Ok here we go. Contained in the next post will be my mate Mike's recording of Move On Up. Once again feedback will be really welcome and try to make it as constructive as you can. As a reminder of what the whole point is, Mike said:

...the idea is that I record these songs using the recording and production techniques from the original records. If I cant physically do that, I have to try and emulate it...

So once again, it's not supposed to be a note-for note copy of Curtis Mayfield's version - I doubt anyone could pull that off - more a version that sounds as if it was recorded around the same time and with a similar feel. Mike's supposed to play all the instruments too.

This should be interesting...

Godz

Edited April 21, 200718 yr by Godzilla

I know I'm biased but I think that is just stunning

I think that you should have pressed it and slipped it to a few DJ's, I'm sure it would get plays and become part of the scene!!! I love it!

Ace!

How does the vocals bit work?

Edited April 21, 200718 yr by Karen Heath

I think that you should have pressed it and slipped it to a few DJ's, I'm sure it would get plays and become part of the scene!!! I love it!

Vinyl Carvers here I come! Too late to cover it up though. Bugger

Love it! .Ta Ray

Ace!

How does the vocals bit work?

It's me singing...

...Ha ha - as if!

Well done Karen. I wondered who would be the first to ask. It's this gentleman:

https://www.davidlaudat.com/

I never watched X Factor so I only know him from acting as compere at Scarborough's Beached festival last year.

I think he's got one of the best contemporary soul voices I've heard in a very long time.

Be nice to get some feedback on the music / production side of things too.

Paul

Can't you say its "The 4 vandals"?

It's me singing...

...Ha ha - as if!

Well done Karen. I wondered who would be the first to ask. It's this gentleman:

https://www.davidlaudat.com/

I never watched X Factor so I only know him from acting as compere at Scarborough's Beached festival last year.

I think he's got one of the best contemporary soul voices I've heard in a very long time.

Be nice to get some feedback on the music / production side of things too.

Paul

Oh that's interesting...I wondered how that worked. It made me jump when the voice came in as I was expecting another instrumental!

I didn't watch the X Factor either but he sounds good.

I'm going to click the link now and investigate further!

great stuff

That really is very good, definitely an authentique feel to the musicianship and production

Blimey! all seems very positive so far

Mike and I were discussing how it would go down and we acknowledged that it might be seen as sacrilege in some quarters. In fact to continue the religeous analogy, Mike said "They'll crucify me!"

Nice to see the old soul crowd aren't as closed minded as some would have us

Godz

Nothing will take the place of the original but this is an excellent if duplicate cover, good stuff tho

Lenny

You can tell it's not the origional but it but it sounds good to me.

There are some talented people in this world.

KTF.

Drew.

I thought it was April  1st and I was a fool, one of my fav sounds done justice great. My 14 year old daughter is a fan of Micky boy now and she thought it was Curtis. He has worked hard for his degree 

Be nice to get some feedback on the music / production side of things too.

Paul

I also think it's a stunning piece of work. The bass sounds terrific and very authentic, it's also slightly further up in the mix than the original. I actually find it better that way.

Mikey boy is a very talented guy! Very authentic sounding, as is the "Wade in the water" version too. These guys (Mikey and the vocalist) should definatly make some contemporary commercial releases! Sounds better than that John Ledgend crap any day!

Edited April 21, 200718 yr by Trevski

Vinyl Carvers here I come! Too late to cover it up though. Bugger

If I had to split hairs and be critical, I thought the horns at the start could have been punctuated a little more precisely. But hey, am aware that's a hair splitting observation. I thought on the whole it was superb and I'm sure Curtis would smile on that rendition.

Listen to those bongos! F*cking great version.

superb version..........love it!

steve

What Mike wanted to achieve he succeeded.

Excellent version.

Listen to those bongos! F*cking great version.

Absolutely!

We had a conversation about that a couple of days ago when Mike sent me a rougher version of the tune. Went like this:

What's up with the congas Mike? I like to hear them fairly upfront, which

they are, but they just don't sound rich enough if you know what I mean

- as if there's a subtle part of the sound of the instrument missing.

Am I making sense?

the odd conga thing is coz i couldnt get hold of any congas. I used

stevie beats bongos that he got from gough and davy (local music shop) for £9.99 they

have cardboard skins and are a bastard to play

Guess he must have tinkered since then. So now you know, tricks of the trade and all that

Surprised no-ones asked about the string parts though? That was my second question straight after 'who's singing?"

