Comments on: File Under: Finished.

File Under: Finished.

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 19:59:19 -0800

It's here: the Metafilter Music Collaboration. [Raw tracks available here!] Statistics: 26 parts submitted by sixteen people from four countries (including karlos the jackal's wife, and myself). First of all, of course, an immense thank you to all those who participated. This has been lots of fun - and I know how this sounds, but the enthusiasm really was overwhelming. What have I learned? Well, that Mefites are a creative bunch, that's for sure. And that a project of this size and diversity isn't exactly a cakewalk to manage. The audio part wasn't too difficult - I'm reasonably used to handling large amounts of tracks for the more obsessive of my own projects. Nor did the diversity of recording methods and locations pose any unassailable obstacles - a little reverb goes a long way. The most challenging part for me was simple administration: keeping track of parts, usernames, files, machines, versions... (Right now I'm cowering in fear of having forgotten to include or credit someone after all. I really hope I didn't.) Once all the parts were was in place I spent a considerable amount of time just comping everything together and selecting which parts of which contributions I could highlight at what point in the song. Over time I kind of started obsessing over giving everyone "equal time", but then I realized that that was rather naive and probably wouldn't render an enjoyable mix, at which point I dropped that strategy in favour of mixing just as I would a more standard rock song, with some weird bits thrown in here and there for good measure. To my knowledge, I have included everyone after all, in one way or another - you may have to hunt for some parts before you notice them, though. For instance, at some point it became apparent that I wasn't going to have the luxury of a multitrack drum part. I was sent some drums however, but with them being only 1 or 2 tracks (mono or stereo) it wasn't going to do much good for keeping an already crowded mix uncluttered. So I ended up programming a simple drum track myself, augmenting it with other people's stuff (in the case of the drum parts, mostly in the late verses leading up to the choruses). So kill your darlings, and all that. By the end I had about a few dozen plans of what might work in the context of a mix, but then, with the thing about 80% done, my computer broke down. Luckily almost, I'd say. Because by the time I installed a new system (it was the same problem as back then and it turns out it was probably a faulty motherboard IDE controller after all) I could finish it with a clear mind. You can only tinker for so long, and I had to relent at some point and just call it a song. There are some little things I still kind of regret: given the time - and a less crowded mix - I might have more emphasized the wonderful call-and-response interplay between micayetoca's melodica and cabingirl's violin in the last verse, for instance; or punctuate the song with more of the "small percussion" parts (two tambourines, a pandeiro and a shaker), or allowing more room for the more outlandish instruments such as karlos the jackal's tremoloa, verysleeping's singing saw or herrdoktor's wonderfully abrasive Moog noises. If anything, I would have allowed more breathing room for the various backing vocals, too, which were truly brilliant in their personality and diversity. But water under the bridge. In the end I just closed my eyes and mixed a song, and in the process I probably sold a lot of people short. I hope you don't mind - I had a lot of fun doing this, and I hope you like it. Thanks again to the contributors, to those who egged us on, and to cortex, who I understand will be making the raw multitracks available soon for possible remix purposes. Happy new year.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 20:04:00 -0800

Awesome!

By: Corduroy

Corduroy — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 20:07:53 -0800

Terrific! Will this be happening again any time soon?

By: The Deej

The Deej — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 20:12:12 -0800

YAYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 20:12:55 -0800

So great!

By: nola

nola — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 20:27:02 -0800

Hey that was really good y'all I really enjoyed that. What a fun song choice.

By: odi.et.amo

odi.et.amo — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 20:32:40 -0800

This is beyond awesome! Great job everyone!

By: jazon

jazon — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 20:35:41 -0800

It certainly was fun. Next time (if there is a next time) I'll see if I can record the drums better.

Still, I played it for the family and they really liked it.

Thanks for making it happen!

By: middleclasstool

middleclasstool — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 21:01:32 -0800

This is a great cover, guys. You done awesome.

By: rhapsodie

rhapsodie — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 21:32:45 -0800

This is wonderful!

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 22:10:25 -0800

It's the beginning of MeFiMu as spiderwire would like to know it,

And I feel fine.

