Too Far Away (Vocal Mix)

Lead vocalist Mike Score says that there were two main sources of inspiration for "I Ran (So Far Away)". The members of A Flock of Seagulls would regularly visit Eric's Club in Liverpool, where one of the bands had a song called "I Ran". Score noted that because A Flock of Seagulls would rehearse right after returning from Eric's, the song title and chorus may have gotten stuck in his head. Another idea came from a poster at a Zoo Records office. The band had gone there with the intent of securing a recording contract, and they wanted to use the poster, which featured a man and a woman running away from a flying saucer, as the cover for their first album, A Flock of Seagulls (1982). This depiction also helped spark the song's unusual space-like lyrics.[4]

Too Far Away (Vocal Mix)

"I Ran (So Far Away)" was recorded at Battery Studios in London with producer Mike Howlett.[5] It is a new wave[6][7] and synth-pop song,[8] with a run time of five minutes and seven seconds.[5] According to the sheet music, the song moves at a quick tempo of 145 beats per minute. With a chord progression of A-G-A-G in the verses and F-G-A in the choruses, the song is written in the key of A minor.[9] During the song's introduction and musical interludes, short guitar riffs are played, which make use of echo.[4] Guitarist Paul Reynolds had joined the band after the music was already written, so the short guitar riffs were added for Reynolds to play.[4] Lyrically, "I Ran (So Far Away)" is about a man who sees an attractive woman and attempts to run away from his feelings. Before this happens, the man sees an aurora in the sky, and he and the woman are abducted by aliens.[10]

With its abbreviated title and beginning of its chorus matching the American English pronunciation of Iran, the song was heard by Americans as "punningly political at a time when Iran itself was making headlines around the clock".[13] The song, the music video, and the band were an "irresistible" package for American audiences, and by the summer of 1982, "America was clutching A Flock of Seagulls to its heart".[13] According to Maz Jobrani, the release of the song was a "disaster" for Iranian-American children like himself (then 10 years old). They were cruelly teased by other American children with the song's misheard chorus: "I-ran, I-ran so far away."[14]

Record double tracked vocals in almost the same way as the main vocals, but try moving slightly closer or further away from the microphone to create a different tone. This will help to create separation between the original vocal and the double tracked vocal. It can also enhance the stereo imaging when using the hard pan trick (this involves panning the two vocal parts hard left and hard right).

(BONUS TIP: A good way to make sure the singer stays at the correct distance from the microphone is to tell them to sing at around two fists away. One fist between the mic and the pop filter, and one fist between the singer and the pop filter.)

When it began, the first thing that came to my touring engineer mind was how quiet and far away everything sounded, but within seconds my brain and ears had a meeting and I realized that I could indeed hear everything clearly. This blew my mind! I was able to hear the breathing of the vocalists as well as the smallest details of the orchestra, including the faintest notes of the glockenspiel, winds and strings. All of this as clear as water. My ears zoned in as if I was listening to a hi-fi version of it.

Did you ever try to hear what someone standing 12 feet away from you said? It probably sounds muffled, especially if you were in a crowded room when it happens. The same happens when you decide to sing into a mic too far away.

But be careful not to get carried away. Applying too much compression is a danger zone. Using only compression to try and balance levels in a mix will lead to a lifeless, punchless, and fatiguing mix. Yucky.

When you know your volume is going to increase, you can move the mic further away from your mouth in order to compensate, while still maintaining the proper position. This reduces the potential for creating a distorted sound. It will take practice to learn how much you should adjust the mic position.

You should address this before testing microphones as microphones react differently depending on how close or far away it is from the mouth. The microphone should be no more than 1" from the mouth. Also, never put your hand over the mesh part of the microphone.

Mixing vocals is an artform on its own that takes a bit of practice to do well, however, there are a few things one can do right away that will make a world of difference. Garageband is a great introduction to the world of music production and vocal mixing, because many of the tactics and dynamics processors are the same, they just have fewer parameters and are therefore less confusing for the beginner.

thanks Judy... wow... such a quick response... and yes... "WE are staying warm. resting is the hard part.. i sing in senior communities and nursing homes and sing about 50-70 hours per month.. it's the only way to make the money.. the last 2 days it's become noticeable but my personality and some creative showmanship has turned a lemon into lemonade. I hate the thought of cancelling more shows but I know I can't keep this up without certain audiences being less forgiving, i.e. a restaurant gig every Friday Jan and Feb. If it is a virus can I sing through this and it still go away by itself? Just fyi... i am going to make an app't with the ENT (hopefully Wed}

For me, I often perform as a cantor on Sunday mornings. We rehearse at 9 and it takes until service time at 10 to clear my throat, mostly up but not quite. This is an ongoing issue and I wish to use some practice to loosen this phlegm up on a regular basis. I often do not eat breakfast before leaving home and I stay away from coffee. My symphonic choir practice is always after supper and I never have this problem of mucous at that time and as well our performances are always in late afternoon or in evening. Just the Sunday morning routine. Aside from drinking lemon in water as a bit astringent, any other suggestions. As a rank amateur, I am not skilled at self warmup and once at church, there is not much time nor leadership to do a proper warm up routine. Any info sources on how to better self manage my preparation would be helpful. Douglas

Hi, Judy.I'm VERY frustrated with this phlegms problems I'm dealing with. I moved away from my country for 2 months. In those 2 months my voice was in the best shape it has ever been. No phlegms, no nothing. I could reach my top very easily (I'm a lyric tenor, I'm able to hit a C5, D5, even a F5 which is pretty damn high for a man. Then, I got back to my country recently, and got all the phelgms problem back again. So, it's clearly allergie-related. I don't know what exactly is causing it. The thing is, when I wake up, I'm smooth as hell, but then phlegms start to get in the way as the day goes on, and at some point my vocal cords just won't vibrate well enough to reach my top register. I've been to allergists, I've taken steroids, antihistamine, everything you can imagine, and still I haven't been able to get my voice back with all this phelgms... Sorry for my english! 041b061a72