"Virtual Girl" - song & video

Latest music and & video production for one of my old clients - Craig Hallen

Music
Guitars, programming, production & mix - Sherz
Drums Jamstix3 and Steve Slate Drums 4
Keyboards, bass & Vocals - Craig Hallen

Video
Filmed in my garage in front of a green screen, with my Nikon DSLR (rendered to 1280x720) making extensive use of free video backs. “Virtual Girl” played by the very pretty Mel Jacks and edited with Sony Vegas.

:sunglasses:

(copied from the lounge forum)

Kudo’s for the production, sound and image, very nice.
I like the song, the vocalist not so much. The vocallines lack a nice flow and rythm. The chorus tends to feel better though but the verses are a bit like stumbling with words…Maybe the singer has not found the sweetspot yet I don’t know.

Greetz Dylan.

Good work my friend…Good title for a song…good chorus…I agree with Sirdancelot regarding the verse and i think for a pop song it’s a bit too long…the backing track sounds great…nice production.

Nicely done, Ian! The music isn’t exactly something I would listen to on purpose, but everything seems to be very well put together. Looks like a lot of work. A man of many talents you are.

Scott

Thankyou gentlemen! :slight_smile: It was a lot of work… but work in a fun kinda way :slight_smile:

Great production on both the music and the video Ian. Lots of work there I know.

EP is a bit early now and then at 1:45 and 2:01, and the vocal could be tighter
at 1:15, 3:18 and 3:26 where it’s just off the beat.

I felt the e-guitar was a bit plodding.

Hoper he paid well for all the effort.

:sunglasses:

I felt the e-guitar was a bit plodding.

Don’t get me started on that! But if you insist…
If its the lead parts you referring to…well Craig originally played these parts when he was living in London - he’s not a guitarist, but he figured out were the notes were and with some practice managed to play his wee lead melodies himself.

Well, not surprisingly it was pretty lack lustre in terms of technique as you might expect from a non-guitarist. Devoid of any real feel or flare. Later when he returned to NZ and brought the project to me I suggested I perhaps play those parts for him instead. And I’m no great lead guitarist myself of course but I did put down something that I thought had a certain degree of finesse - you know - bent notes, slides etc. Well, long story short he didn’t like what I’d played - he was totally attached to his melody and simply wanted me to play it…exactly - note for note. It was all rather ‘pedestrian’ to my ears but I did my best to try give it some life.

Hoper he paid well for all the effort.

Yup! He’s very good in that regard actually. So many people seem to want the fame and fortune, but on their own terms and usually at no expense to them. I meet youngsters from time to time who express an interest in recording… because they’re REALLY serious about their music career and really want great sounding demos to help them on their way to becoming the next BIG thing - but then when they learn it might actually cost them something to produce they seemingly lose all interest in their passion, commitment, dedication and devotion to their music! :laughing: i.e. I never heard from them again.

I had one ‘client’ - who never paid. I sent him a final MP3 to sign-off on after numerous tweaks and changes along the way. He made some excuse about deciding that he wanted a mate to play live drums on it and said he would get back to me real soon. I never heard from him again. About 16 hours out of my life unpaid for. I guess the MP3 was all he needed - enough for him to get it up online here there and everywhere. He’s of the generation that probably doesn’t even know what a CD is let alone a .WAV file. Lesson learnt. :confused: No final mix, even if it’s just an MP3, until paid in FULL!

Craig, at least puts his money where his mouth is and pays promptly. :sunglasses:

Can’t say I’m that thrilled with the actual song, just lacks the right melody and any catchiness. But the production on it, like others said, is of a really good standard so well done :slight_smile:

Really love the title its a lot to live up to. Chrs is good and vocals on it are good. Maybe a little editing to vocal verse track would help and not sure how this comment will sound but the track doesn’t breath well the bass seems a bit heavy ( a lot in low frequency ) and some of the drum fills are to much. During the chrs I get a little distracted with all the different synth and gtr parts…really feel breakdown after solo should breath a little more, maybe lose some of the synths or use a AM radio filter sound to create difference… Oh well hope i didn’t say to much but I think there is potential on this one and Really like the Video

Nice job on the production. I think I would have put the client in a little box behind the girl instead of the other way around. Guitar sounds great to me if he actually paid you to keep it in there!

Its interesting to read some of the suggestions put forward here… several which mirror my own thoughts and ideas which I actually proposed, but I was out-voted by the paying customer and hence Craig also crediting himself as co-producer.

Anyway…this one is a done deal; signed-off and seemingly getting more views on Youtube than any video I’ve ever made of my own songs! Must be the pretty girl … :smiley:


:sunglasses:

cool vid and tight production.
what the heck is that big keyboard, awesome, gotta get me one of them :sunglasses: :laughing:

man, haven’t seen a phone like that since, well, I can’t even remember, they were outlawed here, lol

Yeah…if I was thinking I would have given him my Samsung Galaxy to use as a prop! Doh! :laughing:
Still we did use an iPAD in one scene, though admittedly it was a vintage iPAD2 :stuck_out_tongue: