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The Secrets of the Trees

NEW UPDATED VERSION - extra verse and outro synth. Now 3 minutes 6 seconds long.

This is a bit of a departure from my usual style of song which I originally wrote last year for the Coursera Song Writing course (highly recommended to others by the way). The inspiration for the song came from Pat Pattison’s song “Hobo Wind” which he uses on the course to demonstrate various song writing techniques.

I had a chord sequence in mind and wanted to create a spooky/mysterious feel (seems appropriate with Halloween around the corner). I auditioned many styles in BIAB before I found the perfect one (CRYSTAL1.STY).

For the original recording I pretty much used the track as it was from BIAB and just overdubbed vocals. This was fine for the purposes of the course. However, I always thought that I would revisit the song one day and produce a more complete version.

For the new version, I started by exporting all of the MIDI from BIAB and into Sonar. I do this in BIAB using the Save Special --> Save Song as MIDI file and then select the clipboard as the destination. I have tried other ways but this seems the most reliable. In Sonar I use a template for my vocals and guitar so I then use Paste Special (start from new track) to get the MIDI from BIAB into Sonar.

Here’s a summary of what I then added/changed/updated (feel free to skip to the lyrics if you aren’t interested in these details):

Vocals – I re-recorded the vocals as the original ones were done with my old Audio interface and mic. I also recorded a short vocal of me saying “What is my secret?” for the “tree sound” near the end (see below). I recorded separate vocals for the “Climbing” part and applied the Eventide Quadravox (Jeff Schumacher - Echoes patch) to create the spacey woodland echoes.

Vocoder – I wanted to enhance the mysterious feel by using a vocoder for the vocals but didn’t like the sound using Vocalizer Pro. So I came across a free vocoder called mda TalkBox and immediately got the sound I wanted! The final vocal is a mix of normal vocal and vocoder sounds. I used Vocalizer Pro to make the “What is my secret” voice near the end sound “tree like”.

Alter Ego – I wanted to create a vocal sound for “woodland faires” in the middle section and used this free alternative to Vocaloid.

Drums – I tried using the MIDI from BIAB with various drum plugins (all of the ones that come with Sonar Platinum) but none of them sounded quite as good as the RealDrum so I kept that and just beefed it up a bit with Waves Maxxbass.

Tinkly synth – I found a nice patch in Hybrid (11 FM Bell - Bells) which has a pleasant airy feel to it. Only thing I changed was the release part of the ADSR envelope as it had a pitch mod making the pitch rise which caused pitch clashes.

Bass synth – I used Hybrid again, this time (03 Brassy - Poly Synths) patch.

Synth at end: Hybrid - Castanetichords patch

Strings and 12 string – I used SampleTank 3 patches for these.


****** Song Summary *************
Title: Secrets of the Trees
Key=B , Tempo 80
Style is CRYSTAL1.STY (Crystal1 - 4/4 New Age Style)
BassCustom Synth is Hi-Q 082 01 Synth, Analog, 80sPad SampleTank.tgs
PianoCustom Synth is Hi-Q 005 01 Piano, Electric, Classic SampleTank.tgs
GuitarCustom Synth is Hi-Q 026 03 Guitar, Acoustic, 12 String SampleTank.tgs
StringsCustom Synth is Hi-Q 050 01 Strings, Ensemble, Movie SampleTank.tgs
Style MIDI Instruments are : Saw Wave Lead (82), Electric Piano (5), 26/1 12-Strings Guitar, GM2 Bank 1, Slow Strings (50),
MIDI Drums :1 Standard Drum Kit (1)

RealDrums will be substituted :CountryEven16: a: Brushes b: Snare, HiHat
*******************

Secrets of the Trees © 2016
Lyrics:

So majestic and so strong,
King of all that you survey,
Leaves are blowing in the breeze,
Haunting with soliloquies,
Secrets of the Trees

Branches swaying overhead,
So ancient and so wise,
You must have witnessed many crimes,
Demons and altered paradigms,
Secrets of the Trees

Forest creatures gather round
Urging me to leave the ground
Ascending into the unknown
Reaching for the danger zone
Secrets of the Trees


Climbing
Climbing
Climbing

Now I stand above the world,
I understand and I observe,
I share unspoken memories,
I feel your strength, your energies,
Secrets of the Trees

Enjoy!
Rec

Last edited by Callie - PG Music; 10/25/16 03:53 AM.

