Sleepwalking

i'm lost in a hazy dream
passing places so familiar
but i've never seen

travelling by night
follow your light
upside down, inside out,
in between

like a puppet on a string
or a caged bird that sings
i am helpess and held in your sway

i wait for you
to give me some clue
sleepwalking,
sleepwalking away

Effects
Master Buss: HoRNet ThirtyOneMK2, Lurssen Matering Console (Classical (Warmer))
Lead Vocal: Curves Equator, Al Schmidt (Vocal)
Solo Flugelhorn: Kontact (Sketches of Flugelhorn), Sunset Sound (Plate 1)
Bass: Al Schmitt (Bass)
Drums: Al Schmitt (Drums)
Piano: Al Schmitt (Piano)
String Quartet: Ambiante (Recording Studio 1), Trackspacer, Al Schimtt (Strings), Abbey Road Plates (Lush Strings)
Background Vocals: Sunset Sound (Live Room/Studio 1), Sunset Sound (Plate 2)

Instruments
~2316:Bass, Acoustic, JazzWaltzSlowRonA-B Sw 085
~2322:Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm JazzWaltzSlowKenny Sw 085
~~4475:Piano, Acoustic, Soloist JazzWaltzSlowRH Sw 085
4639:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm VintageCountryWaltzTremolo Sw 085
JazzWaltzLewis^01-a:Brushes, Snare , b:Brushes, Busy Snare

Synth V Vocals
Lead Vocal: Danny
Male Vocals: An Xiao 2, Danny, Feng Yi 2, Liam, Ryo 2, Saros II, Oscar
Female Vocals: Weina 2, Natalie, Quing Su, Solaria, Sheena, Felicia

Background
Half the year's almost gone, and I hadn't written anything, so I decided it was time I sat down and did something.

I found the _JWLZBPW.STY, which I though sounded pretty cool. I figured that I should at least make some changes to the chord progression, so that's what I did. Don't listen too closely, because there are a lot of questionable harmony choices.

I exported a backing track and imported it into SynthesizerV. I picked Danny as the lead vocalist because I'd bought it a couple months ago, and hadn't used it yet.

The song didn't really have a verse/chorus feel, so don't expect to find a strong chorus, or any chorus, for that matter. I figured an instrumental in the middle would help to break things up. It had a sleepy sort of vibe, which explains the lyrics.

I added a string quartet, because those are always fun. I exported the chords from BiaB and imported them into MuseScore. In the Tools menu I used the Realize Chord Symbols[b] to automatically fill the chords into the piano staff. I then chose [b]Explode to fill in the string quartet staves. I adjusted the notes so they were in the correct range, and then spent a couple hours fiddling with the notes to make them sound like they were sort of coherent. There's a lot of chromatic movement, so it's got a very "oily" sort of feel in parts.

I duplicated the vocal and moved the notes to make harmonies. SynthesizerV has an option where you can "thicken" a melody. I then "exploded" those and assigned a bunch of different voices to them, so they'd sound a bit more choral.

I was going to play the solo part with my EWI, but I couldn't find the right USB cable, so I used the Sketches of Flugelhorn VSTi and drew into the piano roll in my DAW.

I chose a bunch of VSTs that would hopefully give it a vintage flavor, and here it is, ready for your ears. wink

Comments of any sorts are welcome - there's a good chance I'll still fiddle around with this.

Last edited by dcuny; 3 hours ago.
-- David Cuny

My virtual singer development blog
Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?

BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.