for anyone who wants the commentary:

the pain of vocal production on a tracker with simple detuning controls

no, genuinely i can't tell you how frustrating the vocals were to tune; first i set the entire project to 435hz (440 is the default tuning that every single daw in existence uses), but the consequence of that is that it also lightly detuned every single sample, making timing very difficult to manage. i felt like the devil having to artificially extend my vocals to fit both the timing and get the tuning right, but you win some you lose some i guess.

on top of that i feel very unsure about my own vocal performance and there'd be a few noticeable tuning mistakes, i think? i mean before i tuned them again tonight they were even worse, but apparently the trick to that is just to listen to them outside my headphones; because listening to the lower frequencies to tune vocals isn't going to give great results. or maybe that's just me and my habits. my shit phone audio that exposed the mid frequencies did a good job at telling me that, "hey, you tune terrible for a gal that likes to say she does music production to people when you like silly video games and music that came out before you were even conceived"

venus theory made a very good point about having a "shitbox" (like, a boombox that is shit)    • This $8 Speaker Will Make You A Bette...   so it exposes frequencies you would've never heard otherwise, and that was quite the enlightening experience to say the least. i wouldn't say my tuning is terrible; frankly i think it's fairly okay for someone with informal training and practice, but i genuinely didn't expect to go so out of tune in my one (yes, one) take of the main vocals... and then i learnt that way that the voice that you think you're singing varies widely with what's actually produced from your vocal cords, your mouth shape, and how much air you put into it. needless to say this was a really good, and horrifying learning experience, and hopefully this means more vocal covers and originals in the future.

as for the lyrics, i was going for the "mindless 80s love song" cheesy lovey dovey kind, and was inspired slowly after a few listens of the og song. it's not my first time writing english lyrics, but it's fair to say that it's really rare coming from me.

Lyrics

sometimes i feel like i'm afraid of heights
(don't look down now)
sometimes i feel like i wanna hold you tight
oh you would never know the sight,
because right now we're so high we could almost die
but now you're here with me, i'm like on ecstasy
if anything ever happens i won't mind

'cause with the two of us, our hearts combined
we'll always have our time to shine
together we can find a place or run away
it's okay
you could pretend that we would be so far
but i will find my way 'cause you're my north star
i hope that you and i are on par
i don't wanna put my feelings in a jar

is it just my mind that is pacing,
my chest that is aching
the things i wanna say could be said everyday
is it just my heart that is racing,
the love we'll be sharing
and we will never say goodbye
you see that all is fine,
now put your worries all aside

[guitar solo]

'cause with the two of us, our hearts combined
we'll always have our time to shine
together we can find a place or run away
it's okay
you could pretend that we would be so far
but i will find my way 'cause you're my north star
i hope that you and i are on par
i don't wanna put my feelings in a jar

is it just my mind that is pacing,
my chest that is aching
the memories we'll make will never fade
is it just my heart that is racing,
the love we'll be sharing
and i will always play my part
we should take on the charts,
or maybe begin from the start


Song name: rrthiel - athletic (vocal mix)
Alt. name: Athletic Love
Written by RRThiel;
Arrange and lyrics by John "Joy" Tay;
Made with tildearrow's Furnace tracker;
(Lightly) mastered with Audacity

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