#anyway...please enjoy this song about grief from a musical podcast about grief | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

gaiapaia · 3 years

Text

Kermit and Friends: Lucas 6:27

But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. - Luke 6:27-36

This Bible verse is essentially the ‘Golden Rule’ we’re all taught in elementary school - treat others how you want to be treated. However, treating others kindly is very hard to do when the other person is bad to you. Perhaps the toughest part about being a Christian is the fact we’re supposed to love and pray for our enemies like Jesus would.

Elisa apparently has an enemy in Lucas, Andy Dick’s lover and ex-boyfriend. Lucas has been on the show a couple of times now but their animosity has taken place away from Kermit and Friends.

When Elisa first met Lucas, she heard a lot of good things about him from Andy and they seemed to get along fine. Unfortunately, Andy would throw fits any time Elisa and Lucas were around each other, with Andy accusing Elisa of sleeping with Lucas. Elisa would invite Andy somewhere and Andy would show up with Lucas, only then to berate Elisa later for always inviting Lucas on their dates.

Elisa could tell Lucas was in a bad spot and had some connections to get him a job interview. She set it up for him and sadly, Lucas wasn’t hired. Elisa claims this led to Lucas screaming at her at a Hookah Bar earlier this week, with Lucas blaming Elisa as to why he didn’t get the job. Elisa ended up screaming back at Lucas this time instead of just taking his abuse. Knowing Elisa like I do, it takes a LOT to get her fired up for her to get into a confrontation in public, so she definitely reached her boiling point with Lucas that night.

What’s Elisa to do at this point? The Bible tells her not to hold resentment, to stay kind, to pray for Lucas, etc. It’s very, very tough, but the best way to handle it my opinion is to avoid Lucas at all cost from this point on. Say one little prayer for his well being and then eliminate him out of your life. And if you come across him again, be cordial and just walk away if his behavior starts to bring you out of your true character. That’s my advice.

Anyway, this incident between Elisa and Lucas is where the show got its title from this week. Luke is obviously short for Lucas, and I thought it was creative the way Elisa tied the situation together. Further on in the show, Elisa would play a clip from Andy Dick’s new podcast aDICKted where Andy explained his toxic relationship with Lucas. Andy alleges that Lucas beats him, beats up all of Andy’s male lovers, has stolen from him, etc. Just because Andy says it doesn’t necessarily make it true (like when Andy says Elisa sleeps with Lucas), but if those allegations are true, Lucas is a very bad guy and I would personally prefer Elisa not to hang out with Andy anymore if Lucas is forced into the arrangement. But Elisa is a big girl and can take care of herself - I trust her to stay out of bad situations.

In better news, Elisa’s new song My Fiancé is a huge hit among the KAF fanbase. Literally everyone loved it, except for Andy that is. Regardless of Andy’s irrelevant feelings, the song is now available on Itunes, Spotify, Amazon, and anywhere else you can listen to music.

My Fiancé was such a huge hit that it got three remixes in just a week! Two were from Eric Riggs, one from Andy Dick. Eric’s first remix was him just masturbating to the video, while the second remix was Eric singing about dancing like Michael Jackson. Andy’s remix was simply Andy cursing Elisa out to the beat of the song. Andy really needs to work on his songwriting ability, his version of My Fiancé wasn’t flattering at all!

Sharmin Smith ended up being the main focus of the show this week. She opened up to Elisa about the hardships she’s faced since she decided to run for President of the United States in 2020.

According to Sharmin, she was accused of sex trafficking and orchestrating a gang rape by QAnon members she hired from LinkedIn to help her with her presidential campaign. Sharmin’s teenaged kids somehow ended up hearing about these accusations and have had little contact with Sharmin since.

Sharmin bared her soul and you could tell how grief stricken she is over this, rightfully so. Sharmin obviously loves her kids very much and it’s not just the fact that they’re forced away from her that hurts, it’s the fact that they were led to believe these horrible things about Sharmin that aren’t true.

I wish there was something I could write to make Sharmin feel better about her situation. I do admire her strength to be so honest and sincere, and I appreciate she’s so willing to share her story with the Kermit and Friends audience despite how painful it is. But Sharmin if you’re reading this... it is very important to remain patient. I know it’s hard, especially this past year when we’ve had so much downtime to just ourselves, but you will be rewarded if you sit tight and allow the truth to be revealed naturally. You can’t force anything. Let God or fate or the universe, anything you want to call it, run its course and eventually justice will prevail and the good guys will win. You’re one of the good ones, Sharmin.

