On The Wings Of Love
Every night, city lights call out to us
The spotlight shines as we both take our places

The curtains rise and we stand together
Once again the we play our parts with burning hearts

You want to live in this world forever
Like the sun you're shining bright
Letting go, you spread your wings and take flight

You want to ride on the wind forever
Soaring high, forever young
Your dreams are songs that were never sung

    Let's fly together
    Aim for the moon and the stars high in skies above
    on the wings of love

In endless flight, like satellites,
we circle round, falling down
entangled in our gravity

Just you and me, we can't break free
But why would we?
Here with you is the only place i want to be

I want to be in your world forever,
every day and every night
Side by side, we'll catch the wind and take flight

We're gonna ride on the wind forever
In the sky, forever young
Our dreams are songs that have just begun

We're gonna last forever
Cause nothing can stand in our way

    Let's fly together to every star in the sky high up above
    on the wings of love

Edit 1: I went back and replaced the bass part. It's not as nicely played as BiaB does it, but hopefully it meshes a bit better with the other tracks.

Instruments and Effects

RealTracks
1749:Synth, Rhythm ModernDancePopOctave16thsA-B Ev 120
629:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm PopAmericanDirty Ev 120
1744:Synth, Rhythm ModernDancePopRaveDrops Ev 120
RealDrums, ModernDancePop^16-a:Snare, Bass , b:Bass, Cymbal

Master Buss: Hornet 32Mk II, Fame Studio Reverb, Lurssen Mastering Console (Pop Rock, Warmer)
Lead Vocal: SynthesizerV (Saros), Hornet Sleek, Greg Wells VoiceCentric (Collar Grab Vocal), LX480 (Joe C Vocal Plate), Waves Doubler
Bass: Ibanez GIO, EZMix2 (Bass 2)
BiaB Drums: Chris Lord Alge Drums (Room)
MIDI Drums 1: Addictive Drums (Farifax Vol. 2, Big OH and Room)
MIDI Drums 2: UJAM Phat (mixed really low)
Percussion: UJAM Groovemate One (Pop Standard)
BiaB Guitar: Trackspacer, Panagment 2
BiaB Synth1: Trackspacer, Panagment 2
MIDI Picked Electric Guitar: Indiginus Generation (Clean Twin)
MIDI Picked Acoustic Guitar: Indiginus Renegade Acoustic
MIDI Strummed Guitar 1: Native Instruments Electric Vintage
MIDI Strummed Guitar 2: Native Instruments Electric Mint
String Runs: Red Room Audio Palette Arps And Runs (Strings)
Strings: Red Room Audio Palette Primary Colors

The Boring Details
TL;DR: All comments are appreciated. laugh

I'd been intending to do something outside my wheelhouse for some time - a poppy dance song. I found the DANCERK.STY demo. I playing around with the chords until I had something that wasn't a total copy of the demo. wink

I used Saros on the vocal, but I've got mixed feelings about him. He's got a high level of energy, but when he's belting a song out, he can he a bit... much. I originally, had the song in D, shifted it up A as a better register, moved it down to G so he wouldn't be so tiring on the ears, and ended up in F to bring him a bit lower, with the final modulation to G.

As usual, the lyrics were a struggle for me. Finally, I just threw in dummy lyrics to get something written, and after listening through them a couple of times, decided they were 80% good enough. I continued to tweak the lyrics as I worked on other aspects of the song. I realize that I'm overusing the word "forever", and I've traded in a solid rhyme scheme for inner rhymes. I wouldn't be surprised if I decided to make changes later on.

I'd had the string runs library for a while now, and kept intending to use them... eventually. I think they work nicely here. The other string parts are pretty simple - just glue to the runs, and a bit of filler.

I tried adding some harmonies, but it didn't really seem to work. I tried auto-generating harmonies with BiaB, but that was a disaster, because there are lots of jazzy chords that change early and often. So it's basically a solo.

The mix lacked variety, which I expected from choosing a style that was already full with only few instruments. I added some MIDI rhythm guitars, which seemed to punch things up a bit. Changing to fingerpicked guitars (technically, they are strummed, but whatever) on the bridge added some additional contrast.

I thought could alternate between the BiaB track and a basic drum track. There was a sale on an inexpensive Linn Drum library, so spent money and I was pretty happy with it, until I had my son listen to the mix, and they pointed out the places where my drum part was fighting against the BiaB drum. sigh.

They suggested I could try leaning into the EDM sound, but that would mean having to listen to EDM, That required more effort than I willing to make. That wasn't going to happen, because I knew the vocal part would then have to be changed.

And rather than do that, I decided to find another drum track.

After lots of experimentation, I eventually went with the Fairfax Volume 2 kit in Addictive Drums, which I think added a lot of punch and had the vintage sound I was looking for.

Then I played around with the balance of the instruments and figured... good enough for now. wink

But it's probably not, so feel free to offer suggestions and critiques. At least I remembered to add a modulation at the end this time!

-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

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