So, yesterday I had fun geeking out recording a song for StarShipSofa's Christmas special. I thought I would just record one of the silly songs I'm doing with Anne tomorrow, but Tony, the old softie, actually requested Silent Night. Now this is actually a really hard song to sing well. I thought it might be kind of excruciating if I just sang it all by myself, because he asked me if I could get it to him sooner or later, so I looked in my collections of Christmas Carols and found an easy accompaniment, one that I could actually play without any mistakes. I chose the cheesy vibraphone sound on my electric Pai-anna and used the record function on it as well. Yah-ta! I did it! Then because I realized I didn't have the proper cables to attach the piano to my computer I just let the piano play the accompaniment and recorded it using Audacity. It gives it a nice "live music" feel, but makes for a pretty crappy recording. Oh well. Then I recorded myself singing the melody in English and then German. And then I worked out a harmony and proceeded to record myself singing the 2nd voice. Then Audacity crashed. And I lost everything I'd done because I was stupid enough not to save the whole time. But recording it all the 2nd time went quite quickly and Voila! I have an all-Diane version of Silent Night, which isn't half bad. It's amazing how well I sing with myself. I think I might upload it to My MySpace Space, if you'd like to hear it now. Otherwise, do Tony the favor and on Dec. 24th or after download his Christmas Special. I've also narrated a Christmas story for that show, so it'll be worth the wait!
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2 comments:
I look forward to hearing it. When Cindy Wilson left the B-52s for a while, Kate Pierson told interviewers how much she enjoyed doing her own harmonies. And I don't know if he still does it, but in the studio James Hetfield of Metallica used to play all the guitar parts himself except for the solo, which Kirk Hammett would play. Everything sounded much tighter that way.
Maybe you'll find you want to harmonize more with yourself in the future. It seems to work for people.
I was just amazed at how tight it was - I mean, I didn't really even try! I've only ever gotten the same effect when I sing with my mother. The timbre of our voices is similar and we've played and sung together since I was in the womb, I expect.
At any rate, it was really fun to put it together, maybe I'll do more for Tony in the future.
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