Just a couple of weeks ago I bought Synthesizer V from Dreamtronics along with voices Kevin and Natalie. It's pretty exciting because this purchase will now allow me to finish off a few songs I've got sitting in my ‘waiting to be processed’ folder.

“Seven Years” was written over the course of two to three months as I travelled to and fro from work a couple of years ago. This vocal synth is incredible. “Seven Years” is my first effort with it and quite honestly, I’m amazed at what it can do.

• ♫ Seven Years
  (lyrics are on Soundcloud)

I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to comment in any way on any aspect of the production or song. I'm still very much a novice when it comes to using vocal synths.


BIAB Band
Base Style: _FLYHIGH Demo - Fly High Ethereal Country Ballad
Bass: RT 366 Bass, Electric, Country Ev 065
Piano: RT 1542 Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm PopBelieve Ev16 06
Guitar: RT 3344 Guitar, Electric, Rhythm HazyBallad ev16 070
Guitar Solo: RT 3196 Guitar, Electric, Soloist PopBalladBrent Ev 065
Drums: RealDrums NashvilleEven16^2-SideStck,Hhat
Vocals: Kevin and Synthesizer V

Processing
Vocals: Nectar 3 (VST3)
Bass: processed with Renaissance Bass (VST3)
Piano: processed with Chris Lord-Alge Unplugged (VST3)
Guitar: processed with Chris Lord-Alge Guitars (VST3)
Mastering: Ozone 10

Noel,

Hard to believe that this is your first effort with Kevin. It's the best Kevin I've heard (I think). He sounds REAL. In fact, there are spots that he almost sounds like he comes close to being slightly off-key (and, therefore...real sounding).
It occurred to me the one thing that gives-it-away (if it does) is that there are no breath sounds.

A beautiful melody!

A nice production. Excellent mix.

A terrific listen.
Nice to see a new post from you.
Hope all is well with you...

fj

Hi Noel,

I do agree with floyd this is a good sounding Kevin.
You must have had a lot of work to make it sound like this!
The song itself can use some more excitement, like breaks or a transposition.
The melody is very nice, but a bit predictable, so think about my 3rd line ;-)

Hope to hear more from you,
Hans

What Floyd said

I've rarely heard a Kevin song where he sounds convincing, you did really well here.
Of course, giving him a well written and well produced song helps a lot.
Enjoyed the listen!

Noel,

This is beautiful.

Yes, that vocal synth sounds very lifelike. You certainly know what you are doing.

Nice to see you again. Great song!

Noel,
I good to hear something from you again.

I enjoyed the song immensely.

Kevin sound too real. He's has a bit of an unpolished quality to his performance, which makes it sound authentic.

Hi floyd.

Thanks heaps for having a listen and taking time to comment. That's a good point about breaths and something I'll take on-board. At this stage, I'm climbing up the learning-curve mountain and the summit still seems to be a long way off. I'll get there eventually, I hope. A couple of days ago I accidentally discovered the phoneme for breathing and I still need to start playing around with it.

All is travelling okay. Thanks for asking. I hope that things are going well for you in your part of the world.

All the best and thanks again,
--Noel

Hi, Noel.

Nice write and melody - I enjoyed the song!

I think the vocal works well. I find that Kevin is a bit... flat when he sings. Not in terms of pitch, but energy. The female voices don't seem to have quite that same problem, and I don't know if I've got any good work-arounds. I posted a few ideas on the SynthV forum.

I'm not a fan of using words like "shall" when the other lyrics are less formal - it feels tonally off to me. Then again, lyrics and music are a heightened language anyway, so... whatever works for you.

As cliche as it is, perhaps a key change would bring some lift that Kevin's voice doesn't. Then again, there's really nothing fundamentally wrong here, so feel free to ignore the suggestion!

Nice work!

Hi Hans.

It's great to hear from you. I hope that things are sailing along smoothly for you. Thanks for listening. Also, thank you for your thoughts. I always appreciate your insight.

I understand completely what you are saying and I fully agree with you. The song definitely lacks excitement and drama. That might be because I wrote this song as an insight into the loss that people feel when those close to them leave (for whatever reason). From the start, I set out to make the song calm and reflective. From what you say, it sounds like I might have achieved that goal to some extent.

Thanks again for taking the time!
--Noel

Hi BD.

Thank you. I'm glad you found a few minutes to take time out and have a listen. Much appreciated. And thanks for saying those kind things about my song

All the best,
--Noel

Hi David.

