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Right After The Rainverse 1sad eyes at the window
looking at the rain
taillights fade into darkness
heading far away
you would have known he was leaving
if you believed the signs
but you were in love
and love is blind
love is so blindchorus look past the pain, you'll see it
right after the rain, believe it
life goes on
keep holding on
you're gonna
see a new dayverse 2the sunrise in the window
and still your mind replays
last night over and over
trapped inside a maze
you wonder how he could leave you
you feel so all alone
you wish you could run
but where would you go?
there's nowhere to gobridgethere's no good reason why
just wave those dreams goodbye
tomorrow will come and then
you'll be ready to start againrepeat verseInstruments and EffectsMain Buss EZMix3 (Pop Master Modern EZ) HoRNet ThirtyOne MK2 GW MixCentric Kramer Tape Stereo Lead Vocal: SynthesizerV (Oscar 2) Vocal Rider GW VoiceCentric (Natural Vocal Mix + Delay) Rev Plate-140 High Vocal Harmony: SynthesizerV (Etta) GW VoiceCentric (Backing Vocals) Rev Plate-140 Low Vocal Harmony: SynthesizerV (Hayen 2) GW VoiceCentric (Backing Vocals) Rev Plate-140 Piano/Held Piano: MIDI Acoustic Piano (1) TrackSpacer (ducking lead vocal) Guitar 1: 625:Guitar, Acoustic, Strumming Rascal Sw 075 Guitar 1 Holds: UFX Reverb (Warm) Guitar 2: 4198:Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking SongwriterGentleFolkRock Ev 100 UFX Reverb (Plate + Delay) Bass: MIDI Finger Electric Bass (34) Modo Bass (60s P Bass, Fingerstyle) Drums: MIDI NashvilleSwing16^4-a:HiHat, Sidestick , b:Snare, Hihat Addictive Drums 2 (United Pop/Fat Sound) El. Piano: MIDI Acoustic Piano (1) The Famous E (Wide Ballad Chorus) Fingerpicked Guitar: Hoard Picked Acoustic The StoryTL;DR: All comments welcome!  Edit: Yes, they are synthetic voices, so feel free to complain and motivate me to sing! They were done in SynthesizerV, so I still wrote all the notes and harmonies. If it helps, think of this as a demo (although I'm unlikely to do a different version). After taking way too long to get started on a new song, I finally gave up on waiting for inspiration to strike and picked a demo track like I usually do. This time around, it was AGRASCL. I figured that instead of trying to come up with some clever chord progression, I'd stick with simple I/IV/V chords, and made a point of not having any Maj7 chords. Then I went back and added in a bunch of Maj7 chords to the chorus, because they sound great.  I thought I'd go for something in my wheelhouse - a 70's sounding track, middle of the road pop. Maybe an "America" (the band) sort of sound. As usual, do not listen to while operating heavy machinery. I then exported the backing track as a .wav, and loaded it into SynthV. I drew out the melody for the verse and chorus in the piano roll, making sure that they sounded different. Hopefully the chorus sounds like a chorus. Time for some lyrics! As usual, it was a struggle to come up with anything. I pretended I was facing a real deadline, and typed and typed until eventually I put down words that rhymed. Yay! This wasn't going to be a some with some heavy message. The chorus doesn't explicitly mention them, but if you were wondering what you see after the rain... yeah, it's rainbows. I'd hoped to blend some ideas about surviving an emotional flood - you know, Noah's ark and such - into the song, but the lyrics refused to play ball. But at least I got some alliteration in. And yes, I rhymed "on" with "on". Sue me. Maybe I'll rewrite the line Keep holding on to The storm is gone or something. The synth singers won't complain. About this time, it became clear that the bridge was going to make more sense after the secondverse, so I moved it there. That's usually where it goes anyway, but up to that point I wasn't exactly sure what the song's form was going to be. Sometimes that bit just morphs into an instrumental, and sometimes I need a third verse. But with the song's slow tempo, there was only room for two verses. Yay - even less lyrics to write. The second verse was a bit of a problem. I really wanted to make that Noah's ark connection, with a dove flying over the receding waters looking for dry land, but it wasn't happening. As it is, there's this time jump, and who is this omniscient narrator, anyway? I suppose it's the person talking to themselves. Yeah, that's the ticket. What really irritated me was using the word "leave" in the first and second verse. Yeah, "you" appears a bunch of times in the second verse, but it's a different kind of repetition. That's that's the lie I'm telling myself, anyway. Predicatibly, the lyrics for the bridge was also a struggle. It turns out that some words don't have a lot rhymes, and those were the ones I chose to use. Kudos to all you folk who can crank out lyrics, my hat's off to you! Once the lyrics were finished, it was time to go back to Band in a Box and export the tracks into my DAW. I had a couple guitar RealTracks that I tried out, but they didn't really work. I made a version of the song with held chords, and exported those tracks as well. I noticed there were a couple of MIDI tracks in the style, so I exported those as well. I ended up replacing the bass and drums with MIDI bass and drums. I also used the MIDI piano tracks for the electric piano, simplifying it a bit. All the MIDI tracks got edited a bit, so the introduction was less busy, and the bass hits some parts I wanted to emphasize. I also fiddled with the vocals, bouncing back and forth between SynthV and my DAW. I also heavily edited the syllables to make sure they vocals were level, and edited all the plosives and sibilants. I added Vocal Rider to the track for good measure. Does it work? Am I releasing it too soon? Or just overthinking things? The heck if I know. As usual, all comments are welcome!
