Hello everyone,

This is our new song:

The Road video

soundcloud.com/r-am-music/the-road]The Road high definition audio (link no longer valid)

The song was composed in SongSmith and then transferred to BIAB.
(the Brandy style is compatible with both).
We think this one has an REM touch to it but we will let you decide

Let us know what you think!

Regards,
R & AM

Song specifics:

Key=Am , Tempo 120, Length (m:s)=3:18
Style is BRANDY.STY (Brandy - Top 40 16th arps.)
PianoCustom Synth is Synth/Plugin Loaded
SoloistCustom Synth is Synth/Plugin Loaded
Style MIDI Instruments are : Finger Electric Bass (34), Acoustic Piano (1), Orchestral Strings (47), Synth Strings 2 (52),
MIDI SuperTracks in song: 1887:Piano, Solo-Accompaniment CountryPopJohn Ev 085
RealTracks in song: 1256:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm PopShiningGritty Ev 120
RealTracks in song: 1540:Guitar, Electric, Soloist PopBelieve Ev16 065
RealDrums in Song: Soul70sEv16^1-a:ClsdHHtSn, b:BusyBss


Lyrics:

The Road

This is the road to everything I knew
Memories stained and branded, always you
And some may feel that, love that, fear that, hate that,
This is the road to everything I found

And when the love you had's gone stale
That's when your emptiness prevails, leaves you longing

This is the road to everyone who cared
Slipping through my fingers, lost in time
The ringing in my years tells me
Feelings never last
The movie in reverse shows the weary future past

And when the love you had's gone stale
That's when your emptiness prevails, leaves you longing

This is the road to everything I knew
Memories stained and branded, forever you
And some may feel that, love that, fear that, hate that,
This is the road to everything I know
Everything I know

R&AM,
There's a lot to like in this song. Strong vocal performance and effects. Nice RT guitar. Thanks for posting.
SD

I like that driving beat and the phasey effect on the vocals is nice. Just enough of whatever it is. I think it would also be good in the Heavy Metal Style with the modes you are using. Of course you'd have to update the video to add some bikers (motorcyclist) and black leather. All kidding aside, this is another excellent production.

This is a great song! I like the beat, rhythms, and vocals. The vocal delays were perfect for this song. You voice was perfect for this also.

I agree that it has a touch of REM in there.

Thank you SpaceDog,

much appreciated!

Regards,
Rob

Cool tune!! I think the music works very well with the haunting lyrics. Great production-everything fits as usual. Another great effort!! Take care. Greg

Thank you Patrick!

The main effects on the vocals are:
the built in Cubase flanger and a delay.
The Brandy style is a cool style, it also sounds very nice in Songsmith.

regards,
Rob

Hi Mario,

Thank you! Good to hear you like the delay effect on the vocal (I was slightly worried it was a little bit too much).
In addition to my response to Patrick:
the delay used here is the free Classic Delay Vst.
Unlike many other free Delays this one pretty much maintains the quality of the audio.
In case you're interested, this is the link:

Classic Delay Vst

regards,
Rob

Liked this tune. Good production and effects and I really think the video was top notch. I had not heard of Songsmith before so I looked it up and assume you are using the Microsoft Research software program. Downloaded the free trial to experiment with.

I'm looking forward to your next submission.


Charlie

Like the effect during your falsetto part, nice performance and mix. the guitar solo is outstanding; thanks for sharing!

Thank you Robert,

always appreciated!

Regards,
Rob

Hi Charlie,

Thanks! Yes, Songsmith is a very useful addition to band in a box. It's great for new song ideas. Most of the styles are compatible with band in a box
so you can simply copy all biab styles to the Songsmith styles folder.
Then do a quick check on which ones work, and which ones don't.
Some styles even sound better in Songsmith, the float style for example which I used in 'For love'.

Regards,
Rob

Very cool..... the falsetto parts reminded me a bit of Roy Orbison's stuff. Very nice work.

Rob and Anne-Marie,

Another beautiful song! Terrific lyric! - you write as if English were your first language - that in itself is truly amazing. As someone else said, "Haunting...."

A seamless combination of instruments. A perfect blend.

The vocal effects work nicely. But it is your vocal and harmony that REALLY shine in this one. A top-notch performance - such that the vocal becomes an instrument unto itself, perfectly blended with the rest of the production. Excellent!

