[muffy]

People are talking about new Jingles on the station from Monday .. Any ideas.. lets Hope its Tm or Jam …

[IainJohnstonMember]

Considering their imminent demise in a few months time when Global’s takeover will no doubt be rubber-stamped by “the Authorities”, why would ex-GMG Smooth’s “arms-length” but Global-“influenced” management splurge out to buy new sung jingles?

If anything other than either “Heart is Coming” or “Gold is Coming” sweepers, or at best a resing of Heart or Gold cuts with “This Is Smooth” sung identically bar the one word, why on Earth would they bother? Global only exist to create cash, not spend it!

[RjM]

Should be interesting, and I’m hoping for a change of production company, or sound if they remain WB. Although I’m a fan of the majority of Wise Buddah’s work I’ve found the Smooth package uninspiring, and found it sounded tired very quickly.

I wouldn’t expect any “Heart is coming” or Heart re-sings for Smooth, as isn’t it expected that it’s the Real stations that will become Heart in 2013.

As for Gold re-sings/”Gold is coming”, I believe it’s less certain which, if either of the Gold or Smooth brands will be used, and expect Global to first concentrate on the Real re-brands when they get the takeover go ahead, so expect the outcome of Smooth may be a while off yet.

I wouldn’t be disappointed to hear a “This is Smooth” re-sing of Gold’s IQ Beats Dallas vocals package though.

[roymartin]

I think we’re all going to be pleasantly surprised!

[muffy]

Wow .. sounds good

[RjM]

I think we’re all going to be pleasantly surprised!

Very interesting I’ll have to set a recording for Monday morning then…

[IainJohnstonMember]

“I think we’re all going to be pleasantly surprised”

I’m intriqued too now! … is that a “smile” or a “sarcastic smile” though?

[occy69]

They will have an ‘Anglo American sounding’

[muffy]

Could they be ignite ..Uk Music ….USA vocals ??

[Seany]

Well according to Chris Stevens on Twitter, it’s going to be an ‘An international production!’

[Spoons]

He’s not wrong!

[muffy]

Well Simon Bates 6am Jingles the vocals are not as EASY as I was expecting .. The vocals had a touch of a ROCK edge .. Dont know if it will work ..Guess they want to bring more listeners across to the station of all ages , rather than going for an easy middle aged sounding jingle

[professor1036]

So the combination is TM backing tracks and (mainly) UK vocals. From the ones I’ve heard after midnight…they sound very nice.

I like them! Different enough to suggest a refresh whilst using the same logo as the previous package.

[muffy]

Some of the vocals are great .. but the TOTH Presenter namecheck sound out of place .. they are a bit of a sung jingle …..that shouts !!…………. For me true TM jingles with USA singers would have been the better option ..

“Different enough to suggest a refresh”…… Maybe not … But thats only my viewpoint …

[professor1036]

For me true TM jingles with USA singers would have been the better option ..

Maybe check out Smooth Radio 70’s

[stephen]

Here’s some fact-checked information about the new jingles.
http://earshot.tvi.gg/2013/01/smooth-over-in-dallas-for-new-jingles/

[ratnobMember]

Here’s some fact-checked information about the new jingles.

Thanks, Steve. Great work by Chris – those tracks sound great.

[GrahamCollins]

How bizarre – surely the only reason to involve Dallas is to have ‘The Dallas Vocal Sound’. The music could have been recorded anywhere. As for the jingles, they didn’t grab me I’m afraid – I wanted the vocals to go up at the ends and they went down, which sounded very odd to me – much prefer the Wise Buddah logo.

[professor1036]

Mewnwhile Smooth Radio 70’s has also got some new jingles…

[LenGroat]

Chalks: “How bizarre – surely the only reason to involve Dallas is to have ‘The Dallas Vocal Sound?”

Yes it does seem strange, and I can ‘hear’ them in my head with Dallas vocals, as the tracks are quite good and functional.

I think the reason for this combination is revealed in the press story above: “This modus operandi enables Smooth to retain the rights in the compositions and earn appropriate royalties against that work, effectively turning its jingles production from a cost to a source of revenue.”

There you are ~ jingles not as an art form…. but as “a source of revenue” !

[muffy]

Its a bit like having a School football team dress up as Manchester United … 2nd best isnt the answer ………. You either have a USA Jingle or you have you dont .. Once again another group of radio suits want a package thats not right.. Look at the poor vocals on radio 2 ..

[professor1036]

You either have a USA Jingle or you have you dont .. Once again another group of radio suits want a package thats not right..

What about the UK resings of JAM backing tracks from the late 1980’s onwards? Or MMI/Standard Sound singing over TM tracks etc…

[muffy]

This is a site that talks about jingles ,, the art , ,most of you know the singers by name …Today I can buy a jingle from Jam or TM and more at a good price ,and every time i will get the same quality that was on the demo. The 80’s uk vocals worked ok at the time on the Jam backing tracks but I think radio has moved on ..Sorry i know people put in hard work and long hours to make the new smooth jingles and sad to say some small RSL stations have better jingles …. Its either a fully produced USA jingle package or its nothing more than a group singers singing karaoke to some existing backing tracks. Smooth radio is a big station in the uk market ,,,,,, Quality SHOULD come first every time

[mbMember]

Just wanted to make a couple of points, vocally the US has and generally does have the best vocallists and mix of different vocal styles for jingles. There’s a bigger pool of talent and the industry for advertising and jingles is much bigger so there is a lot more practice. Where European clients often struggle is that they find European producers / music more modern and suited to thier requirements. So mixing european tracks and US vocals can often produce great results – the best of both worlds.

Another thread but if you listen to all the POTP jingles for Radio 2 that launched on Saturday they all end on an up, indeed so do the majority if not all of the Radio 2 jingles. Jingle vocals are far better when they end on an “up”. I guess it’s personal choice but most presenters I’ve known or spoken to prefer to have jingles that end positively than going down.

[LenGroat]

I’ve listened again to these and have to say I like the tracks, particularly the brass playing the station logo. And this topic seems to have distilled down to points about the vocals. The demo cuts on the press story have a hoarse-voiced male (I think the one who does a lot of Wise Buddah sings?) a woman with a pleasant voice, and cuts with 2 male/female singers in simple unison. There does not seem to be much vocal stacking.

Solo vocals are far easier and cheaper than keeping 4-7 singers in a studio for 4 hour sessions, BUT I think most jingle connoisseurs would agree that solo vocals wear out quicker? The namechecks with the hoarse-voice male grated on me from first play.

By co-incidence I found a short YouTube clip of jingle singers rehearsing IN the studio. These include the Dallas singer Annagrey who sang on a TM/iJingles WMAQ song I bought last year. As well as blending superbly with a group she’s a great soloist as a contemporary singer; her vids of her own songs have all the class and quality of Carole King in her ‘Tapestry’ days.

Back to the point : I realised that on the short clip (from a TM session) there is just her and TWO other singers. The very contemporary cut they are singing is not to my personal taste BUT the 3 part vocals are SUPERB (in a rock/modern way!) …. even in REHEARSAL ….!!

http://youtu.be/voGpI_BY6II

You may recall that the (much loved/sold) JAM Breakthrough package only had FOUR singers (stacked up). My point here is that Dallas companies can make great vocals with just 3 or 4 singers, but the small group of singers on the Smooth cuts come nowhere near that tight, modern sound. I think they ‘spoiled the ship for a happorth of tar’.

IF the cuts are ever offered for syndication (in the US only I’d guess?) I’d love to hear Annagrey and the other two singers (Jon Christopher Davis and ‘Carly’) show how it COULD have been done.

[Author]

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