Songcrafters.org

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Kenny Mac kindly offered to add a vocal to an instrumental written originally by Maxit as a piano piece, to which I had added a bit of orchestration and guitar.  Max posted the instrumental a couple of days ago which he called "Frankie Meets Orchestra." 

Kenny had written the lyrics and melody, recorded it and posted it to me in less time than it took me to work out how to log on to drop box! Phenomenal!

I did a bit of re-arrangement of the song - mainly stripping back the slightly over-the-top guitar solo and moving around parts of the orchestration so that it didn't interfere with the vocal.  I also added a bit more cello and double bass - as you do!

It was a bit of a monster to mix - about 50 tracks!


I hope you enjoy!  I know I did! Thanks to Max and Kenny for the opportunity to be part of this.

Paul Chapman

wow this is brill , love the change in tempo , and so many instruments to mix , superb lyrics and vocals , fantastic collab , maxit , kenny and chapperz  , cheers ..tony cee

Fantastic project gents very clever and im loving this orchestra sound. Its like two songs in one and fantastic lyrics. A really good collaboration. Well done ;)

Wow Paul, Maxit and Kenny...Wow, wow! What a great story on how this song developed and what a great lyric. I've listened every step of the way to the final mix and heard, as each new addition and mix, topped the last one. Kudos to you Paul for handling the 50 tracks (fine solo and orchestration), kudos to you Maxit for the piano and original song idea, and kudos to you Kenny for the perfect and fitting vocals. I bow to you all!

Farrell

wow - wow,

Superb. I'm glad I listened to the instrumental before I listened to this.

Wow

It's just brilliant

At first, all of you are "Songcrafter veterans" and it's nice to see/hear how you've found each other! I can't remember have you done any collabs together before...

This song has so many dimensions and everything is put nicely together (50 tracks!). Orchestral pop song at its best, and the outro is out of this world!! Can I hear a little ghost of Queen...?

Superb job!

This is THE spirit of Songcrafters - unexpected collaborations with amazing talents colliding. I love the way this builds. Definitely a dash of Queen, with some Beatles and ELO. The musicianship is superb, and Kenny sings it in such an intimate way. I love it. That ending alone is stellar. Absolutely incredible, fellas.

Special thanks to Paul, Maxit for letting me in on this .
They put so much into it and it clicked with me from the 1st listen.
The song to me is about someone who is locked in the grey atmosphere of something like lockdown and dreams of a sunny day when the world is back to normal.
If only .

Well I have listened to this song several times now just to catch all the parts and it is all outstanding the mix music and vocal are spot on you can tell this is a labor of love
Bravo to all my hat is off to each of you
V/R Tim

Holy macaroni - this is incredible! I love how spare and yet how lush it also sounds. Every piece fits perfectly in place, from the piano to the vocal melody and lyrics, to the lead guitar to the orchestration (which is to die for).

Truly outstanding performances, all around. You should all be very proud!

The instrumental was very good but this is stunning. The vocals add a whole new dimension to it and Paul has done a fantastic job with the arrangement. It sounds like a whole new song! The storytelling in the lyrics is really good and fits the dynamics of the music so well. Absolutely epic, well done chaps!

I do have a minor production niggle though, hope you don't mind. Listening on monitors I found the vocals get a bit lost, they seem quite mid heavy, especially the first verse. They get much clearer from the line starting "Mrs Bradshaw....." but before that they aren't centre stage enough for me. Maybe you could try the old doubling trick with a highly compressed and eq'd second copy of the vox to help them cut through.....?

No big deal though. This is absolutely epic, definitely one of my fave tracks for a while. Bravo again!

Quote from: Ferryman on June 24, 2020, 04:06:28 AMI do have a minor production niggle though, hope you don't mind. Listening on monitors I found the vocals get a bit lost, they seem quite mid heavy, especially the first verse.

May try another mix.

Brilliant collab lads. The melody is lovely and Kenny you have imagined that lead vocal so well. There is something weird and magical about this. Such a beautiful arrangement and the lyrics are so good.

Mike

oh Wow! This is epic! Stunning, interesting, so full of sounds and all so perfect. I´m out of words. Respect!

The original mix was not bad but Kenny and I decided that it could be better so I had another bash at it.  Ferryman was quite right, the vocals were a little lost at times so I brought them up a little and at the same time brought the backing down a little whilst adding a send to an effects channel with a waves compressor and just a hint of reverb.

I also took the opportunity to remove some of the harshness from my lead guitar parts.

I'm not sure if I should put the new version on the first post in the thread or add it.  I decided to put it here rather than risk losing its inclusion in the fest. (I've already deleted the banner once by mistake on this song and 64 had to add it again for me!)

Let me know if you prefer this version.

Paul

Been listening to both versions back to back. There's definitely a new clarity to the vocal, but I can't hear any other significant / noticeable differences (on headphones). Which is cool, because everything sounded fabulous first time around. I do prefer the clearer vocal though. It's just a bloody brilliant song!

Quote from: chapperz66 on June 29, 2020, 08:38:44 AMLet me know if you prefer this version.

I prefer this one! Nice work, the vocal is much clearer and the lower end "mud" is also pretty much gone. I felt the bass (double bass?) was much punchier and impactful as well, but maybe that's because the vox frequencies are not crossing over it so much. A subtle but nice change to the guitars, I can hear that on my studio monitors and it's the sort of thing I obsess with as well  :)

I also fell foul of deleting the Fest banner by posting two subsequent remixes of "Back to the Drawing Board", so you did the right thing by adding this as a new mix..... ;D

Thanks for the feedback chaps - really useful.  Not being a singer it is not often that I get to mix vocals so it was a bit of trial and error for me.  But a very enjoyable exercise and one that also produced a fine piece of music.

Thanks Max and Kenny.

Paul

The new mix is superb.

After philarcadia formed they decided to tour and fund a new album.
Alas they had no funds to get them out the local pub
After dipping into the piggy bank they had just about enough cash to hire local film maker chuck boulder to capture this session.
Although the band never got off the ground chuck went on to film the prize winning films ,cats take meows
, bolt thunder thighs connects and the classic swamp dogs in space.
He always said without philarcadia I would still be packing shelves in sordid Marys love market.








https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULD0rYOwLH4

Fame at last!  Nice work Kenny!

Paul

I'm still speechless! (well almost speechless) Bravo, bravo, bravo!!!!!!!! Everything is right about this video and song...........

Farrell

Oh my! Philarcadia at their best! Great video, we got to thank chuck for this unique and wonderful document!

What a bombastic song and performance! Very orchestral and melodic tune. Philargadia will reach number one spot on chart, I'm sure!

Bravo gents!

Wow... this is pretty bluddy amazing. I must have missed it first time...

It's all over the place, but it all adds to the experience... nothing felt out of place...

Brilliant.

Well done chaps.

Only just found this, didn't realise you had posted the video. It still sounds great, and the video is a very nice touch. Although it does seem to appear that two of the band members now work in music shops, given all the gear around them..... ;)

This is a fab song, please do more like this again.

What a fantastic video. Takes Songcrafter collabs to a whole new level. Brilliant work!