Hello, everybody

Yesterday the schedule of Natsuki Yoshikawa, our local female jazz vocalist was adjusted at last, I could record 3 songs of my most recent works with her vocal. Our last recording session had been made about three years ago. Now I will introduce you the human vocal versions of my songs that I have posted here before with vocaloid.
First I would like to post Latin vocal song adopting Cuban Son Montuno Style.

Best Regards.

Title: musk
Vocal: Natsuki Yoshikawa, our local female jazz vocalist
Accompanied with Cuban band adding trumpet and 4 part strings

Style is _BOSSONM.STY
RealTracks in style: 1817:Bass, Baby, SonMontuno Ev 165
RealTracks in style: 1820:Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm SonMontunoComp Ev 165
RealTracks in style: 1818:Guitar, Acoustic, Rhythm SonMontuno Ev 165
RealTracks in style: 1821:Tres, Rhythm SonMontuno Ev 165
RealTracks in song: 480:Trumpet, Bossa Ev 140 (Bluesy)
RealDrums: RealDrums in Style: BossaBrushes: a: Sidestick Brushes b: Sidestick, Ride
Additional Strings played with EastWest symphonic orchestra

Link:

https://soundcloud.com/animarorecords/musk

Summary of lyrics

When our eyes met my heart was moved
When you touched my hands I was aware of my feeling
When we kissed I was sure where my future would go
When we made love I knew my mistake

In the narrow elevator of the office building
We kissed behind a camera
Incense of the musk was drifting sweetly
But the incense already belonged to someone

Like sparkling wine
My thought bubbled and disappeared continuously
My desired thing is not such a ring
Please let me forget everything but you with incense of the musk
Touch me, hold me, kiss me more and more

Link of the vocaloid version:

https://soundcloud.com/animarorecords/musk-miku

Natsuki Yoshikawa is a great vocalist and its easy to see why you waited for her to be available.

She's a perfect match for the top notch musical bed you made.

I enjoyed this.

Shigeki,

Beautiful.

Wonderful vocal. The few English words were a nice touch.

The mix is so crisp, so clear. All instruments coming through well. The strings are well done. Terrific arrangement.

Nice.

floyd

Hi Shigeki,

beautiful vocals on a great musical arrangement.
Very enjoyable listen.

Guenter

Hi Shigeki

this one is your best for me.
Great music and super vocal
Well done

Sergio

What a great voice! Definitely worth the wait.
Excellent arrangement. Sound great to me.

Shigeki,

That is STUNNINGLY beautiful with a "real" voice.

Natsuki Yoshikawa has such a beautiful voice

Alyn

Shigeki,
Lovely production most enjoyable.

Really awesome Shigeki!! Lovely vocals, and this song deserves that. Great stuff!! Take care. Greg

Shigeki,

I think your first class vocalist must have enjoyed singing to such
a wonderful backdrop - the balance of instruments is very good. I`d be interested in learning something about the production path you used to achieve such a clear sound.

Robert

Hello, Charlie, floyd, Guenter, Sergio, Josie, Alyn, Peter, Greg and Robert,

Many thanks to everyone for your input on this song.
And thank you very much for your warm comments to the vocal.
Singer first. I always really appreciate to my vocalists.

Sergio,
Thank you very much for your tender comment to this song.
I am somehow trying to write better one than before every time.

Robert,
Following is my brief production path.

Render tracks to audio(Aiff) with option(check Individual RealTracks and Normalize rendered files) about 3 times or more.
Read all tracks in Cubase Pro 8.5.
Sometimes use MIDI if additional parts such as Strings are needed.

Mainly use the most favorite tracks each and cut some points that are not good, for example, Drum Fills, Soloist’s Ad Lib, chords with bad tensions replacing them with the same points of other generated tracks that are better.
Insert Equalizers each track (usually using preset files of Cubase).

Record Vocals over and over till the vocalist says OK.
Chose best tracks, and replace some points with other better ones.
Sometimes use pitch corrector. (Cubese VariAudio)
Insert Equalizer(preset) and Compressor(Waves L1 limiter and Vocal Rider).

Reverb; Waves TrueVerb (usually)
Microphone: MXL-V67G (usually)
Audio interface: M-Audio FireWire 1814
Mastering Application: Peak Pro 7
Mastering compressor and leveler: Slate Digital FG-X
Adjust RMS level between -10.0db to -8.0db

Best Regards.

Shigeki Adachi

Shigeki,
Thank you for describing your production steps - its very helpful to see how much work goes into a high quality sound.

Robert