summertime in bureaucratic portions
As this is quite a departure from the original so maybe a bit an open mind is required on first listen - it violates the set feel and build. Apologies to Henriette for this because I know how the original is quite sentimental to her.
100% Renoise.
Comments+thoughts are warmly welcome.
(p.s. sorry to Basil - the heavy one I promised is still cooking…)
edit: updated URL with higher quality mp3 and correct tags.
Cool beats. The vox could maybe need some reverb or similar, that also makes it easier to sing correct tone-wise.
Greets!
Some talkbox on the voice to compress the pitch to keep it in tone or Henriette doing some breathing excercises (read:shouting sessions) before singing might work better.
To much air bursting through the vocal cords can cause uncontrollable pitch levels.
(That’s just an advise i heard of an opera teacher once.)
pretty cool… i like it!!
Wow!Thats so cool you really capture the feelings I was carring inside, when I made this song in the summer for 4 years ago. It dosen’t matter that you been flipping the song around its really good and I like it. 
Liked this a lot! The bright strings with the basspad sound exellent, the ending keeps me wanting a replay! So incredibly fitting sad production to the sad vocals 
Wish it ‘took off’ with a bit more around 1:55, maybe make the bright strings coming at 2:30 come earlier?
Oh, and as cool as the end is, I think you could have done even more with it. Introduce a different chord and make a whole new part?
Good job! We’re digging it in our little home.
Thanks you two (and everyone else ), it was a pleasure to make, even though I did spend a lot of time on the surgical aspect of placing the voice to match the beats / notes.
Henriette, if you ever want to ‘do another take’ on the same vocals, matching the rhythm (minus the glitch) in this song, I’d gladly do the work to get you a blank version, then paste it up for a ‘real finished job’. If not, cool, as my other songs are nagging me to get back to them… hehe.
Sagosen (btw, congrats on +1000 posts!), I tried to contain my ideas on this one because I forced myself to work very quickly. The sharp end to the main section is certainly designed to make want to hit play again (i.e. no structual repetitions). Yeah I could have easily built another whole epic thing out of that ending drone: more chords, more beats, more arrangement of her vocals into even different meaning patterns. But a 5 minute song is just that.
Yeah I take your point about it ‘gearing up earlier’, but I’ve been in a fairly 
quiet mood. Which makes for good atmospheres.
Oh an btw, on Monday I’ve got to update the online file and spell Henriette’s name right in the mp3 tag. Feel free to change your own copies.
Btw2, how’s the engineering sound to everyone? I’m trying to get away from boosting the trebble in mixing, and there is none of that here in this mix. I’m keen to see if I can get the ‘warm sound’ to work.
Ok I’ve updated the URL with higher quality mp3 and correct tags. Henriette’s voice sounds a lot clearer now. This mostly so you can have the best version in your archive.
Thanks,
We’re listening to it now, the mix is definetly better.
She says she’ll sing it again btw, she sung it without metronome or chords in the background, so it should be more spot on next time. Singing to it here right now, lucky me to have her IRL for the real experience.
And btw, I have a couple of ideas for the stringey part; Why not include some single instruments like chello/viola? That would definetly change the song from very good to fantastic!
Yeah, ok looks like we’ll get a re-recording.
When I get the new vox I’ll looking into morphing that section into more of a chamber arrangement. I’ve only got a crappy old version of Edioral Orchestral, but I should be able to make it work.
Btw, as you will hear, the background brass is ‘real brass’, with a moog filter on it… Sitting low and subtle. There’s a very extra nice synths, the Imposcar for the drone, Cygnus at the end, and the plain old FM7 for the string bit. Oh, and the mellowsound mellowtron for the high strings.
And of course, dBlue’s glLLIiiitTTCHcHHCHH!!!
Here is a new and improved version of summertime with new and better vocals by me. I’d love some views from you guys, and it’s still not completely finished
This is awesome!!! 
Thanks Loius!
…And thanks to Henriette for putting the link up. I’m currently in “downtime mode” with my rig - once it all comes back together after repairs we shall propell this track out of the beta phase into the “timeless for at least 30 years” mode of delivery. We still got a lot of work to be done!
And for those of you who are grooving on the backing track sounds I’m working on finishing a 15 track albums that fairly much in this sonic space, except with me yodeling on it.
Henriette you should do an album?
Much improved vocals on the new version. The only line that sounds a little funny to me is “cannot be” right at the beginning of the song. Something I would suggest for the vocal mix (not including the fadeout section which is awesome!) is possibly putting some compression on the vocals–like an 8 to 1 compression, and then maybe a 2 second reverb layer–and maybe bring up the low mid eq up a little bit. Sounds like you’re using a really good mic.
The mixing of the vocals during the fadeout is a trip–it’s going to haunt me for a long time–it reminds me of Zoolook minus the cheesiness factor. Very very cool.
I like this song a lot. I look forward to hearing the final version.
This song is really addictive.
EDIT: It’s been a while since I was able to listen to a song on loop mode.
Thanks Mr. K… I’ll think about your mixing suggestions. I was trying to keep to keep it rather delicated and raw, but it’s a fine line between perfect placement and over-compression or overmixing. Or undermixing for that matter.
For the end I just made little ping pongs out her sustained notes, add a touch of glitch and slow attack. It’s all flurp without the cygnus drone though… ooo that’s the scary bit…
i’m really sorry i didn’t listen to this before now…
really nice sweet & soulful vocals
love the organ/pads and the drumtrack
very very dark… i love it. there is some good chord progression going on here.
the ending is AWESOME
Thank you:)