Interrobang Cartel message board

Just checked her website. Hmmm... Hope you aren't adding vibrato to my voice.

Man, I'm fussy!!! But I sure hate those singers who waver their voices like Tarzan when he's calling Jane. lol

Nope - no added vibrato. There's just something about the tonal quality in your voice on certain vowels (that gets emphasized with the double tracking) that reminds me of her. A good timbre.

Oh good!!! And thanks! :-)

I just heard some heavy vibrato in the two files I listened to on her site and thought to myself that what with your sound software being so high tech, you could probably do that to my voice too.

I could have, but opted not to change your expression - just "tune up" the notes. And add some harmony. (!) But FYI a little expression doesn't hurt! ;-) Carly's getting on in age now and maybe she warbles more than what I remember (which is back a ways). I should take the time to figure out what I seem to be remembering...

I think warbling hides singing defects, so people are more inclined to warble the older they are. I don't think good singers use it much to be expressive. At least not much of it.

Like Mary Hopkin. I wish I could sing like should could!!!

Actually, here's the Mary Hopkin song I was looking for initially. I think her voice sounds so pure on this song!!! I really wish I sounded like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3iDFmHT6_o

Not so much vibrato here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MamStfXD3hw
But after listening to a bunch of Carly Simon - what was I thinking?

Hahaha :-)

It's interesting to listen to these things after seeing what you did with my voice in that demo file by doubling it up. I had never noticed that much before, but I guess that is what they are doing in this song as well. Makes me wonder what the original sound files sounded like.

The other thing is how a sound gets masked by everything else going on around it. I saw a Steely Dan documentary where they took "Peg" (I think it was) apart, track by track, to show what made it tick. There was a short vocal part by Michael McDonald that sounded pretty lousy all by itself, but worked really well in the song. I found that with my own songs as well - got a bad vocal part? Just cover it up with a lot of other stuff at the same time.

I guess that would work better with songs where you don't really need to listen to the words. Like some of the Beatle songs I really love are clearly more about the music. Maybe less well on humor pieces, although sometimes blurring things can draw focus in if someone wants to sing along, I suppose.

When I was in elementary (or maybe it was middle school) the popular buzz word was "onomatopoeia," although that would be hard to rhyme. But I am sure some child would want to be an onomatopoeia.

I'll try out the form you suggested. There'd have something overlapping where the parent is telling the child that (s)he can be anything (s)he wants if (s)he just sets his/her mind to it because that is why it's amusing; parents really do say that to their kids.

Here's a few minutes of brainstorming, without looking at >>28:

skyscraper - facade, monument, destroyed when earth moves, trap people in fire
bulldozer - willpower, destroyer of hopes/dreams, flatten things
meadow - graveyard of dreams, where cows go to crap, weeds, "out to pasture"

In response to >>28

Well, that's a good question. What kind of progression? From start to end, I thought the irony would be in the (sad) success from a metaphorical perspective. E.g., boy wants to be a skyscraper, grows up to be a respected, powerful man who is devastated after his wife leaves him.

OK, I was actually thinking initially of a "how to" progression. Like initially it's just an ambition to be a skyscraper because Mommy told him that he could be anything he wanted to be. Then the teenager starts eating his vegetables because you can't be a skyscraper without being big and tall. Besides, Popeye got iron from eating spinach.

But eventually, he goes to school, gets a science degree, and learns how to convert organic material to inorganic material (such as flesh to metal) and a devises a robot that will automatically assemble the parts once his flesh has been turned to steel and he can no longer assemble the skyscraper on his own. Or whatever. In other words, the functional side of the dream. With lots of encouragement from his folks along the way and reminders about setting goals and the importance of work and confidence and having an effective strategy. Maybe something about having a business plan and learning the right jargon to impress money lenders. Hahaha He should have to go business school. X-)

Is that spam? The links don't seem to work.

Yes, I think so. I put a post in IBC LJ asking for comments before I delete it.

