Trickeration
Listen (3.33 Mb)
Background:
Cab Calloway is most known for slower "shout"
numbers like "Minnie the Moocher" and "The Hideho Man",
but Trickeration (1931) shows a quicker, punchier side. This doesn't stop
the man from showing his patented vocal equilibristics, with and without
words. In our version (started autumn 99 and finished in May 2000) we experimented
with various ways to emulate this. For example, the speech synthesis divas
Glove (Glottal Ove) and Ingemar (of Botongdjungelboken fame) were auditioned.
We also tried "manual" speech synthesis with various synthesizers,
but in the end we found that the best result came from the amazing software
"VocalWriter". Apart from this, we have taken the uptempo crazy
spirit of the original version to new levels, and also taken a quick trip
to the land of Musique Concrete. The result was very bizarre but swinging
and funny. Among the instruments, one can especially note the Clavinet D6
(forceful stride accompaniment) and the little Casio MT-31 (supplying everything
except the rhythm during the first vocal chorus).
Vocalist:
KAE Labs VocalWriter
Sound Sources:
Hohner Clavinet D6
Clavia Nord Lead
Casio MT-31
Kawai K1-II
Roland SH-101
Korg DDD-1
Korg Trident mk II
General Music S2
GeWa System Maezel Metronome
Motorola CD-930 GSM-telephone
HP Deskjet 720C printer
Power Macintosh G3/300
Sharp MT20H(S) MiniDisc-player
Other Equipment:
Cubase VST 4.1 Mac
Zoom Studio 1201 effect processor
Interesting Facts:
In the original recording, the tempo gets gradually lower. We choose
the other way.
Also, we were inspired by the thousands of schlager songs in which there
key is raised by a semitone towards the end. To avoid being too heavily
connected with that kind of music though, we didn't go all the way but raise
the pitch by half a semitone only.