Lost In Time

looking through some old photographs
you and me
still happy together
takes me back
to when you still loved me

on the beach
watching waves and holding hands
building castles made of sand

i lost track of the dreams
that didn't come true
you kept count of the times
when i disappointed you

in the end
i was crying all of the time
back when you were mine

in my dreams
i'm holding you close
thinking we are still together
whisper soft
you still love me

make believing
that somehow things were fine
back when you were mine

what became of those
two young kids of the beach
tried to make it
but love was somehow out of reach
my heart's still broken
by those things we'll never find
somewhere lost in time

i still mourning
all the dreams we left behind
somewhere lost in time
somewhere lost in time


Instruments
Bass, Electric, ClassicFunkRootFiveAlex Ev 130
Drums, FunkyGroove60s
Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm SoulJazzMike Ev 130
Piano, Acoustic, Rhthm PopUplift Held Ev16 120
Piano, Electric, HeldChords 120
Guitar, Acoustic, Strumming Ev 136
Guitar, 12 String Acoustic Fingerpicking Ev 120

Vocals: Synthesizer V, Eleanor Forte (Lite)
Cornet: Kontakt, The Trumpet


Effects Chains
Vocals: TR5 Sunset Sound Studio, GW VoiceCentric
Guitar: EZMix, TR5 Sunset Sound Studio
Drums: Neutron3, TrackSpacer, TR5 Sunset Sound Studio
Piano1: TrackSpacer, ReaEQ, TR5 Sunset Sound Studio
Piano2: EZMix, TR5 Sunset Sound Studio
Bass: Neutron3
12 String Guitar:
Electric Piano: ReEQ, PingPongPan
Cornet: ReaEQ, Raum, BlockFish
Master Buss: Ozone Imager, Lurssen Mastering Console


Blah Blah Blah
This started from the demo _STEPPIN Demo - Steppin' Even Soul Jazz w Piano. Once again I chose a song which didn't have an obvious chorus, and didn't structure the melody in a way that broke into a verse/chorus structure. Ooops. Seems I never learn. crazy

Once I had the chords worked out, I imported the backing track into the Synthesizer V Editor (I finally got around to purchasing it) and worked out an initial melody. Once that was in place, I decided add an instrumental break and a tag. That set up the basic song structure, and determined where the "hook" would go.

The phrase "Somewhere lost in time" fit nicely, so I started with that and worked backwards. I really didn't have a good idea where the song was going to go, so I wrote a bunch of stuff which didn't seem like it was going to fit.

I've set the overly-ambitious goal of a song a week (until I run out of steam). Over a week in, I had nothing more than a bunch of lyrics I didn't like, and not much else to show for it. Eventually just toughed it out and got first verse worked out. Lathe, rinse, repeat.

The entire process of songwriting for me is basically rewriting. A lot of things I was fond of came and went, either because it was to close to what I'd written in a prior song, or the words were hard to understand, or it didn't advance the story, or it didn't rhyme... the standard reasons for re-doing lyrics.

So much rewriting. I'd be in the middle of the mix, hear a line for the zillionth time, and figure out what I really should have written.

The nice thing about a synthetic vocalist is they don't complain when you keep rewriting. smile

When I finish the process, I'm mostly just happy that I got through another song, and the lingering suspicion that I accidentally wrote someone else's song I'd heard before.

I'd hoped to keep it 100% BiaB (out of laziness) but didn't find any instruments that I thought fit well, so I ended up playing the cornet part on my EWI. I was thinking of putting an alto sax on instead, but the break already had enough of a "Constant Craving" vibe. (Yeah, I know the instrument in that song is an accordion. It's still a reed instrument.)

I didn't add harmonies, mostly because the song didn't seem to call for it. I was going add some Ooohs and Aaaaahs from BiaB, but I couldn't find any that fit the tempo.

Because I had an "extra" week to work on the song, I figured I'd spend time trying to get a better performance. My goal wasn't to convince anyone they were listening to a real person, but remove things that made it obvious they weren't listening to a person. wink

Fortunately, there are a fair number of Synthesizer V songs on YouTube, with the actual song data being displayed as the song plays. So I've been able to pick up some techniques.

In terms of time spent, most of the time changing lyrics, and then on moving notes around, and then changing on tuning the phonemes. Adjusting the parameters was pretty straight-forward.

Then the mixing. Again, way too many iterations. But this time I actually checked out how it sounded in mono (less good than stereo, of course).


As always, comments of any sort are welcome! laugh

-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?