One positive note from Sharmin’s explosive interview this week was her acknowledgement of how Kermit and Friends entered her life at the perfect time. Sharmin emphasized how much fun KAF has been for her and how badly she needed some fun in her life. Kermit and Friends brings a lot of joy to the people who regularly watch and participate in it, and that alone makes the show a massive success if you ask me.

If you love Kermit and Friends, you can now donate during the show to have a comment displayed on stream. Elisa monetized her Youtube last week and received some nice donations. Capt Muttley, KAF’s dashing pilot, kicked things off and then Supertramp, Kleenex, and SaiyanZ Entertainment all generously contributed too. There’s so much going on during a KAF broadcast that Elisa can’t properly acknowledge the donations each time, but I know she appreciates it, and I also appreciate anyone supporting Elisa and KAF to such a strong degree. If you donate, you will always get a shout out in my reviews.

Chris Christine blessed Kermit and Friends with another appearance. She said a prayer for Elisa and Sharmin, and then let God choose a Bible verse to share. His finger landed on 1 Samuel 17, which is about brothers David and Saul coming together. Christine then beautifully correlated the verse to her, Elisa, and Sharmin as sisters coming together. Chris is wonderful every appearance she makes.

There were lots of awesome musical guests this week. We met a nice guy named Hud Isaacson, a rapper who Elisa claims is Andy Dick’s most normal friend. He performed a couple for raps for us and then shared how mean Lucas was to Elisa last week. Click soundcloud and Instagram to hear Ian’s songs and to follow him on social media.

Another new musical guest was Miranda Moore, who performed two beautiful original songs. You can check her out on Youtube and also follow her on Instagram.

Lastly, Johnny B returned to perform two karaoke classics, including one of my all time favorite songs, Hurt by Johnny Cash.

I really enjoyed this week’s show. It had less comedy than your typical Kermit and Friends episode, but the way the show was filled with love, thoughtfulness, deep conversations and interesting stories made it a really enjoyable experience to watch. Please be sure to tune in next week for a potential big guest and a huge update on Trumpster Bob that you absolutely do not want to miss.

youtube

2 notes · View notes

pinestripes · 5 years

Text

Favorite Moments from TAZ: Balance, in No Particular Order

(I’ve been wallowing in my grief over finishing Balance for a bit now, and I thought I could make a tribute by listing some of my favorite moments from the campaign! It should be noted that there will be SPOILERS AHEAD and that some quotes might be paraphrased slightly. Also, I haven’t listened to the liveshows yet.)

The guys’ delighted laughter as Griffin reveals that Barry’s back.

Actually, every time they have big reactions to his reveals. The sheer dumb confusion and then the whooping and clapping when the first loop in the Eleventh Hour happens. Justin’s quietly horrified reaction to finding out Lup made the Umbra Staff. Clint’s confused laughter and incredulous “Anyone?” when Griffin asks who he summons from the bond engine.

“I, and a team of other people, created this world.” “Gary Gygax?”

The guys tormenting Jenkins in Murder on the Rockport Limited, after which we find out the guy is a literal murderer (and not, in fact, a “sh*tty wizard”).

The entire exchange at the bottom of the well in the Gerblins arc. “Can anybody levitate?” “I think we just live at the bottom of this well now.”

“No dogs on the moon. They just run right off the damn thing.” "Should you say it, or should I? ...No dogs on the moon!”

“[Stephen] swims around in his tiny bowl. And he loves me.”

The sheer comedic gold that is the scene where Taako convinces Garfield to give him the sword--the perfect buildup, Griffin’s soul leaving his body as he realizes what’s happening, the other guys losing their minds as they too realize it.

Arms Outstretched, of course. And the sort of reprise of it in the finale.

Speaking of the finale--I’m a massive sucker for “Hey, the gang’s all here!”-type finales, where everyone we’ve ever met in a series shows up in the end and pays a role. And the TAZ finale does this SO WELL, with the music, and how it always makes sense in what’s happening in the scene. It’s so satisfying.

“You know we’re going to have to talk about your sister being a lich, right?”

Lup’s introduction.

Lup’s return, from the long pause, to Justin snapping the staff, to Clint’s “Attaboy!” to “YOU’RE DATING THE GRIM REAPER?”

When the guys all simultaneously respond to the question “What’s the best type of advertising?” with “Word of mouth” in Wonderland after episode after episode of them asking people to and thanking people for telling others about the podcast.

Killian reacting to Magnus cutting off Merle’s arm.

Magnus eating the Philosopher’s Stone, and Griffin subsequently being adamant that Travis deal with the consequences of his actions.

The guys starting their second loop in Refuge and immediately messing up so badly that Justin almost has Taako shoot them all and end the loop right there.

Magnus’s. Pep. Talk.

Lucretia in the Candlenights episode. “Hot diggity sh*t, this is a baller cookie.” “Magnus, this is the nightmare scenario.” “Booyah.”

Taako suddenly deciding stealing is wrong in the Goldcliff Trust. “This isn’t a dungeon; people do business here!”

Merle’s bit about the traveling forward/backward in time 9 seconds in the finale had me laughing so hard I was wheezing and crying. My roommate had to check on me and make sure I was okay.

I love Davenport and his sheer delight at piloting the Starblaster again. “Dance for me, buddy.”

The guys coming up with silly and perfect reporter names and newspaper titles to ask questions at the beginning of The Stolen Century.

The big, triumphant way Griffin goes “Let’s roll initiative!” in the finale, followed immediately by Mort Garson’s incredible music.

Everything Angus does ever.

The scene with Taako teaching Angus magic. “Can--can I get tickets?” “Why don’t you conjure them yourself, Mr. Wizard?”

When, in Reunion Tour, Angus says something about his books and Travis says he loves Angus and Justin says “Precious” in his Taako voice which means IT WAS IN CHARACTER AND CANONICAL.

Lup freaking apologizing for destroying the macaroons Angus made.

The Tom Bodett thing is just. So dumb. But so funny. I love it.

Taako calling Barry “Barrold.”

Fisher loving the carved wooden ducks is SO CUTE.

“Griffin, can we please deal with the Fullmetal Alchemist situation I currently find myself in?”

“Who?” goiehioewgasd;

The Junebug scene, with the music, gives me chills.

“Those are the arms that have held my wife!”

Merle choosing Lucretia to go with him to the spa in that lunar interlude because it’s so good for character stuff but also is unintentionally heartbreaking when you think about it much later??

Cassidy becoming mayor of Refuge.

Magnus deciding to break into the BOB’s prison. I’ve never been a DM, but I could feel Griffin’s sheer frustration and exasperation in my very soul.

Okay, no, I actually need to talk about Arms Outstretched. I usually don’t feel much dread or fear when watching/reading/listening to things because I’m like “it’s fictional, no one’s in any actual danger, there’s more books/episodes after this, it’s going to be fine” but this scene made me feel absolutely horrified dread the instant the Animus Bell rang anyway.

“Taako’s rushing in!” “Magnus follows him?” “Merle’s good out here.” “What’s going on?!”

“Hello, my name is Elder Merle!” THUNK

Magic Brian’s death. “I cast magic missile on him again.”

“Between the fan and the fancy umbrella, I’m one seventeen-inch waist away from being Scarlett O’Hara.”

The tantrum Taako throws when asked to get on the Elevator of Tomorrow in Crystal Kingdom, and of course his subsequent GLEE when Magnus and Merle get attacked after using it. “Taako--that’’s me, hi--I’m done with elevators. Never again! ...Don’t do it, I swear to god. You will not like how this ends. I will burn a spell slot on you. I give no sh*ts.”

Lucas, sadly: “My lab!”

The endless tormenting of Leon. “Yeah, he is no longer functioning. You have thoroughly broken this man.” “I win!”

Justin finding out about Lup’s existence and immediately having Taako call her Lulu.

“That’s real low [max HP]!” “Is it? Is it, Griffin?”

“See, there’s magic in a bard’s song. They call it inspiration, and it tells the listener what they need to hear right when they need to hear it. And right now, you hear it too. The message in the music heard round the world. You hear Johann’s voice, telling you, ‘You’re going to have to fight. And...you’re gonna win!’”

“Hear that babe? We’re legends.”

“This should go without saying at this point--Taako is DELIGHTED.”

“My name is Magnus Burnsides.” “Marchis Burchsins.” “Yep, nailed it. Got it in one.”

When Merle has the choice to sacrifice his memories of his kids’ births in Wonderland and immediately decides to take the penalty.

The bit in the second Story and Song where the guys keep putting off getting in the Starblaster and keep having little moments with all the other characters, and Griffin gets so annoyed that he tries to get them to move along using the NPCs. “No, totally. Let’s save the world, then 420 blaze it. Can we gooooo?”