It's always excellent to see you. Thanks for your comments. To be honest, with the vocal softsynth, I really don't know what I'm doing so I'm glad I managed to convince you that I do know! All I'm doing at the moment is tweaking sliders, numbers and phonemes here and there and trying to get Synth V to match the sound that I'm hearing in my head. It's like working on an audio jigsaw puzzle. I'm hoping that one day I'll understand it all.

Thanks again and happy songwriting!
--Noel

Hi there!

It's good to see that you are still on the forum I'm really glad you liked the song. Thanks having a listen and for passing on your opinion. I appreciate it.

Best regards,
--Noel

Hi David,

It's always a pleasure to hear from you.

Thank you so much for all the information you posted on the Synth V forum. That has helped me understand the mechanics of the software a whole heap more I'm sincerely grateful. It's been fun playing around with Kevin.

Interestingly, from what you say about "shall", I suspect that it's used differently in Britain than it is in the US.

These days in Australia, we are equally influenced by both Britain and the US. While I was growing up, though, the British influence dominated. Although "shall" has gradually become replaced with "will", in my English lessons at school, I learnt that "I/we shall" is merely a statement of fact about doing something in the future. "I/we will", on the other hand, contains the notion of a promise or a commitment to doing something in the future. In second/third person, "You/he/she/they shall (do something)" was a command and "You/he/she/they will" was a statement of fact about doing some future act. When the contraction «'ll» is used, most people think it is solely "will" but it is equally representative of "shall". You might be interested in the article below. It sheds a little bit of light on this.

https://www.usingenglish.com/articles/using-shall-in-british-english.html

Thanks for the tip about keys. I didn't play around with keys when I was putting this together. I simply kept it in the key that I would have sung it in. I should have been more adventurous! That's definitely something I'll keep in mind in the future.

Thank you very much for all your help so far.
--Noel

Noel,

Wow! This is spectacular. A great song and excellent use of Synthesizer V. Everything sounds so natural and unforced. Perfect mix as well.

Great to see you in the User Showcase again.

Bob

Excellent job with Kevin, Noel. Kevin & Natalie are becoming two of my snyth favs for sure. Man, if you have more in the "waiting to be processed" folder, we here are all in for a treat. This is such a beautiful song and should never sit alone in a discarded folder.

Very well done.

The details matter with the synths. the key is very important to all of the synths to have them sound their absolute best.

This was a good job on the song and using the synth

Noel, the first time using this vocal synth? WOW you did a fantastic job on it!
Kevin sounds so real it is scary.
Great backing tracks and mix also.
Awesome job!

Hi Bob

It's good to be back. Synth V has inspired to write some music again!
Thanks for taking the time to have a listen. I appreciate it.
All the best,
--Noel

Hi Marty.

It's good to see you. Thanks for dropping in.

I actually do have a couple more songs awaiting Synth V. I've set them aside for the moment and I'm presently working on a Natalie and Kevin duet of a song I wrote six or seven years ago. When I tame Synth V and get the two vocalists under control, I'll post my final effort!

I appreciate your comments

Thanks again,
--Noel

Hi Herb.

Thanks for taking time to have a listen. And thank you also for getting my first interested in Synth V. It was after hearing "Pass It On" in the below thread that I was inspired to look at what Synth V can do.

https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=768934#Post768934

You opened doors into a new world for me and I'm really grateful.

All the best,
--Noel

Hey Mario!

It's great to see you again And thank you for having a listen. I always appreciate what you have say.
I'm really enjoying playing around with Synth V. It's inspired me to start writing again!

All the best and thanks again,
--Noel

Nice SynthV work, sounds very natural. Nice song, good melody and backing tracks

Very nice to hear a new song from you, your songs have such a positive vibe, even when it is about missing someone, like in this case, emotional and heartfelt lyrics.

Nothing wrong with using a Synth V voice, I've been using these voices for couple of years now... but I missed your unique voice, Kevin is good, but still far far away from talent like you. You have done good job with Kevin, maybe more vibrato or loudness at some places could make him sound stronger and more emotional, but I'm sure you'll become a master when working more with those voices.

Calm instrumentation fits the theme. Your beautiful trademark style is still very reconizable even without your voice.