Hi EXCELLANT version you have talent & if this is the type of music you do .Keep it coming.

Cheers Daryl

my 2 cents as a musician ...

the vocal work is fantastic, and the strings and purcussion are right on time. my main criticism, understanding that your pal was not trying to do a note for note rendition, is that the horns are off. to me the most recognizable bits of this song are, of course, mayfield's vocal and the horn lines ... and well, you friend here has changed it enough to make it almost distracting for someone familiar with the tune.

that said, i love that the bass is nice and up in the front of the mix!

now the wade in the water track posted in the other thread ... AMAZING. modern or not, a nice twist on a standard, and i would bet a few folks would buy it if it were released. would sound great in a jazz setting.

now lets hear The Small Faces track ... im real curious about that one. please tell me he out-did weller ... please PLEASE!!

kev

ill just quickly add that the vocal track on this one could stand to be compressed a tad bit more.

Edited April 21, 200718 yr by Kevin J

Absolutely!

We had a conversation about that a couple of days ago when Mike sent me a rougher version of the tune. Went like this:

What's up with the congas Mike? I like to hear them fairly upfront, which

they are, but they just don't sound rich enough if you know what I mean

- as if there's a subtle part of the sound of the instrument missing.

Am I making sense?

the odd conga thing is coz i couldnt get hold of any congas. I used

stevie beats bongos that he got from gough and davy (local music shop) for £9.99 they

have cardboard skins and are a bastard to play

Guess he must have tinkered since then. So now you know, tricks of the trade and all that

Surprised no-onesabout the string parts though? asked That was my second question straight after 'who's singing?"

My second question is what about the string parts though?

now lets hear The Small Faces track ... im real curious about that one. please tell me he out-did weller ... please PLEASE!!

kev

I'll see what I can do Kev. It's a different singer on Tin Soldier and I'll have to check to see if it's ok to post it. Mike's incommunicado at the moment so we'll have to hang fire. I think it's fair to say that vocally it's a very different approach to the Small Faces and I'm not sure if this is the right forum for it. Not trying to be cryptic here and if I get the go-ahead I'll post it so people can make their own minds up.

Thanks to all for the postive comments though. I'll think Mike will be made up to see the two tunes getting such a good reaction on here

Paul

my 2 cents as a musician ...

the vocal work is fantastic, and the strings and purcussion are right on time. my main criticism, understanding that your pal was not trying to do a note for note rendition, is that the horns are off. to me the most recognizable bits of this song are, of course, mayfield's vocal and the horn lines ... and well, you friend here has changed it enough to make it almost distracting for someone familiar with the tune.

that said, i love that the bass is nice and up in the front of the mix!

now the wade in the water track posted in the other thread ... AMAZING. modern or not, a nice twist on a standard, and i would bet a few folks would buy it if it were released. would sound great in a jazz setting.

now lets hear The Small Faces track ... im real curious about that one. please tell me he out-did weller ... please PLEASE!!

kev

ill just quickly add that the vocal track on this one could stand to be compressed a tad bit more.

I'm impressed, but I think the horns and the strings sound pretty synthesized (especially the ones in the lower range). Definitely more real sounding than most stuff that comes out now, though.

My second question is what about the string parts though?

I'm glad you asked, Karen

I didn't think that Mike really had the time or resources to learn to play all the string instruments so it looked like he would use the part of his brief that said he had to emulate anything he couldn't re-create from scratch. It didn't sound like those dodgy keyboard strings (thank God) so I asked him how he'd done it. Here's what he said:

The strings are a vst instrument. Its like a virtual sampler keyboard

thingy. However.. i played 8 different parts by hand so they were all a

bit different, used 8 different string sounds and sent the sounds

through 4 speakers in my studio in a little semi circle like they were real

string players, then recorded them using a sh*t old mic. Then put them

through the decca chamber. A total pain in the arse, but they sound

nearly proper dont they? This is the thingy...

https://www.garritan.com/GPO-ensemble.html

Well worth the effort I reckon

Paul

I'm impressed, but I think the horns and the strings sound pretty synthesized (especially the ones in the lower range). Definitely more real sounding than most stuff that comes out now, though.

Mike's trumpet playing is definately for real Boba. He used to empty the spit valve all over my stage when he played at the old venues. Musicians are really disgusting you know...

I'm glad you asked, Karen

I didn't think that Mike really had the time or resources to learn to play all the string instruments so it looked like he would use the part of his brief that said he had to emulate anything he couldn't re-create from scratch. It didn't sound like those dodgy keyboard strings (thank God) so I asked him how he'd done it. Here's what he said:

The strings are a vst instrument. Its like a virtual sampler keyboard

thingy. However.. i played 8 different parts by hand so they were all a

bit different, used 8 different string sounds and sent the sounds

through 4 speakers in my studio in a little semi circle like they were real

string players, then recorded them using a sh*t old mic. Then put them

through the decca chamber. A total pain in the arse, but they sound

nearly proper dont they? This is the thingy...

https://www.garritan.com/GPO-ensemble.html

Well worth the effort I reckon

Paul

Wow....... and I thought I was good on a Bontempi organ! Joke!

Mike's trumpet playing is definately for real Boba. He used to empty the spit valve all over my stage when he played at the old venues. Musicians are really disgusting you know...

Interesting. Are they pitch shifted or processed in any way? Maybe the effect I'm talking about comes from simulating other horns (like trombones) with a trumpet?

Interesting. Are they pitch shifted or processed in any way? Maybe the effect I'm talking about comes from simulating other horns (like trombones) with a trumpet?

Donno mate. Once he's back in contact I'll ask him and post his reply.

Paul

Donno mate. Once he's back in contact I'll ask him and post his reply.

Paul

It could also just be that I know the original too well and it doesn't sound like that.

Stunning.simply stunning and no doubt you will be a top music producer in the future, good luck.

It's great!

Blimey Godz, is Mike a renaissance man or what?

Makes me feel like a great big underachiever

Out of this world. No complaints. I can clearly hear the very hard work that has gone into this. It really is excellent. A great version using the technology of the day to capture this performance. I would love to see a screenshot of the sequencer package if one has been used! Well done......

I must also say that there are many talented people about today creating good music old and new in style. Giving them respect for their efforts like this gives hope for the future of music. I know the technology is often the tail wagging the dog, but if it helps create a masterpiece in the long run, that cannot be bad.

Edited April 23, 200718 yr by Carl Dixon

Wicked!

I like this, and the Wade In The Water

Really like the two tracks, the guy has some talent.

I dont like remakes ...

But I like this ....not spoilt the original

Brill!

Mand

Godz, you've gotta tell Mike 10 out of 10 mate - that is stunning!

....and if I wore one, I'd take my hat off to both Mike and David (if that is it the name of the vocalist??).

Dare I say it, I actually think the vocals are comparable to Curtis Mayfield's!!!! (To a layman like me anyway), and I think if you took a straw poll of 100 randomly selected people and asked them which version sounds better I honestly think it'd be about 50/50 - it's that good.

I think Mike found some of that "magic dust" (I jokingly suggested with Wade in the water), I don't know why or what it is, but this has that sixties feel and I couldn't honestly tell you why or put my finger on exactly what it is, but it's there.

I cannot praise it enough - what a talented b*stard

Nice I enjoyed it... talented bloke :good:

It's good but you should try and get it released and who knows it could be big for 2007 or 2008

Love it, brill..... how sickeningly talented

utter cack.

not really. brilliant. just off to find the wade in the water now. i think he ought to release it godz. only thing he could do is maybe roughen it up a bit more cos it sounds almost too polished? but i like it a great deal.

Again this is fantastic, I played to a couple of my colleagues at work, who aren't soul fans but would know Curtis, and both didn't know it wasn't the original. It's good that people haven't been too precious about the idea, as an exercise it's really interesting.

Now just post up the Tin Soldier clip, I won't be over critical, I promise. After that can we make requests??

Edited April 27, 200718 yr by timthemod

Love it, brill..... how sickeningly talented

Yeah, don't you just hate all these talented people

Great recording

QoFxx

Curtis Mayfield - Move on up has depth n feeling to the voice that can't be re-created - but that goes without saying.

Think he has a fabulous voice to hit the high note's - and sound's better than most in the chart's today, certainly should be making a living recording. Not being critical - just making an observation - especially put against the original, he's voice needs to flow a lot more, does a lot of with holding slightly and stop start style of singing ( not sure how to describe what I mean ) this dosen't apply when he hits those high note's - he hit's those perfect

Karen

Excellent job ,

very talented

and technical ,way over my head

as expected not as good as the original but fantastic attempt to emulate it

hope he gets his degree and a fantastic career from all his obvious hard work