Time

There is time and there is time
until the coming of the day
time to sail upon ocean
time to let it slip away

There is time for me
and all my friends
no matter how I've grown;
time for wishing on the starry sky
and forgetting what I've known

There's Mister Allistacious
he knows just what to say
He dreams to fill the nighttime
and he listens in the day.
But if there's something he's discovered,
well he's kept it to himself
with all these childhood friends I've got here
sitting on my shelf

Here's Ollie Uncle Elephant,
he's heard all that I've said
and the whispers from my yesterdays
dance inside his sawdust head

For there is time for me
and all my friends
no matter how I've grown
Time for wishing on the starry sky
and forgetting what I've known

There is time for me
and all my friends
no matter how I've grown
time for wishing on the starry sky
and forgetting what I've known

Instruments/Effects
Lead Vocal: SynthV (Natalie) -> Greg Wells VoiceCentric (Lead), LX40 Essentials, Panagement, vocal buss
Backing Vocal: SynthV (Qing Su) -> Greg Wells VoiceCentric (Backing Vocal), Panagement, vocal buss
Backing Vocal: SynthV (Hayden) -> Greg Wells VoiceCentric (Backing Vocal), Panagement, vocal buss
Backing Vocal: SynthV (Kevin) -> Greg Wells VoiceCentric (Backing Vocal), Panagement, vocal buss
Master Buss: HorNeT ThirtyOne MkII, Lurssen (Pop Rock, Warmer)
Reverb Buss: LX 480 Essentials (960 Vocal Plate)
Bass: BiaB, ~2482:Bass, Acoustic, Bowed Held Ev 085
Ac. Gtr x2: BiaB, 1595:Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking Pop8thsSteady Ev 065 -> Panagement (Heaven)
Synth Strings: BiaB, from PJONI.STY -> TrackSpacer, Panagement, Raum (Airy)
Drums: NashPopBallad^03 -> Panagement (Wood)
Violin: SampleModeling Strings, Violin -> Reverb Buss
Viola: SampleModelingStrings, Viola -> Reverb Buss
Cello: SampleModeling Strings, Cello -> Reverb Buss
English Horn: SWAM Woodwinds, English Horn -> Panagement, Reverb Buss
Solo Violin: SampleModeling Strings -> Pangement, Reverb Buss
Celeste: CineSamples, Mister Rogers' Celeste -> Panagement, Reverb Buss
Music Box: Orange Tree Samples, TinyBox -> Panagement, Reverb Buss
Rhodes Piano: The Famous E Electric Piano (Angela) -> Reverb Buss
Tremelo Strings: LA Sessions, Studio Violins (Swells long) -> Reverb Buss


The Story
This is a song I wrote over 30 years ago, semi-inspired by Tom Waits' Time. I made a couple recent attempts to record it, but my voice isn't up to the task.

I decided to have a go at it with SynthV. I'd envisioned it with a male lead, but I auditioned all the voices I had, and Natalie sounds great.

After rendering out the song in BiaB, I imported it into SynthV and worked out the notes. I'd already had the lyrics, so that part was - for once - simple.

Once that was done, I decided to try out some harmonies, so I've got Kevin, Hayden and Weina on the background vocals. I ended up shuffling some of the sections around.

The piano part was very MIDI-ish, so I ended up redoing that myself on a sampled Rhades piano. There's a string pad already, but I thought it might be nice to have a string trio, so I played that using SWAM instruments my EWI.

The extra instruments are playing "gestures" more than melody, and my daughter complained that it needed more melody. So I added a SWAM english horn, also using the EWI.

There's a spot for an instrumental, which after trying various instruments went to the cornet... also played on the EWI.

The music box/celeste was a last minute addition, as the introduction wasn't really working that well. I'd gotten the Mister Rodger's Celeste some time ago, and it's got a lovely sound. I'm glad I finally got a chance to use it.

I added a bit of tremelo string swells, and thought I'd call it a day.

Then my daughter complained that the english horn after the instrumental didn't really fit... something I'd been hoping could slide by. So chopped out half the instrumental so it merged into the chorus, and repeated the chorus. It was something I'd arrived at by accident, but intended to do from the start. So after a bunch of cutting and pasting and making a general mess of things, I think I've got a final version of the song.

The mix might be a little hot, I've been playing around with various mastering effects.

And yeah... I really need to work on coming up with better song titles.

My wife says that the cornet is too much of a "jump scare" and suggested I use a violin instead, even though there's already a violin in the mix. No doubt my schmaltzy playing doesn't help.

