Let's Take A Walk Together
Let's take a walk together, we need to get away
You can tell me about the whatever
We can talk about your day

High above the rooftops the bright moon lights the way
The work will wait 'till later, but now put it away

   The stars look down and wonder where the lovers have all gone
   Come follow me and we can be the ones that they shine upon

Let's take a walk together just like the old folks do
We can take our time whenever
Hand in hand, just me and you

We're working for our future, but we never get away
Our work will be there later
Right now it's time to play

   The stars look down and wonder where the lovers have all gone
   Come follow me and we can be the ones that they shine upon

   Let me walk with you forever
   That's all it takes to make my dreams come true

   The stars look down and wonder where the lovers have all gone
   Come follow me and we can be the ones that they shine upon

   Let me walk with you forever
   That's all it takes for you to make my dreams come true

The Instruments
RealDrums NashvilleSwing8^2-a:Sidestick, HiHat , b:Snare, Ride
~528:Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking Hank Sw 120
~1679:Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking CountryBrent Sw 120
~1679:Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking CountryBrent Sw 120
4244:Bass, Electric, PopSwingBouncyAB Sw 120
~610:Mandolin, Rhythm Chop Sw 120
2121:Mandolin, Soloist CountryShuffleAndy Sw 120
2641:Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm FolkySwing Sw 110
2641:Piano (Holds), Acoustic, Rhythm FolkySwing Sw 110
~1112:Fiddle, Background CountrySwing Sw 110

The Effects Chain
Master Buss: Ozone Elements Folk()
Lead Vocal: SynthesizerV (Oscar), Vocflex (me), VoiceCentric (Lead Vocal Dry)
Backing Vocal 1: SynthesizerV (Kevin), VoiceCentric (Backing Vocal)
Backing Vocal 2: SynthesizerV (Kevin), Izotope Vocal Doubler, VoiceCentric (Backing Vocal)
Vocal FX: Fame Studio Chamber
Bass: Fame Studio (Bass)
Drums: CLA Drums (Room), Fame Studio (Drums)
Guitars: Fame Studio (Guitar)
Mandolins: Fame Studio (Guitar)
Piano: TrackSpacer, Fame Studio (Piano)
Fiddle: Fame Studio (Chamber)

TL;DR
As usual, any comments and suggestions are welcome. I'll often tinker with a song once it's posted, because BiaB and SynthesizerV make it relatively easy to do that.

The Gory Details
I haven't posted much for several months. It's not for lack of trying, it's just that none of my songs seemed to get past the initial stage. And then I finally got a new computer, and it took quite a bit of work to transfer all my libraries I had over to the new machine.

But really, Netflix is probably the worst timesink. "I'll work on a song just after I watch this..." and then midnight has come and gone.

I started by writing down some lyrics, just to make sure I wouldn't get stuck at the lyrics section like I did with the last few songs. The goal was to keep it simple - two verses, a bridge, a modulation, an instrumental, and then a recap of the first verse. I stuck mostly to that plan.

I found the style _BWSS110, which was more or less what I wanted. I put the chords in, created a backing track, and exported it to SynthesizerV.

I put together a melody in SynthesizerV. Using the guitar parts as a guide, I worked out something that fit. Since then, the backing has gone through numerous regenerations, so the connection isn't obvious. It's too bad, because it was pretty cool. That's what I get for not freezing tracks.

I then started fitting lyrics to the notes until I had something I though sounded like a first verse. I tried to get some alliteration and inner rhymes working were possible. My daughter complained that she could guess all the rhymes, but that's style appropriate.

A bit more work, and I got the second verse done. Hurrah! I went back into BiaB and put the song into the final form and added a transposition, and exported the backing track. Back in SynthesizerV, I put in the ending.

I then worked out the harmony parts. It's nothing terribly interesting - when it could, the harmony note mostly stays on a single pitch against a moving melody. There are few parts where the harmony does something interesting like falling suspensions, but I think they call too much attention, so it was simplified in a number of places.

I'd purchased Vocoflex some time ago, but wasn't able to use in real-time because my computer wasn't powerful enough. I used a vocal part I'd recorded of myself as input. I don't think the vocal sounds much like me at all - more like Glenn Tilbrook, but I'll take that as a win any day. laugh

It was then time to build a bit more of an arrangement. The first thing was to replace the bowed bass. I wanted something more bouncy and simple, and was too lazy to play it myself. I added a piano and mandolin to give some change to the instruments. There was a nice bounce to the track, and the "chop" mandolin helps emphasize on the chorus. I then went back and added automation where I wanted instruments to play, and where they should sit out. For example, the drums are turned down on the bridge, and the guitars are turned up to compensate.

I tried adding a MIDI instrumental, but it was late at night, and was having latency issues with the MIDI keyboard. Even after fixing that, what I played was pretty uninspiring. I generated a bunch of fiddle parts, but the bits that were generated weren't good, either. So I sliced-and-diced up the part until I had surprisingly good solo.

I then went back and adjusted the lyrics a bit, and worked on adding a bit more "snap" and space to the singing.

The whole process took about three or four days, and there was some back and forth in the process. For example, I'd be in the middle of the mix, and decide that I didn't like how something was phrased, and I'd go back and make changes to the lyrics. I put together the initial mix once the first verse got done, just to see what it would sound like. But it was mostly linear.

Edit: Edited the /aa/ in "rooftops", because it was a bit wonky. Made the cut at 2:37 B.D mentioned a bit less dramatic.

As floyd jane would say: Have at it!

-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

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