Be my Nemesis

edited December 2011 in JoCo Projects
Ah, fellow travelers upon The Way of JoCo, gather close. The night is weary where I am, and sleep comes to take me. But this night I have produced. I have produced a cover of Nemeses. As you can tell, to my sorrow, it is missing something. It is missing... a nemesis!

Alas, I do not have access to Level Four, and so I am un-nemeses'd, and I despaired that my project should never be finished. But, as in all things, I found my answer in The Way of JoCo: "Find you your songs are lacking, beseech ye the endless Internet, and lo! the crowds shall source and handclaps shall be provided."

So... are there any of you who might, if only for a song, be my nemesis and do the second voice (or possibly some handclaps)? If you can't sing the second voice of the song by heart (and I can't say I blame you, I have trouble with that, too), I'll help all I can.

Thank you all in advance :)

Comments

  • Actually, I'll put another request out there right away: is there anyone who can
    sing, or play instrumentally, the second voice of the song, and who could do a
    track of it, perhaps? That way my potential Nemesis has something to go by,
    or I myself can sing it if no Nemesis is forthcoming.
  • I don't think I've listened hard enough at the song to learn Jonathan's harmony part, but it's probably doable with some study.  Does it need to be a replica of the original part?  A quick glance at the song again (not that I ever mind listening to Nemeses!) lets me pick out "most" of the harmonies, but to my relatively untrained ears it sounds like there's some multipart harmonies going on near the end of some of the phrases.

    I could probably do the 2nd vocal part with a little time thrown at it, though for the me the problem is that my normal range is low baritone, so I can't reach some of Jonathan's harmonies without falsetto.

    I haven't done much recording in the past year or so, but I do have the equipment for it.  You can get an idea of what I sound like in this improvised Rock Band 3 video I did right before JoCo Cruise Crazy 2011.
  • edited December 2011
    Sure, could do it. It's not a song I've tried to perform yet, but I've covered plenty of JoCo's other work and it is not a hard piece. Original key? Or are you transposing?
  • The MP3 sample above sounds transposed upwards by about one note.
  • Yep; just played it; it's a full step up. I can do a harmony line similar to JoCo's, but below the melody rather than above it (because I'm a baritone, not a tenor).
  • It's one note up, yes. And really, anyone who wants to do it, DO IT! I will mix it down and make MANY covers :D
    I asked for one nemesis, if I can come away with two, I shall be twice blessed! :)

    I'm much more of a tenor, actually, so point in fact, if someone can send me a mix of the 2nd voice, I can sing that full on up on the high notes, and leave the baritones to go low like they're good at. If that's a thing people want to do :)
  • @skyen ;

    I tried just recording some dry vocals in the same key following your track and I think I'm going to need some time to study it because of the transposition.  I keep wanting to sing it in the original key and "last minute correcting", which doesn't do good things to my pitch.

    Also, there's several missed (?) / alternate melody (?) notes on your track - not sure if intentional, but it makes it difficult to harmonize against in a few spots because I'm expecting a higher note than what you've got there.  Lyrics themselves are accurate except you're singing "pretending you're a threat to me" instead of "pretending you're a friend to me."  Other than that, it's probably just a matter of getting used to the alternate lyric timing you used in a few places.
  • @icemage

    Awesome. Yeah, I've probably improv'd more than a few things. That's what comes from having sung the song a million times. I'll record a better set of vocals when I'm home from Christmas. I keep singing "threat to me" because somehow it just makes more sense to me - I do know "friend" is the correct phrase. I'm really looking forward to hearing what you come up with :)
  • @skyen Don't know if you're still looking for something but I'll go ahead and lay down a track of the second voice on oboe just for kicks....
  • @Oboewan That would be awesome - if nothing else I can be my own Nemesis if none other is forthcoming :)
  • The OBOE is every programmer's nemesis.
  • @Angelastic ; Nicely played......
  • edited January 2012
    I'm reeding up on it now......
  • Programmer joke? On OUR Jonathan Coulton-forums? It's more likely than you think!
  • @srdownie Aw man, awesome! :D

    Could you send me the original track of just your voice perhaps? I kind of want to re-do my own singing, it's patchy in parts.