-- 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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I am so impressed with this track. I can't say that it's the best you've ever done (because I haven't heard them all!), but it is quite possibly the best song of yours I've heard so far.
Lyrics: tick
Band: tick
Mix: tick
Production: tick
Vocals: tick (because even though they were synthetic, they were well chosen and carried the song well).
ProTools; Ableton Live Lite; Reaper
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 MK4 interface
Novation Launchkey 61 Mk4 midi controller
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David,
Your productions are always amazing and filled with inspiration. Incredible work...
Loved it!
Bob
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Haha. You can't go wrong with Maj7. When I first read you weren't going to use them, I say aloud, "Noooo, David."
Man, this is a good song. Good job on the vocals too. I'm not sure how hard that part is, but this sounds perfect. Excellent mix and you brought in the Goldilocks band. Inspiring work, David.
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I think it's a very good production and your mastery of Syntesizer V is excellent. Well done!
Laurent
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Hi, Brian. I am so impressed with this track. I can't say that it's the best you've ever done (because I haven't heard them all!), but it is quite possibly the best song of yours I've heard so far. Thanks! Sometimes I can't tell if a song is done, or I'm just tired of working on it.  Vocals: tick (because even though they were synthetic, they were well chosen and carried the song well). Thanks for that! I keep promising myself that eventually I'll start singing again, and each time I think "I'll do it on the next song." I appreciate you listening and commenting.
-- 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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Hi, Bob. Your productions are always amazing and filled with inspiration. Incredible work... Thanks! I remember starting out with a 4 track cassette player, a cheap drum machine, and a nylon string guitar. That's something that you could use to excellent results. I'm just happy I've got to tools that let me get close to some of those sounds I love so much.  Thanks for stopping to comment!
-- 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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Hi, Marty. Haha. You can't go wrong with Maj7. When I first read you weren't going to use them, I say aloud, "Noooo, David." Apparently, the smarter half of my brain said that as well. Man, this is a good song. Good job on the vocals too. I'm not sure how hard that part is, but this sounds perfect. Excellent mix and you brought in the Goldilocks band. There's a new feature in SynthV where you can turn a dial and convert a single singer into a group. It's the same singer, but with variations, so it's super-easy to create a large backing group. I had a lot of fun with that feature. I just found out that SynthV now has a set of "choral" voices. I don't know that I need that, but it's tempting. Thanks for stopping by to listen and comment!
-- 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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Hi, Laurent. I think it's a very good production and your mastery of Syntesizer V is excellent. Well done! Thanks!
-- 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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Hi David!
A second listen allowed me to get a glimpse of all small touches here and there that add to this song. I particularly like the touches at the end of the verses (where the holds are). This song could easily be used in a TV series or the credit roll on a Hallmark movie - and I mean this in the best sense - heartwarming.
I like the Nashville Swing drums, and would have preferred a touch more bass volume and movement in the chorus - but that’s me.
I think we need to start two forum petitions:
1. David to sing
2. Write without maj7 chords
A lot of effort has gone into this song, as evidenced by your extensive (liked by me) write up.
Well done and enjoyed it.
