No substitute for talent!

[littledog]

Just finished tracking a vocal session where the producer used a female vocalist for backgrounds and some of the leads named Donna McElroy. Evidently she used to get a ton of the BU Vox work in Nashville in the early to mid nineties.

Aside from her actual singing, which is world class, what is really amazing is her ears and arranging chops. She can scan an arrangement and tell you that there's one note where the alto voice will clash with something the tenor sax played. Or she can just make up some of the hippest vocal arrangements on the spot, and teach it to the rest of the singers. When we were tracking she'd sing a fairly complex line she made up on the spot. Rewind. Sing 2nd harmonized part. Rewind. Sing 3rd part. Rewind. Sing 4th part. Done. One take each. Next song...

I guess it's no big deal for those of you who work regularly with that kind of talent, especially in NYC, Los Angeles, and Nashville. But I don't see it every day, so I haven't gotten jaded yet.

[Dave Martin]

I didn't realize that Donna wasn't here anymore - she's a marvelous singer. It's fun to work with people of that caliber, isn't it?

[BevvyB]

You get spoiled working on jingles.

If that kind of thing can't happen in 10 minutes on TV sessions you're buggered. There's some great ones here in London.

When I'm doing pop stuff and someone says 'oh, we've got a friend who can do backing vocals' I find it very hard not to wince.

Just because people can sing what they're told doesn't mean they can arrange. Let alone in any style on the spot and just have a feel for what is 'right'.

Like any other session player I suppose - I know some great players who couldn't do a 'session' session if they tried.

Empathy. Hoorah.

[smoothmoniker]

That's very hip.

I do a lot of custom projects for singer/songwriter types, and I get that same sinking feeling when we have to use "a guy they know" for tracking, and that same endorphen rush when I get to use "the guys I know". I have a little Excel spreadsheet that I use to emphasize the point to the artist.

On ten tunes:

Session player @ double scale X 3 studio days = less money, better sound

Your Guy @ 1/2 scale X 10 studio days + backline a real drumkit (guitar, bass, rhodes) + a tech to teach him how to tune + rescheduling the session 4 times because he can't get time off of his real job + 3 editing days to piece together one good pass per song + $500 for the cables and headphones that he lifts on the way out = a lot more money, worse sound.

-sm

[psytechguy]

The band wasn't called "Bitch Slap" by any chance?

;-)

Mike