Edit: I replaced the cornet solo with a violin, which works much better. I've also replaced the SWAM solo strings with SampleModeling strings, as they are a less synthetic.

As usual, any feedback is welcome. I'll probably continue to tweak this as time goes on.

David,

This is whimsical and beautiful . . . the synth vocal works just perfect . . . as do the BGV harmonies. Really like the cello in the breaks. Yeah, I'm not sure about that horn in the break following "forgetting what I've known" . . . it sounds a bit harsh and not a fit for the tune. I like the horn that follows after the last verse better . . . it's softer and better suits the feel of the tune. Absolutely love, love, love, those vocal harmonies in the close--just brilliant!! You really do work wonders with the vocaloids.

All my best to you,

Deej

Hi, Deej.

Thanks!

There's actually a string trio in there, but the balance/mix obviously needs a bit of work for you to hear that.

I've replaced it with a violin that fits a lot better.

It's an "english horn", neither english nor a horn.

I agree, it's got a lovely sound.

Thanks, they really did this song a lot more justice than I could. I know, because my version was pretty cringeworthy...

Those harmonies are my favorite part of working with the synthetic voices. Once I've got a melody, it's fun to play around with harmonies and see what comes out. Sometimes I get lucky!

Thanks, I appreciate the positive feedback!

David,

Love this... You absolutely own this space. The song, SynthV vocals and production is really outstanding. Backup vocals are wonderful.

Bob

Beautiful.
It's almost (but not quite) a Carpenters song, and I really enjoyed listening to it.

My only (minor) nit is the harmonies, which are beautiful in themselves, but I think the guys somehow don't fit in.
I'd take Cong and Solaria for the job because I know from my songs that they harmonize very well with Natalie.
But I wouldn't worry too much about it, it's very nice the way it is now.
Good job

A beautiful song, you will have to introduce me to your singer. Well done
Laurent

I agree with the above sentiments.
A big masterful effort with the singers getting better and better.

Tom Waits For No One --best all-time album title. Man, I love how you created this, David. There is so much in there and everything sounds to add just the right amount of right. Beautiful song. Great job hiring and developing Natalie. Cool harmony, too. This is so entertaining and good that I had to dive in for another spin. A beautiful song, David, and so well crafted. Time was surely different 30 years ago.

Stylistically this'd probably fit on Heart Attack & Vine if there was a croaky male lead.
Lovely narrative and melody.
Personally I'd drop the snare level or eliminate it entirely.
As I was listening I was mentally comparing this to "On The Nickle" and noted the lack of low mids which makes the track sound a little thin against my brain's template. There's no achieving the grittiness of TW in BIAB I suppose.
Lovely song.

David

Very Pretty song. A lot of work has gone into it, and it shows.

Enjoyed it.

Peter

Wow! The time you spent on this shows up in spectacular fashion. The instruments you used are perfect for this. The vocals are super. The duet towards the end is great! Aside from the pro production and absolutely beautiful melody, the lyrics are poignant and poetic. Can you tell I liked it? Tom

This is beautiful David.

Hey, if you ever need someone who can pull off Tom Waits, give me a holler, but give me enough time to run out and grab some filterless Pall Malls and some Cutty Sark.



Love this tune sir. Well done.

Hi, Bob.

Thanks!

I appreciate you stopping by to listen and comment!

Hi, B.D.

Thanks!

Natalie's got a strong Karen Carpenter vibe, and Karen is one of my favorite singers, so it's a win all around!

I'll try then out and see what happens. I picked the voices because of the clarity of their English, but that's not really necessary for background voices. And the English has gotten a lot better in the last release.

I like the sound the contrasting voices have, but your point is well taken.

Thanks again!

Hi, Laurent.

Thanks!

You can find Natalie here: https://store.dreamtonics.com/product/vdb-natalie/

Hi, Steve.

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the song.

I suspect it's the technology that's improving, and not me... Especially since it's a song wrote long ago.

Hi, Marty.

Hehehe.

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it.

30 years ago it was just me plonking away at the piano. It's amazing the creative tools we have available these day.

Hi, Ray.
I can do a few seconds of Tom Waits, but that all my throat can handle!

Hoarse and gravelly voices are a lot more difficult to synthesize than normal phonation. The first version of SynthesizerV actually had a version that allowed glottal effects, but you needed a background in speech pathology to understand how to use it, and it got dropped.
Thanks!
Unfortunately, it's not MIDI, so that means either EQing that frequency, or manually editing all the snare hits - something that doesn't have a lot of appeal to me.

