In this post DeaconBlues explained how he had seen a post on Reddit by someone called Meg who had a recording of her gran singing a song that the gran and her sister wrote for the soldiers in WW2. Meg’s gran unfortunately passed away earlier this year. Meg wanted to somehow create a song using the clip and asked for help on Reddit. Deacon saw the post and asked the PG Music community for help.
Charlie Fogle offered to clean up the clip which he then sent to me. I imported the clip into Melodyne and did a little tuning and tried to quantize it. I then created a MIDI file of the vocal and printed out the sheet music. I then harmonized the melody with some chords and typed them into BIAB. I then found a suitable style and imported the audio clip into BIAB to make sure everything lined up.
I then tried to generate some harmonies and to record myself singing along with nana. This was wholly unsuccessful as the key did not suit my voice and I could not easily replicate nana’s timing. I then decided to modulate to a key that suited my voice better and sung two rounds of the lyrics in my key. I found one phrase of nana’s that could fit in the new key so I added that in to the second round.
I then contacted Meg and asked for some photos of nana that she kindly sent me. I downloaded some other video footage for the Department of Defence website and put together the video.
Meg is delighted and is going to share it with her family when they celebrate a late Christmas get together in January.
Thanks to Deacon, Meg and Charlie for helping to bring this one together. Comments are as always appreciated.
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Lyrics: we gotta destination the land of tokyo we gotta destination so come on boys lets go we gotta journey before us every man and every gun we wont return from that journey until our job is done
off we go we're going to tokyo to face the rising sun off we go we're going to tokyo so grab your gun my son
we dont care how much they threat or scare for that is why we're going there so grab your gun my son my son and I'll meet you over there
Someone must be cutting onions in here, because I'm tearing up watching this.
**Editing to add: I was so excited to put down my thoughts and what I (correctly) guessed the process to be, I had not actually read at that point Joanne's notes that basically already mentioned the same things!. Oh well, I took all the time to type it out so I'm gonna keep it posted anyway. **
Joanne, I cannot begin to express the admiration and respect I am feeling towards you right now. However, as this is the user showcase forum, for the moment I will focus on the sheer brilliance and creative ingenuity that went into the production of this track.
For you folks that need a little context, I refer you to the link Joanne included in her post. The short version is that Meg had a little snippet of a recording of a song her Nana wrote with her sister for the soldiers in WWII. Nana had just passed away after succumbing to dementia, and the idea was to convert this snippet of a recording into a full-on song, with fragments of her Nana's singing incorporated into that song.
Now here's the thing. Said snippet was obtained by Meg years back, it was likely recorded on a cellphone, and there was no adherence to tempo or key. Indeed, at the beginning of the recording you can hear someone prompting Nana to sing. Nana is asking "What, now," and you then hear "Yes, now." That's it. And then you hear an elderly lady singing a song from her past. It's poignant and almost eerie, but technically polished it isn't.
Enter Charlie Fogle and Joanne Cooper. They cleaned up the audio, stretched it out, did all sorts of technical magicry using BIAB and other software, and got the snippet tamed and compatible with a melodic structure.
But this is only the beginning. Let's turn our attention to the track itself.
Given Nana's advanced age when this was recorded, the pitch of her voice was orders of magnitude lower than Ms. Cooper's mellifluous pipes (we're talking Leonard Cohen low). So how was Joanne to have them both sing on the same track given the monumental disparity in their respective vocal ranges?
Allow me to direct your attention to 0:56 in the track. Up until now, Nana's had the floor. (Incidentally, the way Joanne incorporated the beginning of the recording--where Nana is being prompted to sing, is stunningly poignant in its own right, but I digress).
Back to 0:56. Nana has sung, and now it's time for Joanne to give this tribute an angel's wings. A trio of chords smoothly modulates the arrangement into a different key where Joanne take it away. That, good folks, is sheer genius!
But it doesn't end there.
You see, Joanne is not content to simply confine Nana to the head of the song and leave at that. Joanne wants to trade phrases with Nana call-and-response style. What's that, you say? Nana's no longer with us? Hah! Joanne sneers at Death.
Between approx 1:55 and 2:10 Joanne creates a bridge in the song, (you could also say a "bridge" between the living and the dead if you want to get all poetic about it!), where Joanne sings the high part (the "call") and Nana's super-low voice is heard to sing the low part (the "response.") perfectly in key. I would not be at all surprised if Joanne's choice of that particular key she modulated the song into at 0:56 was chosen precisely for that bridge.
There is so much more I could say, and have yet to say, about this but I have other matters to attend to (work mainly ). Thanks a million for everything Joanne and Charlie!
Last edited by DeaconBlues09; 12/06/1702:41 AM.
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Everyone involved in this should take a bow ... or two. This is simply wonderful. Standing "O"! Not sure what else to say. What a treat! god Bless and merry Christmas,
You've become a forensic scientist of music Joanne. Thank you for a sneak peek into the past. Rob.
Love that description!
What a wonderful story and project.
It takes a special person to take on a task like this.
Thanks for caring.
J&B
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Joanne & Charlie, This would be powerful even without the backstory. The techniques you used to create this are almost as impressive as your selflessness in taking it on! An amazing project that will no doubt be treasured by Nana`s family.
DeaconBlues - Thank YOU for putting this whole thing together. Your getting it going in the first place was very generous.
Don - Your ongoing support is always appreciated.
Floyd - yes, I hope they will like what we have done, thanks.
Scott - Thank you. I think it is honoruable what Meg wanted to do with this clip.
Greg - The back story is nice. Thank you.
Sinbad - Thanks for listening and commenting.
Rob - Forensic scientist! Thank you. I am trying hard to brush up on my music theory (including sight reading as well as playing by ear) so it is starting to bear fruit that I could figure out how to harmonize this tune.
Rich - Thanks. It keeps me out of trouble!
Al - no other words necessary. Thank you!
Janice and Bud - I appreciate it. Thank you.
Robert - I am sure it will be treasured. Thanks
Sergio - Thanks for listening and for taking the time to comment.
Joanne, this is absolutely marvelous. I'm sure it has exceeded the wildest dreams that Nana's family could have hoped for with the original recording they had. Now her song can last forever. I'm amazed that you were able to do so well with the audio I sent to you. It sits well in the mix and sounds very clear.
The outcome of the video and audio both are at a very professional level.
Nana's photos in the video really bring the emotions of the time home.
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** 
). Thanks a million for everything Joanne and Charlie! 
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