Wings By Birdy - Cover By Holly Jay

[GabrielMusic]

Hi guys.  Here's my first video/song/cover of my work with Holly Jay.  Let me know what you think.  I produced the music (the intro is original) and filmed the video (the video was edited out).  If you'd like her to send you a free mp3 of it, email her at hollyjay@gimusicproductions.com  Subscribe if you like her.   Enjoy.

 

[symphonious7]

This girl... who is she?  Like... you seem to be a producer, and she's the "talent" or the singer you're collabing with.  But do you just know her or does she pay you or like... how'd you find her?  And what kind of feedback are you looking for?  

[GabrielMusic]

LOL, I was trying to answer the first q, until I saw there were 9 more after that.  So....I wonder which one I should answer first....hmmm, lol.

[symphonious7]

LOL, I was trying to answer the first q, until I saw there were 9 more after that.  So....I wonder which one I should answer first....hmmm, lol.

How's about 2 questions, I thought they were all kinda related.  Is this a business endeavor or a project you're doing for fun, (is anyone investing money into this and hoping for a return)  And do you want real critical feedback, or was posting to this site more just for promotional reasons?  I just don't want to overstep my boundries and want to understand what kind of project this is cause it seems to be something alot of effort is going into in the hopes of making this girl a star.  That's just how it appeared to me from the video.  

[GabrielMusic]

This is an effort to see how mine and her work can be received by the public.  Where it goes no one knows, however the intent is to see how much we can do together, no middlemen.  Yes I am financing this right now.  We just started.  The reason I put it here is because although I write originals, I have steered towards covers for now until (and if) we have some type of following.  We ll do originals later this year maybe.  Depending.  So the reason I posted it here is for anyone to comment on anything about it.

[symphonious7]

This is an effort to see how mine and her work can be received by the public.  Where it goes no one knows, however the intent is to see how much we can do together, no middlemen.  Yes I am financing this right now.  We just started.  The reason I put it here is because although I write originals, I have steered towards covers for now until (and if) we have some type of following.  We ll do originals later this year maybe.  Depending.  So the reason I posted it here is for anyone to comment on anything about it.

I'm going to pm you my response then.  

[dnafe]

She's young and in all honestly nothing special...she's a little pitchy in spots and the timbre of her voice has yet to develop fully so you'll have some waiting to do.

 

 

edit - A little story if I may

We were working with a young girl of similar talent who was also an aspiring songwriter and actually had some really good ideas (seeds) for songs. Unfortunately everyone around her, except us, were telling her how great her songs were when in fact they were a little more than a verse and chorus over a single chord structure. We tried to get her to expand her song structures to include bridges, different chord voicing, key changes etc. but it fell on deaf ears.

 

Her parents, who really do know better, chose to exploit her limited abilities and surround her with yes men and women and eventually convinced a production / record / video company in Europe to groom her. Her first CD is out and nothing has changed.

Now in fairness to the "producers" they did a very good job highlighting her real strength which is her singing and I'm hoping that this CD will garner enough attention that real songwriters and producers will take her under their wing, give her a reality check and develop her abilities to give her a career as opposed to a one off shot at the spotlight.

[GabrielMusic]

It's not just about the vocal.   It it were, JLO would sell 1 record.  Possibly zero.  Madonna, the same.  Countless more.  Now check out our new cover here and tell me if the vocal is better. 
 

[dnafe]

Significantly better in terms of pitch and performance.  I don't think I would have mixed in the vocal doubling at the end, particularly one under each other.

I agree that it is not about just the vocals and depending what you have in store for her, in terms of image, she could do well.

 

[M57]

The tunes are nice and a good choice for the singer, who I think has a lot of potential, especially considering how young she appears. The recording of the vocal on the second tune sounds like it has chorus, which I don't like - the double doesn't really work for me either.  And though I like the strings, canned strings are really difficult to pull off in such an exposed arrangement.  The perfection is always just too sterile, even with the best of samples.

 

There are a few places where the piano playing is, well.. glitchy - like the beat gets lost for a moment.  I love the piano sound, and even though it too is exposed, when it comes to recording I prefer a good canned piano to all but the very best of real pianos tuned perfectly.  In both recordings, I find the piano playing is too tentative in general.  I find one easy fix for that is to go in the editor and raise the velocity of the key strokes.   If you really insist on keeping it 'soft,' try grabbing just the bottom 25% and raise those up into the mid levels, then compensate by lowering the track a few db's.

[GabrielMusic]

Thanks. The piano was tuned and played like that to add emotion.

She does have potential pending the image build, you re right. That s how I see it also.

There is something colorful about this girl and that s why I m spending cycles on her. Plus she is a pleasure to work with.

[GabrielMusic]

Finally there is no doubling on the vocal.