Janne

Really nice Noel!! And Kevin does a great job, but I could imagine you singing this very well also. Really pretty song!!!......nice melody/lyic/arrangement/production.....the whole nine!!! Take care. Greg

Noel,

The song is terrific . . . melodic and engaging. I’ve been amazed at the quality of vocaloids that folks have been using, this is not an exception. It’a amazing technology. That said, I think this terrific song loses a little something here with the use of the vocaloid. It sounds a little too synthetic to my ears for whatever reason. As I don’t alway feel that way about vocaloids . . . and given your stellar use of it here . . . I can only conclude that it’s just not a match with the song you’ve written, which is beautiful. Then again, it may be that I’m an admirer of your vocal and miss not hearing it on this song. A very, very good song, regardless of my subjective impressions.

All my best,

Deej

Noel,
I missed your voice and, interestingly, my mind overlay my memory of your voice and Kevin.
That was relatively easy to do as the phrasing is pure Noel and the melody is too.
Lovely song, arrangement & mix.
My only suggestion would be to reduce the beater click on the kick.
Lovely.

Hi Elliott.

It's good to see you again. Thanks for passing through the thread. I honestly appreciate it. And thanks for passing on your thoughts

All the best,
--Noel

Hi Janne!

It's been quite a while since I last replied to you. My apologies. This has been one of those years that I'm hoping I'll forget about eventually

Thanks for popping in an having a listen and passing on your comments. I appreciate it a lot. I'm really excited to read that you've been using Synth V. I'll track down some of your compositions and have a listen.

Also, thank you for the smile that your brought to my face after I read your post That was worth it's proverbial "weight in gold"!

Best regards,
--Noel

Hi Greg.

Thank you. You always seem to say very positive things that make an amateur songwriter like me feel very accomplished! I appreciate your finding some time to have a listen and to pass on your thoughts.

All the very best,
--Noel

Hi Deej.

Thanks for all your thoughts and considerations. You've shown me a valuable perspective on the vocaloid. I'm thankful for that. I think one of the main reasons that my production leaves you a bit underwhelmed is because I'm still very new to this game and I know I have a long way to go. Thank you heaps for all your positive comments about my song and my voice. I greatly appreciate everything you've said.

All the very best,
--Noel

Hey Ray.

How are things going in Queensland? I hope things are travelling well for you.

And you are spot on!!! The phrasing is absolutely "pure Noel". I tried my hardest to shape the final vocals in the way that I would have sung them. I didn't know if that would bring a slight "Australian accent" to Kevin or not. I was hoping that that wouldn't be the case. Thank you for your positive comments about the song. Also, thanks for pointing that out about the beater. You have great ears. I did not heard it at all. As soon as I get a chance, I'll try and fix it.

All the best,
--Noel

Well, howdy -- been a while.

Firstly, we much liked the cover art.

Kevin sounds like a human being indeed.
He sounds plaintive and you can feel the heartache.

It's amazing this is your first production with an AI vocalist.
But we miss your voice

As always you presented a great BiaB band and wrapped it all in a fine mix.

Lastly, please stay around as you are missed!

J&B

Hi J&B

It's really good to see you again. Thanks for having a listen and for posting your thoughts. I appreciate it
Synth V is an awesome tool for creating music and I'm thoroughly enjoying playing around with it.
It has inspired me to get back into writing and arranging.
I'm looking forward to going where this software takes me!

All my very best wishes to you both,
--Noel

Noel,

Long time no see.
It's a very beautiful and slightly sad song.
You usually make upbeat songs, so it's a bit of a surprise.
Many members of this forum have started using synth vocals recently, and you've finally started using them.
Even if the same synth vocal is used, each person's characteristics seem to come out, and I think your Kevin is similar to your singing style.
Enjoyed my listen a lot.

Best regards.

Shigeki Adachi

Noel, this is tremendously beautiful.

Every part of this displays an emotion with both quality and strength. A fantastic arrangement, beautiful lyrics, sensational production.

And I feel that I understand the reasons for composing this beautiful song. A truly elegant masterpiece in more ways than one.

Trev

Hi again!

It's really great seeing that you are still on the forum and creating magnificent works. Honestly, I admire your abilities to compose music and to arrange music immensely. You are a highly talented man. I started getting interested in vocaloids because of your works many years ago. It was just recently that I heard Synth V and thought that it was worthwhile trying out. I am absolutely loving it. As Trevor (AudioTrack) has indicated, there is a story behind this song, and that's why it is on the sadder side of the entertainment spectrum.

I really look forward to hearing some more of your music.

