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I put this song together a little while ago. I had been reading my way through some poetry, looking for lyric inspiration, when I stumbled across Elizabeth Barrett Browning's 19th-century works. It was her poem called "How Do I Love Thee?" that was the basis of this creation. If you are interested in reading Barrett Bowning's sonnet, it can be found at this link: How Do I Love Thee? (poem) This arrangement is a simple production with just two guitars and a shaker. The vocals are by Synthesizer V using the vocaloid, Natalie. ♫ How Do I Love Thee?(lyrics on Soundcloud)I hope you enjoy listening. Please feel free to comment on any aspect of the song and its production. --Noel BIAB Band• First guitar: Realtracks 364 Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking Ev 065 • Second guitar: MG Soft Acoustic Guitar (MIDI), from Spitfire, using a MIDI chord track generated by BIAB. • RealDrums: AfucheShakerEv8[single]_SingleRender • Vocals: Synth V with Natalie Production• The song was assembled in Reaper. • The BIAB guitar was processed with Linear Phase Multiband Compressor (LinMB) from Waves. • Vocals were processed using Nectar 2 (iZotope) • Final production was polished with Ozone 10 (iZotope)
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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This is a small masterpiece, no doubt about that. So, so beautiful. Simple, pared back arrangement ... I would not change a thing. So good to see you on here again, and hear that you're still creating, and listen to the results of your work. You have a certain empathy and compassion with the human condition in all of the songs I have heard from you, so far, so please don't ever stop writing. This one eludes analysis, at least for me, so just listen, everyone ... a beautiful, heartfelt piece. Bravo.
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Noel, gorgeous piece. Lovely acoustic backdrop and Natalie sounds very sweet. Reminds me of the stark beauty of many Leonard Cohen compositions. And you can't have a better collaborator that EBB! Really love this. 
DC Ron
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Noel,
This is an absolutely stunning piece. Like a beautiful melodic dream...
You have created something very special here. The tracks you have selected and the production work completely matches the overall mood and emotional depth of the song.
Great to hear your excellent music on the forum again.
Bob
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Cool idea, Noel, and well done. The arrangement is perfect for this beautiful poem. The accompaniment stays out of the way of the vocal and lets the lyrics shine. Great job on the synth voice. I'm not sure how hard that is, but I've heard wonky ones before, and this one is Goldiocks good.
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Perfect in its simplicity. Love it ![[Linked Image - Only viewable when logged in]](https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/images/icons/default/thumbs_up.gif)
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I love how you used simple guitar arrangements to complement the lyrics, and the addition of the shaker gives it a nice, subtle rhythm. The vocals by Synthesizer V are also really impressive! It's cool to see how you blended poetry with modern production tools like Reaper and iZotope.
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Wonderful work Noel.
I did wonder, in a few spots, if a real voice would have the puff to get through the lines but multitracking facilitates that these days.
Everything to love about this from the choice of text through the gentle support of the backing to the excellent work with the synth vocal, tone, phrasing and treatment.
Cheers
rayc
"What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe
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Wow Noel, this is beautiful!
What a great idea and what a gorgeous sound!
Did you do something to add effects to the Natalie vocals? They sounded a little more "warm" than some other uses I have heard here, in a good way. Maybe it is the range you chose. Just wondering.
Anyway I really loved this. Great production and mix.
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Hi, Noel. Natalie sounds good here, and the setting keeps the focus on the words. There were a few long phrases were I wanted to breathe for Natalie for fear that's she'd collapse for lack of breath...  Very pretty. Setting poetry is tough, and this works well!
-- David Cuny My virtual singer development blogVocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
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This is a small masterpiece, no doubt about that. So, so beautiful. Simple, pared back arrangement ... I would not change a thing. So good to see you on here again, and hear that you're still creating, and listen to the results of your work. You have a certain empathy and compassion with the human condition in all of the songs I have heard from you, so far, so please don't ever stop writing. This one eludes analysis, at least for me, so just listen, everyone ... a beautiful, heartfelt piece. Bravo. Hi James. It's great to see you. Thank you so much for taking the time to have a listen and to comment. I appreciate it I haven't done as much songwriting as I would have liked in the last three or four years because life has gotten in the way. Every now and then, though, I try to put something together. I'm glad you liked this one. I actually thought of you a number of times when I was writing this, because I know how you sometimes like to take existing works and use them as a springboard for your own creations. Thank you again, --Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Ah, one of favorite poems. You fit the melody well to the sonnet. The sparse instrumentation works so well here. Synth voice sounds quite good.
