First off, I have to thank Linda for indulging me on this song. I've wanted to do this one for a long time, but needed to figure out who could sing it. When I heard Linda do a cover of the Carpenters, then I knew she would be a good choice. Afterall, the Carpenters did this song, but it was originally recorded by another band -- Klaatu.

Linda asked Art to help sing vocals, and since he was kind enough, I offered to let him do the guitar solo at 3:15. He contributed a very cool part. He has that fluid style in his playing, plus he throws in a Brian May-ish harmony part. Definitely a nice addition to the song, especially since it didn't have much guitar in either the Klaatu version nor the Carpenters.

The backstory on Klaatu is interesting. Their first album (released in 1976) was very secretive with no musician or production credits. Rumor had it that this was a Beatles reunion project - it even featured back-masked messages in some of the songs. 'Calling Occupants' was the feature track from the album and it got a little radio play. Richard Carpenter liked the song, so the Carpenters covered it a year later.

I've always liked the song too. Found a pretty decent MIDI file to build the backer, and I played the bass and added some other guitar parts to complement the arrangement. It didn't originally have that much guitar.

I really think this was a good fit for Linda, so my hats off to you for being willing to do this one for me and for doing such a nice job on it. And thanks to Art for making it a real team project!!

Well it worked out really well , everything sounds cool to my ears but , however i do feel the vox need pulling back a smidgen to line up with the backer :headscratch: . Linda is slightly ahead , but maybe its just my perception and nobody elses . Whatever overall very nice indeed dude :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

This is PERFECT for Linda!...Excellent stuff from all :yourock:

this is a perfect cover , and must I say an awesome fit for Linda's voice. Great work Joe and I too loved Art's guitar solo, such style.

5 from me:yourock: :yourock: :yourock:

That was great guys, I'm not familiar with the original but I enjoyed this tune.

Well it worked out really well , everything sounds cool to my ears but , however i do feel the vox need pulling back a smidgen to line up with the backer :headscratch: . Linda is slightly ahead , but maybe its just my perception and nobody elses . Whatever overall very nice indeed dude :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

That's possible. I tried to align the vocal tracks with the rough mix that Linda sent a couple days ago, as well as with points in the song where the vocals land on a specific beat. Even being off in the alignment by a few milliseconds can be noticeable.

If you'd like, I sent you guys a new backing track over the weekend that you could use to do your own mixdown. Then we could swap that out for this one.

Thanks!!

Thanks Ksdb for asking me to join you on this song ..:yourock: and thanks guys for your kind replies :thumb: :hug:

I remember this song !!! It may come as a suprise but i used to sing Pulling off Your Pants .......anyway back to the song i thought it was slightly out of sync at times but i know how difficult it is to sing drunk and dressed up as Ronald McDonald so i would excuse Art . Linda has the angelic voice that reminds me of Mr Blackmores mistress. Enjoyed it all the same !!!!!!!!!:thumb: Looking forward to the re synced version KSDB :thumb:

Yes! I always loved this song. I've only heard The Carpenters version. This is an excellent cover. Great vocals, the bit after Arty's solo reminds me off Mercury Rev. Arty's solo is a beaut (that little ooh ooh sound at 3.20 is sublime) Definitely hairs on the back of neck stuff this (You know wot I mean) Don't you? A great job all round. A big 5.

I'm glad to know that the song is remembered, and I appreciate all the supportive comments.

Not sure if the sync'ing issue is the vocals with the backer or the vocals with the vocals. If the latter, some of that can't be helped without manually splitting up the wave files and manually aligning all the vocal parts. There's always small timing discrepancies with overdubbed vocals; but that's how you know it's not a cut-and-paste backup vocal of the same part.

Anyway, thanks all!!

Excellent this had a great Beatles feel to it IMO.
Excellent playing and vocals.

First let me get this off my chest. I really dislike this song ... always have. thats done!

But the performances are what matters and the performances are very impressive. It is refreshing to hear Art and Linda sing without art having mixed it. The vocals are lovely and clear and at least 2db louder than art would have mixed them :) So its a credit to the pair of them that they still carry it off here.

