Kara-Moon Forum

Or should I call it the ultimate challenge ?

Why do we consider this as the ultimate challenge....
2 reasons :
1. We consider it as one of the most beautiful french songs ever written, the original was performed by a french singer called Barbara.
To make sure there is room for everybody, I"ve played only the piano, which makes that the song can take everything : bass, rythmic guitar, string, solo guitar,.... So, are looking for contributions.
2. The musical difficulty ;)
The song changes key at every verse  :o you'll better know your instrument  ;D
It turns on a 8 bar sequence
First sequence is :
D-A-Em-B-G-D-C-Bm/A
Then the next sequence is
Eb-Bb-Fm-C-Ab-Eb-Db-Cm/Bb
and so on
this way it goes up 6 times until the break
after the break it start again in D with the first sequence and goes up 4 times until the end.

Now, who is up for this musical challenge  >:D
We'll probably re-record the vocal track once we have the full instrumental tracks.

K

PS : If someone has troubles figuring out all the chords, I can post the whole chord chart

Consider me "in".
Give me a few days to find my old beret and a package of Gauloises... :;

 ???
I could be in if I can find the time ..... but it would have to be on bass.

 ;)
James

Wow! This really is a challenge :o

HOLY HELL!!!  >:D

This certainly is one hell of a challenge!

Ill have a go, probably at strings or solo with my classical guitar, but it may take a while thats for sure!

ok  ;)
We allmost have a band
- Keys - ok
- Bass - ok
- Guitar solo - ok

Still need :
- Rythmic guitar
- Strings

To give you an idea of the level we're aiming  :o

This is the original : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SwH4qBEESY&feature=related
This is our favourite version : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCGPwo28XPo

Obviously we won't copy a version, but will make our own top level version  8)

I'm convinced that we have some of finest musicians here, so we can do this  :-

k

By the way, we will perform this live at the next KM gig  ;)

 ???

 :-\
Hmmmm ....
I just been working through this and feel that you are leading us astray somewhat  8)

Going along with your recording of the song ...
the pattern increases by a semitone each 8bar sequence for 4 sequences, then goes back by 2.

In other words ... first chord of each sequence:
D...Eb...E...F...then back to(when we are expecting F#) ...E...F...then up to F# for the mid-section, before going back to the start.
 ???

Is this correct, Oh Maestro?

 ;)
James

You're right James, my explication was confusing !
To be sure :
First 8 bars D
2 - Eb
3- E
4- F
Then drum starts
5-E
6. F
7 only 4 chord until drums stop with crash : F#-C#-G#m-Eb
After drum stop B-F# and a litle riff on F#
The we start all over with 1,2,3 & 4

k

May we have a BPM number so our tempo is accurate?

For this production, I'd like to work out my electric guitar - just some (tasteful, I hope :D) background material. I'll record enough for the whole song and you can use as much of it as seems appropriate.

Accurate  :-\
Do you realy expect me to play this at an exact BPM  ;D
BPM should be 'around' 90  :D

k

Around 90, it is! O0

 8)
Here is my first attempt at the Bass line.
I've played through the whole song, so just use what you need.

If you need refinements just say so.  ::)

 ;)
James

This is a cool bass track James  8)
For the moment I only cut the 2 measures after the drums, I'll decide what to keep once I have all tracks  :)

Thanks for the contribution  :-

k

 8)
Now that I have worked through the patterns I could also contribute a 'finger picked' acoustic guitar, I think.  ::)

Would this be of any use?   :-X

 ;)
James

 8)
Here is the clean acoustic guitar track .... do as you wish with it, mon ami.

 ;)
James

Damn, this guy absolutely sweats music... :o

 :o

Sorry, you long haired ruffian ...  ::) I'm English ... we don't sweat, but sometimes we 'perspire'  :-*

Anyways .... if anyone who is working on this project can use another angle ... here is a guitar and bass version ... which may be easier to work to .... in an 'uncluttered' way.

 ;)
James

I'm looking forward to listen to this  8)
But I'm in the Netherlands until the end of next week  ::) :'(

k

It will be two days before I can listen to James' material and add some of my own.
...and I'm not even in the Netherlands... :D

(oh, and it's true: sweat is a colonial phenomenon. Englishmen perspire, and Englishwomen exude... or so I've heard ;))

Not got the quote quite right :)

"Horses sweat; Gentlemen perspire; Ladies simply glow."

My understanding is that mere colonials couldn't possibly be ladies or gentlemen, but then neither could the lower classes. Curiously, I believe native Americans could be ::)

I will now get my coat and slide out the door ;D

P.S.
Very keen to hear all this put together.

I think Rony must have itching powder in his pants. He always seems to be up and running round the world  :o

And to make it complete... I'm doing a 'quick jump' to Island over the weekend !
Leaving Amsterdam tomorrow for Reyckjavik and back to Amsterdam on sunday.

k

Sounds good, James. Sounds even better when mixed with Kara's piano/percussion track. Schweet!

Attached is some heavily distorted electric guitar, designed to deploy at a very low volume behind Azell's vocal and the piano.

