Läksin minä kesäyönä käymään: Rajaton A Cappella Multitrack

I'm singing Läksin minä kesäyönä käymään (The Weeper on the Shore), arranged by Jussi Chydenius (Rajaton's Bass), as performed by Rajaton and recorded on their 1999 album Nova. It's a Finnish folk song, and I sang all 6 parts a cappella (with no instruments). For this video I actually doubled some of the parts to give it a more choral feel.

This is my personal favourite of all Rajaton's songs, mostly because of the AMAZING ENDING. My next video will probably be an original song. Sorry about my Finnish mistakes - I don't actually speak Finnish. I'd love to hear your pronunciation advice.

Sheet Music: Purchased from Sulasol, a Finnish music publisher (www.sulasol.fi)

About Rajaton: they are a 6-singer a cappella group from Helsinki, Finland. I consider them to be the best musical group of any kind. For more info, go to their official website (www.rajaton.net)
You can buy their albums directly from their website, or in North America from http://www.a-cappella.com.

About me: I'm a 21-year-old student from Toronto, Canada, studying Business and Engineering in Philadelphia. I sing in the a cappella group Dischord (http://www.upenndischord.com), and I sang in the Toronto Children's Chorus (http://www.torontochildrenschorus.com).

Category:

Music

Tags:

• rajaton
• multitrack
• cappella
• capella
• acapella
• läksin
• minä
• kesäyönä
• käymään
• michaelsaunders77
• michael
• saunders
• laksin
• mina
• kesayona
• kaymaan
• sing
• multi
• track
• singing
• sextet
• audio
• luna
• shure
• sm58
• tascam
• US122-L
• corel
• videostudio
• prox3
• finnish
• folk
• song
• beautiful
• the
• weeper
• on
• shore
• harmony
• nova
• jussi
• chydenius
• armottoman
• toronto
• children's
• chorus
• butterfly
• kaipaava

[obsidianfinger]

Wonderful, thank you for making the world a better place.

I'm sure you get asked this all the time: do you use any compression on your voice? What software do you use to record audio/video? Are you sight-reading or have you memorized the music? What is your recording process like?

Sorry to crowd you, I just think you got a really good sound.

-Luis

[michaelsaunders77]

@obsidianfinger Thanks!

Compression: on this video I didn't use compression because it was pretty slow and easy to control my volume. For my video Armottoman Osa, I needed to use compression because there were many fast, accented syllables that would have sounded too jarring otherwise. I did use some equalization - changing the balance of frequencies for different parts. Eg. I weight more of the high-frequency stuff (consonants) to the solo to help bring the words forward.

cont'd...

[michaelsaunders77]

@obsidianfinger, answer cont'd

Software: I use Steinberg Cubase LE4 to record, edit, and mix audio. I think it's really good. For video, I edit everything together in Corel VideoStudio Pro X3, which I don't like very much. I'm planning to switch to the Adobe Premiere suite.

I memorized this song, but I think I used a stand with sheet music in most of my previous videos. I think it looks better when I'm not looking down.

cont'd...

[michaelsaunders77]

@obsidianfinger, answer cont'd #2 Process: 0. Learn the song 1. Make a midi track for pitch and tempo 2. Record a part (usually bass first) 3. Listen 4. Re-record until I'm satisfied (3-25 times) 5. Combine different sections of each take 6. Repeat from step 2 for each part 7. Mix (adjust levels, reverb, eq, panning) 8. Sync each video with the mix 9. Export and upload Thanks for the questions! Let me know if you're curious about anything else!

[iloirtimusiikista]

It's very impressive! I hope you do more old Finnish songs. Unfortunately, the tendency in Finland it to sing more and more songs in English. I guess it's good for communication, but the whole world will soon sound the same. So it's great that a non-Finn takes up the cause of singing in Finnish. Since it's my native language, I think it sounds wonderful in certain kinds of songs because it's so rich in vowels.

Good luck with your vocal career!

[michaelsaunders77]

@iloirtimusiikista Thank you! And yes, I agree - that vowel richness is wonderful. In my opinion it makes it much more enjoyable to sing in Finnish and to listen to Finnish music.

[zunzipop]

Really impressive... especially from 2:23 to the end!!

[iloirtimusiikista]

Oh my God, you are so good! Did you learn your good Finnish pronunciation just from listening to Rajaton?

It's a wonderful rendition, thank you!

[Yellozzhi]

I'm a Finn and first i thaught you are finnish! :D That is completely possible that i wouldn't undestand anything ;)) Good work!

[wordellion]

Hello,

It is really nice work :D I have sung this song when I was in Finland. The meaning and the melody meet perfectly. but pronunciation could be better :) great work

[MrVercingetorixx]

You are insanely good! Even your Finnish is almost perfect.

[miiituuu]

Aivan upeaa! Absolutely stunning! It is a great pleasure to feel the enthusiasm that you have - not to mention your skills in a) singing and b) singing in a foreign language! Your Finnish sounds nice and pleasant, I think. Best regards from Finland, Minna

[Iksarra]

This is so incredible.. damn!!