One fun thing I did work on this year was a duet – sort of – with Karen Carpenter, a voice I’ve always loved. If you know me personally you know that to be a very true statement.
I had actually recorded “Merry Christmas, Darling” last year (2015) and found that the key was in the original key as The Carpenters had recorded it back in 1970. I thought – why not splice the two recordings together & make it a “duet” version? Well, I started about this task but found the songs to actually be at slightly different tempos and were arranged a slight bit differently and if I was going to make it work it would take some digital manipulation of the Carpenters existing track.
And did it ever. I couldn’t alter pitch, but I COULD alter tempo without changing the pitch, and I painstakingly did so in very small increments and then laid the two tracks together on separate tracks, mixing between the two to create the duet you hear here. Then I mastered the entire mix. For the most part it worked, although I wish I had additional time because I would have gone back in to overdub not only a few lines of my vocal but also a harmony here or there.
I also shot a quick video to play around with as well. It was a labor of love to pretend to have some time with Karen.