Hello everyone,

This is our new song:

Fly (Biab version)

We've teamed up with Paddy Gobel for this. Paddy is a songwriter from South Africa. He is also a frequent visitor of this forum (read only).
He asked us to record one of his songs.

First, we recorded Fly with its original musical arrangement. Anne-Marie also created a video for it, which can be viewed here

Next, we migrated the exact same vocals to a Band in a Box arrangement. This procedure was quite new to us, but on the other hand a lot of fun to do! Given BIAB's versatility, it wasn't very hard to find suitable realtracks for the song.
The following RT's were used:

1540 Guitar electric Soloist PopBelieve
1759:Bass, Electric, Pop16ths Ev 085
1765:Guitar, High-Strung Acoustic, Fingerpicking Pop16ths Ev16 085
1764:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm Pop16thsA-B Ev16 085
1761:Guitar, Acoustic, Strumming Pop16ths Ev16 085
1767:Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm Pop16 Ev16 085
878:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm NorthernRockGrittyA-B Sw16 075
RealDrums in style: NashvillePop16^1-a:Snare, Hihat , b:Snare, Ride

Style: BALLP16.STY (16ths Pop-Rock Ballad [85 RS])

Hope you like it! Any comments are welcome.

Rob.

Hi Rob and Anne-Marie,

This is a very enjoyable listening. The way the mix builds and throttles back is terrific. The overall sound of the production is spectacular. It sounds like you spent a great deal of time creating this. It's a perfect fit with Anne-Marie's beautiful video.

Regards to you both,
Noel

• 90dB's version of my song, Brighter Than Any Star (he's done a great job)

Nice job on the remix. You guys are getting into Guenter's (boehm) territory. It was an excellent job of matching BIAB tracks against the vocals.

This type of arrangement of importing vocals into BIAB is a technique I do quite often for both practice with Audio Chord Wizard and creating a new musical mix.

I constantly search and download isolated vocal and acapella video's from YouTube so not only am I able to record with some of the top session musicians, (thanks to PGMusic's BIAB/RB) I have also brought in guest singers such as The Beatles, Paul McCartney, The Bee Gees, Temptations, Eagles and countless 'unknown' artists who come into my studio where I am the "professional" engineer as music greats create new covers of some of their biggest hits.

Sadly, policies, permissions and copyrights prevent me from sharing, but I have created versions of several songs that I am particularly proud of. Paul McCartney singing a big band version of "Oh Darling" and a very, very nice soulful and realistic version of The Temptations doing "Just my Imagination" .

I found this technique to be quite a lot of fun to do. It can be somewhat challenging at times according to the song project but mostly a simple process that is not 'easy' to do. But I'm starting to hijack your post so will quit my rambling and just say I appreciate what it took for you to transition this song from the original. I enjoyed my listen a lot. Good job.

Charlie

Hi Rob & Anne-Marie,

great song! You did a good job transforming it
with BiaB. But I'm missing the synth sounds of
the original. Who played the piano in it? And
how was the original recorded?
I'm a fan of the original.
Anne-Marie did a good job with the video.

Guenter

Really pretty song!! Outstanding vocals. I must admit I like the other musical arrangement better than BIAB but it is incredible how close one can come to a "custom" arrangement with BIAB. Very enjoyable listen! Take care. Greg

Hello Rob and Anne-Marie,

Rob, you've got a beautiful voice, a tenor voice, clear and effective.

Good write you guys.
Rob

Rob,
Your voice is excellent as always. I find it difficult to choose between the two versions so I will just say BOTH are worth a listen

Anne-Marie,
As usual your video skills shine. You are a genius in that department!

Enjoyed

Alyn

Thank you Noel!

Hi Charlie,

Thank you!
Well, actually we are rather curious to hear some of the covers you did. Rob is especially curious about your BeeGees Biab covers!
Could you send us an mp3 some time (send us a PM).

