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Hi, It's been a while since I've posted a song. Unfortunately, this year has taken me away from music for a bit. Hopefully, that's all past now! I wrote this song a few years ago. Just recently, I thought I'd revisit it and apply some of the song-writing and lyric-writing strategies that I've learnt during the years since I first put this together. The song was written in BIAB. Additional RTs were added in Realband. The vocals and the final mix were compiled in Reaper. I also used iZotope Nectar and Ozone to polish the vocals and mix respectively. Please feel free to be critical about any aspect of the song. Thank you for listening. Noel FLY, ANGEL, FLY
Once upon a moonlit winter's night, near Bethlehem
Shepherd men were out in the fields, watching the sheep
They were standing in the starlight laughing and telling stories
When the sky began to glow and they saw what few have seen
The men stopped and they stared
An angel was there
Gliding down from high
CHORUS
Fly, angel, fly
Messenger on wings
Carrying the words of the Lord
Fly, angel, fly
Such happy news to bring
That Jesus is born
"Do not be afraid of who I am," the angel said
"The Lord has sent me down to earth, to bring you the news
"Wrapped up in a cloth and lying in a manger, in Bethlehem
"A baby has been born, a saviour born for you"
And as the blessed one spoke
All Heaven awoke
Glory filled the sky
CHORUS
A thousand angels were everywhere
The sound of Hallelujah echoed through the sky
CHORUS
Jesus is born
Jesus is born
© 2014 Noel Adams. Words and music. All rights reserved
After I posted this song, there were forum members who expressed an interest in knowing more about some construction aspects - lyics, arrangement, music, etc. I thought I'd post those answers in a separate document. Here's that document. - Link to some notes about the song (pdf)
BIAB STUFF1603: Bass, Electric, Pop16ths Ev 110 1610: Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm Pop16 Ev16 110 1607: Guitar, Electric, Rhythm Pop16thsGritty Ev16 110 1606: Guitar, Acoustic, Strumming Pop16ths Ev16 110 671: Organ, B3, Background Southern Ev 120 RealDrums: NashvilleEven16^6-a:Snare, HiHat , b:Snare, HiHat Open
Last edited by Noel96; 12/11/14 02:48 AM.
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Noel,
A very well-written Christmas song! I could see this becoming a new classic. (Big Choir kind)... Seldom do you hear newly written Christmas songs that seem like they could "make it". This one has a chance... What an incredible thing THAT would be!
Nice use of a piano RT to give this real energy. The opening is quite nice - using just rhythm tracks to create an "opening feel" - did you have to "build" that? (I played it several times in a row, I liked it so much)
The piano interlude (solo/notes) going into the second verse... sweet - is that an additional RT? or did you play that?
And the piano chording going into the second chorus... did that "just happen" in the RT? or did you do something to make that happen????? (Super!!!)
The organ is a nice addition (RT?). And the bells (nice touch) where are they from?
Excellent mix. Solid, snappy drums. The bass is perfect. The piano centered (I believe) the way it should be (I think) - and loud and proud! Great vocal - sung like you mean it! I would have liked a "bigger reverb" for this particular song - but that is a personal preference.
A lot of care was taken in this production and mix - and it shows...
You need to take this recording to a church choir somewhere to record BIG, BIG background vocals!!! I hear it...I'm getting chills just considering that....
This is Top Notch.
(Great to see you "back"!!!)