By: Sailormom

Sailormom — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 22:14:14 -0800

This is awesome.

By: special-k

special-k — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 22:27:12 -0800

Loved it! nice job goodnewsfortheinsane.

By: heyho

heyho — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 22:52:34 -0800

Great job! I'm feeling happier and shinier as I type this.

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 00:01:16 -0800

Congrats and well done, gnfti.

By: mumkin

mumkin — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 00:12:04 -0800

Awesomeness all 'round.

By: sveskemus

sveskemus — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 01:33:47 -0800

Fantastic!

By: sveskemus

sveskemus — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 01:44:04 -0800

Oh, and I can't wait to get my hands on the individual tracks for remixing!

By: cortex

cortex — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 06:50:32 -0800

Wait no more, sveskemus. Here they are.

By: cortex

cortex — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 07:06:39 -0800

Our Dutch correspondent reports that not all of the tracks got uploaded last night, and so I have not actually got all of them available at that link yet. We'll get it repaired as soon as possible.

By: potch

potch — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 07:30:13 -0800

So what's the next song? Hmm?

When can we start?

Can I play?

CanIcanIcanI?

Please?

By: jeversol

jeversol — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 07:39:58 -0800

*applause*

By: potch

potch — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 07:51:40 -0800

Once all the tracks are accounted for, I'd be happy to seed a torrent of said files.

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 08:05:23 -0800

Chapeau! I'm a picky SOB and I genuinely enjoyed that.

By: chococat

chococat — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 08:16:15 -0800

Sounds like a crowded crazy mess, in a good way.
As far as the raw files go, is there any way we can get the individual users' actual complete takes as they uploaded them? I could be wrong, as I've only just listened to a few of the "raw" files, but it seems that they are solo'd tracks of everyone's edited parts as they appear in the finished song.
Does that make sense?

By: spiderwire

spiderwire — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 09:32:19 -0800

Whee!

By: mostlymartha

mostlymartha — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 11:20:22 -0800

Oh, how fun! Perk of my morning, by far. I hope this happens again.

By: A dead Quaker

A dead Quaker — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 06:57:48 -0800

Loving that singing saw.

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 08:55:17 -0800

chococat, they're not soloed from the project, or shouldn't be at least. I have no way to check right now, but most of them are the original file submitted to me. Some were truncated to 16 bits with no other alterations. Maybe a handful were converted from stereo to mono (throwing out the right channel) because both channels had the same content. Then there are my drum tracks.

And then you yourself are an exception because you submitted five (I think) guitar tracks, which I indeed comped together as a stereo mix because I kind of doubted anyone would want to tinker with the different takes to that level of detail. If you want me to put up the original five anyway no problem, let me know, and if you can give another example of where this happens then I'll look into it.

By: chococat

chococat — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 10:00:15 -0800

No no, that's fine. But I had an idea for a version and I wanted to use an alternate vocal. I only checked one other vocal track which seemed to start a verse or two into the song so I (wrongly) assumed that the uploaded tracks were already edited instead of being complete takes. Sorry about that, I'll dig around some more. And no, what you've uploaded of me is more than enough. Thanks again!

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 11:51:36 -0800

Brilliant work, gnfti & co.!

By: The Deej

The Deej — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 16:16:34 -0800

It is the We Are the World of MeFi, except good.

By: cortex

cortex — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 16:51:11 -0800

The few missing tracks are now up.

By: theiconoclast31

theiconoclast31 — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 12:44:18 -0800

This thread deserves more comments, I love it.

By: micayetoca

micayetoca — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 20:33:10 -0800

I've loved the insanity of this from the beginning, and hearing the final result I'm more than delighted. I'm one of those that didn't quite like the original song, but I wasn't going to let that stop me, and it's really cool that so many people participated.

And gnfti, what are the four countries you mentioned?

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 10:29:19 -0800

Canada, Netherlands, United States and Venezuela.

Two or three Canadians I think (I could check later if anyone cares), Netherlands and Venezuela one each, rest US.