All the very best,
--Noel

Hi Trev,

As always, it's great to see you

You are 100% right. I initially wrote this song in my mind as I travelled to and from work seven years after the death of my son. That was 2021. I haven't been able to sing it, though. Every time I tried, my emotions ended up getting the better of me. I have found that it's not true what people say: time doesn't heal. (Well it hasn't yet for me, at least, in this particular case.) What time has done for me is to help me grow around my loss and grief. This has then led to a change in perspective that has allowed me to incorporate what happened into my everyday life. My sense of loss is always simmering beneath the surface, though. When I discovered Kevin, it was just before what would have been my son's 42nd birthday. At last I had the means with which to finish this song. I felt really happy about that. As it turned out, this song was completed just in time to be a birthday present to my late son. I couldn't have done this without Synth V and Kevin.

I hope I haven't bored you with my story. I thought twice about writing this but then I realised that maybe there will be someone who reads this and for them, it will make a difference.

All the very best.
--Noel

Noel, you could never bore me, and I can genuinely say that sincerely on behalf of every member of these forums.

In a tiny and sensitive way I'm pleased that you found strength to discuss your loss and at the same time also delivered a beautiful dedication to your wonderful son. I truly hope that opening up and sharing could help you to better cope, even in the smallest way. There is a lot of sharing and caring happening on these pages.

Your tribute is truly amazing, and I can perfectly understand why your sought help from Synth V and Kevin.

Thanks for sharing. And that's a genuine thanks. Take care, stay safe, stay well, & keep delivering your amazing contributions to these forums.

Trev

Beautiful song! I'm a novice when it comes to listening to vocal synths, but this sounds amazing to me. Thanks for sharing!

Hi again

Thank you. I appreciate you kind words a great deal.

Regards,
--Noel

Hi Ron.

Thank you for dropping in and having a listen. I appreciate your positive feedback!

All the best,
--Noel

Oh my word. Kevin sings well, etc. ... but those LYRICS ... wow. And the musical writing (on top of the lyrics writing) is absolutely stunning. A little more, and you'll make me cry. Absolutely BRILLIANT song - and yes, well performed

B-R-A-V-O. A superb, superb effort, in every way.

EDIT: I never read the comments, before posting, so I'm not influenced by them. Anyway, after posting the above, just read some of them and found the reason for your song. Yes, I agree with you that time, at least at times, is not much of a "healer" ... but, my word, what a gift to your son. I'm, myself, in my early forties, now - so that kind of struck home a little, to understate things. Anyway: wonderful song, thank you SO much for sharing.

Hi James.

It's great to see that you are still on the BIAB forums. And thank you so much for taking time out to have a listen to my song. I really, really appreciate your positive feedback Thank you for taking the time to comment and to pass on your thoughts. They mean a lot to me.

May good things come your way!
--Noel

I never would have guessed that the voice is synthesized. This serves as a tribute to your far reaching production skills. It is also carefully written and truly enjoyable to listen to. All the best to you, Tom

Hi Tom.

Thanks for having a listen. Very much appreciated. And thanks for your comments, too.

All the very best,
--Noel

Noel,
It's great to se you posting! Wonderful that you found a way to finish your tunes. Excellent job of training robo singer, those voices do sound very realistic. I've heard this day posted, came back today for another spin. Great work on melody and production! Thank you for sharing.

Misha.

Hi Misha.

Thank you for passing through the thread. I appreciate your comments. I still have a long way to go before the robo singers are fully under my control. I'm starting to learn a few tricks of the trade now. These vocaloids are incredible.

All the very best,
--Noel

Love the vocal on this Noel. Really incredible technology. Well done

Hi Scott.

It's great to see you again. Thanks for dropping by and for you positive thoughts. I agree with you. This technology is truly incredible. Until I started playing around with Synthesizer V, I never realised just how realistic vocaloids have become.

Take care and all the best,
--Noel

Noel,

I agree with Floyd that it's hard to believe that you're just getting started using this technology! It sounds extremely realistic! In all fairness though, I feel you could have sung it just as well! I always enjoy your vocals and anything you post because it's always well done! It's a beautiful tune that fits my category of timeless! a great piece of music!

Thanks, T

Hi Torrey.

Thanks for the visit. And thanks for your comments, too. I appreciated them. I'm really enjoying playing around with Synth V and the vocaloids. Getting the best out of Synth V is a bit of a learning curve, but it's fun. It reminds me of my early days on BIAB when I was trying to learn how all the various things worked.

I hope that everything is travelling well for you.

All the best,
--Noel