A delightful listen! And a terrific video (watched it after listening to the soundcloud version). Did you create the footage? or is it stock from somewhere? Did you add the effects?

floyd

Hi Herb,

well, being a Roy Orbison fan myself (his song Mystery Girl is fantastic!), I take that as a big compliment.
Thank you!

Regards,
Rob

Hi Floyd,

Thank you! English has always been my favorite second language, and Anne-Marie used to be a teacher, also in English. So that's quite a help in writing lyrics.
The video was royalty-free stock. But we added some filters to it, now it's virtually unrecognizable.

Regards,
Rob

Hi Anne-Marie and Rob,

your vocals and harmonies are really great. Excellent production. Like the lead guitar.

Guenter

Yep, I do hear the REM touch. What we really like:

- The write
- The vocals (cool falsetto)
- The arrangement and choice of RT's
- The mix
- The drum sound
- The very "high bar" video

Our nits:
-
-
-

Great production you all. Keep 'em coming!

Rob and Anne Marie,

Great performace and video, both of you sound and blend so well together.

Very interesting about songsmith as well, thank you for letting us know about that.

I can just imagine you playing out in front of an audience in a club doing this particular song.

Well done.
Musiclover

Hi Guenter,

Thank you, much appreciated!

Regards,
Rob

Hi Janice & Bud,

Thank you! We really appreciate your support.
About the drums, now that you mention it, it does actually has a nice 'dry' sound. Funny that the program makes it possible to mix a 70s soul drum with an, otherwise, totally different arrangement.

Regards,
Rob

Rob and Anne Marie,

+1 to what floyd jane says.

I would never say on listening to your songs that English is not your main language. Wonderful.

The solo is perfect!!!
The Harmonies fit so well.

Not so much REM but RAM (Rob, Anne Marie)

wonderful

Alyn

Hi Ron & Anne-Marie, Got Songsmith downloaded and began playing around with it some last night. Wife heard me doing all a capella vocals (I was using headphones and making nonsense rhymes), she came around to check out what I was up too. High jacked it from me and she stayed in the program till bedtime. Yikes, I may have unleashed the next Lady Gaga !


Thanks for sharing this part of your workflow.


Charlie

Hi Rob and Anne Marie
Loved the song. The vocals were perfect and the video was interesting (although I did feel a little car sick after a while....lol). The guitar solo really caught my attention. Good job

Hi Alyn,

thank you! Well, while singing it may not be obvious, but when I'm using English in conversation, it is
Can do some practicing on this, we're going to London for a couple of days next week.
Yes we also very much like the soloist. Gives a sense of speed in the song.

Regards,
Rob and Anne-Marie

Haha, well we like to hear the results sometime!
The program itself has some limitations though, it doesn't always accurately follow your voice. On the other hand, this is also an upside. This way you will get surprising results.
Playing acoustic guitar notes into the microphone, instead of singing, may give better results.
Here's another cheat: play whatever well-known song, and hold the microphone in front of the speakers. Since it won't accurately reproduce all the chords, you will get another chord progression which can be a good start for a new song.

regards,
Rob

Hi Greg,

Thanks for your support!
Always appreciated.

Regards,
Rob and Anne-Marie

Hi Musiclover,

Thank you!
We're planning on singing The Road on our next gig.
We don't have many though, it's not so easy to get gigs in Holland.

Regards,
R & AM

Hi Joanne,

Thanks!
We must admit, that while we were busy editing the video we had to stop from time to time .
We played it backwards at half speed. Can you image how we felt, haha.

Regards,
R & AM

R & M,

I scrolled up the video and just listened after a bit because it was making me dizzy - I'll bet you did have a time editing this one. LOL!

Enjoyed the song very much. Nice delay on your vocal too for that little extra dreaminess like your voice was fading back into the road behind.


Josie

Thanks Josie,

Rest assured ...our next video will be much calmer and more relaxing

Regards,
Rob and Anne-Marie

Hi, Rob and Anne-Marie !


I also liked your tune and performance
very much ! Professional work all through !:))


Cheers
Dani

Hi Dani,

Thank you!
Your support is always appreciated.

Regards,
Rob