floyd
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Love this one Noel. Hope you are well. I still don't know how you people manage to hold on, being all the way on the bottom of the planet and all.  "A thousand angels were everywhere The sound of Hallelujah echoed through the sky" Very nice imagery. Regards, Bob
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Nice work.... yup, I like it
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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YAYY! Noel is posting again! Great to see you back...especially with a Christmas song! My first observation is about the confidence in your singing! When you first started posting several years ago, your singing was much more tentative... but this is strong, confident, and intonation is spot on... a remarkable voice! You are a guy who develops holistically. Some of us focus on one aspect of our delivery, but you have continually honed every aspect of your presentation... and you are SCARY good! There are probably people who don't like Christmas carols in general, and specifically songs in which Jesus is mentioned.. but I'm not one of them. I totally buy into the theme you are developing here, and I appreciate that you haven't been intimidated out of writing it. Knowing how much thought you put into your lyrics, I paid special attention to them... but I know there's no way I see all the subtle additions that you put in place for very specific reasons.. so I'm hoping you'll elaborate a little on your lyric writing decisions. The main thing I notice is your use of loose rhymes, which I suppose is done to keep a more natural choice of words (as opposed to forcing a better rhyme that ends up sounding contrived) Whether or not that was your intent, I did notice how easily the message flowed with common language. What I listen for more than anything is the music. In my opinion, not all music that is theoretically correct sounds good. But as Floyd pointed out (and I agree) there are several things about this selection of real tracks that worked out a LOT better than one can expect from a simple generation of a set of chords. Either you got phenomenally lucky, or you put a lot of effort into finding snippets that really maximize the effect you're trying to get. And then there are the tweaks.. it sounds to me as though there is good use of pushes throughout the song. One of the problems with automated compositions is the way all of the instruments uniformly follow the chord sheet. Pushes break that up and add what might be called "cadence dynamics" (I just made that up, so bear with me). Bottom line, you ended up with a very live sounding composition as a result of all the techniques you've used here. Yeah, the bell... you GOTTA have a bell in a Christmas carol! But what's cool is that you have a good feel for "just enough". Each of the instruments flows in and out of the mix very transparently... I didn't consciously note that was happening. In fact, it's a challenge to use this many tracks without getting too busy, but you did an amazing job of keeping that quality of "just enough" at every point in the song. The intro was also very nice.. it caught my attention right away and set my expectations for a very good listen There's so much to say, but I may as well stop now that it's only three times too long. Four times too long is just unacceptable.  Thanks for coming back to please your friends with one more song! We've missed you!
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Such an excellent write, arrangement and production. Everything fits in place. As Floyd states, a wonderful song that could become a classic in its on right and I think it would sound great done by a choir. Thanks for posting and Merry Christmas.
Charlie
BIAB 2025:RB 2025, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.
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Nice song Noel, well written with a nice melody line and great mix as well.
Pity we can't have a listen to your song as well in our local shopping malls. By Christmas time we'll be fed up listening to Lennon and Yono's War is over.
All the best Noel
Musiclover
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Noel, Glad you're back around. This is a terrific write. Love the chord progression. Your voice is in excellent shape on this one. The arrangement is top shelf. The bells and the organ were great additions near the end. Clearly a lot of tweaking went on here and the end result is marvelous. I also would love to hear the big choir. It's not easy to write a memorable Christmas song, but you have done just that. Going back for another listen. All the best, Tom
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Hi Noel, Such an excellent write, arrangement and production. Everything fits in place. As Floyd states, a wonderful song that could become a classic in its on right and I think it would sound great done by a choir. Thanks for posting and Merry Christmas.
Nice to have you back. Guenter
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Hi, Noel !:))
I am so glad for you
posting again Noel !:))
and what a song......!!!!
This is my favorite
Noelsong for now !
Take care Noel and have
yourself a Most Peaceful
and Comforting Christmas
as well as a Really Creative
Musicfilled Year 2015 !!!!
Cheers
Dani
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Loved your song. Lyrics, singing, harmonies and playing were very well done. Piano was a very cool track...
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Please feel free to be critical about any aspect of the song.
Hello Noel96. I like songs about Jesus so this impressed me. The songs is well edited and balanced. One thing that does come across is the vocals didn't seem to blend in with the music as well as it possibly could? To me it needs a tad more reverb as it sounds "dry", just to seat the vocals back in the mix rather than sounding like karaoke (singing on top of the music). I find this a challenge when I make my songs - I don't think I've got it right on my latest song? I liked the chorus harmony and the Christmas bells! When I post my songs I'd like more honesty and critique so I can improve rather than lots of "likes" (which is obviously nice) so I hope you don't mind what I've posted. It's in the interest of positive feedback from my point of view of course. Unless you like the mix, then please ignore my comments Great song. Godbless Paul
Last edited by PaulH; 12/09/14 11:02 AM.
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Hi Noel. All sounds thoroughly professional to me!
You certainly know what you're doing!
Christmas cheers.
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Nice song Noel!! Haven't seen a post from you in a while, and I miss reading your thoughtful comments. This is a really cool Xmas song-I love the story and never tire of hearing it in a different way. Good to have you back. Great work. Particularly loved the vocals and mix on this one! Take care. Greg
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Hi Noel! Excellent song! WOW! That about says it all. Josie
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No-el, No-el, Sounds good to me, I am not one for traditional Christmas songs but I can see the appeal of this one. My dear departed Dad would have LOVED this and joined in with his idea of harmony  I like the lead sheet in all your songs as I can read the notes whilst listening, it would be nice to have a left hand as well  . I enjoy reading musical scores and getting the piece in my head The Xmas song I have done this year is miles away from this traditional masterpiece! Alyn
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Please feel free to be critical about any aspect of the song.
