Piano musings: "Mercury"

It appears I've been neglecting my blog quite a bit recently.....

I've been up to my ears in work commitments. Alas, retail  is a cruel mistress. But as always - there is plenty of time for music and I finally got around to securing myself a piano simulator. Which is frankly incredible, as the piano is my favourite means of composing! I wanted the best of the best and I researched all possible software before discovering "Mercury" for Kontakt by Waves Factory. It's a HUGE sample factory based on Freddie Mercury's Fazioli piano which he employed at the turn of the 90's before his untimely death. A huge chunk of his work from "Innuendo" and "Made In Heaven" were either composed or performed on this particular piano, which now resides in "Metropolis Studios", London.

I'm frankly blown away by the sound. It is truly remarkable, but due to such a huge amount of sampling it is quite taxing on the CPU so I don't employ all 5 mic positions at once. Nevertheless it sounds phenomenal and I am looking to using it on some of my pieces very soon. For the curious, here's a demo video:

Hi, I'm Phil. And today I'm going to be Freddie Mercury.

Vocal harmonies. They are fun when executed right but sometimes they can go horribly wrong. Freddie Mercury is a name synonymous with lavish multi layered vocals, not to mention the equally intricate harmonies from Brian May. But as an amateur who was given a workman like voice as opposed to a gift from the heavens, can I really expect to produce anything near the level the likes of Queen could do in their sleep? The answer is a resounding "no". But I do harmonise pretty well and have attempted a pretty lavish arrangement on "At the End of the World". The song itself was initially a minimalistic idea based around a delayed guitar pattern, I composed some years back. I have recorded multiple versions of the song which has gotten more layered every time I record it and true to tradition, the e.p. version is now a full blown rock opera-esque beast.

The chorus is accompanied by multi layered vocals, sung in different pitches and tones by yours truly, to attempt to give it an other worldly atmosphere and now, along with a very sore throat, I can feel a little smug and pleased with myself, that is once I get the thumbs up from my co producer later, who should be receiving a message containing the final master in a few hours......