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O Come O Come Emmanuel

I’ve been very busy creating music and playing for my Church and daughter’s School. I am also working on some more original songs but in the meantime here is my version of a classic Christmas/Advent carol.

I provide music for my local Church and usually sing and play acoustic guitar accompanied by backing tracks (stored on a TCH Voicelive 3) which I mostly create in BIAB/Sonar. I made this song for a service at the end of November. The church version didn't have vocals on the backing track as I sing it live; just instruments with a guide melody on a VST flute so that the congregation know when to sing.

This is the first song I have recorded using my new mic (Audio Technica AT2035) and iZotope Neutron on the vocal tracks. Black Friday was busy and expensive for me this year! I’m now also tempted by BIAB 2017

The song was created in BIAB and then the MIDI was exported into Sonar. Here’s a summary of what I then added/changed/updated:

Vocals – I recorded the main vocal twice to create true doubling which I think sound better than FX double tracking. For the choruses I generated two tracks of harmonies. The first was 4 part higher register harmonies grouped around the centre of the stereo field (panned +/- 35). The second was a 4 part middle register grouped wider in the stereo field (+/- 80). Added a touch of echo on the last word of the last chorus (“Israel-el-el-el”).

Strings and Bass – Cello/Strings using Rapture.

Guitar – Sampletank 3 (Grace Nylon Pad).

Piano - Sampletank 3 (Grand piano 1).

Flute - Sampletank 3 (Flute).


****** Song Summary *************
Title: O Come O Come Emmanuel (Main)
Key=Em , Tempo 100, Length (m:s)=4:26
8 bar intro, 20 bar chorus, from bar 9 to bar 28. Repeat x5 choruses
Style is _CLAIRPS.STY (Celtic Air w/ Piano, Guitar, Str)

N.B. RTs not used in Sonar only MIDI
*******************

Lyrics:

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, Thou Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai's height,
In ancient times did'st give the Law,
In cloud, and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Enjoy!
Jez

nice work. You stuck pretty close to the classical approach for this tune.

One of my small group of holiday favorites.

Jez,

This is GORGEOUS!

The opening truly makes one "stand up and take notice". The vocal is beautiful. The strings perfectly woven in. The harmonies gave me chills (the good kind).

A stunning mix. Top-shelf sound (even out of computer speakers!).

One of the most impressive offerings on here in quite some time - that is saying a lot! You need to do an entire Christmas CD and sell 'em!!!

A big WOW.

fj

Very melodic

Very spiritual

You've demonstrated the versatility of BiaB even further.

This was an excellent carole Jez. Vocal and harmonies were awesome

WOW! This is so well done in every way! Love the vocal harmonies! And all of the instrumentation fits together like sound Legos!

I'm always a sucker for an unconventional approach to carols... but in this case I really like the use of a more traditional arrangement.

If my wife were still alive, she'd be pestering me to buy the whole album. She loved her Christmas music, and this is as good as anything in her huge collection!

Beautiful Man!! Gorgeous vocals!!!! Really loved this.

Great production!

This is lovely. Very lush background. Superb vocals and fine mix.

Did you write the vocal harmony arrangement?

For anyone wondering, the song is in public domain.

Thanks Herb, much appreciated. I didn't want to stray too far from the original song so that folks could still sing along.



Whoa Floyd, thank you so much! I really do appreciate your kind words.
A couple of people have asked me why I don't do a Christmas CD so I must try when I have time.

Once again a big thanks to you Floyd,

All the best,
Jez

Hi Receder, Wonderful work with the vocal on this! Very ethereal and spectral! - I will definitely be taking a page out of your production book for my own creations. Keep up the great work!

Thank you for taking the time to listen Videotrack.

Cheers,
Jez

Jez,

+ 1 to all the kudos above; close my eyes and I`m in a cathedral!

I especially enjoyed your choral approach to the vocals giving equal weight to each word. Beautiful production in every way.

Robert

Man.... this is gorgeous!
We hadn't heard this traditional before, but we got such a feeling that this version is better
As always the voices are beautifully and professionally arranged, your signature sound.
What else can we say, beautiful, beautiful!

Rob and Anne-Marie

Jez, this was absolutely fantastic! This traditional work couldn't have been done any better in my opinion. The vocals were beautiful! Great job! Torrey

Hauntingly beautiful... One of my favorite carols, and so well done!

Thanks a lot Scott. Appreciate you taking the time to listen and comment.



Thank you so much Pat. I'm pleased that it reminded you of your wife's collection of Christmas music.
The instrumentation was fairly straightforward thanks to BIAB - I pretty much used the MIDI as is from BIAB. Then it was a case of finding suitable VST instruments that fitted the music and balancing everything. The vocal parts were more labour intensive but it was a labour of love

Thanks again guys,
Jez

Very, very good! The vocals are just fabulous, what a sound! Thanks for the detailed description of how you achieved that too, I have taken notes!

Beautifully done in every way! Loved it.

Hello, Jez

Very beautiful Christmas song!
Very pleasant vocals and harmonies.
As Robert said, I also especially enjoyed your choral approach.
Beautiful production in every way.
Strings and Bass – Cello/Strings using Rapture are also very beautiful.
Enjoyed my listen a lot.

Best Regards.

Shigeki Adachi

Jez,

You deserve all the superb reviews you have received for this.
Stunning.

Peter