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Time

There is time and there is time
until the coming of the day
time to sail upon ocean
time to let it slip away

There is time for me
and all my friends
no matter how I've grown;
time for wishing on the starry sky
and forgetting what I've known

There's Mister Allistacious
he knows just what to say
He dreams to fill the nighttime
and he listens in the day.
But if there's something he's discovered,
well he's kept it to himself
with all these childhood friends I've got here
sitting on my shelf

Here's Ollie Uncle Elephant,
he's heard all that I've said
and the whispers from my yesterdays
dance inside his sawdust head

For there is time for me
and all my friends
no matter how I've grown
Time for wishing on the starry sky
and forgetting what I've known

There is time for me
and all my friends
no matter how I've grown
time for wishing on the starry sky
and forgetting what I've known

Instruments/Effects
Lead Vocal: SynthV (Natalie) -> Greg Wells VoiceCentric (Lead), LX40 Essentials, Panagement, vocal buss
Backing Vocal: SynthV (Qing Su) -> Greg Wells VoiceCentric (Backing Vocal), Panagement, vocal buss
Backing Vocal: SynthV (Hayden) -> Greg Wells VoiceCentric (Backing Vocal), Panagement, vocal buss
Backing Vocal: SynthV (Kevin) -> Greg Wells VoiceCentric (Backing Vocal), Panagement, vocal buss
Master Buss: HorNeT ThirtyOne MkII, Lurssen (Pop Rock, Warmer)
Reverb Buss: LX 480 Essentials (960 Vocal Plate)
Bass: BiaB, ~2482:Bass, Acoustic, Bowed Held Ev 085
Ac. Gtr x2: BiaB, 1595:Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking Pop8thsSteady Ev 065 -> Panagement (Heaven)
Synth Strings: BiaB, from PJONI.STY -> TrackSpacer, Panagement, Raum (Airy)
Drums: NashPopBallad^03 -> Panagement (Wood)
Violin: SampleModeling Strings, Violin -> Reverb Buss
Viola: SampleModelingStrings, Viola -> Reverb Buss
Cello: SampleModeling Strings, Cello -> Reverb Buss
English Horn: SWAM Woodwinds, English Horn -> Panagement, Reverb Buss
Solo Violin: SampleModeling Strings -> Pangement, Reverb Buss
Celeste: CineSamples, Mister Rogers' Celeste -> Panagement, Reverb Buss
Music Box: Orange Tree Samples, TinyBox -> Panagement, Reverb Buss
Rhodes Piano: The Famous E Electric Piano (Angela) -> Reverb Buss
Tremelo Strings: LA Sessions, Studio Violins (Swells long) -> Reverb Buss


The Story
This is a song I wrote over 30 years ago, semi-inspired by Tom Waits' Time. I made a couple recent attempts to record it, but my voice isn't up to the task.

I decided to have a go at it with SynthV. I'd envisioned it with a male lead, but I auditioned all the voices I had, and Natalie sounds great.

After rendering out the song in BiaB, I imported it into SynthV and worked out the notes. I'd already had the lyrics, so that part was - for once - simple.

Once that was done, I decided to try out some harmonies, so I've got Kevin, Hayden and Weina on the background vocals. I ended up shuffling some of the sections around.

The piano part was very MIDI-ish, so I ended up redoing that myself on a sampled Rhades piano. There's a string pad already, but I thought it might be nice to have a string trio, so I played that using SWAM instruments my EWI.

The extra instruments are playing "gestures" more than melody, and my daughter complained that it needed more melody. So I added a SWAM english horn, also using the EWI.

There's a spot for an instrumental, which after trying various instruments went to the cornet... also played on the EWI.

The music box/celeste was a last minute addition, as the introduction wasn't really working that well. I'd gotten the Mister Rodger's Celeste some time ago, and it's got a lovely sound. I'm glad I finally got a chance to use it.

I added a bit of tremelo string swells, and thought I'd call it a day.

Then my daughter complained that the english horn after the instrumental didn't really fit... something I'd been hoping could slide by. So chopped out half the instrumental so it merged into the chorus, and repeated the chorus. It was something I'd arrived at by accident, but intended to do from the start. So after a bunch of cutting and pasting and making a general mess of things, I think I've got a final version of the song.

The mix might be a little hot, I've been playing around with various mastering effects.

And yeah... I really need to work on coming up with better song titles.

My wife says that the cornet is too much of a "jump scare" and suggested I use a violin instead, even though there's already a violin in the mix. No doubt my schmaltzy playing doesn't help.

Edit: I replaced the cornet solo with a violin, which works much better. I've also replaced the SWAM solo strings with SampleModeling strings, as they are a less synthetic.

As usual, any feedback is welcome. I'll probably continue to tweak this as time goes on.