Lucas, also sadly: “I got a splinter.”

“Our capacity for love increases with each person we cross paths with throughout our lives, and with each moment we spend with those people. But, too often we neglect that part of ourselves in favor of others. And by the time we realize just how important it is, we find ourselves with fewer folks around to practice with.”

“Did you enjoy the adventure?” “Of course!”

“Oh, yes, small prophecy is easy. I burp and a small prophecy happen.”

“Let me tell you a story about the time we fought three ogres, and I got punched so hard I almost died. You remember? You were up in some kind of weird laser firing potions willy-nilly, Magnus was pulling the arms off a robot, and I got punched so hard I almost died! I’m not about to throw down with a giant crab while you’re armed with just a terrible Scottish accent, and Travis doesn’t even have his shield! I’m out!”

“It all started when I met the most beautiful elf, and the bravest cleric...”

“Not all exits are made equal. Some are beautiful, and poetic, and satisfying. Others are abrupt and unfair. But most are unremarkable, unintentional, clumsy.”

“I’ll be having my body back, you undead f***.”

“We’ve chosen the perfect person for this. It’s like sending a mildly eloquent piñata in!”

“Let ‘em know, kid.”

“The late Merle Highchurch rolled a five.”

“You’re going to be amazing.”

...And every single moment that demonstrates what phenomenal entertainers and storytellers the McElroys are. Thank you, guys, for an experience unlike any other.

#the adventure zone #taz #the adventure zone balance #tazb #i took like four days writing this because #i kept coming up with new ones #i know i have more i could add #but it'd eventually just be a transcript of the entire series #pinestripes babbles #edited because i forgot lucas from story and song #and that needed to be in here #edited again because i love magnus's epilogue

25 notes · View notes

britesparc · 4 years

Text

Weekend Top Ten #409

Top Ten Things I Saw 2019

2019, eh? What to make of that? For me, “culturally” speaking – that is, in terms of things I watched, read, or otherwise consumed (that weren’t, y’know, food), it’s defined by huge, long-anticipated finales; a raft of incredibly impressive kids’ films; really exciting TV shows that I never got round to watching; an increasingly-interesting new Transformers comic that I have run way, way behind on and need to catch up with; and reading about cool stuff that’s happening in 2020 (but more on that next week!).

As we make our way gingerly into this newest of years, it feels odd to look back on, say, Avengers: Endgame, and try to remember a time when we didn’t all know who died and how. Massive things seemed to come and go, having to make way for the next massive thing. 2020, from this vantage point, doesn’t seem quite so epochal, but what do I know, I just work here. 2019 though; that was a big one. Even outside of the MCU ruling the roost, there’s Frozen, Star Wars, Toy Story, and even some stuff not owned by Disney.

Because I seem to operate on a slightly delayed timescale, there are still huge films and TV programmes that I’ve not managed to catch (work commitments also obliterated my free time for a couple of months, meaning I didn’t even make my own lax standards of cinema-going). Especially in the last third of the year, I’ve missed some really exciting films; Hollywood, Knives Out, Joker, Irishman (which, yeah, is on Netflix, so I’ll probably see that before the others). Hopefully they’ll do some screenings around awards time, or I can just get the Blu-rays. Anyway, that’s why that stuff’s not here, and also because I couldn’t think of a witty hat to hang on the artier fare.

Right, caveats out the way, this is what was occurring in 2019.

“I knew it!”: Probably the most difficult thing to do this year was provide some kind of closure to the various huge pop-culture juggernauts that more-or-less decided to end. Star Wars was a disappointment, I’ve not seen Game of Thrones, but good Lord did Avengers stick the ending. Endgame is a masterpiece, a beautiful thrill-ride of cinema (see what I did there?), and for me the crowning moment – the bit that nearly made me cry-laugh and is one of the greatest moments I’ve ever had in the cinema – was when Captain America lifts Thor’s enchanted hammer. Magic, indeed.