Linda - the natural accent of your voice is brilliant (and quite sexy too :D) here. It really makes the vocal stand out. Its a very very good performance.

Art - this must have driven you mad not being able to mix it heheh. The vocals are great as usual - you really under rate your singing ability mate. The solo is gorgeous as usual too. Nice work there sonny :)

Joe - I am really sorry I don't share your love of this tune but I do recognise the work and effort you have put into this. It is a hard tune to recreate and you have done a great job. Bass and guitars are very impressive and there is real ambience and space in the mix which allows the tune to breathe. Its an impressive feat and an excellent job. My only reservation is the drums - they feel a little too seperate from the rest of the tune possibly down to the mix or the nature of the way they are programmed - its not a biggie though and doesn't ruin the tune.

The timing issues are a little bit odd but I am guessing your soundcard clock is playing up a little due to your system being driven hard on this tune. As you have suggested recently a processor upgrade might help. What soundcard are you using?

Anyhow - no reservations about handing out a 5 star rating on this. And I have stopped giving them out so easily of late. Impressive collaboration guys!

Linda, this one suits you perfectly. A fantastic job by all, I've never heard the original but I dig it.

Thanks, Lawrence. I'm replying to a couple things below. I really appreciate your attention to detail. It helps a lot.


First let me get this off my chest. I really dislike this song ... always have. thats done!
I understand completely. I can see this being a love it or hate it type of song. In fact, the Carpenters almost ruined this one for me back in the day, since they were such a commercial band. The song itself has silly lyrics and is a little grandiose, but I do like the dynamics and the melody. I have other Klaatu songs I like better, but without being able to program drums and keyboards that well, I'm limited in song choice. This was one of only a couple of Klaatu midi files that I found.

But the performances are what matters and the performances are very impressive. It is refreshing to hear Art and Linda sing without art having mixed it. The vocals are lovely and clear and at least 2db louder than art would have mixed them :) So its a credit to the pair of them that they still carry it off here.

Linda - the natural accent of your voice is brilliant (and quite sexy too :D) here. It really makes the vocal stand out. Its a very very good performance.

Art - this must have driven you mad not being able to mix it heheh. The vocals are great as usual - you really under rate your singing ability mate. The solo is gorgeous as usual too. Nice work there sonny :)


Joe - I am really sorry I don't share your love of this tune but I do recognise the work and effort you have put into this. It is a hard tune to recreate and you have done a great job. Bass and guitars are very impressive and there is real ambience and space in the mix which allows the tune to breathe. Its an impressive feat and an excellent job. My only reservation is the drums - they feel a little too seperate from the rest of the tune possibly down to the mix or the nature of the way they are programmed - its not a biggie though and doesn't ruin the tune.
The drums are a soundfont package. There's always some limitations with soundfonts and digital drums. Plus some of the midi programming on the drums sound awkward to me. If I was a drummer and knew what I was doing, I'd try to fix that.

The timing issues are a little bit odd but I am guessing your soundcard clock is playing up a little due to your system being driven hard on this tune. As you have suggested recently a processor upgrade might help. What soundcard are you using?
I'm working on a Sony Vaio laptop and use a Soundblaster external soundcard. I'm generally happy with the soundcard. Processor power is a big issue because I keep finding tiny stutters in misc. tracks. The other problem is working with a long piece of music with several layers of instruments and vocals. I think this was 15 tracks, give or take, plus effects. AND ... on this specific song, I had a crash with my recording software while building the backer. Some of my mixing files wouldn't open and I had to rebuild it. Was really glad to get this finished. Not having this many problems with my other projects.

Anyhow - no reservations about handing out a 5 star rating on this. And I have stopped giving them out so easily of late. Impressive collaboration guys!
Very kind and much appreciated!!! BTW, we need to find another project to do sometime. It's been too long since the last one.

