Alan, so sorry for your losses. That's a lot to handle. Hope you're taking a little time for your own recovery, as hard as that must seem. Cool re-post. You definitely captured that Benson thang. Love the musicality of the performance you arranged and that bass player. Crisp mix, too. Good to see you back! Know we're pulling for you and here if you need any support. Take care, my friend!
Hey Sol! Good song and I love those strings and the cameo of the BVs right towards the end! Do you have a 'you and BIAB' version that you'd be willing to share? I'd be interested to contrast the original vs the Suno. Don't go to any effort if you haven't got one, or would prefer not to. In any case, a wonderful song you've written here and I would venture to say it's a classic for its genre! Andrew
Hi Andrew. You know, I never meant to put the Suno version on this forum. This is the BIAB version.........which I like, but I think Suno makes it better. I don't know how to remove the Suno version. Glad you like the song.
I personally find the category filter to be a complete waste of time. There's a few ways you could do this with user categories but I don't know of a way to have it load as a default list. Not too terrible, just means that every time you use the style picker, you then have to select a user category. First clear the filter in the style picker and then save it as a user category. This will give you a complete style list which you can then remove individual styles with a right click "remove highlighted style from current user category". Another thing that you can do which can be another handy way to organise things is to save the style list to clipboard. This will create a tab delimited file showing all columns. For example, you could create a list that shows ONLY a specific genre as it's labelled in the style picker - something the category filter does not do. Let's say I only want styles in the genre that is actually labelled as "medium rock". Open the delimited file in Excel or whatever, sort by genre and then on the left column you will have all the 8char file names. Copy them to a TXT file named "medium rock" and save in folder bb\Data\StylePicker\User Categories. At the very top of the text file put "MEMO=Medium Rock" (without the quotes). This will now show up as a user category.
Hey, Ron, Another ace job! You are so talented. I got a strong Gary Lewis and the Playboys vibe as I listened. And for me, that's a good thing! This is one of your best vocals - spot on. Just more proof here, that you never disappoint! Best to you, Alan
Marty ... That walking 4/4 bass drives this so perfectly. great lyric, arrangement, a presentation. That lead guitar by Dave kills it! And Bill sounded terrific, too. I think this is one of your best vocals - sounds great. Your songs are always worth the time to listen. Great work! For sure! Alan
B,D ... The song about not making sense makes a lot of sense. The lyrics tell the truth. And the fragility of the vocalis perfect for the message. You always do great work - no exception here. Really nice! Alan
Noel, You always give great music to listen to. I really enjoy this one ... soft and gentle. And the synth vocal is very expressive. This has you written all over it. what a gorgeous listen. I really enjoyed that 1 - 3 - 4 - 2 progression. It has such a captivating sound. Excellent! Alan
John, My first time listening to you. Nice work! Quirky humor, which I always enjoy. I'm not a wine drinker - although a cold Bud Light once in a while is okay. But if wine drinking results in this., maybe I should rethink that. I've passed through Yucaipa a couple of times - lived in Bakersfield in the 90s. But I once dated the city manager of Moreno Valley. That's pretty close. Anyway, enjoyed your song a lot. Thanks for a terrific listen, Alan
Hey, Mario, For a minute, I thought I was back in Germany, where I lived twelve years. I always love clicking onto your songs because I never know what to expect but know I won't be disappointed. Cool song - funny as heck. Take cre, Alan
Carl, As always, another masterpiece from you. such a nice, even flow of listening pleasure. You never fail to impress with your skills. what a delight for the ears! Take care, Alan
It's a slow and frustrating process but it's not A.I. and, given that tempo and feel change often in most recording that aren't locked to a click or MIDI etc it's an acceptably tedious process. I use it when I have to - stuff from the 80s mostly when I had a drum machine with wandering speed/tempo - I've had success with it but had to "do the work". Chord recognition - well it depends on the clarity and accuracy of the chords played. Sometimes just using a split bass track is a good starting point for me.
Well, Andrew, I have read a few accounts that Gerry was locked in a hideous record deal and "Baker Street" was a story about breaking away from that. I don't know who came up with the idea of the percussion stick. It sounds as if it was a very poor way of saying "this is where a drum kit should be." I doubt that was the intention but still a bad idea. John
Yes because this tool works off of phonics You can transcend languages.
Unlike Vocaloid, which tried to be language neutral by recording international phonemes, SynthV records voice providers in their native language, with their regional dialect. More simply said, SynthV voices are not language neutral. Dreamtonics uses AI to convert the voices from one language to another via a process called "cross lingual synthesis", but accents still can come through. I find that Japanese often retains a bit of an accent when converted into English, especially for phonemes that require tongue thrusts. YMMV.
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The other thing that you need to realize is that choirs are not going to have voices that stand out. They went to a lot of work to make the voices blend.
Yes, but how choral vs. soloistic depends on who they recorded and how they sang. My impression is that the English voices seem to be a bit more less homogeneous than the others, but that may just be that I don't pick up on Chinese or Japanese that well. That is, I think the non-English voices sound a bit less choral than the others. But I'll have a chance to test that out next week.
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It's more of a question of does it sound like a choir or not. Remember you can test them all and I think you have till the end of February.
