October 20, 2016  -  User Showcase song - Secrets of the Trees

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.

****** 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

Posted on October 20, 2016 08:49 AM