Thanks for taking the comments as they were intended Joe. I suspected you were using a soundblaster. In my experience I have found sync issues to be a common problem on most of these units. They are fine until you start importing files recorded on other soundcards. Thats when the timing deficiencies become apparent. I believe you are correct in your analysis but I think it is almost as if the card lengthens the wav's as they are recorded when there is a lot of processing going on.

I originally thought it was my souncard, Terratec DMX 6fire, which I later sold to Linda and Art. But I also noticed the same problem on my Edirol FA101 and Toneport. Whenever I collab with someone with a soundblaster card I have to manually align the files.

Maybe before you get a new processor you might be able to borrow a toneport or similar to see if the problem still occurs with a diffirent soundcard?

alas im with porty on this..cant stand this tune!

but that takes away nothing from the performance of you 3! :yourock:
great collab peeps.

regards,
jim.

First off, I have to thank Linda for indulging me on this song. Thanks Joe for asking me :yourock: ,I really enjoyed having a go at this one .. thanks for your kind replies guys :hug:

never heard this before. i must say linda sounded great on this. it seemed to fit her range and style real well. good solo and harmonys and joe always creates a killer track

Ive never heard this one before. I enjoyed it though!! Great job by all. As expected by the people who worked on it!!

This was beautiful my friends.Agree with Kenny that linda sounded really great on this. It seemed to fit her range and style real well.The backer also awesome.

Great work on this you three , lets start with the mixing well i find its actually preference really , i don't think one person mix's there stuff the same as the next , plus we all have our own methods and what sounds good to one person might not sound that good to the next , the mainthing is i could hear everything clearly so i thought the mixing was great work by Joe :)
Linda this song does suite you very well indeed , its great to hear you letting loose and growing stronger with each peformance , and Bp did great work with the other vocals/harmonys/Guitar solo to along with Joe's guitarwork, lovely song by the three of you, 5 stars :rock: :rock:

Thanks for the nice comments. It was an unusual project to work on with all the french horn, trumpet, strings and piano. Linda and Art helped bring the project to a new level which I just couldn't do on my own. It's really a blast being able to collaborate like this! Thanks again all!

Not listen this song for long long time,sound great very beautiful & lovely on vox my friend *****:thumb: :thumb:

This was really nice! I have never heard this song before but I really enjoyed it. You can tell alot of work went into this!:thumb:

I just enjoyed the whole experience .... period. :thumb:

Well done to all!

Beautiful work! Not familiar with the original, but very enjoy listening.

I have not heard it so it stands as is. Sounds great! Almost how I would picture a Jon Anderson song. ("Animation" is a great solo album). Check it out. I had a Klatuu album in my hands for a time. Lent it away..never came back.

Cheers Linda, Art, and Joe! Very nice textures!

I have not heard it so it stands as is. Sounds great! Almost how I would picture a Jon Anderson song. ("Animation" is a great solo album). Check it out. I had a Klatuu album in my hands for a time. Lent it away..never came back.

Cheers Linda, Art, and Joe! Very nice textures!

Thanks Serg. I'm a big fan of the song Animation. Brilliant piece of music and one I can relate to this year with the birth of my own child. The rest of the album is good, but I always thought that song was the standout.

I had to try 5 times to hear this, kept cutting off at the first chorus. Worth the effort tho, a real nice version of a song that has stuck in my head for a lot of years, even though it is not really my "thing". Well done all

Never heard this or heard of Klatuu but it most definately has a Beatles quality to it!!!!:yourock: Very cool song guys....y'all did a fantastic job here!!!:bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:

Well, i could listen to Linda sing the phone book, and would be perfectly content.....she has such a soothing delivery on this style of music, and really didn't disappoint here at all!!! Great job Linda!!! And Joe, well brother, i see you are still finding these obscure gems, and tweaking and tooling them into masterworks!!! Excellent job here bro!!!! And last but certainly not least...Art, well, if i continue to fawn all over you everytime i hear something you do, i'm gonna start looking like a real Mary, and i ain't gonna have that!!!! LOL!!! So "great job mate!!" LOL!!! Really a wonderful piece here, from all of ya's!!!! 5's from me!!!:yourock: :rock: