Song#6 Mei Mun Hang Fook Di Mei Loi (美满幸福的未来) - Final Product & MV

Putting the rest aside, here's the best part.

1. Idea Stage
2. Composing and Arranging Stage
3. Recording & Mastering Stage
4. Final Product & MV

One does not simply blog without intro

Soundcloud upload

Here's the Soundcloud link with thumbnail from Charlie Chaplin's movie still.

Music Video

Initially I planned for a lazy man audio wavelength animation like previous instrumentals, but I remembered about the opening audio edits I made previously. Considering that Clement wasn't game for any MV film shooting, and I neither had the time to spare, I made do with a stock photo of someone playing/busking the guitar by the sidewalk. It was kinda like playing in a public square as initially planned, but whatever :)

For the writing part, I searched for YouTube sensei on how to animate words using my other favourite program Adobe After Effects, which turned out to be rather easy. Here's the screenshot of some settings to take note:

Another video taught me about having the jittery effect by using some random noise generator and mapping that onto a BW clip. I think the video explains it better than I do here, so I'll skip the explaining (also because I'm lazy).

For the rest of the MV, I decided that subbing the singing through YouTube closed caption subs is not effective when porting to Facebook video format. So I chose the hard sub route and made it into a lyric video with some form of pleasing artwork. Where to find such artwork, you may ask? Well, if you have heard of DeviantArt and Danbooru art websites, there would be the Japanese version of it called Pixiv. There I stole correctly attributed anime and Zootopia fanart to their respective artists as artwork fodder for my MV (attribution is in the credits).

Back to the subs, I inserted traditional chinese subs mirrored with english subs in the video. For YouTube's closed captions, I uploaded simplified chinese subs.

In case you haven't realised yet, there is a secret link at the end of the video...Actually it started since song#5 where I blocked out the final 4 characters of the Goo.gl-link-shortener link. So for every subsequent video, every pair would be revealed (there's a total of 3 pairs anyway). In case you are really lazy to check (referring to you dearest :P), here's the screenshot of the video at that exact moment:

Song #5

Song #6

Final Product

Without further ado, here's my humble MV. Thanks for watching! And don't forget to subscribe!

Song#6 Mei Mun Hang Fook Di Mei Loi (美满幸福的未来) - Recording & Mastering Stage

With noting else other than recording the vocals, here's the next post in the series.

1. Idea Stage
2. Composing and Arranging Stage
3. Recording & Mastering Stage
4. Final Product & MV

Info on this blog? Click here

Recording

We arranged for a recording session together at my place with my trusty Blue Yeti microphone. Clement did up to three takes and a final take for the bridge and final chorus. LCG on the other hand recorded his rhythm guitar strumming and solo later on with the help of his mini amplifier and a mic-in cable direct to my PC.

I later found out that direct connection often cause cable and electrical noise problems, not to mention that my guitar pre-amp failed in the last minute recording of the solo (LCG had to go outstation immediately). I then opted for recording directly using my Blue Yeti instead of direct cable input and sounds just as good.

To find out more about audio cables, balanced and unbalanced input, I visited this site to learn all about it.

Clement at work and LCC observing

Mastering

With regards to the audio recording, I came across the term called 'comping' audio, which basically means 'compositing' the various takes of the vocal recording. You can learn more about the process through this link here.

The comping for my mixing went something like this:

Verse 1 >Take 2
Verse 2> Take 1
Chorus> take 3
Verse1> take 2
Verse 2>take 2
Chorus > take 2
Bridge > take 3
Final chorus - take 2 under FC

In fact, I planned to have a sing-over the final chorus by the vocalist, which is not possible in one take. This requires layering several takes to be possible.

Layering - the second track is harmony, third is sing-over

I did the same thing to the guitar recordings of the strumming and solo, where LCG had to do up to 5 takes just to get it right.

And so, I ran through the composited audio and exported it to Melodyne for post-processing, before exporting the final result back to Ableton.

