I'm Your Moon (Jonathan Coulton Cover)

This is probably the best thing I've done so far for a YouTube video. It is also the first sung vocal I've recorded that didn't make me grit my teeth when I listened to it on playback. The video is of me recording the guitar take and one of the two vocal takes. There is no editing on any of the three takes. Technically, the video of me singing is of the vocal take that I used for backing on the chorus, so it is very slightly out of sync with the lead vocal on some words. I could try to tease out the video of the other take, but this is supposed to be fun and it is almost 3 a.m.

The little intro bit is iSight camera audio. The multitrack part was put together in Logic using Alloy and Ozone and an effects plug-in called Spin from the Mode collection by Cycling 77. Oh, and there is a little pitch correction on my vocals; hopefully not enough to sound too unnatural.

The guitar is an Ovation 1778 "Tribal Flame" recorded with a Rode NT-5. I've been trying to record this using my 12-string, but my hands just aren't strong enough to really nail some of the barre chords on the 12-string, especially after a dozen takes. The vocal are recorded with an Electro-Harmonix EH-R1, which is really an Oktava Russian-made ribbon mic. I exported the Logic track and brought it back into iMovie and tried to line everything up. This was recorded in my home office without any acoustic treatment, with the computer making noise running its fans and drives, and with the TV and kids making noise downstairs so the noise floor is not very good, but I hope you like it anyway.

This is one of my favorite Jonathan Coulton songs, and Coulton makes his material available under a Creative Commons license, which is invaluable to aspiring music geeks like me. If you like it, please support him. This song was one of the Thing a Week songs; here is a link to the original page where you can buy the track or donate:

http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2006/08/25/thing-a-week-47-i'm-your-moon/

Did I mention I did the whole thing while not wearing any pants?

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Jonathan
• Coulton
• Still
• Alive
• Ukulele

[KookyBec]

Hey man,great song,I love the phasing and double tracking on the vox.

What is the EH r1 like to use?did you eq alot of the hi frequencies in?

[paulrpotts]

@KookyBec it has been a while since I did this. I think the EQ on the ribbon mic is probably part of a standard preset from Logic, probably "Male Creamy Lead Vocal," so in other words just a usual setting. I have not used that mic in a while -- I should pull it out and do some experimenting.

[paulrpotts]

The phased guitar is on a separate bus and it is supposed to go with the panning vocals (they're "orbiting around each other"). But there are a lot of nasty aliasing artifacts on the guitar and vocal... that's YouTube's compression. The original doesn't sound like that!

[paulrpotts]

Thanks!

[paintingglass]

you must use a reverb for the vocal to make it sound with more life , try it

[JoeCovenant]

I love that guitar!

You should sing standing up.

And the *phaser* spoils it !!!

;' )

[Soichiro04]

You are really nice singing! = )