Rob and Anne-Marie

Hi Guenter,

Thanks for your kind reply.
And yes, you are right, the original version has a distinct keyboard sound on the chorus.
We actually don't really know who played the original music. We only know that Paddy Nobel owns the musical rights and wrote the lyrics.

Regards,
Rob and Anne-Marie

Thanks Greg!
You're right, we didn't succeed 100% in emulating the original arrangement.

Thank you very much!

Thank you Rob!

Hi Alyn,

Thanks for your nice comment.
We are glad you couldn't really choose between the original and our BiaB version

Rob and Anne-Marie

Thanks for the back story on how this version and
the vid emerged. You guys are so meticulous with
your audio and video productions. This is the he kind
of tune one just listens to in it's totality without the slightest
temptation to begin parsing the the song out.
Like Noel alluded to...the way the song ebbs and
flows is extremely engaging.

And the video is awesome as have all of yours been.

It's a toss up on which version we most like.

Thanks for the chance to listen and view!

J&B

Hi RnAM.
Totally enjoyed both versions.
The video is fantastic and adds a lot to the song.
I find the video vocals a bit clearer. Cheers.

R & A-M, I like both versions. I will say that this mix is among your best. Seems much louder and clearer than some in the past. Another great job. Tom

I'm with Tom on this... Both versions are excellent. Beautiful vocals. Excellent mix. It would be nice if the last note of the guitar solo in the middle could hold and fade (I know that's often difficult, but it would really complete that solo nicely).

And, Paddy...Welcome (sort of coming in the backdoor... )... it's time you jump in, don't ya think?.... RnAM - a great choice for this!

The harmonies are sweet! (as always). The waterfall at :38 in the video is at Yosemite... I saw it a couple of days ago!

Great job, y'all!

floyd

Great song with a strong vocal, super mix, very nice instrumentation, outstanding lyrics and as a bonus a super video.

This is really good!

Really pretty guys. What's not to love.

Josie

I listened to the BiaB version first - great work.

Then I listened to the original version - brilliant singing - emotive and engaging.

It's hard to compete with a "custom" arrangement, but you certainly gave it a run for the money!

Both get my vote as well.

Thank you J&B,

For your kind comments and support!
we are so used to creating videos with our songs that, placing them 'only' on soundcloud feels so boring, haha.

Rob

thanks for your loyal support Rich!

Hi Tom,

Thank you, and yes, especially the version with the original arrangement sounds pretty loud (but that wasn't recorded by us). For some reason it's pretty hard to get a louder mix in our Cubase versions (elements 7 and essential 5).
We don't want to get too many 'peaks' or distortion. But others here on the forum seem to be able to export much louder. Is this simply a DAW thing then?

Rob

Rob and Anne-Marie,
Ooo. I really liked the release into chorus at 1:45. Great writing and production. Reminds me of the Moody Blues style in the 80s/90s.
SD

Hi Floyd,
Thank you very much.
As far as your remark about the hold and fade concerns... that's a good suggestion, we'll keep that in mind for another time.

Beautiful waterfall, we don't have them in the Netherlands, we do have a lot of water/rain though .

Rob and Anne-Marie

Thanks Mario!

Hi, Rob and Anne-Marie !

Forgive me this late
comment but this performance
is asolutely stunning !
Loved everything about it !

Cheers
Dani

thanks Josie!

Thank you David!
I think the Band in a Box version has more of a rock ballad feel to it, while the original has that typical 90s ballad atmosphere.
That being said, uhrm, both stem from the 90s ;-)

Rob

thank you Patrick!

Thank you SD, that's quite a compliment!

Love this song. Great singing. Nice mix and dynamics. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you Sonny!

Rob

What a great song to work with. Both versions are awesome but it's difficult to beat a custom music arrangement.

A really super production Rob and Anne Marie. Great songwriting from my fellow South African, Paddy. Reminds me of a John Denver song. Good job!