    This is too cool. Awesomeness! :)
  • Also, "Get Your Nemeses On"? Name of my Star Trek fan-film.
  • OK. Here you go. But remember: Music isn't pretty!
  • Nothing ever really is. This lovely flower, for instance, smells like a decomposing corpse to attract flies.

    ...

    Er... not that I was making that comparison with your lovely singing or anything.
  • *That's* my nemesis!
  • Re-recorded my voice, mixed everything down - sounds pretty good, I think :)

    Here it is.

    Any other takers? I'm open to another duet :D
  • Now *I* have to re-record *my* voice and do *another* mix! We're in an infinite-regression redux loop!

    Just kidding.

    As anyone who has heard it can tell, my harmonization is not that used on any of the JoCo-generated versions (to date). I figure every nemeses pair should flaunt its unique combination of nemesistical variables, particularly with regard (or disregard) to music. In short, don't try this at home.

    If you *do* try this at home and you yearn to be closer to JoCo's canonical ur-recording, I think it is easier to hear the harmonies on the Flans-produced, iPhone-centric YouTube version. Listen carefully and then studiously ignore what you heard.

    Thanks Skyen!
  • I'd like to do one, if you can get me the un-mixed version of your new vox. Which I'm sure you can, you seem like a capable and talented person. Even without level 4 access.
  • Ooh! Ouch. That burns, man. Just because I'm poor and plebian doesn't mean I'm not a real JoCo fan. No matter what the voices in my head whisper to me at night, in the dark hours when all light has faded and pale face of the moon heralds the coming of the Old Ones and the madness scratches at the doors of my mind and only the lyrics of JoCo form the mystical chant that will keep them at bay.

    So anyway, there's a version here, with my voice and instruments and one with just my voice and nothing else :)
  • Oh, I should note: generally it's better to record in mono than stereo - just for sound-quality :)
  • Remixed the version with me and @srdownie because I found a way to explode his stereo-recorded voice into mono and mix it all up a bit better, and because it's 2:30 AM and I do crazy s*** like that at these hours.

    IT IS HERE
  • You're making me feel bad about the fact that, in 1982, I didn't accept a vocal prof's invitation to take lessons with him!

    [He apparently "liked" the renditions of Tom Lehrer's "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" and "The Masochism Tango" I presented at a "temporary-music recital" that was intended to poke fun at the music faculty: My only solo public singing gig ever.]

    Now if you'll excuse me ... mememememememememeee ... do re mi fa ....
  • @srdownie ; You do realize you are now on the hook for leading the Leherthon on the cruise......
  • Alas @Oboewan, I am not a Cruizer. You'll have to engage in Tomfoolery without me.
  • @skyen, please check your private messages.  I've got a sample uploaded to soundcloud that I'd like your opinion on before I proceed.
  • This is becoming more awesome by the day :)
  • I am going to bump this thread because of this.

    A preview of awesome things to come, I hope, and boy do I like it a lot.
  • Still rough and desperately work-in-progress, but another take on the above after banging my head on how to get the harmonic lines up anywhere near that point:


    @skyen Check your messages for more details on the above.  For some reason the forum told me that "You sent you a message." after I posted it.  I like talking to myself every once in a while, but it's better when I talk with someone else. :)
  • Nice. I'm really enjoying seeing you guys putting this together. It actually makes me love this song even more.
  • Another bit of thread-necromancy here, because I finally got my act together and finished this up.
    It lacks Icemage, and probably suffers for it, but at least all our effort has not gone to waste. I'd like you all to go listen, because I think it's actually quite good.

    Nemeses (Icemage Version)
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