 :;
Lovely stuff, yon colonial ....  8)

If I could be so bold .... it would be nice (in my opinion) to have a bit of the same for the outro.  :-*

 ;)
James

Thankyou, James. :-
I'd be happy to cook up an ending passage... just hate to be a "guitar hog" and not leave room for anybody else to play... ::)

Back home thursday evening, can't wait to listen to all the tracks  >:D

k - in the Netherlands

 :-X
Strange ........

I been expecting some super jazzy rhythm guitar from young Mario to slip in to this piece .....  ???

..... thought it would be right up his street.  ::)

 ;)
James

Thanx James for that young comment!  That really made my day :-

Unfortunately a couple of weeks ago I had a trigger thumb operation on my right hand.  Last Sunday was the first time I could hold a pick since then.  Still some pain when I play to long or too hard, i.e. I also have to be very careful how I use my right hand as I don’t want to reopen the incision.  The recovery is going well just to dam slow for me!  According to the doc about another 3-4 weeks before I’m up and running full blast again.

 :o
Hey .... sorry to hear about that Mario ....

I know from experience how tragic hand injuries can be to instrumentalists ....  :'(

Hope you are back soon, buddy. (http://bestsmileys.com/hugging/1.gif)

 ;)
James

Thank you my friend.  I’m sure in a very short time I’ll be back jamming with my friends here at Kara-Moon.

Thanx Kev ;)

Take care Mario, we need that magic hand  ;D 8)

k

Mario,
With your history of exercise, healing will be rapid.
                                                           

Of course I couldn't wait to make a fast mix to see where we are going here  ;)
Now, I have to tell you, this is going very good.

James guitar track, is very complementary and in the high freq. range where we didn't have anything, perfect !

@Oren
Great, all tough I shortened it a bit, we want a clear break, hope you don't mind  :)
Now I hope you wrote down your setting because I want more  ;D
Staring from 3:20 I stopped the ryhtmic guitar from James and Azell starts to build off the vocals. Well there you should come in again and play with and around the vocals.
Be sure you stop just before 4:00 and let the outro to the piano only. Pössible ?  ;D

 :o
That is a rather beautiful mix, mon ami.   :-*

This is going to develop into something quite special, methinks  8)

 ;)
James

Very possible. Give me three days to record a few takes and choose the best one.
Productions such as these are very challenging for a guy who usually works with three chords... :D
(the guitar effect is from one of my Digitech processors, and easy to reproduce)

This is developing into something quite special!

This is really a refined, and to my ears, sophisticated piece.

Musicians music.

You guys have my rapt attention!

This is sounding great guys  ;D

Real pity i coudln't contribute anything as I've had an Angiogram through my wrist and can only manage playing for 5mins or so till it starts to hurt, its getting better but slowly, damn surgeon bruised the nerves on his way in  >:(

Work it, man... 8) The body has a most amazing way of recuperating when given sufficient stimulation. :;

This is an incredibly well polished performance. I absolutely love the way each new instrument insinuates itself in so you suddenly think "Hey where did that come from?".

All of the accompaniment sits comfortably, but supportively behind Azell giving her  great freedom of dynamic expression.

This electric guitar track will replace the previous one.
It is quite a balancing act, laying down a righteous overdriven guitar track whilst not stepping on the other artists. (I was unable to bring it to a satisfactory close at exactly 4:00)

300 takes  :o Do you still have fingers  ::) ;D
Thanks for your effort Oren  8)

k

With the full track of Oren in, I could make a produced mix now.

Now, what do you think of this one ?  ;D

k

 :; :- :;



 ;)
James

Yeah, What he said.  ^^^^

 :D

.... :-....A tasteful bit of work, mes ami... :-*

Thanks for your approval guys  8)
I don't know if the track needs anything more ?

Yesterday evening we played it in the car, now Azell thinks that the picking track of James is a tad to loud. I'm not sure she's right and heared the track to many times to be objective.

What do you think ?

k

 ???
Well, I mainly listen through headphones, but I have had this one in the car too.
I think the mix is as perfect as you can get. In honesty, it's the mix that makes it.  8)

 ;)
James

I'd like an opportunity to try and centre the vocals, widen the piano stereo field, tinker with the individual track EQs, and tighten up the lower frequencies to give us a rock-sold foundation.
Kara, would you feel comfortable posting your original tracks here in Ogg Vorbis level 6? Hmmm...?.... ;)
(I already have James' bass and guitar tracks, and my electric guitar track - so it would just be piano, vocal, and drums)

Sounds really good to me on 'ordinary' speakers and on headphones. I can imagine that car speakers may tend to accentuate the sharpness of the guitar picking and make it seem louder. So maybe there's an EQ adjustment possible.

... mind you, that may make it sound dull on better speakers, so I guess you just can't win :-\

Ultimately, I never did receive the individual tracks from Rony, but here is a LAME VBR mp3 track re-mastered from the most recent Ogg Vorbis file...

"Aigle" - which I presume means "eagle"? -  ;D

Thanks for this.