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It works for me. Congratulations.


Link: www.soundcloud.com/ed_shaw (Feel Free to Use)
https://drooble.com/edward.shaw/hymn/index.htm
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Hello Receder, Nice work! - I really dig the Vocoder sound, overall has a very fantastic vibe to this. well done! smile


Cheers,
Joe
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Originally Posted By: edshaw
It works for me. Congratulations.


Thanks Ed, appreciate it.

Originally Posted By: Joe -PG Music
Hello Receder, Nice work! - I really dig the Vocoder sound, overall has a very fantastic vibe to this. well done! smile


Hi Joe, thanks for the positive feedback. I hadn't used a vocoder in any songs before and spent ages auditioning presets before looking elsewhere.

Cheers
Rec


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Hi Receder,what an interesting track,excellent vocoder work and a quirky and charming yet eerie song,i was surprised it was so short but it worked out well,nice arrangement and well written,enjoyed it a lot.
Ricc.

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Vocoders can be very powerful! - Native instruments has one i'm quite fond of called "The Mouth" which I've used in my own productions. Very intuitive and easy to use. Check it out here!: https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/effects/the-mouth/


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Joe
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Originally Posted By: Riccled
Hi Receder,what an interesting track,excellent vocoder work and a quirky and charming yet eerie song,i was surprised it was so short but it worked out well,nice arrangement and well written,enjoyed it a lot.
Ricc.


Thanks for stopping by to listen to my track and I'm glad that you enjoyed it. I thought about adding another verse to make it a bit longer but decided to leave it as is.

Originally Posted By: Joe -PG Music
Vocoders can be very powerful! - Native instruments has one i'm quite fond of called "The Mouth" which I've used in my own productions. Very intuitive and easy to use. Check it out here!: https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/effects/the-mouth/


Hi Joe, Funny you should mention that as I almost bought it previously but just missed getting it when it was on a special deal. I figure I might wait until around Black Friday as there are often good deals to be had then and I now have more vocoders than I know what to do with smile


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Hi Receder, its definately one of those "Wait to get it on sale" products for sure. I only picked it up when it was available for $50.00. - As another great trick, try running drums through vocoders, you can get some very interesting textures that way!


Cheers,
Joe
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Receder,

This is a beautiful and very original composition. Very atmospheric too. The vocoder works great all around!
We will check out those VSTs you mentioned in your post.

Rob & Anne-Marie


We are Rob Meulman and Anne-Marie Bovenkamp from The Netherlands.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1gsdNLE7_Gy8qavoOplQow/videos
http://rnam.net/


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Receder,

A very good song idea and I like the lyrics, chord progression and melody - moody and stately at the same time.
I`m not sure about the vocoder sound (- this is just my own discomfort with it from overexposure to Dr Who!)
You have put a lot of thought into the arrangement and it`s atmospheric - I loved the bridge with airy vocals and the overdubs of the tree voice works well.
I`m going to delve into your details on the production as there`s lots to learn there so thanks for that.

Robert

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Originally Posted By: Joe -PG Music
Hi Receder, its definately one of those "Wait to get it on sale" products for sure. I only picked it up when it was available for $50.00. - As another great trick, try running drums through vocoders, you can get some very interesting textures that way!


Thanks for this Joe. I notice that Vocalizer Pro which I also picked up in a sale (less than $20 I seem to recall) has quite a few drum presets so that should make for some interesting sounds.

Cheers
Rec


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Originally Posted By: RnAM
Receder,

This is a beautiful and very original composition. Very atmospheric too. The vocoder works great all around! We will check out those VSTs you mentioned in your post.

Rob & Anne-Marie



Thanks Very much Rob and Anne-Marie for your kind comments which are much appreciated.

