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Print Story MFC XIV entry - It's not techno!
Music
By 606 (Mon Dec 24, 2007 at 02:36:44 PM EST) mfc, music fun challenge, MFC XIV, acappella, not techno (all tags)
Oh man, are you ready for an amazing bassy remix of a Christmas carol with an 808 beat and sharp trancy synth lines? Are you? ARE YOU?!

TOO BAD. I don't have anything like that for you. Instead I have the number one thing you likely didn't expect me to do. It's my Christmas present to you:

Little Drummer Boy (Acappella)


I must apologize for a few sour notes in there. I missed the mark in a few spots. In terms of a Christmas gift the song is kinda like one of those macaroni-covered tin cans spray-painted gold you'd get from your kid in kindergarten. At least I had good intentions.

Also, now I can resume demanding mns turn the vocals up in his mixes without the hypocrisy of not having used my voice at all.

Previously I lived in a catch-22 where I didn't own a mic because I worried my vocals suck and I wouldn't use it, but I didn't sing anything because I didn't have a mic to record it with. But then I said "screw it" and sang this into the built-in mic of my MacBook (enjoy the crackle and hiss, folks). Having deduced my vocals are not completely terrible it looks like a nice microphone is on the post-Christmas shopping list. Although I will be too nervous to sing when my roommate is in the house...

In terms of why I picked this song... it was the first to come to mind. At first I worried about how the lyrics are so Christian but then I thought, man, people sometimes get weird about religion and see it kind of binary. They assume that if you sing a song about Jesus you also are cool with stoning gay people. Well, I'm tired of that. Like almost everything Christianity has good parts and bad parts and though there are huge parts we can afford to lose there are some neat parts too. Even though Jesus likely didn't exist or at least didn't exist exactly as the Bible says; the story of this incredibly decent guy who loved everyone without judgement even while they were torturing and killing him is one that we shouldn't be afraid to think about at least once a year.

Jesus turned water into wine, so buy your friends/family an extra round at the pub tonight and have a good time.

Merry Christmas HuSi!

< Happy Holidays! | BBC White season: 'Rivers of Blood' >
MFC XIV entry - It's not techno! | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 hidden)
Tease! by R343L (4.00 / 1) #1 Mon Dec 24, 2007 at 02:53:40 PM EST
I was all, woot! Awesome techno bass stuff! Then .. wait, not? Well, I'll download it anyway.

Also, I agree wholeheartedly about your sentiment about Jesus. It's the reason Jesus Christ Superstar still affects me.

And, I shall be going to the pub. After I am Legend that is. I have gettisoned the Christmas Eve services thing. I would get maudlin. Not Good. But booze? Yes!


"There will be time, there will be time / To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet." -- Eliot

I Am Legendary Omega Man by 606 (2.00 / 0) #3 Mon Dec 24, 2007 at 03:28:01 PM EST
I Am Legend looks pretty good but I learned there's a movie called The Omega Man based on the same book. I downloaded and watched it. It's made in 1971 and stars Charleton Heston as the manliest man's man ever, driving in his Mustang with a machine gun and shooting at everything that moves, drinking blended scotch whiskey, and listening to mood music on his 8-track.

As I understand it has pretty much the same plot as I Am Legend but infinitely cheesier. I recommend you compare and contrast for fun.

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imagine dancing banana here

[ Parent ]
I've seen Omega Man by R343L (2.00 / 0) #6 Mon Dec 24, 2007 at 06:41:38 PM EST
And I've read the book on which the movies (there are three -- a Vincent Price one exists too!). Omega Man while sharing some of the outline of the plot is not really the same.

Coming back from this I am Legend, I would say it is closer to the book (in tone and plot, though of course updated for, um, the current time), but I don't remember there being quite so much fighting. Nor do I remember 28 Days Later style infecteds. That said, it was a pretty good movie ... for its genre. Which is kind of sad really. But still, good. I jumped. I almost wanted to cry, etc. :)

"There will be time, there will be time / To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet." -- Eliot

[ Parent ]
ooh, a third one?! by 606 (2.00 / 0) #7 Mon Dec 24, 2007 at 08:15:12 PM EST
I'll look for this Vincent Price version of the story. Sounds intriguing. I Am Legend is on my list of movies to see, certainly. I've heard it's got more good parts than bad parts and that's all I ask in a film.