Nice attempt to inject some HTML with Javascript. Good thing it doesn't work. It looks annoying beyond just being SPAM.

Maybe he was trying to give us inspiration for another song topic. lol

PS If talysman actually wants to do the editing, then that would imply we would have more time for the project than a month (because he would not be using trial software), right? That might make it easier to get people involved as well.

>>7

It's a dangerously tedious plan as is, which is why I suggested non-sequitor shots to keep things interesting. The idea's going to need a lot of work to turn it into a decent video. Lots of subtle visual gags and motion on-screen to keep people's interest.

Also, I have a strange urge to make the lip sync segment look like the Wang Chung video, but that's probably overkill

In theory at least, the lyrics are supposed to be funny on their own. I would think a good video would complement the words, not compete with them.

>>10 D'oh! (sound of donut smacking into forehead) I can probably talk my wife into letting her hand and forearm go on-camera. Let's spend as much time brainstorming and storyboarding as it needs. Hmmmm... I guess I'd better buckle down on the audio, eh?

>>10
Moving again?! Didn't you just go through that hassle last year?

Two years ago. This situation was only supposed to be for about a year, but I overstayed my welcome.

>>10

I have to remember to look out for the "post too long" links. I didn't actually see this entire post initially.

Good luck with your new home!!!

BTW, my brother just told me that he would help me take video footage, so we just need to agree on what sort of footage I should be taking. I don't want so silly that we lose the lyrics though.

I was thinking maybe a shots going back and forth between their back side looking the computers as a profile with bizarre or goofy people on their screens to images from the front where they are reacting to things.

Talysman - you want to be the director on this? Then you should be "calling the shots".

I wanted them to be fairly distinguishable. I'll try them at 50px, but I think the download button will have to be redesigned at that resolution.

Hmmm... "About" seems to have moved from between the buttons. It should be separating the buttons, so that there's a distinction between the button that affects the current content and the button that displays additional content. Sort of like how you wouldn't want your exit without saving button right next to your save button, although that's a more extreme case. If we're moving "About" out from between the two buttons, it's best to not use it at all, since its only purpose is to make the page easier for people to use.

It is kind of odd from a UI design to have text between buttons. If separation is the main issue I can do spacers, or there is a way to have the second button align to the other side of the toolbar. The title bar above the toolbar can be something more descriptive, or we can get rid of it. If you really want text between the buttons I can still do it.

I made an update using the toolbar option which moves the second button to the other side. Does this work?

Is there some content stuff we could play with? The visuals are pretty and all but I would like to see how to load the content.

I'm not sure what's odd about text between buttons, but it can be removed if necessary. The important thing is: the context menu button for each section should be clearly visually associated with the section it affects, and the button to display tabs should be closer to where the tabs are going to appear.

We may still have some different ideas about how the page is going to look visually. I tried doing a more detailed ASCII version below:

Some additional notes:

There will be a different flavor available for those who can't or won't use JavaScript. I'm thinking of calling it "1993". There will still be a control bar in the same position as the JavaScript control bar, except that instead of buttons, there will be a set of links:

Here's a very small test version of the website.

http://interrobangcartel.com/blosxom.cgi

None of the formatting is ready yet, obviously, but it's getting close. I only did a couple pages because I had to prep them all by hand; until I have the plug-ins written, I can't write any mass conversion scripts.

Oh, and if you want to see the raw data files, they are here:

http://interrobangcartel.com/test/

>>29

I don't there is a question so much about the basic layout and look, I think it is more a question of implementation.
( BTW: http://ibc.spaceroom.org has been updated to look more like your latest picture.)

Definitely, Blosxom needs to produce the entire page. The way I see it, we have two kinds of content: the main content to which an URL points, and the "value-added" content that is associated with that content. If you go to:

http://interrobangcartel.com/blosxom.cgi/lyrics/Chalice_Of_Fire.html

Getting content to load is not as difficult as you might think with Ext, there are a number of ways to achieve the same goal. I think all of the things you describe can be done using a single container page. I could describe the whole mechanism but at this point arguing about methods seems a unproductive. So lets look at how to integrate this stuff into the blosxom approach.