Andrew
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Nicely done, David! Cool song. I really like the arrangement, and especially the vocal arrangement. Think you nailed the America-style BGV/harmony approach and they give the song a nice lift. Nicely mixed, too. Thanks as always for the production notes, though you doth protest too much based on the outcome. You've done a nice job with the synth vocals, but it would be cool to hear you take the lead, too. Maybe next time.
DC Ron
BiaB Audiophile
Presonus Studio One
ASUS I9-12900K DAW, 32 GB RAM
Presonus Faderport 16
Too many guitars (is that a thing?)
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Hi, Andrew. A second listen allowed me to get a glimpse of all small touches here and there that add to this song. I particularly like the touches at the end of the verses (where the holds are). This song could easily be used in a TV series or the credit roll on a Hallmark movie - and I mean this in the best sense - heartwarming. Thanks! I like the Nashville Swing drums, and would have preferred a touch more bass volume and movement in the chorus - but that’s me. I was too lazy to mess with the bass other than on the verse, but I'll take a look. I'll also boost the bass when my computer's audio stops misbehaving. I think we need to start two forum petitions:
1. David to sing
2. Write without maj7 chords Heh. Be careful what you ask for! A lot of effort has gone into this song, as evidenced by your extensive (liked by me) write up. Weirdly, every time I sit down to write a song, it feels like I have to re-learn everything from scratch. Like, "How do you write lyrics?" because my mind draws a blank. Well done and enjoyed it. Thanks!
-- 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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Hi, Ron. Nicely done, David! Cool song. I really like the arrangement, and especially the vocal arrangement. Think you nailed the America-style BGV/harmony approach and they give the song a nice lift. Nicely mixed, too. I'm glad to hear it! Sometimes I work with the song so long, I can't really hear it any more, so to speak. Thanks as always for the production notes, though you doth protest too much based on the outcome. You've done a nice job with the synth vocals, but it would be cool to hear you take the lead, too. Maybe next time. It may sound like I'm fishing for compliments, but I'm not kidding - sometimes it's hard to tell. My kids will listen and say "It's fine" and go back to playing Animal Crossing or watching Once Upon A Time. And I know better than to ask my wife, because our musical tastes are different. I think just about every songwriter (other than J&B) on the forum know that story. I think this song goes up to a high "E", and that's stretching it for me. I can usually hit a high "D" (fairly reliably thanks to Melodyne) but any higher than that during the winter is really pushing things! But hopefully I can shame myself into it. Thanks again!
-- 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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Hi David. I really enjoyed listening. Your production notes are extremely thorough and very informative. I always find it a pleasure to listen to your work and discover the journey that you took to get to the final product. You have a very extensive knowledge across a great deal of areas. Similar to what you said about AGRASCL, I also sometimes begin a song by finding a style that I like and using ideas from a chord progression for the demo of that style. In fact, with the song I'm currently working on, I did exactly that. Your lyrics were great. Because you mentioned about rhyming 'on' with 'on', I want to let you know that that whole sequence of lyrics that you've labeled "chorus" sat really comfortably with me. look past the pain, you'll see it
right after the rain, believe it
life goes on
keep holding on
you're gonna
see a new day In this sequence, you have 'pain' and 'rain' rhyming as well as 'see it' and believe it'. Since these rhymes happen in quick succession, it's actually creates a good aural effect when you get to "life goes on, keep holding on". No obvious end rhyme is needed. The sonic connection of the repeated "on" works well. It sets up the last phrase "you're gonna see a new day" really nicely. Honestly, you don't need to change a thing. That said, if you wanted to create a further sonic connection, you could add "bold" before "new day". This would work as it links back to "holding". As I said at the start, I really enjoyed listening --Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Hi Dave,
I always enjoy reading your stories about the songs you've created. You always describe your challenges as if they were voyages of discovery.
I think you had to make even more adventurous choices in this story than in the previous one, but I'm not sure anymore. I enjoy all your stories.
And about the song itself: it's a beautiful song with some really good duets in the AI vocals. Fantastic. The melody is also very nice, the instruments all sound clear. I do have some reservations about the kick drum, but that's not the point.
I'd like to mention one "but":
When I hear the song (I don't mean the – good – lyrics), I picture a happy, laughing couple, madly in love, in spring, among the beautiful flowers and the birds darting around them. There's nothing wrong with that, just a little too sweet for my taste. Nothing unexpected happens, while with a title like "After the Rain," I'd expect exciting twists and turns.
Well, nobody always gets what they want.
Hans
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