I have been experimenting with drawing stuff to go with my songs… another steep learning curve, the drawing, the filming, the software, my innate inane technophobia…
Anyway, I bravely post this experiment for your gentle slaughter…
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WOW!.. How’s that for a succinct, one word review?
I’ve often thought about combining my artwork and music together, but always figured that, since converting music to a public consumable was difficult enough, adding in the complexity of a visual aspect was just a bridge too far… You just went ahead and DID IT! Kudos! 
:beerbang:
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Gentle Slaughter? Like Fly to the Angels? Ha! You’ve probably know idea to what I’m referring, but those visuals were very impressive. Good drawings. I’ve noticed your accent cuts thickly through a lot of your songs, is this a deliberate choice?
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You certainly have some great choices for your album cover when you start your quest. (Another gentle nudge from a non-master of subtlety).
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Emm’s (been awhile) firstly, I love the song, I love the drawings and animations. What does not add significance to this piece, is the adding of the lyrics. For me, this neuters the fertile abyss you are threading into existence. The beginning title stuff needs to be saved for the end too, kills the mood.
Now without the lyrics scrawling threw a scenic narrative, you are probably going to need some more animations to deepen this dark gentle interpretive dance.
I absolutely LOVE how your are putting all of your artistic self into your music. Your music and art combined could induce mass hysteria. Awesome!
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Can I ask what software you used to make this video? (Great concept by the way)
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Emma you can do no wrong, I’m a fan:beerbang:
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Great job Emma! Very impressive if this is your first, of course we know your wonderful music but this is a new dimension that is exciting.
I’m also curious as to the software and I do agree that the lyrics, while great, do not add visually to the overall effect. Ideally you would have other images and cut back and forth, but one image (and what you have is a good one) can be enough if you have some motion and progression to hold our attention. There are many lighting and shading effects that you could easily add or subtract, or just simple motion, possibly revealing the image in stages or different perspectives as the song unfolds. Just my thoughts of course.
I’m looking forward to more neat surprises from you.
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@ColdRoomStudio
Thanks so VERY much Andrew… I felt like I could exhale again when I read your comments.
It’s been quite an immense step for me this, buckets of angst (rolls eyes)… as an artist yourself, you will have some understanding of the processes involved. So very glad to read your words thanks hugely!!!
@Clownpenis.fart
Thanks heaps for your kind words, funny, I’d forgotten that Angels song, had a re-listen and enjoyed … You’re funny saying that I have an accent… you HAVE to be American… [grin]
For me and mine, I speak normal 
[using death metal voice: “whatever’s normal.…” ]
@StylesBitchley
I grin in your general direction and e-hug you from afar 
Thanks!!
@cptfiasco
Yay… so good to hear from you stranger… hope that storm is not too horrid to you…
And hmmmm, you have me thinking about words… First of all things, I am a poet, so words are a critical thing for me… so I’m pondering that lyric thing. Personally, I love having lyrics to read but I’ve had a few comments from friends and family that they may be intrusive. I’m still very much learning how to do that drawing process, filming it in stages and because I’m so intuitive when I do it all, there is no way to pace the pictures seamlessly with the music so I did the best I could. Gonna ponder this one some more, it was a big wrench for me putting this out there so shall dive back into my creative cave for a while.
I am doing some Crazy kids ones by the way… weeeeeeeee…
Thanks so much for your great words.
@madpsychot
Thanks for listening and commenting… I’m using adobe premiere pro for the mix up, the filming is done using a combination of cellphone with clayframes software and a canon dslr mounted overhead to take still shots.
@Kinfolk
Hi there Daniel, thanks so very much for your wonderful support and encouragement!!!
@ingolee
Yay, thanks for checking this out…
As I said above, I’m using adobe premiere pro to mix things and the images were filmed with both my cellphone (clayframes animation software) and a fixed place canon dslr.
The whole package is a steep new learning curve for me. I had not intention of going down this path but it was a series of events that seemed to bring me to this… (rolls eyes at self).
I don’t really want to spend years learning clever video tricks, its taken me so long to figure out audio to my own limited satisfaction so I really only want simple effects. Technical stuff does my head in but I am something of a terrier with it and doggedly (!) follow my concepts to the best of my ability. The images for this were very jerky… which is essentially why I ended up with less rather than more but I’ll definitely be playing around with progressions… I haven’t even started on colour correction stuff yet so there are a gazillion tricks possible, it’s just finding the blimmen time to do it all…
Thanks so much for your support and encouragement.