I've actually already done some drastic EQ cuts on it already, so...

I may go back and replace it with a MIDI drum track at some point, since it's a pretty generic part.
Which track is thin - "On The Nickle" or "Time"?

Thin or not, "On The Nickle" is a brilliant bit of writing.
Thanks! I'm glad I was finally able to get it decent version of it recorded.

Hi, Peter.
Thanks!
That's the important bit.

Hi, Tom.
Thanks, I appreciate the kind words.

Hi, David.
Thanks!
I assume the Cutty Sark is to dull the pain of singing your throat raw...
You're too kind.

Thanks again!

This is so, so beautiful! Well done, in absolutely every way. One thing did jump out at me:

"Time for wishing on the starry sky
and forgetting what I've known"

I just love those couple of lines, but the whole thing is superb. The duet of the two singers, towards the end, also really worked, for me. One of those songs that I am going to listen to, for at least one more time.

Wow! This is just a lovely, lovely song. Really like all the little touches that perfectly support the song without sounding forced. Hard work like that is sometimes best when the listener doesn't notice it and just enjoys the song. Love the intertwined vocals at the end, but the male vocal MIGHT be a little further back in the mix. That's my only (slight) quibble. You've really set that bar quite high with this song!!

David,

What a lovely song! The vast amount of instrumentation used in this is incredible and the overall production is deserving of a lot of praise....much more than you will probably receive in the forum! I have a bit of an idea about how much work went into this and appreciate the effort put into the song! The synth vox work is excellent!

Thanks, T

Very nice gentle intro and then the beautiful melody and a great voice start... very pleasant tune, kind of Christmas/winter feeling with lovely dreamy lyrics "time for wishing on the starry sky/and forgetting what I've known".
Great work with the arrangement, so many nice details, but still simplicity rules. And of course, Natalie doesn't fail It would be interesting to hear this sung by a male, though.

Janne

David,

A Lovely Opening. Listened to it 4 times before moving on.
I then did the same thing with the first verse. WHAT a Perfect combination of instruments - mixed Perfectly. It is a Gorgeous sound. Quality Producer Guy stuff. Drums, bass, guitar and vocal - perfect levels.

The vocals on Mister Allistacious section gave me chills. The melody sounds like James Taylor should be singing it and the harmonies have a sound close to Joni Mitchell and Linda Ronstadt backing him up....

The string interlude before "Ollie Uncle Elephant" is Tasteful.
The fiddle was Quite impressive. I have yet to read your notes, so I'm hoping you talk about how you got that to "suggest" the melody...
The french horn was nice. The "just a little bit" was a nice touch. And the ending string quartet. Again, Quality Producer Guy stuff...

Your work with the girls is Stunning. Getting closer-to-real all the time (it is getting hard to know since we are hearing these girls sing ALL the time. You get accustomed to it.)

A beautifully written song. (I had to go back and listen again - to the lyrics - because there was so much good stuff going on I couldn't listen to the words...)

This is real quality work.

fj

So I read the notes. Now I'm even MORE impressed. Impressive work on the piano, the strings, the controller. The SWAM instruments are incredible.
So, you played the violin solo on a keyboard?

Hi, James.
Thanks!

The duet at the end was just something I stumbled on. The song needed something different, and I'd just gotten the Hayden voice. He's an interesting contrast to Natalie. I started playing around with a counter-line, and... Oooh, that's pretty... happened.

I'm glad that you enjoyed listening!

Hi, Ron.

Thanks!

I went back and forth on placing that vocal part, and I may revisit it again. When I first started with the backing vocals, they were way too up-front. I moved them back, and like magic they sounded much better.

So that part might move back a bit more as well - we'll see.

Thanks for the feedback and encouragement!

Hi, Torrey.
Thanks!

I wish the writing for the strings was more melodic. It does the job, but I had planned on writing something a bit stronger. Unfortunately, sometimes there's a wide gap between what I want and what actually comes out. I'm pleased enough with it, but it reminds me that I need to work more on my string writing.

And while I appreciate the sentiment, I'm more than happy with the praise I've gotten from the forum - especially since people here know exactly what it takes to make a song!

Hi, Janne.
Thanks! Writing hard, rocking songs doesn't seem to be my wheelhouse, but sleepy, pleasant songs - I'll take that, thank you very much.