Here's a rundown of the tracks on Ableton:

Track view

Arrangement view

As you can see the latest plugin I used for the vocal track was iZotope Nectar, which was recommended by the Red means Recording YouTube channel. Using the VST/plugin was really easy, because they supply you with tons of presets. This round, I used the Basic Enhancement preset, but adjusted for the harmony voices and the reverb amount as you can see from the screenshot below.

Main Vocals

Harmony settings

For the intro before the whole song itself, I thought of scripting it like a typical mandopop love ballad MV opening like this and this.Here, I planned for a scene where the singer/main character is singing his song in a the public square for no particular reason before cutting to a scene where he's writing a letter to the girl describing him sending a copy of this song to her as a memento of their love.

To make the effect of recording a performance in the park, I downloaded royalty free background noise of an actual park from here. Then, I used an EQ with a high-pass filter for the chorus music and vocal tracks to cut out the lower frequencies which typically won't be recorded in an open air environment. For the writing effect, I used the metal bit of the USB connector to scratch on the back of a matte plastic iPad case with my voice over.

Sends to Outdoor Reverb device with EQ8 with highpass

EQ with highpass filter

There's nothing much I can elaborate about the mastering and mixing that wasn't covered in previous songs, as you can see in the master screenshot above. I guess that's all for now!

Stay tuned for Part IV of  IV for this song!

Song#6 Mei Mun Hang Fook Di Mei Loi (美满幸福的未来) - Composing and Arranging Stage

Considering the fact that this is the next post, this has to be part 2. Wilkommen!

1. Idea Stage
2. Composing and Arranging Stage
3. Recording & Mastering Stage
4. Final Product & MV

This is da introduction blog desu~

Arranging

Drawing inspiration from existing classic hits of the same genre, I worked out a rather simple structure of a generic pop song such as:

1. Intro
2. Verse 1
3. Verse  2
4. Chorus
5. Verse 1
6. Verse 2
7. Chorus
8. Bridge
9. Final Chorus
10. Outro

Composing

The selection of instruments this round started with listing down what instruments typical power ballads use - which was rather similar overall, like strings, piano, bass and drums, clean and/or overdrive guitars.

For this song, I thus selected all the above, but added my signature favorite instrument - the vibraphones/vibes, as a device to spice up the mix and mirror the vocals to some extent. The guitar was decided to be recorded using my Custom Acoustic cutneck acoustic guitar with help from my neighbour again, LCG.

Initially, I wanted to help out with the background vocals, but since I suck at reading Cantonese. So, I asked Clement to handle all the singing, while I plan for vocal thickening mixing later on.

This round, I modified an older composition which I shared to Clement as an draft idea at the start of the year, which you can hear below:





Both versions were rather plain, and don't match up to the quality of chord progressions of power ballads today. Fun fact -  those Random 6s were composed 4 years ago!

Therefore, I needed to spice things up creating a proper bridge, a pre-chorus leadup and a key change (F major> C major) in the chorus that is as smooth as butter. Here's the overall chord progression of the new song:

Verse 1
F Bb C7 F-Em7
Dm Gm7 C7 F-C7
(repeat)

Verse 2
C7 F C7 F-Edim
Dm7 Bb Gm C7 D7

Chorus 1
G C D7   G-D
Em7 Dbm7 D G-D
G C D7 G-D
Em7 CM7 D D7 G-C

Chorus 2
G C D7 G-D
Em7 Dbm7 D G-D
G C D7 G-D
Em7 CM7 D D7 G-D

Bridge
G CM7 Em G-D
Em C D7 G-D
Em7 CM7 D G-D

I learned a lot about closely-related keys here where F major - C major - G major are the closest. Basically it refers to moving between keys with the least amount of key signatures like F and G, with C major being the 'home' key. That was what I did to the Verse section progressing to the Chorus section.

The intro to the song was revised from the original Random 6 - to mirror/suit the chorus motif and mood feel. The original would have suited other piano only song, but this is after all a power ballad. I also repeated the intro as the outro, albeit a simpler form.

For the melody/vocals, I opted for a typical swing beat in order to have some flow to the lyrics. Plain singing to the beat suits slower songs, but tends to get boring after a while. After all, swing beats created the jazz style and Broadway hits like Fly Me to the Moon.

