[Caleb]

Just got a response back. He says it’s legit, and that TuneCore does indeed collect YT revenue for him. Interesting.

[Caleb]

Thanks for the compliments! I went ahead and tweeted him; we’ll see if I get a response.

Angela, nice catch on the “suit has teeth” nod. I was wondering if it would be too subtle. Your video is fun too, BTW.

[Caleb]

Lol! It also transfers one random item in your inventory into your enemy’s inventory.

[Caleb]

This is probably my final blog post on the matter, but here’s the slowed down versions to compare the banjo/mandolin timings. I also include the fret noise and the quack.

http://refactoringmybrain.blogspot.com/2013/01/coultons-audio-tracks-part-2.html

Paul… any way can you easily check the quack artifact on your center-canceled karaoke track, and see if it happens to look like a sharp 4 kHz spike? That seems to be the frequency in the Glee track, and now I’m dying to know if its the same.

[Caleb]

Although, from Paul’s description, the original mp3 may not be much better.

[Caleb]

Paul probably has the better version, since he actually bought the glee track. What I’m using was just ripped off YT, and it has all kinds of messy compression. Especially when its slowed down.

[Caleb]

You can absolutely pass it on and use it! Like Paul, I’m just happy to help out.

A T-shirt or something would be fine. (TBH, I wouldn’t be able to make the cruise anyway.)

[Caleb]

I agree Paul — at this point, let the paid professionals get involved. I will try to make one more post tonight with my suuuper-slooo-moooo timing analysis (including the quack and the fret noise), but otherwise I think this is all wrapped up in my book.

[Caleb]

I can’t post anything at the moment (gotta go to work…), but I created a center-canceled glee track, and hard-panned to the right, applied heavy EQ, and slowed it down to between to between 30-70%. Then I overlayed the solo banjo and mandolin tracks, applied the same EQ, and hard-panned left. There can be no doubt (not that there was before). Even at 30% speed, they line up perfectly. Timing, relative volume, etc…

I can also hear an unquestionable ‘click’ in the center-cancelled glee track where the start of the quack would be.

[Caleb]

@Colleenky – You of all people should know that JoCo fans aren’t your average groupie. 🙂

I kinda just freaked myself out trying a variant of what @Angelastic suggested. I replicated Paul’s center-canceled Glee track, then I rendered it (or bounced it) to a separate track so I could see it clearly, and I tried to line up the beginning with JoCo’s solo banjo track. The results looked nearly identical and when I inverted the solo banjo track, it went away! After dropping my jaw on the floor, and quadruple-checking my work, I realized that somehow I had accidentally mixed the solo banjo track into the center-canceled Glee track, so I was just cancelling itself out again. Bummer!

@paulrpotts Re those little walkups: I’ve noticed on the solo banjo track that some (but not all) of them have little ‘pop’s just afterwards. I wonder if that explains the editing in that section? I think the walkups happen four times in the verse, and it’s the 2nd and 4th times that have the ‘pop’.

This time I’m really done. (yeah right…)

[Caleb]

Center-cancel-ception!

I thought of that too, Angelastic. I doubt it would work, because the way things have likely been remastered, but it’s possible that something interesting might come of it. I’m not going to try it now, but I’m starting to want to…

[Caleb]

I really need to figure out how to phase cancel in Reaper, but I’m done for today too. Ears are too fatigued.

[Caleb]

No, no. I’m speechless. Wow. Nicely done, Paul. I think this is absolutely convincing.

With the bass and lead gone (and with my evidence confirming that the bass was re-recorded anyway) it’s really obvious.

This is crazy!

[Caleb]

Brett, I actually thought of that too. I didn’t check comprehensively, but from what I’ve seen, JoCo’s seems to be copy/pasted itself. In particular, I wsn’t able to find the E in “Example 2” anywhere else in his song. Also, the C (example 1, #4) is the same slightly-too-loud half note after each chorus. As a matter of fact, it’s the exact same as the C half note at the very beginning of the song. Which Glee, ironically, does seem to keep as a half note.

I didn’t mention it in my post (because it was getting long), but there’s also a spot in JoCo’s bass track where he accidentally hits two strings at one (in each verse), which I also can’t find in the Glee track. But if Paul’s right, and the bass got cancelled, its a moot point.

Here’s another thing I just found, though I’m not sure what it means. You know that scratchy string noise when you run your finger along a guitar string without playing it (to change hand positions)? I’m clearly hearing one of those in the Glee track, but not in Coulton. I’m starting both videos at 0:50, and it occurs a few seconds after that. Just after the words “average groupie”, there’s a short 3-note banjo run, and in the Glee version, there’s a string scratch just after the third note.
Glee (has a loud string scratch)
Coulton (doesn’t, AFAICT)
I’m not sure what to make of that. It’s certainly possible that it was added later for some reason. My first thought was if there was an on-screen cut of the instrumentalist at that point, it would solidify the illusion of them playing it, but this section doesn’t appear to be in the TV version. Second thought was if there were a flaw in the Coulton track at that point, they could be hiding it, but I don’t hear one here.

[Caleb]

Very interesting stuff, Paul! I had forgotten that, with the Bass being centered, it would have cancelled out in a phase inversion. That definitely seems like a valid explanation for why it would have to be re-recorded.

[Author]

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