Hi all,

I'm sharing this unlisted YouTube video with family and friends and fellow BIAB users. On Friday evening, Oct. 5, my older daughter Jennie gave birth to Stella, our first grandchild. She's beautiful and we are very happy and excited (everyone is doing well).

I had prepared for the occasion by writing and recording a new song, "Look at You." BIAB RealTracks on the recording are ~~519 Bass, ~~522 acoustic guitar (fingerpicking), and (maybe) ~~405 Acstc. guitar strumming. This was the _CBALAD2 style without drums and steel guitar, and the acoustic guitar parts worked well when I brought them into Sonar X1. I added an acoustic guitar part and a synth part (vibes). There's also a 12-string synth sound from ChordBot on the iPod Touch. I sang about 6 parts.

http://youtu.be/iBZWddjFNaI

The lyrics aren't too long so I will paste them below. There's a wee bit of science in these lyrics. I'm an optical engineer and a space and astronomy enthusiast, and my son-in-law is a molecular biologist (also a guitarist and songwriter). I didn't know her name was Stella until she was born, but Stella means star in Italian and Latin.

Cheers,
Bruce

Look at You

Tiny fingers, clutching Mommy’s finger
Tiny fingers, holding Daddy’s finger too
Look at you

Love and DNA have scored a miracle
It’s a wonder, everything they say is true
Look at you

Now you’re sleeping, now you’re crying
Now you’re eating, now you’re sighing
Beams of photons bouncing off the moon
You’ll be sleeping through the night real soon

Stay awake now, this is not a lullaby
Every moment fills your eyes with something new
Look at you

Hubble pictures, wonders of the universe
Biggest little wonder lying here it’s true
Look at you

Now you’re sleeping, now you’re crying
Now you’re eating, now you’re sighing
Sounds of music, sounds of laughter
Sounds of happy ever after

Wish upon a meteor
Can’t think what to wish for
Everything is cool…

Look at you – Look at you – Look at you – Look at you
Look at you!

Words and music (c) 2012 Bruce Irving

Two more things: I made the video in iMovie on the iPad. The video is HD (720p) but defaults to 360p so you have to change the setting on the video frame.

How Precious! She's beautiful. I especially love that last shot.

Nice song too Bruce really pretty and a perfect soundtrack for Stella's first video.

Congratulations on your granddaughter and your song.

Guenter

Bruce,

Congratulations!!! Grandkids are great, aren't they!

Good job on the song. Everything sounds good, impressive vocals. And the video is precious!

Steve

Hi Bruce,

What a wonderful tribute to love and to your family. I enjoyed the photo-journey a great deal. This is an excellent song in every regard.

Best wishes to all,
Noel

Bruce,
Congrats to you and the family. Ditto on everyone's comments. What a wonderful keepsake this will be for you all. Thanks for sharing the song and the happy occasion.
SD

Bruce,

The song is a tribute to your entire family, especially the
new one. The lyrics, music and beautiful photo's and video
is priceless.

All of you will enjoy this all your lives. Just think when
she is grown and watches this!

Thanks for sharing the song and precious moments with your family.

Bruce - what a truly wonderful gift to your granddaughter. Both the song and the video are wonderful. Great vocal and counter-melody (not an easy thing to do!)

Congrats on a wonderful song and tribute to a beautiful little girl.

Later,

Thanks to all for your kind comments and well wishes on the birth of my granddaughter. We just visited my daughter and son-in-law today, and Stella seems to be getting even cuter (the secret is LOTS of beauty sleep, unfortunately in 2 hour blocks round the clock, the usual newborn strategy).

-Bruce

P.S. Here's the SoundCloud link for just the song:
http://soundcloud.com/flyingsinger/look-at-you-stellas-song

Bruce,

good job on:

1) the song
2) the video
3) living your life in a way that exalts family and provides an example of what love does

(not necessarily listed in order of importance.)

First congratulations on your first grandchild!

Second, what an outstanding tribute. This song is so good if I were you I would remix it bringing the vocals up a tad, then try to sell it. I think this could be a big hit it is that good.

Two thumbs up – this is a keeper.

Very sweet song and video (and baby).

Good work and congrats.

Very nice! (And congratulations!)

I'm not suggesting that there's anything about the song that needs changing, but this seems to be exactly the sort of thing the cello RealTrack 1856 was made for.

Thanks again for all the comments, and in particular:

Mario: my friend producer Roger also has suggested that a pretty song for an (unnamed) new baby could be popular with a lot of people if the right things happened. Who knows how something goes viral, but it would be nice. In the meantime, I think you're right that the vocals need to come up a tad.

David: I didn't know the cello RT was in there! What a great idea! I just did a quick test, and it sounds great - BIAB comes up with some really pretty counter-melodies (it helps that this song is basically C-F-G except for the Bb-G in one section). I will need to generate a few more takes, import them into Sonar, and find what works where, but I think it will be really cool for the album version. Just shows again that nothing is ever really "done." Thank you!!!

I want to work on this now but I've spent all day recording in the basement and my wife deserves some time too.

-Bruce

David, thanks again for the cello tip (RT 1856). I spent some time tonight working this pretty sound into the track, without changing it too much, especially where I already had a lot of harmonies or counter-melodies going on. It adds something, more noticeable on headphones. I like it. I also brought the vocals up a bit.

I put my first mix attempt up on SoundCloud if anyone wants to have a listen:
http://soundcloud.com/flyingsinger/look-at-you-stellas-song-cello

Are there any other secret sounds hidden in RealTracks?

Cheers (even though I'm not British),
Bruce

There's always something cool hidden in BIAB. The trick is to find the time to plow through all the demos, and remember what caught your ear. There's so much to listen to!

I like how you managed not to overdo the cello. I'm a sucker for this folk guitar major seventh kind of thing anyway, so it's all good.

But it's really the vocal that sells it, and you've got that in spades.

Off topic, I recently read that the goal of parents for the first year or so is to train their child to sleep at regular intervals. Unfortunately, the kid usually has the advantage...