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Surprisingly, amazingly sweet and good!
Some favourite Waoist Adages:
#1: Play on the Way.
#13: Ask not for whom the flower blooms, it blooms for you.
#58: Bring consciousness to it.
#63: On the road to effortlessness, effort must be made.
#92: Be Love Now, the rest will come on its own.
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Noel, gorgeous piece. Lovely acoustic backdrop and Natalie sounds very sweet. Reminds me of the stark beauty of many Leonard Cohen compositions. And you can't have a better collaborator that EBB! Really love this. Hi Ron, Thanks for the visit and for taking time to have a listen. I appreciate your thoughts. The first verse of my song keeps the first few lines of the poem intact. After that, I used her snippets of her words and ideas to create the remaining two verses and the bridge. If hadn't occurred to me before, but EBB's poem does have a tone that hints of Cohen in this musical setting. And you're right! She was a wonderful collaborator Thanks for again for popping in! --Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Noel,
This is an absolutely stunning piece. Like a beautiful melodic dream...
You have created something very special here. The tracks you have selected and the production work completely matches the overall mood and emotional depth of the song.
Great to hear your excellent music on the forum again.
Bob Hi Bob. It's good to see you. Thank you for dropping in. And thank you, too, for your comments. I really appreciate them. I spent a lot of time creating the backing. It was my first time working with the MIDI MG Acoustic guitar. It's quite an amazing instrument and I wanted to get it sounding as real as possible. All the best! --Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Cool idea, Noel, and well done. The arrangement is perfect for this beautiful poem. The accompaniment stays out of the way of the vocal and lets the lyrics shine. Great job on the synth voice. I'm not sure how hard that is, but I've heard wonky ones before, and this one is Goldiocks good. Hi Marty. Thanks for jumping into my thread And thanks, too, for taking time to listen and to comment. I love that phrase "Goldilocks good". I wish I had thought of it. When it comes to shaping vocal realism, I spend quite a bit of time on it. To begin with, I notate my melody so that it is a reasonable representation of how I would sing the words. I then use that MIDI notation as the melody that I attach the Synth V voice to. Synth V actually has a function that records a user singing, and the software then converts the singing to a MIDI file with note-based lyrics. Although I've never tried it, I'm guessing that using Synth V's approach is a much quicker way of getting melody and lyrics into Synth V. Once that's done, and a voice is assigned to the MIDI track, the vocals sound okay (overall) but need a bit of timing adjustment to enhance the realism. The thing with human singers is that people do not sing with millisecond accuracy. Loosening the timing of notes so that some are a few milliseconds early and some are a few milliseconds late does wonders to help with realism. This can be incorporated with some syncopation where a singer sings deliberately early or late by fractions of a beat. Once that's done, everything is set to go. Honestly, I like tinkering with Synth V's vocals. I find it fun. All the best and thanks again for taking the time to visit and comment. --Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Noel, this is an outstanding song
A fantastic backing band - brilliant - it is just perfect for the vocal
Super synth vocal
Mixed to perfection
Loved it.
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Noel,
I love this tune . . . so, so sweet. You’ve done a great job with the AI vocal . . . but what really gets me is that melody accompanied by those beautiful lyrics (“twinkling like fireflies as though it’s us they celebrate” . . . brilliant!).
Dang, this is really, really good! Wonderfully done!
My humble regards to you,
Deej
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Lovely, beautiful song - with your trademarks of recognizable melodiousness and positive lyrics that combine the original poem and your vision into a touching piece "free from earthly chains". Natalie interprets your "voice" gently, great work to get the melody flow so naturally. An interesting coincidence: I had a dream recently where a young woman was playing an acoustic guitar and singing "in eternity" and I've been trying to figure out the rest of the theme. Your song nicely captures one aspect of it, now I have to find another angle Janne
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