The TalkBox plugin is very basic but easy to use. You pan the vocal track hard left and the synth track hard right (I used a basic SAW patch) and feed them both to a bus with the TalkBox plugin as an insert effect. The plugin is part of a large bunch of free plugins which can be downloaded from here. I haven't tried any of the others but I did run Kaspersky and MalwareBytes on all of them just to be safe.

Thanks again,
Rec


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Rec,

I'm glad that you have become a "regular" in the Showcase. Your music is so enjoyable to listen to. Always interesting. Very creative. Often thought-provoking... showing different sides of BIAB along the way...

This is excellent - for all those reasons. Nice mix, too.

The songwriting is just as creative and the instrumentation. All of the couples at lines 3 & 4 are inspired!

"Leaves are blowing in the breeze,
Haunting with soliloquies,..."

"You must have witnessed many crimes,
Demons and altered paradigms,..."

"I share unspoken memories,
I feel your strength, your energies,..."

The more listens, the better....

floyd

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Floyd,

Thanks so much for your very generous comments. I do enjoy spending time here listening to all great songs from the more established and professional BIAB songwriters like yourself to those just starting out. There's always something new and creative waiting to be discovered. The wealth of talent here also helps to inspire my own thought processes when writing.

I also hope to continue writing songs and putting them here for critique although I am nowhere near as prolific a writer as some of you so there may be quite long gaps between songs.

All the best,
Rec


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Hi rec
This is excellent! Very creative. I was very pleased to see your detailed explanation of how you got that great vocal. Well done and much enjoyed.


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Really cool stuff here, Rec. Kinda reminds me of The Flaming Lips. I love the vocoder -- that's not a sound we hear around here too much! This is short but you get a lot out of those 105 seconds smile I love the deeper voice that comes in at the end. Was that pitch shifted down?


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Originally Posted By: JoanneCooper
Hi rec
This is excellent! Very creative. I was very pleased to see your detailed explanation of how you got that great vocal. Well done and much enjoyed.


Thanks a lot Joanne. I do appreciate you taking the time to listen and comment. I'm also glad you enjoyed the explanation. I'm always worried that people will get bored if I write too much detail but then again others do like to see what was done (and I am a bit of a detail freak smile.

Thanks again,
Rec


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Originally Posted By: Will B - PG Music
Really cool stuff here, Rec. Kinda reminds me of The Flaming Lips. I love the vocoder -- that's not a sound we hear around here too much! This is short but you get a lot out of those 105 seconds smile I love the deeper voice that comes in at the end. Was that pitch shifted down?


Hi Will,

Thanks for your kind words smile I do vaguely remember The Flaming Lips but just looked them up on YT and see what you mean! They must have somehow seeped into my psyche.

For my voice at the end, the patch I used in Vocalizer Pro (13 Hardcore Sounds - pad 4) includes a -1 octave pitch shift. I find many of the patches in Vocalizer Pro not much use for vocals but I nearly fell off the chair when I auditioned that one!

Cheers
Rec


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Originally Posted By: Robertkc
Receder,

A very good song idea and I like the lyrics, chord progression and melody - moody and stately at the same time.
I`m not sure about the vocoder sound (- this is just my own discomfort with it from overexposure to Dr Who!)
You have put a lot of thought into the arrangement and it`s atmospheric - I loved the bridge with airy vocals and the overdubs of the tree voice works well.
I`m going to delve into your details on the production as there`s lots to learn there so thanks for that.

Robert


Hi Robert and thanks very much for your encouraging comments. I'm really pleased that you enjoyed the song.
Your comment about Dr Who made me laugh as I remember, as a child, hiding behind the sofa when the Daleks came on smile Although I think they used ring modulation for the Daleks' voice and vocoder for the Cybermen (equally terrifying).

Cheers
Rec


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Originally Posted By: receder
Originally Posted By: Joe -PG Music
Hi Receder, its definately one of those "Wait to get it on sale" products for sure. I only picked it up when it was available for $50.00. - As another great trick, try running drums through vocoders, you can get some very interesting textures that way!


Thanks for this Joe. I notice that Vocalizer Pro which I also picked up in a sale (less than $20 I seem to recall) has quite a few drum presets so that should make for some interesting sounds.

Cheers
Rec


Vocoders are a beautiful thing!


Cheers,
Joe
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