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imagine dancing banana here
[ Parent ]
It'd almost be tempting to go the full Sam Beam by MohammedNiyalSayeed (4.00 / 1) #4 Mon Dec 24, 2007 at 03:35:40 PM EST

route, and rather than gate the extra noise off, leave it in, then add an additional couple of crazy-ass-but-subtle vinyl crackling noise, left and right.

Regardless, \m/ for keeping it real.


-
You can build the most elegant fountain in the world, but eventually a winged rat will be using it as a drinking bowl.
That looks expensive by 606 (4.00 / 1) #5 Mon Dec 24, 2007 at 03:43:49 PM EST
...and really good. But mostly expensive.

For a hundred bucks the SM58 looks good, but I'll have to get a proper preamp. Money money money...

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imagine dancing banana here

My vocalist friend got a Beta 58 (maybe 58A?) by Phil Urich (4.00 / 2) #8 Tue Dec 25, 2007 at 07:14:19 AM EST
I forget exactly, it's plush and all, but I've been needing a dynamic mic myself (maybe not to record ME, but, yaknow) and yeah, one looks around, one sees sweet, sweet mics . . . and then ones buys an SM58.  I'm not even sold on the Beta 58, I'm told it's all "improved" and blah but I've seen true, normal SM58s that have obviously been to hell and back and yet some band'll still be using them fine for lead vocals. 

Also, at some point I plan on dragging out my family's accordion and learning to play it, and I remember reading an interview with Geoff Berner:

So having played accordion both in a rock band and solo, what’s the best way to mic it? Did you ever run it through pre-amps and amps, or have you always stuck microphones on it?
I would not dare to give people advice on that. I’ve seen lots of different set-ups. I tour solo a lot, and I have a suitcase and my accordion. The less ‘other stuff’ I have with me, like microphones, pre-amps, pedals, all that nonsense, the better. I don’t really want to have someone rummaging around in there, drilling holes and installing electronics, either. I’m fine with just two standard 58s, one on either side. The one thing you get is a lot of rock sound techs who have no bloody idea what they’re doing when it comes to an accordion. What they’ll do is put up the 57s, because they’re instrument mics. But they’re unidirectional, for putting in the sound hole of an instrument—like a guitar, say. And that’s all most rock sound techs know how to mic, which is an acoustic guitar. And you’ll have this discussion with them and say, ‘Actually, 58s work better.’ They’ll pull the whole ‘I’m the sound tech here’ thing.

And you do the ‘I’m the guy who’s been touring as a solo accordionist for seven years’ thing.
Inevitably you get screaming feedback, immediately, as soon as they turn the rig on. I try not to insult them by actually putting my fingers in my ears before sound check begins. But I’m probably working on a mild case of tinnitus because of it.

So you’re suffering in order for these sound techs to learn their lesson.
Once again, I’m suffering for humanity. Another Christ-like aspect of my career! As if any further were needed.

I have to very much agree with MNS by Phil Urich (4.00 / 1) #9 Tue Dec 25, 2007 at 07:39:05 AM EST
Actually, the noise gate was the only part I didn't entirely dig about the track.  Very cool.

As far as the J-Man goes, this time of year inevitably I think about treating him like Santa.  Sure we may tend to doubt the, uhhh, shall we say "literal veracity" of the tales, and I'd say rightfully so, but there are still some warm feelings and heartfelt messages to be gleamed.  Although I do find it hilarious when people actually believe "HOWIWASTOLDINSUNDAYSCHOOLWAS100%ACCURATEANDTRUE".  I can't help but laugh at such folks.  Like, seriously, have you even read the "Christmas Story" in any form other than a children's book?  At a young age I started wondering why none of my relatively seemed to notice how Matthew and Luke's accounts were mutually exclusive . . . buuuut yeah that's enough of me rambling, I should shut up and get my own MFC submission out the door.

Again though, kudos!

MFC XIV entry - It's not techno! | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 hidden)
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