“Welcome to the Sys-Star System”: I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of many of the kids; films I saw this year, and also by the more progressive and inclusive message they expressed. This started before this year, to be honest, with the frankly surprising left-field political allegories of Zootropolis and Smallfoot. But 2019 started great with an amusing dissection of movie misogyny in The LEGO Movie 2 (better than the first one, don’t @ me); the underrated Dora and the Lost City of Gold was also a great adventure film to show little girls, especially if you’re trying to inject some diversity into their lives. Along with Detective Pikachu it was a good time for PG-rated live-action family movies. So: 2019, great for kids’ films (Klaus on Netflix!); great for films about diversity and empowerment, especially if you’re going to the cinema with two little girls. Speaking of…

“Can there be a day beyond this night?”: Talk about sticking the landing; following up the most successful animated film of all time (apart from the, ahem, “live-action” Lion King), and its culture-defining song, was a very tall order. I was amazed at how they managed it. whilst perhaps “giving Elsa a girlfriend” was a little bit too much to ask (cowards) they still doubled down on themes of empowerment and finding oneself, and Elsa’s two big songs still manage to feel (to this straight dude) like coming-out anthems. But it was the maturity and depth of the film that surprised and delighted; I never expected to see a film where a Disney Princess sang a song about being so overcome with grief that they want to die.

“Honk”: Untitled Goose Game is probably the game of the year, even if it’s not my favourite game, simply because of how robustly it seized the zeitgeist. There was a time when you couldn’t move for memes of mallards (yes, I know it’s not a mallard). For a small indie game to do this was fantastic. And its recent appearance on Xbox Game Pass cements a banner year for that Microsoft service too; a year in which it’s gone from “nice addition” to seemingly indispensable. Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass PC, their very generous E3 offer, and the tantalising prospect of xCloud (still in beta, and really rather impressive) means Game Pass – geese and all – was the gaming highlight of 2019 for me.

“This will be a great start to my legend!”: Speaking of gaming highlights, we finally got a Switch this Christmas, and it’s already being played to death. I didn’t know how much we missed Mario Kart. The Nintendo Switch is clearly, far and away, the best console of this generation (or is it next generation? When was the Wii U?). Anyway, we also got Pokemon Sword for my eldest, and that’s really rather fab I think, in its amusingly foreign depiction of Britain. But with Pokemon Go seemingly going from strength to strength, and the excellent Detective Pikachu at the cinema, it was a great year for small collectible creatures. Now I just need to learn how to play the card game…

“No, you’re breathtaking”: The E3 moment that launched a million memes, Keanu Reeves’ appearance in Cyberpunk 2077 was a surprise as much as his good-natured response to the audience was a delight. But really 2019 was Keanu’s year; John Wick 3 cemented his status as the most ice-cool of action stars, he expertly and hilariously sent himself up in Always Be My Maybe, and was very funny as a burning bush in the Spongebob trailer. Next year he brings back his other other greatest character, Ted Theodore Logan, in Bill and Ted Face the Music. It’s Keanu’s world, we’re just living in it.

“What the hell happens now?”: Alright, I might have got the quote slightly wrong, but the closing moments of the first episode of Years and Years was probably my TV moment of the year. Horrifically tense and terrifying, utterly believable but also a freakishly scary look at a potential near future. The series continued in this fashion, marrying soapy drama with increasingly sci-fi flavoured concepts, until it culminated in a full-on dystopian future uprising. Already feels unnecessarily prescient.

“Let us see what the future holds”: Speaking of top TV, Star Trek: Discovery season two had highs and lows but generally was a better stab at a contemporary Trek show than season one. The infusion of familiar Trek characters and settings (chiefly Spock, Pike, and the Enterprise) was a blessing and a curse, and although the time-dancing plot sagged, it all came together for a phenomenal finale. An epic space battle the likes of which Star Trek had very rarely seen, culminating in a sacrifice play and the prospect of further adventures in a timeline we’ve never explored before in Trek. Mind you, Picard will be better, won’t it?

“David Braben done a poo”: Moving away from the blockbuster TV shows and epoch-defining superhero sagas, Digitiser Live was another high point. I didn’t get away as much in 2019 as other years – I skipped TF Nation and couldn’t make Thought Bubble – so any opportunity to chat to like-minded geeks is always welcome. The show itself was madcap, weird fun, and it’s so nice to know Mr. Biffo and be a small, tangential part of the whole shebang. More in 2020, please.

“#ChrisHewittsFilmOfTheDay2019”: Okay, so bear with me: Chris Hewitt, from off of Empire magazine and podcast (and The Film Programme, remember that?) recommended a film a day every day of the year. Except – top gag – it was always Avengers: Infinity War. The fact he kept this bit up the whole year, and found new and increasingly surreal ways to recommend Infinity War, was a comic delight. And y’know what? The Empire Podcast was a delight this year too. It’s not new but it’s great, and I hope in 2020 I get to go to one of the live shows at last.