So one of the key functions that is very useful is the Ext.onReady event handler. This is how we will attach the event handlers to the specific components. We can do tests for which things exist and which do not (for example image and title divs) and then connect the appropriate handlers to them. The code can be included using a <script> tag. It may be useful to have a couple of flavors of initialization code depending on the page type since that will reduce code that is not needed. If there is common code we can put it in files that are included before the init.

From a recent conversation in alt.religion.kibology, a new song named "Too Drunk to Fsck." It seems to coming out like a ZZ-Top song, (old style). Not that that is bad thing...

If I had the ability, I'd do it as sort of funk/soul number, but among other things, I'm lacking female backup singers.

Here is the rough draft version:
http://www.spaceroom.org/music/Interrobang/TooDrunkToFsck.mp3

Sounds great! But you might want to change to a different pronunciation for fsck. Not because I have any attachment to another pronunciation, but because "fsuck" is pretty much indistinguishable from "suck". "Fusck" might be a better choice, because it suggests other words without sounding too much like any other word.

I sent an email with a link to give him a preview. He liked it alot though he would prefer fusk and lusk as pronunciations, so I am going to take another stab at the vocals.

On a tangential note, does anyone have any suggestion for bring the vocals out in the mix? Even when the volume is strong on the meter they often get buried. I am sure that compression and EQ'ing are the answer but I don't have a good feel for the settings.

Him, meaning Adam Funk. I wish there was a way to edit posts.

Definitely nailed the ZZTop guitar sound!

Major Zed will have to give you more info, because I haven't tried it... but I remember him mentioning "cutting a hole" in the frequency range of the vocals.

A revised version is available now.

http://www.spaceroom.org/music/Interrobang/TooDrunkToFsck.mp3

I re-recorded the vocals, bass guitar and lead section guitar.

I listened to the last version for awhile and was not happy with it. The vocals were wobbly in an unpleasant way in the chorus and the timing on the lead was jarring. So yet another version is released. While it has its inherent flaws it is something I can live with. See the URL above for the link.

Is this prog enough for you? More Tangerine Dream than Marillion. http://members.cox.net/majorzed3/Welcome_prototype_1.mp3
The spoken words in the first half were not originally targeted to this project and certainly can be changed. The instrumental part in the second half can be extended/developed for quite a few minutes with a little bit of imagination.

I think it will work! In fact, I'm kind of picturing this as the "Coming Out of the Closet" track. The spoken word parts might have to be changed, and it should definitely be extended, but I suppose I should write some lyrics/concept for this, first.

Oh, I should specify that not all the spoken words need to be changed. It was the "Well, can't put this off any longer." and the "Mr. Em-Zed, we've been waiting for you. Come this way." that made me think of coming out of the closet.

Let me know what I can do. I can provide some specifics about what is going on musically in the second half for anyone who wants to contribute more layers (guitar, ?!Charlie?) For example, it's 148bpm, and the synth and guitar are MIDI that can easily be emailed.

As usual I am happy to participate in any way I can.

Actually, listening to the sample, I heard a couple of song ideas. I think the the different themes could be expanded out into individual songs.

As for Talysman lyrics, I am always a big fan.

Shall I pull together some stuff? I can't give you the whole thing, because the master file is in ACID. But I can strip out some WAV files and the MIDI.

I'd like the MIDI, because when I write the lyrics, I'll probably include a melody for "Coming Out of the Closet" that fits thematically with what you have, but is more a variation of it than a continuation.

I'm thinking about an instrumental that might be "All Roads". Or not.

http://members.cox.net/majorzed3/RULES_MZ_contrib.zip posted for your edification and inspiration.

Welcome To The Procedure (see http://majorzed.livejournal.com/48208.html) could be renamed Coming Out Of The Closet if you want. (BTW, the phrase is "Mister Uh-Zed", riffing off Firesign Theatre's "Uh-Clem" - (google that).)