Summary
O yay, thanks so much guys!
I’ll persevere with this…
Big hugs to y’all
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Everyone has an accent, I have an accent, you have an accent, Mark Slaughter has an accent. Also, I am an American from the Midwest. We’re supposed to have the most neutral accent of anyone speaking English, TAKE THAT! What other country would spawn someone with the handle “Clownpenis.fart”? If you listen to some of my recordings, I think my humor is pretty American.
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I wonder , since you are comfortable with lyric/words is it easier to work with them, then to immerse yourself into your visual art?
Being vulnerable making an original song is hard enough, adding visual art to accompany it makes the nerve-O-meter ping into the red. So maybe you are playing it safe by focusing on the words being there, then having your art fully out in the open. No words to hide behind? I feel you can ditch the lyrics with the interesting art work here.
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Hi Excuse me for a bit I had to reach for my security blanky at the intro. The wild wind and the eyes flash. Yikes. I can hear your lovely voice so well. Last few of yours have been busy. Would love to see a list of the chords in here. Hold on and hold deep…jeesh that’s good. Ok this is freaking awesome friend
sincerely
Paul
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hehe… your “security blanket” [double grin]
Thanks for checking this crazy one out Paul… and as for the chords, well, all I have written down is Gm and Cm and I just make stuff up around them and have no idea what to call them 
I had such fun doing the pictures… it’s something I’ve only just learned how to do, shows you can teach an old dog new tricks eh?
Spring is in the air here - yippeeeeeeeeeee
. 
.
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Fall is in the air here. Halloween must suck in the spring time. What’s evil about chirping birds and life coming together? Christmas snow must be a foreign concept as well, only in the movies. Do you make dirt snowmen?
Yep… Halloween in Spring is absurd… best by far to play witches in the Autumn. We often go to the beach at xmas… o, because of the sand witches there… hehe couldn’t stop myself there, alas!
It never snows where I am - near the top of the north island, but we still get reasonable frosts. Spring has been rain and more rain… erk. I spent several xmas’s in the UK and that was the right climate for super stodgy xmas food. We have barbecues and salads and exotic deli stuff doon here…
[now where is an emoticon for that… ponder ponder…]
You’re like the Kiwi female David Lynch of music, surreal. Everyone here seems to love you and kiss your ass endlessly. Do you do mind control? I’ve yet to see you post a track and have someone say, “What a piece of shit! Just stop already!”.
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hahaha I thought you’d been polite too long… 
And yep… I’ve had my share of insults for sure…
the people who don’t like my strange sounds don’t usually listen to my tracks any more!
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Hey Emma. At times I wondered if the reverb was competing with the vocal for attention. I almost wished the reverb was sitting further behind the lead vocal in certain areas where the vocal got louder. But ONLY in the areas where the vocal started to surge a little louder. I know you’re adamantly opposed to over-compressing, so there are a couple things I would try with this. Have you played around with the pre-delay time on the reverb unit? I use that parameter if I need to move the reverb out of the way of the vocal a little bit. It helps un-glue or detach the reverb from the source.
Another thing you might consider is throwing a multi band compressor infront of the reverb send. But only on the reverb send. Not on the main vocal. That will protect those loud surges at certain frequencies from entering the reverb plugin. Everything will still go into the reverb, but the multi-band compressor will prevent certain volume surges from causing quite as much a stir in the reverb once it enters.
One last thing you could try is adding a harmonic saturation or a transient shaping plugin to the back end of the reverb. So as the tail is coming out, the character, depth, and dimension of the verb tail is smoothed out and made more lush. I don’t have a problem with the piano, but you could also throw the same transient designer on the piano just to see if you like it!
A few ideas. 
Great song!
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Hi there Jonathan - thanks for checking this out. yeah there’s a heap of reverb for sure, some cool ideas for me to play around with thanks!! Have probably done this song to death but I’ve not played around with a multiband on the reverb send and always fun to try new tricksies. Same for the saturation. Ta!! Will definitely give them a try …
This is a biased opinion from the long time fan. Another masterpiece, I am instantly hijacked into Emmas dark territory, couple of creepy chords (I play the same Cm Gm chords and they never seem so creepy), fair amount of reverb and the most intriguing voice in the music history. I have to admit I did not pay much attention to the drawings - after first line I closed my eyes and departed …
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