I was quite pleased with how well Natalie sung the song. The other voices didn't seem to come close to her level of expression.

Although... I may try using Natalie's expression with a male voice.

While the male voices are pleasant, but the female voices just seem to have a level of emoting that the male voices can't get close to... yet.

Thanks for stopping and commenting!

Hi, floyd jane.
You certainly know how to make a songwriter feel good about their song!

Now that's my dream team... Although Karla Bonoff would be nice, too.

I mentioned in my notes that I had higher hopes for it, but my brain wasn't putting out anything particularly distinctive. So there are a some pleasant "gestures" between the parts of the string section, but I really need to spend some more time working on getting my individual string parts to feel more cohesive. I'm happy with how it came out, but I listen to arrangements done by George Martin for The Beatles or America, and think That's how it's done!.

That part was played using my EWI. It's the same sort of wind controller that Mario uses.

As an aside - breath controlled instruments (using a wind controller or breath controller) are a fantastic development. I can play all sorts of instruments - strings, brass, double reeds - that I'd never be able to play in real life with a degree of control that is staggering. Even if you don't have a breath controller, you can still control the instruments via the mod wheel and play then strictly with a keyboard. But as a singer, I find the wind controller very natural.

I originally played a Sample Modeling cornet on the part. I've got a very schmaltzy playing style, with lots of breath controlled vibrato. I thought it sounded good and provided a good contrast, but my wife (and Deej) thought it was too out of character with the rest of the song, so I changed it to a Sample Modeling violin. I was able to use the same MIDI data, and just swapped out the instruments. I did make a few minor tweaks to the melody to better lead into the vocal entry on the second half.

I sent a link to my old choir director, who asked if it was synthetic, or and actual singer. I figure that if a singer knows it's probably synthetic but still has to ask, I must be doing something right.

One more tangent. Right now, there are still a limited number of singers available, and it's fairly easy to recognize specific voices.

There's a technology called RVC (retrieval voice cloning) will make it possible to train an neural network to replace an existing voice with another voice. The performance remains, but the timbre of the voice is changed. It's expensive to record all the material needed to create a new voice, but it's fairly cheap to train a neural network using RVC. So I expect in the near future there will be a wider variety of voices available using this sort of technology.

Thanks again, I really appreciate your kind praise!

Hi David.

My gosh. This is stunning listening. The orchestration is extraordinary, and the skill with which you have created a musical journey is very, very impressive. Everything fits together perfectly. I love the song; it's melody and lyrics. It's very easy to listen to. I was pulled into the story telling immediately and I was mesmerized by the words, their images and how they flowed. And now that I know a little bit about Synth V, I want to congratulate you on your work with Natalie. It's easy for me to appreciate now just how much time you have spent tweaking the length and strength of the component parts of syllables as well as tweaking performance components. You have achieved a level of realism in Natalie's enunciation and vocalization that I'm still trying to obtain.

All in all, this is one heck of an impressive composition and presentation.

All the best.
--Noel

Hi, Noel.
Well... thank you! You've a master of superlatives!

I think you've giving me too much credit here - it's more that Natalie's style fits the song, rather than me doing a lot of tweaks. If there was something that wasn't working, my first impulse was to figure out how to change it so it worked with Natalie, not the other way around.

Thanks again, I appreciate you taking the time to listen carefully and the thought you put into your response!

David ...that was gorgeous...every aspect (and there are too many to mention) of the production is exquisite...the melody is beautiful and captivating...please tell Natalie that she did such a great job...you should work with her again I loved it!

The lyric and melody are heartwarming and had us both smiling as we looked at our “old friends” up on the shelf from our childhoods.

Natalie does evoke Karen Carpenter’s voice in this a lot and the outro duet with Kevin is great.
The other bgv’s were very good and we thought of Beach Boys harmonies during the chorus following the Ollie Uncle Elephant verse. Nice!

We also enjoyed the music box and Celeste and English horn and, wow, the strings were lovely.

Each listen gets better!

J&B

PS Thanks for the backstory and track data.

Lovely vocal, David.
Like Ray though I think you should ditch the snare. It sounds too mechanical for such a warm and gentle sound overall.
Good one.

Vic

David, you are a master at the synth voices.
Outstanding song, gotta love those Swam instruments.
The vocals are crystal clear, the instruments sound great, and the mix was spot on.
Loved it.

Gosh! this is absolutely beautiful all around. Great production. Loved it!

