Cover challenge 2018 - WIP - M57 - End of the skyline

Hi everybody,

This weekend I finally found a few hours to record my cover of @M57 's beautiful track 'End of the skyline' for the cover challenge 2018.
I'm very shy of my vocal work, so I decided to record it acapella. So be brutal with me. Kill me. Or let me know what worked ;-) For me this is a 'study'.
Of course I checked in the background with a few of our fellows 'ears' I trust, and already got some nice pointers to help me how to improve. I hope I'll have a few hours this week to implement the changes I agree with. But for now, first please a big round of applause to @M57 for creating this beautiful song!
Here's Mark's breathtaking song:  https://soundcloud.com/m57/the-end-of-the-skyline

And here's my acapella interpretation: https://soundcloud.com/martimedia/endoftheskylinecover/s-25Kdj

Let me know how you think/feel after listening to both versions! Do you like the different approaches? Should Mark or I throw each other's work in the shredder? Anything you'd like to let both of us know. Share it with us!

Cheers! And thanks @M57 for allowing me to experiment with your beautiful work!



Lyrics:

A river of oaks glides
Down the hills that follow the contours into a fog line
And as the clouds fill in the sky
Edie asks me to take her to Ashville

 Then high winds, they blow us apart
 And lightning strikes and we begin to doubt
 Then all the things that can conspire to turn the car around
 So we’ll never see the end of the skyline

If dragons could give us reminders they’d tell us
You’re barely fleeting and you need to be much kinder
And take your place between the weeds and stars and gods you can’t understand

Arranging, fretless bass, piano, vocal, production, yada yada, and of course..

I think this is an amazing piece of work. You and @M57 have very similar vocal chops so this cover is right in your wheelhouse........but what a cool way to do it!

Very bold.......well done!

I totally agree with @Leonard Scaper, great cover version 

For one, I’m always impressed when the only instruments used are vocals and this is no exception, sounds really good! 

/Micke

Hi @Mar T. it is amazing  this sounds  great,  awesome 

this must have been so much work, i wonder how you figure out the arrangment, where do you start? do you build this up from the vocal bass line....or do you start with singing the lyrics and melody and then go find the other vocal instrumentation parts?
also the mixing of the various vocal parts must be very difficult, the levels relative to each other of all the vocals sounds very good to me, with the lyrics  and main vocal staying clear and audible....


amazing, a load of extra karma coins from me

Cheers @Leonard Scaper, well @M57 has a slightly different range (I pitched down 1 semitone from the original, couldn't hit it as high as Mark. I added some deep vocal bass to make up for that  ;-)

Thank you @Layerson , was a lot of fun to create!! And we're here because of that fun haha.. Thanks for listening!

@Dutchbeat , cheers!!
Well I first asked Mark for permission. Last week in my spare time I played only the bass part of this track to a midi track. In Reaper (when turning on the metronome) I had enough to work with. And when the different voices stated to contain enough root notes and groove, I turned off the bass midi track and metronome and finished it.
The arrangement happens real-time. I needed 2 hours to record this. In my head (without knowing too much about musical theory) I 'know' how I want the chords to sound. I just sing along with what I hear in my head (which is a lot of different versions of this song). And I love improvising, so it happens that I surprise myself (also in a bad way haha). Unfortunately I'm afraid I have no time to tweak it further before the deadline arrives, but at least I didn't miss this challenge this time!
So what you hear is not an arrangement that's well thought out haha. It just happened this way. Another version would sound completely different.

The only thing I always worry about is that I love how it all sounds through headphones, but when I listen on speakers it never sounds like I want it to. I hear every detail and imo every single note is not perfectly pitched. Learned here to let it go out of my system anyways.. And again I'm happy I shared. I'm open to very harsh and honest feedback as well btw, I'm really self-critical so I can handle it!

How clever! Very well worked out and organised @Mar T. You have certainly won the Most Original Interpretation Award with this unique offering. A most enjoyable and intriguing listen 

Bloody fantastic @Mar T. !!! Two suggestions though
1) Think a little more ambience would not hurt and 2) to me the low (bass) vocals sounds a little off in a few places. To me they sound just a tad above pitch if that made any sense? Seems to be on some of the short 'omphs' e.g. around 8-9 secs. Or maybe it's just me, we're talking cents here I guess

Nice job there @Mar T. ! and nice song @M57 !

