song arrangements.
Something odd about your vocal sound. Something odd about the mix.
Your voice can carry a tune. If recorded and/or mixed properly, I'd enjoy listening to it more.
I love the 'backing vox' effect. I'd like to know how you achieved it.
The lyrics are pants.

Thanks for the listen and the feedback. I didn't add strings because I didn't want to actually go into ELO territory since Queen doesn't traditionally use strings in their arrangements.

As for the lyrics, well, I'm no lyricist so they are what they are.

The backing vox effect was achieved with Antares AVOX. It's supposed to do "natural" background vocals but because I stripped the input channel from the mix, all that came out was the synth voices, thus giving it that vocoder effect. It was not intentional. I stripped the channel because the natural background vocal was horrible and I wasn't going to keep recording over and over to get the sound I wanted. It wasn't happening. This is what made me realize that doing Queen vocals is near impossible. Forget that I'm not Freddie Mercury.

Anyway, I now have to decide if I'm going to straddle the fence between the two bands or just go full tilt ELO.

Nothing has been decided yet.

[wagtunes]

not bad actually, i wouldnt say it sounds anything like Queen or ELO tho. The vox is prob the best part (tho the vocoder parts could do with more sustain)

the rest sounds a bit "midi file" to me. Not very natural. I think a good string arrangement would fill it out nicely.

overall vibe is that is sounds quite English, and a bit like a TV theme tune...

As I said above, I didn't do strings because I didn't want to actually go into ELO territory. The arrangement is actually quite sparse. Piano, bass, drums, lead guitar and vocals. And that's it.

As for more "sustain" on the vocoder parts, I don't even know what that means. You don't sustain notes that are sung staccato or quickly, and most of the background vocals are as such. In fact, I had enough trouble playing the MIDI part to get the harmonies just right.

[AnX]

by sustain, i mean the last word in each line (of the vocoder part) could be held a bit longer, sounded too sharp to me.

[wagtunes]

by sustain, i mean the last word in each line (of the vocoder part) could be held a bit longer, sounded too sharp to me.

That's because the way I sang the vocals was so short. There wasn't much to sustain.

[Aloysius]

thanks for your reply wags.

[mladi]

Musically, I know I have the skills to write like Queen.

Are your skills on vacation or what happened to them?