The Madison Project - Late Night Drive Thru

[bodagget]

And may I publicly mention to the forum that the members of the Project have been nothing but respectful and awesome to me during this process (even though they certainly did not need to be!). They are the gold standard in professionalism.

That's because I haven't logged on yet, you son of a b...haha sike! I am a Project Alum, and I am glad to see that the conversations and comments involving my ex-group members are being well received. I thank you for your compliment on behalf of the group members who are not able to post on here. And not to beat a dead horse, but I agree with you in terms of a disdain for over-production. I love singing for the sake of singing. I am not a fan of octavizers or distortion effects over the voices. The only things I am comfortable with are slight auto-tuning (for my ears' sake) and some effects on the perc to make them sound slightly more realistic. My mom and brother are both drummers, so I like to hear a good strong beat in a song.

Also, to speak specifically to my two songs (And Then... and Listen...) because I know them better than any of the other songs on the CD, we used some effects just to liven them up a bit. "Listen..." is a simple and repetitive arrangement because of the song it is based on (The Doobie Brothers were talented, but this wasn't one of their songs where they showed off their musical prowess) and we used some effects on the bridge to give it that trippy effect that was in the original song. We do not use these effects live. In "And Then..." we decided to add that little intro because the song starts rather abruptly otherwise. We don't do that chord progression live, and it was in fact written on the spot in the studio one day specifically for something different. I think the ethereal effects added to it (chorus and reverb perhaps?) go along well with the song, and help to recreate some of the overtone and echo sound that you would hear at one of our live performances (depending on the venue, of course). I wish I could speak more to the other tracks on the album, but honestly I am not knowledgeable enough in the realm of album production to attempt a breakdown of the process used for our album.

Just to reiterate what our Newbie Jack said earlier, we tried as much as possible to keep the album natural because that is what we pride ourselves in: Strong, Natural, Live performances. However, we simply don't have the access to the equipment necessary for a phenomenal recording of a live album (which is still a rather questionable endeavor since "live" albums still get edited and produced to a certain extent. Raw albums just aren't that pleasing to the ear unless they are practically flawless, and honestly, how often does that happen?). In the end, all I know is that we are very happy with both how our album came out, and our overall scores on here.

And, good sir, I mean this with no sarcasm or suspicion - if you say you did not use an octave generator on the bass lines, then you have bass power that I have never heard before (listen to the intro to "Crazy!").

I can assure you that to my knowledge, no octave generator was used anywhere on our CD, including the intro to crazy. We have two gentlemen (Mike Held and Kevin Gillingham) who can really sing THAT low. But I can hear what I think what you may be hearing, and that is the production used on the bass drum mixing with the low notes of the bass line. The notes themselves, however, are definitely human-produced and not computerized.

[MPJackV]

This is completely unrelated to anything, but for you Achordants guys...

The Madison Project is heading down to Chapel Hill next month to sing with the Loreleis. Def stop by that show and say what's up to us!

[dr00bles]

I can assure you that to my knowledge, no octave generator was used anywhere on our CD, including the intro to crazy. We have two gentlemen (Mike Held and Kevin Gillingham) who can really sing THAT low. But I can hear what I think what you may be hearing, and that is the production used on the bass drum mixing with the low notes of the bass line. The notes themselves, however, are definitely human-produced and not computerized.

Duly noted. My apologies, then. And thanks for weighing in.

[pujo]

I had taken the time to write a 3 page word document that I felt to be professional yet keep the drama alive with countering many points made on here. I can actually see it right now, staring at me. Its interesting, but Ive written this instead.

First, to Andrew DiMartino
Thanks for admitting that your intro line could be misleading. I think that is what threw me off and led me to start this topic in the first place, so thanks a lot. I, like the MP, am grateful for RARB because it isn’t my opinion. Its all over the place and it’s a forum where we’ll hear all sorts of ideas of what things should and shouldn’t be. I just simply feel that reviews should be based on whats actually on the CD and not personal opinions of what all cd’s should be. And I took your review to be the latter. So, glad we can agree on why I was misled.

There are also tons of other comments on this string which I feel are either rude, pointless or downright confusing. If I called one out then Id be one of the drama-continuers so Ill try to call out a lot and if you happen to be called out more than once, then hey, maybe youre ridiculous more than once? I don’t know. All I can say is what I learned why the Madison Project made cd's in my 4.5 years in the group:

CD’s we made are not for profit for anyone but the Madison Project to simply continue to make more CD’s and pay for booking shows or paying for gas money to and from numerous shows. Not once have I or anyone in the group profited from being in MP. Ive actually lost money. They also aren’t made to mislead anyone into thinking were better than we are live. A live show will never be fully comprehended with a CD. Even a recording of a live show doesn’t have the smell or taste of a live show and it certainly will never contain the energy. CD’s aren’t made to educate per say. If you learn something, cool. If not, cool too. If you enjoyed yourself. If we brought you back to a time in your life you loved or hated or reminded you of an old girlfriend/boyfriend who broke your heart while you danced to this song, awesome, (or im sorry). Music is thousands of things to thousands of people, not just an education so take from it what you will, but we hope for whatever reason you find, you like it. We put our heart and soul and as I said, our talent into our CD’s. Sometimes its captured pretty well, other times its not. Some songs I hate that weve recorded, others love. That’s the beauty of this whole thing. If our show or CD makes you want to buy a CD or even come to our school or even join a cappella, sweet. When I first heard an a cappella group for the first time from a college I wanted to kill all of them because they butchered a 311 song to no end. I wanted to do a cappella because I loved singing and I knew it could be done better. I hardly learned a thing about reading music and to this day if you talk about thirds or half steps or minor whatevers, I’ll mock you. I don’t care about that, just make some damn good music and have fun doing it.

The only reason we submit CD’s to RARB is to hear an outside opinion that might benefit our sound and make us a little better. We were told our song choice wasn’t that great and this time around we got some praise for it. We were told we overproduced Khaki and this time around only 1 nabbed us on production. We want to find a sound that not only we enjoy, but everyone else can appreciate for the talent and creativity. So, thanks RARB, thanks Andrews and thanks everyone that has an opinion. Agree or disagree we should all feel the ability to share our opinion with one another and not force it on one another. No Kumbaya, but some really good discussion on important points, not who spelled my name right or not.

- Paul Pukcett