Today’s track is another melody that has been bouncing around in my head for a while but I’ve never committed to it. Today I did.
Today’s challenge was “A cappella” which is normally at least a gorup of people using only their voices. Now, to me, that sounds like beat boxing by another name, as I state right at the beginning of the track. But, in going through the track a few times, I can say that there are a few differences.
One of the big differences between beat boxing and a cappella is the presence of lyrics. I tried laying down a vocal track for this but just couldn’t think of anything worth saying. It didn’t help that the rhythm and melody didn’t really spur any inspirations. Instead, this seemed like a good track to just listen to and sing along with rather than sign to.
The other difference with the two vocals forms is that beat boxing is much more oriented towards electronica and the like, whereas a cappella has a bit a more of a broader range. I can hear the critics say that that’s not true, but, aside from the exceptions, how else would you define the two genres?
The final big difference between the two forms of vocalizations is the presence of a “click”, and this is probably the most notable of the sounds. Beat boxing makes heavy use of clicks and saliva-ish sounds, but a cappella typically shies away from such mouth-watering displays.
At least, that’s as much as I can tell.
Beat boxing is also normally done on one’s own whereas a cappella is done in a group, typically a quartet. While the beat boxer impresses with their ability to reproduce the sounds of other things and people all at once, the a cappella group impresses by their harmonizing and separation of vocal responsibilities.
Finally, beat boxing is much more gutteral and from the throat rather than from the mouth and vocal chords themselves. By that I mean, beat boxing utilizes anything and everything to make sounds with the human body and voice whereas a cappella typically uses only the singing voice.
But enough of the differences. How did I do this track?
I’ve had this melody in mind for years and it’s just something I’ve alway sung to myself whenever I needed to fill time. No doubt you have one in your head, too. Whether it’s a genuine, original creation or your own take on something you heard somewhere, these sorts of hummings and vocalizings aren’t anything new, until you layer them with other parts. That’s when they can go from ordinary to interesting.
The basic rhythm is the beat box-like “baroom and click” and is accented by the other three parts. There is a mimicking deep bass and a contrasting higher tone, filled out by a fourth track that mimics the doublings but puts them all together into one track. Four tracks total.
The main rhythm and fourth track are centred while the deeper bass and higher tone are panned left and right respectively, this gave the track a little more ambience and, as I found, it keeps your ears listening to each “side” of the voices. Basically, it wakes you up.
It’s not a long track as I really didn’t know where to go with it. It was supposed to be simple and I think I accomplished that goal. This is also the quickest I’ve completed a track, starting some time after 5 pm and finishing just after 9.30 pm, with an hour long break in there to consider how else to deal with the lack of words.
Minimal effects were placed on these tracks, some Expansion and the VCA Vocal Compression, but each track only sends about -25 dbs to the bus for processing, so the effect is very slight.
And since tomorrow is “Hand claps”, in today’s track I figured I’d shied away from any snaps or claps that may have been flourishes to the final mix. This one is vocals only.