When I post my songs I'd like more honesty and critique so I can improve rather than lots of "likes" (which is obviously nice) so I hope you don't mind what I've posted. It's in the interest of positive feedback from my point of view of course. Unless you like the mix, then please ignore my comments (Sorry for temporarily hijacking your thread Noel!) this topic comes up now and then, and it has validity. So does the topic of kindness, and understanding that we are all at different stages in the learning process. By analogy, a 4th grader's composition shouldn't be graded by the same standards as a grad student's... but it SHOULD be graded appropriately for the student's stage of learning. There have been several times when songs were posted with the verbal permission to offer comments, then the person got hurt feelings over some of the comments. As a general rule, honest comments on what we like about songs (while omitting honest comments about what we don't like) "sort of" fulfills the honesty requirement and the kindness requirement. This forum differs from most other song writer forums in that it is an exceptionally kind and affirming environment. I hope that never changes. HOWEVER.... For those who want brutal honesty (and some folks do) the intro to their songs should specifically request that. Asking for honest comments is not the same thing. Saying that again for clarity: Anybody who wants brutal honesty about their song should add this phrase in their song intro: "PLEASE EVALUATE MY SONG WITH BRUTAL HONESTY" and you will get it. If you still want it the next time you present a song, say so again. (We now return to the regularly scheduled program)
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The ability to write a relatively new song that sounds
like a classic is, indeed, admirable.
"They were standing in the starlight
laughing and telling stories"
That line really stood out for us becauseI don't recall
any Christmas songs where the shepherds were given
this touch of simple humanity, i.e., laughing and
telling stories.
Your vocal is strong and sits so well in the mix. And the
mix....it's so easy to overlook a GOOD mix like this because
it's doing what it's supposed to do. Counter-intuitively
it seems only the not so good ones tend to jump out at you.
Everything sits where it should on the soundstage and
when things step to the front they do it gracefully.
This is a tune that I will definitely pass on to friends and
family over the next couple of weeks.
J&B
PS Dittos on floyd's notion of hearing this in a big choir context!
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos
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Hey floyd,
Thank you for taking time out to have a listen. As always, I appreciate your comments.
When I put the song together, I set out to create a choral sound just like you did when you re-invented "Wait And See" for me. I couldn't get it to work properly for me so, in the end, I settled for minimalistic on the choral front.
The organ is a Realtrack. I forgot to include it in the original list of tracks. I've fixed that up now. As for the bell, that's the VSC/DXi soft-synth playing a tubular bell note "A". Because I have a 32-bit system, I can still run this software.
Interestingly, I played around a good deal with reverb. I find it the most difficult effect to work with. Just before I rendered the song for uploading, I brought the reverb back a bit. You've now got me wondering if I should have left it. I'll pop back to the mix in a few days and see how it sounds.
Believe it or not, the intro 90% happened during one of the regenerations in BIAB. I saved the tracks as soon as I stumbled across it and then massaged it a bit for a better fit.
In relation to the piano fill leading into verse 2, it's actually a midi piano and the fill was devised by the midi soloist function. Because this is not a function that's talked about much these days, I thought I might write up how I used the midi soloist in detail so that others can try it out if they want. That information will soon be in a pdf that will be linked to the "About the song's construction" link in the original post.
Thanks heaps for all your ideas. You always make me smile as well as give me lots of good food for thought.
All the best,
Noel
P.S. You, Paul and Mario all suggested that reverb was too dry on the lead vocal. As a consequence, I've boosted it a smidgeon. I don't know if you'll notice the difference but now that I listen to it, it does sound better.
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Hi Bob, Thanks for the good wishes. We wear seat belts down here and that helps to keep us attached to good old Earth. But you're right, it's a risky business being part of the underworld  It's great to see you in the Users Showcase. I know there are a couple of your songs that I haven't yet heard. Rest assured that I'll be hunting through the older posts and finding them. It's very daunting to be so far behind! I appreciate your positive comments regarding "Fly Angel Fly". All the best, Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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