Well, that was 2019. In many ways an absolute shitshow. 2020 looks like it’s starting off with the world literally burning, an addled madman attempting to start World War III, and frigging Brexit. On the flipside, I had a lovely Christmas, we all enjoyed playing on the Switch, the first episode of Doctor Who was fantastic, my kids are great, my wife is great, and at some point this year I get to see WandaVision. So let’s all keep our collective chins up and look forward to whatever we can possibly look forward to. Despite how tepidly the Skywalker Saga ended.

#top ten #2019 #2020 #new year #old year #2019 in review #2019 films #2019 tv #2019 games #2019 comics

0 notes

chordiacarrest · 4 years

Text

One Big Band Process

Last Friday, at our Presentation of Learning, I detailed some of the process of creating this project. I couldn’t get in all the details, however, so I wanted to make this post as both, somewhat of a guide for anyone thinking of taking on this sort of task, as well as just a general routine of my process for anyone interested! Be warned, long post ahead!

Choosing this task:

I chose to do this as my project, partly because it was a community I wanted to engage with anyway, and partly because I personally have been struggling with the whole “virtual choir” thing over this strange semester.

The song, One Big Bed, was originally written for the podcast Not Another D&D Podcast, and played in the show’s finale, featuring a chorus of the show’s performers all joining in in the chorus. I was immediately struck with the desire to make a community cover happened, found someone else in the Discord chat to work with (Sarah, who helped me with a lot of the organisation of the piece, organising Google Sheets and boosting the message more), and set to work.

For those interested, Sarah’s role in this was incredibly useful, both helping with google sheets, contacting folks who hadn’t sent in their videos, and helping to boost the promotion of the project in general, as a moderator for the unofficial NADDPod discord server, and helping keep me accountable for my use of EDT/PDT when I forgot how time zones worked. However, I edited together the audio and video of the project, and all of the things I’ve going to detail in this post, so my work was still cut out for me, despite Sarah’s help!

Arrangement:

The song was originally recorded with voice, harmony, double bass and ukulele, as well as the additional voices in the final chorus. Within roughly 3 hours of searching for musicians, we already had a couple clarinetists, flautists, saxophonists, guitarists, and a whole lot more instruments. I briefly pondered the logistical nightmare of saying “play what you want :)” and sending them off to record, and decided I’d make a simple arrangement with broad parts, being, voice, 2 harmonies, ukulele, bass, percussion, flute, clarinet, soprano and tenor saxophone, and piano. Ultimately, we got a trumpeter and a violinist as well, who were happy to play the clarinet and flute parts respectively, and the other assorted instruments we got were able to roughly improvise their parts without being too overpowering!

Making this part of the project accessible for musicians of all levels was important to me, so I recorded teaching tracks for the harmony parts, as well as presenting the parts in both sheet music, tabs (where appropriate)/chord sheets for all sorts of learners. All the sheet music, tabs and teaching tracks can be seen here!

Furthermore, in this process, I created “Play Along Tracks” for musicians to record with. I created one with ukulele and voice, one with just ukulele, and one metronome tracks, so that musicians with a wide variety of needs could use them (for example, ukulele and voice to help with structure for musicians playing in certain sections, or ukulele only for singers who don’t want to hear someone else singing their part while recording, or metronome only for people with very short individual parts who feel confident just playing to a metronome track). These tracks were made available in the same Google Drive folder as above.

Editing Process: Planning

There were a few things I knew I wanted going into the process of actually collating the audio and visual together in a cohesive piece. Notably, I wanted the piece to constantly build with more people entering, and I wanted the video to resemble some of the online choirs I’d seen online - the Broadway ones or the Con choir! I also knew I wanted the final a cappella chorus to be as big as possible. For that final chorus, we extended our search from “musicians” to “anybody who has a voice and wants to participate”. At no point was the specific musicality of the performers a major concern of ours, but especially in this fine chorus, the aim was the feeling of Mass over and particular detail.

One thing I’d recommend doing here, which I ultimately didn’t, is to keep a better track of who’s recording what, and lay out your format overall. If you know you’ll have three guitarists in the final project, plan out who plays where. I didn’t do this, and in fact didn’t even keep track of who was playing what instrument until I had all recordings. But in any situation where you have the means to plan all of this out beforehand, I’d absolutely recommend it. Not only does it save you grief about forgetting who plays when, but it allows you to plan out the layout of sections of your video beforehand, allowing for smoother transitions in general.

