Imagine John and Julian

[paul62]

What do the professionals here think? Does it need a touchup anywhere?
-RS

My honest, no bullshit feedback: there is a buzz/hum on the official YouTube release and you've got it on your mashed up version. Cleaning that up would be a good start. The volume of the two tracks you're merging should have been reduced: when the son's voice joins the father's voice, the combined volume of the two voices has made the track go 0.672 dB beyond peak amplitude.

One good approach would be to have Nuno Bettencourt's guitar/harmonies in the middle and have John panned hard left and Julian panned hard right (or vice versa). The further apart the two main vocals are in the mix, the less obvious it will be if they are not well-synched.

If I get around to doing a version, I'd use the outtake from the Anthology box set and put Julian's voice (either as a complete replacement for, or as an augmentation to, John's voice).

[Much2Much]

Thank you MP3J, this is intriguing.

[RubberSolof]

What do the professionals here think? Does it need a touchup anywhere?
-RS

My honest, no bullshit feedback: there is a buzz/hum on the official YouTube release and you've got it on your mashed up version. Cleaning that up would be a good start. The volume of the two tracks you're merging should have been reduced: when the son's voice joins the father's voice, the combined volume of the two voices has made the track go 0.672 dB beyond peak amplitude.

One good approach would be to have Nuno Bettencourt's guitar/harmonies in the middle and have John panned hard left and Julian panned hard right (or vice versa). The further apart the two main vocals are in the mix, the less obvious it will be if they are not well-synched.

If I get around to doing a version, I'd use the outtake from the Anthology box set and put Julian's voice (either as a complete replacement for or as an augmentation to, John's voice).

Thanks Paul... I'll take a second swipe at it!! I hadn't thought of putting the vocals on either side... that might be fun!
-RS

[RubberSolof]

Ok... per Paul's great suggestions I went back in and made some small changes, but I think they help A LOT!! :

1. I eliminated most of the hum that ran throughout
2. I panned Julian's vocals to the left
3. I panned John's vocals to the right
4. I upped and added more Harmony vocals by Nuno in the center during the last 45 seconds
5. I adjusted the vocal levels so they are more evenly matched
6. I slightly moved John's vocals in 2 spots so as not to rush the beat
7. I smoothed out one edit I made of Johns singing by fading in, instead of using the initial split cut

Paul? Your thoughts now?

hXXps://spaces.hightail.com/receive/xIE2EAnMek

-RS

[paul62]

That's a lot more listenable, Mike: good one!

Not taking anything away from Nuno Bettencourt and his contributions to the track, but it's a shame that Sean Lennon wasn't singing and playing as a duo with Julian: I guess Nuno is a surrogate for Sean in this case. Sean and Yoko would have to have known that Julian/Nuno were going to do the track, at any rate.

[RubberSolof]

-RS

[rfwood1]

VERY nice! This second remix is much improved! Thanx!

[RubberSolof]

Hey guys... May I ask for your Patience, indulgence, and opinions one last time...

I just spent over 5 hours tonight just working on the vocal tracks...tightening them up even more because people said I could get them closer...and I did. MUCH!

If I was to try and change 1 more thing it would be on the reverb on John's voice to get it drier to match Julian's... but that is beyond my editing skills unfortunately. I fooled with it a bit in audacity but truthfully never saw a big change. I just don't know what levels to change... but it's pretty darn close so it's not a huge deal.

This (I hope) is the final version! Please let me know if you can tell the difference and what you think. I'd appreciate it!!

-RubberSolof

hXXps://spaces.hightail.com/receive/1qpBk1RWxx

[billylentz]

I think it´s very beautiful.

Made me cry.

Thank you.

On mine, I decided to have Julian start the song, and then he and john switch off every other line except during the chorus where I have them both singing and harmonizing together. I did the editing...and even I have trouble telling who's singing which part at times because their voices are so similar. I tried about 6 different john vocals until I found one with a similar presence and echo as Julians' version. And then I edited johns parts to match Julian's version, occasionally adding spacing mid-phrase to keep them both in unison. so amazing when it worked and i'd say about 95% is dead on and the other 5% is very darn close.

I am very happy with the end product!

What do the professionals here think? Does it need a touchup anywhere?
-RS

[rfwood1]

I think the final version was quite nice. I don't know what our experts will say, but it sounded very nice to me.