I will say, from experience and knowing a lot of people who do a cappella music, that seeing an arrangement from beginning to end and then getting a recorded performance of it is no small feat! So, sincerely, congratulations! I hope someday I can do that....finishing it is a huge deal!
Reviewing the singing is too much like my day job so I'm not going to do it.  I come to the kitchen for fun! 

You mentioned being concerned about the pitch of each note - well the people that do these a cappella songs on YouTube, Pandora, etc.. they use a computer to tune each note, really. They admit this in interviews and usually the a cappella groups send the tracks out to someone who is a pro at comping and tuning the vocals without it sounding "autotuned" . When groups ( esp. Barbershop Quartets) perform live they can manipulate the pitch real time to get the chords to "ring" but it may not even be possible with one person recording multiple tracks. Point is: this is just as good or better than a lot of the stuff out there - you'd just have to send it out for editing like they do.

So, yeah, all this to say - Good show! Nice work!

- 11  

Your voice is magic!! 

@Mar T. I already told you in a PM how bold I think you are to make a cover of this symphonic masterpiece by @M57 . But (of course) you managed to create your very own version. And what a job you did!
You have no reason at all to doubt your vocal abilities or intonation. Of course you could boost the individual voices to the highest level of perfection by editing them digitally, just like some professional acappella bands sometimes do, but this would, in my opinion, deprive much of the humanness and natural beauty of your recording. It is perfect enough, honestly!
There is a small technical issue at 0:48 and again at 1:54 (...can conspire...). But that's the absolute only thing that doesn't really satisfy me about this track.

Jeez @Mar T. - what a HUGE amount of work that goes into such a performance.. In awe here..


A great song by @M57 and really this is some achievement to arrange it and perform it like that. Respect!!! Very very well done...


Thanks for explaining how you approached it - I wouldn't know where to start...


Wow!


K

Cheers everybody, thanks for listening! On my mobile in Mallorca (Spain) this week, I'll respond in detail when I'm back! At least I'm glad you liked this version! Didn't have time to improve it, but I will, even when the challenge is closed.
Grtz freon here!

Just wanted to say that Mar T's interpretation of my song is both bold and inspired in an of itself.  I never would have expected anyone to try and cover one of my tunes much less with an acapella version - and acapella is my thing professionally speaking, both as a performer and composer! I've composed quite a few unaccompanied vocal arrangements and original compositions in my time - so I very much appreciate the depth of Mar T's skills in that regard. The place where he takes liberties to create texture are perhaps my favorite spots; I think these are the places where his truest voice speaks. Of course, it follows that rewrite of the lyric here and there doesn't bother me at all.

Congrats @Mar T.

How clever! Very well worked out and organised @Mar T. You have certainly won the Most Original Interpretation Award with this unique offering. A most enjoyable and intriguing listen 

Cheers @MichaelA , thanks for listening and commenting! Haha I loved to read I won your originality reward!! Still listening to all entries (catching up, just back from vacation), curious how your entry sounds!!

Bloody fantastic @Mar T. !!! Two suggestions though
1) Think a little more ambience would not hurt and 2) to me the low (bass) vocals sounds a little off in a few places. To me they sound just a tad above pitch if that made any sense? Seems to be on some of the short 'omphs' e.g. around 8-9 secs. Or maybe it's just me, we're talking cents here I guess

Hey @Jambrains my friend, thank you for listening and lending me your ears! I'm definately going to improve this WIP, but for the 'challenge' I'll leave it as is. What do you mean by 'ambience'? Is there too less 'room' and too much 'hall'? Great pointers about the pitch in the bass notes, I hear what you mean now (not having listened for a while, and just listened again). Good pointers!
Great to read you enjoyed it!

Nice job there @Mar T. ! and nice song @M57 !

I will say, from experience and knowing a lot of people who do a cappella music, that seeing an arrangement from beginning to end and then getting a recorded performance of it is no small feat! So, sincerely, congratulations! I hope someday I can do that....finishing it is a huge deal!
Reviewing the singing is too much like my day job so I'm not going to do it.  I come to the kitchen for fun! 

