Video & comments: https://youtu.be/FGdvO1fcfu0
Recording sheets and details: link
Recorded & produced: May-Aug 2019; Apr-May 2020; Jan 2021
While taking vocals lessons again, I updated the previous Pink Floyd - Wish you were here - v1.2 version by:
replacing the lead vocals with a version one octave higher. While the voice is thinner at least the embarrassing vocal fry from the low pitches is gone. The video is old though so there are a few odd lip syncing issues - will fix in a future recording.
removing AutoTune as I'm working to hit the right pitches while recording
This song has been in the works for quite a while, probably for several years. It took a lot of analysis of the original and then practicing to get it into this shape. This is however a cover of the live version from the David Gilmour Live at Pompeii concert from 2015 since it's the version that I like the most.
Only the first of the three lead guitar sections was with an acoustic. For the other two I had to switch to an electric (with the Variax Acoustic sample) because on the acoustic my fingers just couldn't do the extensive bending at and above the 12th fret. It would have sounded nicer but this just wasn't possible for me at this time.
There's a 12 string continuously playing the main theme in the background. Since I don't have an acoustic 12 string I used one of the Variax sampled instruments. Then it gets joined by a 6 string that was reasonably buzz free. Note to self: apparently deesser plugins are used at mixing time to reduce the string buzzes.
The major difficulty was to sing powerfully enough for the low notes. I also experimented with backing vocals one octave higher but that ended sounding really bad so I skipped them.
I settled on using the Abbey Road 60s Drummer samples as they were the closest to the live recording.
It's a more complicated bass line for this one. It is really rewarding to play though as it overlaps neatly with the 12 string rhythm line.
This is a filler that is sorely needed as the song builds up. I used a small MIDI controller for recording it.
There's a small piano solo starting at 3:30. The rest of it is just backing chords.
I continued learning about effective uses of compression, reverb, equalization. There's much to learn still.
I finally got proficient enough with Cyberlink PowerDirector 17 and had a really productive process. Once the shadow files got created I could edit the 10+ separate tracks and play them back nicely at HD quality. Only when adding the text overlays I had to degrade the quality of the preview. When using Vegas Movie Studio 16, exporting the track normally took me towards 30 minutes with hardware acceleration for these many tracks. With PowerDirector it was 5 minutes on the same hardware because it was using the GPU a lot more. I'm really glad that I made the switch.