Sorry to butt in :blush The easiest way to duck guitar with vox using Reaper, which I know you use, is to use the Reaper ReaComp plugin as the last effect on your guitar track. Feed it via the side chain input (3/4) from the vocal track. And then adjust the Threshold to get the level you want. Much faster than using automation. I learned how to do it from a Kenny Gioia video many years ago. Set up the compressor similar to this: (image attached)
Thanks Dave! I watched this video from Kenny Gioia's Reaper Mania and as I sometimes use Cakewalk Sonar, I also watched this video from Mike at Creative Sauce and applied the ReaComp compressor to the guitar triggered by the main vocal through channel 3/4. I didn't know this existed prior to this week, and I can see it will be a handy technique to use from time-to-time. #lifelonglearning
Originally Posted by DC Ron
Andrew, love the groovy thang you have goin' on here. That opening guitar section is superb. Love the guitar-driven overall sound, too. Great vocals, and I'd agree that the gentle double tracking suits you very well. Great arrangement, and the bridge is quite tasty indeed. Yes, heavier, but still catchy and cool.
Thanks Ron. When first starting the mix, I had the RealStyle going straight through and thought "Nah - that's too much of the same". So I hunted for a couple of different guitar RealTracks and used those, but with the 3729:Guitar, Electric, Soloist GrungePopGritty providing continuity. However, it was this track that was too conflicted with the main vocal which I have recently ducked. I love doubled vocals (and sometimes tripled), but like sugar, I musn't overdo it. Glad you liked the song - thanks for listening!
Originally Posted by Torrey Bliss
You definitely achieved a "heavy" sound here and it sounds great to me! Very clever lyric writing! My favorite part of the song is the chorus section which uses a wonderful melodic structure supported by the perfect sync basslines and guitars moving around it all! Great song! Well done! TB
Hi Torrey! Thanks for the 'thumbs up' for the lyrics - it's the part that I least enjoy writing, although sometimes can produce quite rewarding results.
Originally Posted by WaoBand
Totally agree with the song's sentiments - on social media I've been writing essays on the subject for awhile now, when usually I write about spirituality and evolving consciousness - plus you've got a great chord structure for it, but I agree with Dave in that I find the rhythm section too crowded.
Thanks Chay - yes many of us becoming disenfranchised with wealth inequality - well I never was enfranchised. I'm hoping this topic gains traction with the masses as it is a global problem. Re the rhythm section, hopefully my latest change has gone some way towards addressing that. However, I also recognise that this genre is often 'busy' so I wanted to find a balance there.
Originally Posted by John Walradt
Terrific gritty rockin' tune, Andrew! I did something like that with a Twisted Sister feel which I'll post sometime...a Democrat theme called "Ride the Wave" a couple years before our disastrous election. It was unlike anything else I had done. It's fun to get into something different every so often. You broke out of your usual in a great way.
Thanks John - I agree! It's good to venture outside of our normal. I've definitely learned a few things with this genre. Hopefully, you'll be able to pull out your song at your mid-terms and 'Ride the wave' again!
Originally Posted by jannesan
From 60's pop to 90's grunge, you have quite a musical range :smile I enjoyed this heavier song, nice memorable riff that somehow reminds me of the 80's new wave. And I like the punk attitude in the lyrics, injustice clearly expressed, which reminded me also of Midnight Oil. Good mix and I enjoyed your expressive vocals and fitting harmonies, very good work! I would be more than happy to hear more of your angry statements smile
Ah Janne! You know of Midnight Oil in Finland - I'm impressed! I'll probably need to retreat to my usual for a while, but when I find material again, I'll have another crack. In fact, I've got a song idea from about 10 years ago that is worthy but I need to put a bit of effort in to it first - and I have a couple of songs to finish, and one of those is an assignment that Knee Wobbler set and the deadline is fast approaching! Thanks for listening!
Originally Posted by MarioD
Andrew, this is a great song. Great vocal and lyrics Super groove To nitpick I didn't care for the guitar playing licks like that while you were singing. It was very busy and detracting from your vocals. However that is just my opinion and others may not agree. Regardless this is a very good song.
Mario - I think there were a few others that agreed with you. I'm hoping that my 'ducking' treatment of the guitar has gone some way towards addressing that. Thanks for listening! PS It's been good to hear you singing on some of your recent uploads - very good! Andrew
For bass it's much easier for me because all the strings are a fourth above, but on guitar they just had to throw in that B string!
At least the 6 string bass has a C string instead of a B. Having the top two notes B and E makes chords like A and E a walk in the park. But change the guitar strings to E A D G C F and see what happens to your chord shapes. It's not pretty. I remember how I couldn't find any patterns between chords on the guitar, and then finally saw the "shift" that the B string did to the structure. I could suddenly see the E, A and D shapes were the same.
Chay, very sinuous and cool. The change of instrumentation at the midpoint is a pleasant jolt. The solos are nicely placed and trade off well, too. A bit of a change of pace, but still you. Well mixed as always. Nice all the way around.
Thanks again. I did not realize the 49-PAK is sold only at the new release. Thinking back, I'm sure you are correct. I believe we also agree that versions before 2025 wouldn't contain .FLAC files because the program wasn't set up to handle them, at least that we were told. There actually is a PAK distinction, although I couldn't give advice on which PAKs. I have been in touch with Andrew when one was shipped to me in the past. I can't give more detail here but it is the reason I keep requesting a utility or menu option that would tell me what kind of mix I have between WAV, FLAC, and WMA so I could eliminate what I don't need and order what I may be missing.
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I remember how I couldn't find any patterns between chords on the guitar, and then finally saw the "shift" that the B string did to the structure. I could suddenly see the E, A and D shapes were the same.
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