It's like the TOTALFARK BAND! concept. But probably less crappy.

Online musical collaborations have been going on for quite a while now.

I've recorded parts for 6 (yearly) on-line collaborations and I've never met one person involved.

Great. Now I have to go beat someone up to feel normal again. Thanks a lot.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

I've always wanted to do something similar, with a barbershop quartet. I'm lazy though, so I never did.

not as good as postal service

that guy could hold a note pretty long

Hey jaldor--need a bass?

Oh. Singers. Nevermind.

Ramstein practices over phones when they are in seperate cities.

Slamguy: Oh. Singers. Nevermind.

I know. Singing is not a legitimate form of music, right?

destitute college kid: Slamguy: Oh. Singers. Nevermind.

I know. Singing is not a legitimate form of music, right?

Singing is like rap but slower, so therefore by Fark standards it isnt music

damn. that is all.

Yeah...
singing is also unlike rap in that it is a word that doesn't contain the letter C.

More vids wanted.

Wow..I didn't know Eric Estrada sang like that on the internet....good job though guys!

around here we call that "Online Quick Play"

This makes me sad that I'm a girl. No one wants to barbershop with me!

/tear

zenarche: This makes me sad that I'm a girl. No one wants to barbershop with me!

/tear

Actually, there are more female than male Barbershoppers, at least in the USA / Canada. The men only have one US/CAN organization, the Barbershop Harmony Society (neé SPEBSQSA - there's also a relatively new, small, quartet-emphasis men's organization that broke off from the BHS recently, attempting to return to older-school Barbershopping roots, the BPQA). The women have two: Sweet Adeline International and Harmony, Inc. Their combined membership exceeds that of the BHS.

There is also the Mixed Harmony Barbershop Quartet Association (new window), for quartets and choruses made up of both men and women.

YouTube has lots of clips of great Sweet Adeline quartets. I really like the sound of female Barbershop. Last year, a female quartet called "A Capella Gold" won the Nabisco® Oreo™ jingle contest.

Lots of Barbershop YouTube clips in general can be found here (new window, as are all of the links in this post).

vanblah: Online musical collaborations have been going on for quite a while now.

I've recorded parts for 6 (yearly) on-line collaborations and I've never met one person involved.

Instrumental, MIDI, or vocal?

This sort of precision singing is much more difficult to do when not in-person than most other forms of music.

To get that ringing chord sound (which is surprisingly intense in this case), they have to have extremely close to the exact same formants (vocal tract shapes, jaw and tongue and palatte and lip positions, etc.), and tune their notes within the chords to very tight tolerances, and the notes themselves are not standard 12tET (Twelve-tone Even/Equal Temperament, the modern muslcal scale used in 99% of the music you've likely ever heard, and to which pianos, electronic organs, most modern pipe organs, digital keyboards, default MIDI instruments, orchestras, etc. are all tuned to).

For instance, imagine a typical three-chord C-F-G7-C sequence:

Bass holds Low C through the C and F chords, then slides up to D for the G7, then back down to C.

Bari sings G below Middle C on the C and G7 chords, but slides up to A on the F chord.

Lead holds Middle C on the C and F chords, then slides down to B for the G7 chord.

Tenor sings E on the C chord, and F on the F and G7 chords.

To make it sound right, not only are all of the notes except the C different to various extents. The G is approximately 1.96% of a 12tET semitone sharper than the 12tET version (generally written as +1.96¢ where "¢" refers to a "cent" in tuning: ¹/100^th of a 12tET semitone), while the D is exactly twice that sharper than its 12tET version: (~+3.94¢) - these are differences too small for all but the most expert ear to hear by themselves, but they do make a noticeable difference in chords played against other notes; the E is ~-13.69¢ and thus barely noticeably (even when played by itself, and to a barely trained ear) flatter than its 12tET version, and the B is ~-13.69 + ~+1.96¢ = ~11.65¢ flatter than its 12tET version).

But the F that the Tenor sings, which on paper would be a single note sustained across the F to G7 chord transition, is in fact two different notes! The F of the F Major chord is tuned to ~-1.96¢ flatter than the 12tET version, but the F of the G7 chord is tuned way flatter than that: ~-29.22¢! This is over ¼ of a 12tET semitone difference, which even an untrained ear can easily distinguish!

Now, that all may sound complex, but it's actually pretty easy to sing (the human brain, ear, vocal tract, and the laws of sound physics, are all hard-wired for this sort of tuning, even though it differs drastically from the tuning we've all heard most of our lives), if you have the chord root as a reference. But with separate recording tracks, this is not so easy to do, which is why what these guys pulled off is so very impressive.

You mean the 'net can be used for good, and not just evil?? Cool!