For the accompanying instruments like the strings, I tried copying runs for the bridge part, and ordinary three part voicing for the chords section. Then, I added an arppegiator electric piano as a bonus instrument for the verse 2 section. Piano accompaniment was varied in styles throughout to create musical flow, especially the emotional bridge section.

Lyrics

Clement and I went through several discussions regarding the overall theme of the lyrics. All of them included something to do with romantic encounters of couples, but we had to present some coherent plot to the overall lyrics. Some ideas included:

1. Boy meets girl and fall in love
2. A couple already in love and drifts apart
3. A long distance relationship
4. Boy sacrificing all just to be with the girl
5. Guy sending mementos of their relationship to remind his partner, a career successful woman traveling abroad

In the end, we included most of the above into the song. Considering the difficulty of writing beautiful lyrics that not just convey the meaning but sound nice in Cantonese, Clement decided to repeat the verses after the chorus to save effort :P ( it is apparently harder to write than in English - thanks Clement!)

On another note, LCC and Clement brainstormed the title (which had to start with the letter 'M') as the title of this post :  Mei Mun Hang Fook Di Mei Loi (美满幸福的未来)  which means a Happy Future, apparently ;)

Here is the lyrics (Traditional Chinese just like in Hong Kong) in totality:

Verse 1
當天廣場前 遇 見你 
你已經 深 深 吸 引 我 目光
即使當時人群 極 多
我 眼中 只得你
相戀多時感 到 幸福
我感激 你 給 我 甜 蜜 回憶
結識再多人 但 始終
在 我心 只得你

Verse 2
你傷心 我陪伴你 
別再哭 抹去 眼淚
我會給 你快 樂的 記憶
我帶你 遠走 高飛

Chorus 1 & 2
在 這 刻     
我 但願  時間 停頓
和你 在這 擁吻
不想跟你再分 離 
祈求 一起
和你 一世 我願意
還 記 得   
你面前 曾經 承諾
對你 不離 不棄
即使一起面對 難題 
任何 困苦
而 我  …… 
一生都 愛護 你


Bridge
啊……
我要跟你在一起
你 的確 十分完美
我 怎麼 會放棄
啊……
要一世 都歡喜
我跟你 幸福生活
會感覺到圓滿
要 幸福生活
會感覺到圓滿

Chorus 3   
我 但願  時間 停頓
和你 在這 擁吻
不想跟你再分 離 
祈求 一起
和你 一世 我願意
還 記 得   
你面前 曾經 承諾
對你 不離 不棄
即使一起面對 難題 
任何 困苦
而 我  …… 
一生都 會愛 你


I'll put up the English and Simplified Chinese translation in the MV later on, so stay tuned to the final section of this song!

Stay tuned for Part III of  IV for this song!

Song#6 Mei Mun Hang Fook Di Mei Loi (美满幸福的未来) - Idea Stage

Up for another song in another language? I present to you song number 6!
Intro desu~

1. Idea Stage
2. Composing and Arranging Stage
3. Recording & Mastering Stage
4. Final Product & MV

Source

I was always fascinated with the Cantopop Mandopop power ballad scene, where most song structure was pretty much the same, ie after the bridge, there is either:

1. Intro/recap of the main chorus, but in a simplified/softer version before dropping back grandly to the original chorus instrumentation and beats.
2. Grand dropback to the original chorus after a short pause or recap of the bridge final phrase.
3. Changing up the key of the chorus

which is rather predictable to say the very least.

Here are the list of well-known hits from this side of the Earth which I got inspiration from like:

1. Justin Lo - 命硬
2. Alan Tam - Friend of Mine | 朋友
3. Guang Liang  - Tong Hua 童话 (Fairy Tale) 
4. BEYOND【海闊天空】

and many others, too numerous to list her. This round I had to engage my friend Clement to write the lyrics in Cantonese, because my Cantonese level is only conversational level. He copied ideas from other songs for the lyrics while I copied the song structure and pacing :)

Why Cantonese? Well, I guess its undeniable that the Cantonese dialect is the language of love just like French. (can't imagine love song hits in Hokkian or Hakka)


Till the next post people!

Stay tuned for Part II of  IV for this song!