Still working on putting my solo gig pieces together - one question . . . I always was a BIG Andrews Sisters fan, and I've been working on "bie mir bist du schoen" - I keep the harmonizer on for the full song - is this overkill??? It sounds weird to me to do a verse without the vocal harmonies - wish i could record right now so you could see what i mean, but I can't . . . please keep in mind my whole song list is NOT andrews sisters, so i'm not using the harmonizer all the time . . .

anyone have a nice desktop for sale???

thanks,

Jill

In most cases, in fact in almost all cases, doing an entire song with vocalizer on is a bad idea. However, I think this particular song is a special situation, so IMO, it would be appropriate. Sometimes you gotta break the rules... after all Gershwin did.

Glenn

Jill, interestingly enough, I recorded live about 4 years ago, the Andrew Sister's hit: "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" utilizing the built in vocalizer in my arranger keyboard (Technics KN5000) of that time. Re-listening to my recording now, I admit there've been a lot of improvments made in harmonizer sound quality and recording skills since then, but my rendition does include 'vocal harmony throughout'. I invite you to visit my website and listen to my afore-mentioned song, as well as other songs & video clips:
http://scottyee.com
Click on: 'Song Demos' Page link

My "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" demo is located in the Big Band/Swing Section.

Jill, looking forward to hearing your rendition (including vocal harmony) of Bie Mir Bist Du Schoen. I'm sure you'll sound a lot more like the Andrew Sisters than I did.

Scott

For songs like Sincerely I turn it off for the bridge only. This works good in reverse for a song like Goodnight My Love. On this tune I use it on the bridge only.

Just use it to repeat a phrase at the end of the bridge and such. This works good on the end of the bridge to "After The Loving." If you use the harmonizer all the time not only your audience but you too will tire of it quick.

thanks guys - the more i listened to it both ways, i just couldn't turn off the harmony, even on the last verse . . .
Hope to getting my new desktop soon, then I'll be able to record, and I'll certainly post when that happens, and critiques are welcome!
Scott - i'll definitely check out the sight and hear your andrews sisters! and yes scott, hope I'll sound a little more like the "sisters" - although I am a low alto!!

thanks for the input,

Jill

Jill

Are you using a laptop now? If so you should be able to record just fine.

A good free recording program is Audacity.

Scott Langholff

girljam - you might try to help the harmonizer out in sections by duplicating the vocal parts with a sax section or brass. This way, the artificiality of the harmonizer gets masked a bit, plus it will introduce some variation to the song. Try some close voicing å la George Shearing with the melody at top and bottom of the chord and see how that works out for you.

(If this is too tough to play, try just playing the melody and use the Melody Intelligence feature of your arranger if you use Roland - not sure what this is called on other makes, but it follows the melody around with a close voicing based on the LH chord).

diki -

i'll give that a try and see what it sounds like!
scott, no - i only have a desktop right now, and a terrible one at that - my pentium died, and i'm working on an "old dog" desktop right now. I'd love a laptop, but it's not in the budget right now! i'm actually still going back and forth between buying a laptop or a desktop, because i'll have to get something in the very near future, before this one dies!!

Jill

Jill,

The few times I've done this song, I've used the harmonizer sparingly, which IMO sounds better than using it all the way through. Additionally, if you're using the keyboard's onboard harmonizer, you should set the lead to harmony level at 65 percent lead and 35 percent harmony (L>H=35) in the mic settings section. This provides a bit softer harmony and cleaner lead in your vocals.

Additionally, go through the various types of harmonies in the keyboard's mic setting/harmony section. For me, Hi Men's Quartet works best, but this varies from song to song. For your voice, it may be something quite different that provides the best harmony effects.

Good Luck,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

thanks gary-
last night I did tweak the harmony setting to make the lead more clear - much better IMO too -
can that specific mike setting for that song be saved only in a registration?
i'm still beating my head on a wall with saving some of these things the "right" way, I never used the harmonizer when I played in a duo, so saving these settings is completely new to me, and has been a little frustrating at times!

Jill

Jill,

Yes, it can be saved into a registration file. The best, and often the easiest way to do this is to set up a special registration file called SETUP or something similar. Then save just the MIC and PEDAL settings into that registration. Then, when you first turn on the keyboard, select that registration and the settings will be recalled.

However, in all subsequent settings, it's important to not have check marks in those two boxes. Save all the other things, but not the mic and pedal settings. This will save you lots of greif in the future.

Good Luck,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

Jill ... The Andrews Sisters used vocal harmony all the way through it, the song CALLS for vocal harmony all the way through it so USE it ... However, when performing you might want to play a song before and/or after using minimal vocal harmony so that you and the audience don't 'tire' of it ...
I would suggest that along with listening to Scott's songs you take a listen to Uncle Dave's at http://www.boydsongs.com/songs.htm
...especially "A Nightingale Sang" ...
t.

thanks tony -
i did go to scotts site today, and i'll check out uncle dave's too!
I also believe the "song" does call for the harmonies, so i will do them!
And you right - when doing a "set" or a performance = i'll really have to be careful about putting that number in the middle of solo vocal #s - funny you should write that - i was just perusing my song list based on that same thought . . .

Jill

I aggree ....... use what ya got !