You mentioned being concerned about the pitch of each note - well the people that do these a cappella songs on YouTube, Pandora, etc.. they use a computer to tune each note, really. They admit this in interviews and usually the a cappella groups send the tracks out to someone who is a pro at comping and tuning the vocals without it sounding "autotuned" . When groups ( esp. Barbershop Quartets) perform live they can manipulate the pitch real time to get the chords to "ring" but it may not even be possible with one person recording multiple tracks. Point is: this is just as good or better than a lot of the stuff out there - you'd just have to send it out for editing like they do.

So, yeah, all this to say - Good show! Nice work!

- 11  

Thank you for taking the time to review and comment on this track @Bill from November Sound , that's appreciated!
AND it made me a bit more confident it was the right thing to do to release my WIP untouched by autotune stuff.
I'll consider having this piece edited (just for curiosity what a producer can do with it). Great tip!

... Your voice is magic!!  ...

Always love that @Goatrelated goatie heart! Makes me verrry happy!! CU soon!!

@Mar T. I already told you in a PM how bold I think you are to make a cover of this symphonic masterpiece by @M57 . But (of course) you managed to create your very own version. And what a job you did!
You have no reason at all to doubt your vocal abilities or intonation. Of course you could boost the individual voices to the highest level of perfection by editing them digitally, just like some professional acappella bands sometimes do, but this would, in my opinion, deprive much of the humanness and natural beauty of your recording. It is perfect enough, honestly!
There is a small technical issue at 0:48 and again at 1:54 (...can conspire...). But that's the absolute only thing that doesn't really satisfy me about this track.

@Mark Luto Ahhh good to hear you appreaciate the creative/uniqueness, I indeed forced myself to pick a very difficult (and craftful!!) song and challenge myself to do this with only my voice. It was kind of a study and I had so much fun 'sketching' this raw (and wip) draft.
You gave me some confidence about the vocal work as well, and you know I need that!! 
As for the lyric: yes man! I noticed that a few days after the record, when I was reading along with @M57 's words. Damn! That was unintended and happened by accident. I'm not sure my 'mistake' is grammatically/semantically correct.. Maybe an natively english member can give his/her view on that aspect. If the sentence is a complete error when singing: 'and all the things we can conspire to turn the car around' plz let me know. It's in three vocal takes (three different voices) so that's a 'thing' to correct 
Thanks for listening bro!

Jeez @Mar T. - what a HUGE amount of work that goes into such a performance.. In awe here..

A great song by @M57 and really this is some achievement to arrange it and perform it like that. Respect!!! Very very well done...

Thanks for explaining how you approached it - I wouldn't know where to start...

   
Karen!! Wow now I'm blushing @Zedd !! Cheers, so glad you like it!! That makes someone across the pond very very happy!! 

Just wanted to say that Mar T's interpretation of my song is both bold and inspired in an of itself.  I never would have expected anyone to try and cover one of my tunes much less with an acapella version - and acapella is my thing professionally speaking, both as a performer and composer! I've composed quite a few unaccompanied vocal arrangements and original compositions in my time - so I very much appreciate the depth of Mar T's skills in that regard. The place where he takes liberties to create texture are perhaps my favorite spots; I think these are the places where his truest voice speaks. Of course, it follows that rewrite of the lyric here and there doesn't bother me at all.

Congrats @Mar T.

@M57 Mark, cheers man! Thank you for giving me the opportunity to have your excellent track as input, to play with. I love this track a lot and I had so much fun trying different vocal approaches. I didn't know you had a specialization in a-capella work, do you have some takes from the past to share with us? I would love to hear that!
I'm very happy you actually liked my results (in the ears of the original writer one can easily 'screw up' the song I guess). The sweet spots you mention were indeed my favorate parts to 'fill in the space' that otherwise contained instrumental accompaniment.
I'll certainly polish this one in the near future when I have some spare time.

Cheers everybody! Catching up to all other entries (listening and commenting) and I'm already in awe of what I heard so far. Brilliant and fantastic challenge entries aGAIN!!

Love, peace and happiness!
Mar T.

fantastic song @M57 very clever cover  @Mar T. sounds great