The Demoiselle D'ys

[Oldrottenhead]

nigel i am still at a loss for words, i just cant stop listening to this song, it has everything just awesome, ach am aw toungue tied, am away tae listen tae it again, braw.

[cuthbert]

This is incredible, Nigel - it's amazing what can be done with the MBR in the right hands. I start getting confused when my track count exceeds 12! 

I hear a bit of 'Sister Europe' in this, but your song feels less like a dirge, to my ears. It reminds me more of a Middle Ages ballad (maybe because of the lyrical content?) set to an Eighties post-punk soundtrack.

Love it - and please add me to the list of people who'd like a less compressed version. 

cheers,
cuthbert

[Ferryman]

Thanks so much for all the feedback everyone, I have spent so much time on this (especially recently) that I have got a bit too close to it to be objective, so as always it is great to have so much positive encouragement.

I thought I'd answer some of the questions folks have raised about this song:

- The large number of tracks. I do love the production side of things so tend to have a "big vision" in mind when I am thinking about a new song with lots of silly ideas about things I would like to do. I am also a "detail" person so like spending time doing this kind of thing. An example fo something that wasn't really "necessary" but I did anyway was the two guitar lead melody - at the start, just after the forest noises, these guitars are panned hard left and right to give a very open feel but after the drums start they come together in the centre of the mix at about L20 and R20 to fit better with the rest of the instruments. There was no way I could change the pan setting quickly enough, so I had to have two tracks with the wide panned early guitars, and then another two tracks with them panned more closely together.  There are loads of other little things like this on this track.

- The way I work is that I record a load of stuff, create an intermediate mix, record some more stuff, create a new intermediate mix and keep going. If I reach the 32 track limit, I just copy the song to a new song, rename it, delete all the tracks in song 2 except the most recent intermediate mix tracks, fill up song 2, copy to song 3 and repeat if needed. On this song, I used 6 tracks of song 3......

- Keeping it "clean". I've been experimenting a lot with mastering effects and I tend to master some tracks as I go to apply compression and EQ to get the sounds how I want them. So for example I processed the MBR drums very heavily with a mastering effect to "beef them up". I also had a "mastered mix" of the rhythm guitars, lead vocal and bass guitar, with a different mastering approach to which the "mastered" drums were added. Some of the later tracks, like keyboards and final guitars, were added without any mastering so that I wasn't remastering already mastered stuff, if you get my drift.

@64G - Audacity would work but I really do not get on well with DAWs, and also I can't be tied to the computer as the only PC with a decent sound card is the family PC and often it's in use. However, I will use Audacity or Cubase to master all the tracks for the "album". I am pretty certain I will get a BR800 when I can afford it though. The 192K version is over 7 meg so I couldn't upload it. And I love prog rock too!

@Ted - I will stretch out that ending. It's the easiest change I could make as it was the very last thing I added!

@j.g. - this is all me, I was the singer as well as playing all the instruments and producing it. And yes, there were arguments among the band.....

Back story - if anyone hasn't heard the other track I have done for the album so far (Cassilda's Song), it's here, along with a bit of info about the book and a link to it (available for free online):

https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?topic=2100.0

Finally, influences. Several of you have picked up on these, Cuth gets the Furs feel and djbride got the exact Genesis reference. I was intentionally going for an early Genesis feel (Trespass/Nursery Cryme era) in the middle part, but I didn't realise how close I had made some of it to the Furs. Also, the production is very Steve Lillywhite. But what the heck, I love the sound and feel of that stuff!

BTW, one inlfuence on this song is also Geir's song "The Tale of Two Ladies" https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?topic=3620.0, wihch he put out just as I started work on this.

Check out the Furs "Sister Europe" here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLCNIZTzg9w

Check out some great early Genesis here (warning, prog rock alert.....)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W35wtfcByIY

Guitar nerds may be interested to look at 4:10 as this may be the earliest videod use of "tapping" - some folks credit Steve Hackett with being the first to use the technique.

I'll email high res copies out tonight to everyone that asks. Thanks again for all the feedback.

Cheers,

Nigel

[OsCKilO]

Could You Explain that one more time Nigel.......

[Ferryman]

Could You Explain that one more time Nigel.......

In less than 64 tracks...........? Probably not.

[Oldrottenhead]

am currently listening to the song at 192kbps it is magical nigel. you wear your influences well but to me this is a very original piece and that is what is so outstanding about it. plus its so bloody catchy ive been singing "Tonton, tontaine," all day and not a clue what it means.

[Gritter]

What a song...I really dig it! Lots of details that add to the overall charm. Your voice has a familiarity to it that I've been trying to put my finger on. I hear a bit of Richard Butler from the P. Furs but the other voice yours reminds me of is Jah Wobble. Great work Nigel.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGqJ3PFRR_8

[Flash Harry]

Bloody fantastic - I'm going to have  to listen to this some more before I can make any constructive comment. But I love it...

[Tangled Wires]

Epic stuff Nigel, and your vocal sounds as good as good as I heard it before.

I very rarely make it into double figures for the number of tracks used, so can only admire the dedication and talent that goes into something as huge as this.

You always seem to expertly push the BR to its production limits, and no exception here.

[Ted]

the other voice yours reminds me of is Jah Wobble.

Oooooh...  You really know how to flatter Nigel, don't you Gritter?