Mike B.

Hi, Dan.
Wow! Thanks!

The problem is that I like her voice so much, she keeps getting all the songs! I need to give the other voices a chance, too!

Thanks for listening and commenting!

Hi, Janice & Bud


Yeah, I think she's awesome in the lower register.

I staggered the vocals, and forgot about it until I brought it into the DAW. When I heard them in context, I was surprised how nicely they came out.

Thanks! It's nice to finally use some of those pretty sounds in songs!

Of course! It's nice to know that someone reads it.

Glad to hear from you!

Hi, Vic.
Thanks!

Well, I'm not quite ready to do that.

But I went back and replaced the snare with the sidestick in a number of places, and brought the volume of the snare down so it didn't stick out as much.

That particular drummer seems to only know a single fill, so I also edited the fills so they had more variety.

Thanks for listening and taking time to give feedback - I appreciate it!

Hi, Mario.

Thanks!

I ended up replacing the SWAM strings with SampleModeling strings, but they're both awesome to play.

I'm glad to hear it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hi, Mike.
Thanks!

This is a great song. It think the way the extra instruments come in between the verse is working very well.

Really, really pretty song David!! And I agree....Natalie nailed it......still blown away by those vocal synths!!!.....have not yet played with one. This is a gorgeous arrangement too!!! Take care. Greg

David,

Everything is very natural.
It sounds beautiful.
The melody and orchestration are also great.
Natalie is really natural and very human.
I can totally see why you love Synth V.
The sounds of the orchestral instruments are also wonderful.
Enjoyed my listen a lot.

Best regards.

Shigeki Adachi

Hi David,

I read all the post here and because i was late at the party, there was a lot to read!
But all are so excited about the composition, the lyrics, vocals and used instruments and I can only agree with them!

But here I focus on the vocals; you did a wonderful job letting Natalie and Kevin doing that singing.
They sound very, very natural. Some time ago I bought some vocals from Emvoice, just to practise.
In the back of my head I had an idea of singing together with those vocals. But the vocals were bad or I was bad.
I couldn't make them sound natural.
But Janne and Brain both also are very good on these synth vocals. Maybe the three of you can make an exciting song together??

A big 'WOW' from me,
Hans

David, this is quite the production and mastering feat! I do like the French horn and how you incorporated all the other instruments (especially the violins and cello). All your hard work really paid off because this is a marvelous song all the way around.

Dewey

Hi David,

I read some of the previous comments as I listened the first time. I then listened a second time, paying full attention.

First, I'd like to thank whoever brought this back to page one. Somehow, I missed it when you originally posted it.

This is a marvelous example of music creation and production at its very best. The vocals are just si wonderfully good - the Lead vocal and the BGVs. They are mixed to perfection. I agree with previous assessments that the lead vocal vocal does resemble Karen Carpenter. And in my book, that's a big plus. You are so talented with the synth vocals. The vocals, particularly the BGVs, in the last 30 - 45 seconds are just so very good. I'm amazed.

The musical score is gorgeous. The snare doesn't bother me. I've always liked percussions a tad more upfront than most folks. This should be in a Disney movie.

I'm not sure what else to say. maybe - professionally impressive.

Excellent.

Alan

This is a really really good song. Lovely backtrack and lyric. But I must say I am dumbfounded that these are not real people singing these songs. Really well done David...

Hi, Gayle.

Thanks!

I appreciate you having a listen and commenting!

Hi, Greg.

Thanks, Greg!

Natalie is probably my favorite of the SynthV voices. Being able to add strings and woodwinds to a song is always a bonus.

Hi, Shigeki.

Thanks!

I appreciate the positive comments, especially coming from you.

Hi, Hans.
Yeah, just getting through my commentary will put you about a month behind.

Thanks!

That would be interesting, especially since we've all got very different approaches to songs!

Thanks again for listening and commenting.

Hi, Dewey.

Thanks!

I still find it amazing that we've got the technology that allows that sort of thing to happen.

Glad you stopped by!

Hi, Alan.

You've got Gayle Snyder to thank for that!

Honestly, I'm amazed by what can be done with all this.

When I stared using synthetic vocals, I was just happy that they gave me an opportunity to put out a demo that didn't have me singing on them.

That they've gotten this good is pretty incredible.

Thanks for you kind comments!

Hi, Scott.

Thanks!

You aren't the only one. Even though I know know this technology works, I find it pretty amazing myself.

I appreciate you stopping by to listen and comment.