Editing Process: Audio

I chose to edit the audio in Logic separately to the video, which was an interesting choice on my part, but I stand by it. I don’t necessarily know all about Final Cut Pro’s audio editing software, but sticking with a more familiar program that seemed to give me more freedom for audio was definitely the right move on this scale (that said, if anyone has anything to say to Final Cut Pro’s merit, absolutely let me know!).

I also chose to edit the audio of the final chorus separately to the rest of the audio, both freeing myself from clogging up one logic track, and making it easier to fine tune the volume of the final chorus when I inserted the file into my main project!

The main concern I had from this process were points, such as the second verse for example, where vocalists had very different vocal tones. Without cutting too much volume from stronger voice types, I needed to sort out a balance that allowed everyone to be heard. I eventually solved this with a lot of fine tweaking and panning parts to different areas so you can train your ear on one voice in particular!

Some of the other issues I encountered in the realm of Audio Mixing for this project were the issue of background noise, and the issue of tempo.

Background noise was an issue I knew would come up. With such a heavy focus on making the project accessible to all manner of musicians, it simply wasn’t possible to have people use semi-professional recording equipment. There were some tracks, ultimately, where the background noise nearly surpassed the instruments themselves. I did eat I could with EQing and the Noise Gate tool, but ultimately had to make the decision that as long as background noise wasn’t overpowering, it could find its place in the mix. With so many individual tracks to take care of, it would have been maddening to specifically cut out all the background noise.

Finally, the tempo concern. This was less of an issue than I had initially imagined. The use of “play along tracks” meant that people stayed generally in time. Ultimately, there were only one or two tracks that this proved a legitimate issue with - one was a saxophone track, which was submitted far too fast, and I needed to work out how to use the Time Flex tool to slow down the audio (which, was tricky to get the hang of for ten minutes or so, but once I got the idea, it was easy enough), and the other was a vocal track, which just seemed to wax and wane in tempo, so I added Time Flex to keep it a little more geared with the others.

There was one day where I spent maybe five hours zoomed way in on my vocal tracks, lining each one up so that they start their phrases at exactly the same time. That was maybe the closest I’ve ever felt to madness, but in the end it was worth it, with the tracks sounding far neater by the end (a tip for this is pan each two tracks you’re comparing to opposite sides, so you can specifically hear it when one comes in earlier and which one it is!).

Editing Process: Video

The editing process itself, once all of this was done, was much more of a matter of logistics and keeping track of things than I had initially imagined. My main few takeaways from this are 1. write things down before you start, and not halfway through when you realise you don’t know what you’re doing, and 2. maybe my five year old, not super well taken care of, storage space-almost-full laptop wasn’t the best machine for the task. But we powered few, taking copious breaks with my laptop chilling upside down while it cooled down from trying to process the forty odd videos at once. Fair enough, I feel.

My process for this was to line everyone’s track up with my Play-Alone track, and then mute them, and place them as needed. By lining up both the audio and video with the same track, it meant that as far as my judgment could call both of them ‘in time’, they would be aligned when the final track was pasted in.

One thing I’ve learned since finishing is about viewing playback in Final Cut Pro by proxy media, which makes it perform better. I’d recommend doing this as opposed to what I did, which was create a new file every time I wanted to view something back. However, creating a ton of drafts was not a bad call, as it allowed me to see in full detail what things needed to change.

In the end, I added in some keyframes and animations to make it look a little more alive, and posted the final video on YouTube, which, as you can see here, has been a resounding success!

Final Thoughts:

This was a huge project, but it was ultimately really fun. Being able to work with so many awesome musicians and get to know them on a level I didn’t expect was really rewarding, and the response to the video has been awesome. The creators of the show have all shown their appreciation for this cover, and so many of the musicians have posted about how much they enjoyed being a part of it and how pleased they were with how it came together. I was really pleasantly surprised at how nice it was, through this process, learning all of the performers’ names and voices and what they looked like. There were some friends in there, but also some people I otherwise wouldn’t know, and whenever I see their names around, I get excited because I know them now! That’s definitely been a really unexpected by joyful thing to take away from this process.

I’ve definitely come out of it keen to do more digital ensembles and curious how much I could push it, but for now, its time to take a small break from all the editing until I need it again!

0 notes