Love's Forgotten Song (SynthV Version)

dreams are only for the young
bright sun as the day's begun
like an open road right in front of us
past the ever bright star
here we are

lovers and the closest friends
once gone never coming back again
you held your hand in mine only yesterday
now that memory is all that remains

so we somehow came apart
still you live in my secret heart
holding deep inside the saddest part of me
i can never quite say goodbye, goodbye

words to our forgotten song
once known but now we sing it wrong
now we can't recall that sweet melody
only comes to me now in my dreams


Instruments:
Style is _B140GTB.STY (Bossa Brazilian Quartet (140 RS))
~464:Bass, Acoustic, Bossa Ev 140
~470:Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm Bossa Ev 140
~467:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm Bossa Ev 140
704:Flute, Soloist Bossa Ev 140
BossaBrushes: a: Sidestick Brushes b: Sidestick, Ride

Mix info:
Master Buss: Fame Studio Reverb (Studio A), HoRNet 32 MK2, HoRNet Master Tool, MixCentric (Fairydust)
Flute: Sunset Sound Reverb (Live Room/Studio 3), Fame Studio Reverb (Plate)
Drums: Fame Studio Reverb (Studio B Live), EZ Mix (Parallel Drums), Vinyl (1970)
Bass: Fame Studio Reverb (Studio A Live, Bass)
Guitar: Trackspacer (ducking vocal), EZ Mix2 (Jazz Guitar), Fame Studio Reverb (Studio A Live, Guitar)
Piano: EZ Mix2 (Dull Piano), Trackspacer (ducking vocal), Fame Studio Reverb (Studio A Live, Piano)
Vocal: SynthesizerV (Eleanor Forte), Magma BB Tubes, Nectar Elements 3, Fame Studio Reverb (Studio A Booths, Vocals), Rev Plate 140
BG Vocal: SynthesizerV (Eleanor Forte), Fame Studio Reverb (Studio A Booths, Vocals), VoiceCentric (Delay/Doubler/Reverb), Raum (Airy)

Relatively Short Details:
This is a remix of a song I posted in 2015 and sung by the Vocaloid Avanna. I had trouble getting Avanna to sing some of the phonemes, so she's augmented with the YOHIOloid Vocaloid. If you're curious, you can find the original version here:

https://soundcloud.com/dcuny/loves-forgotten-song-1

I thought it would be interesting to try it out with SynthesizerV with Eleanor Forte. It's also a chance to try out some new plugins I had just bought.

All comments accepted!

Hi David
Sounds really cool
The voice is very good for the song
Also the background track by BiaB is well done
Great work David
Many greetings
Andi ;-)

Nice song. Does the synth vocalist follow a midi melody? I've never tried a synth vocalist but I've been quite impressed what you and others get out them. Enjoyed my listen.

Charlie

Hi David,

A very nice song and with a good singer. Nice vocals.
I also like the lyrics. Lovely and sad.

I did a little search on Vocaloid6 and SynthesizerV.
I couldn't figure out which is better.
I also looked at Emvoice, but that didn't sound good.
Who knows, maybe I'm going to use AI-vocals as well...

Hans

Sounds quite a complicated piece, requiring a lot of patience.
Hats off to you, David.

Vic

David, This is amazing what you do with these vocaloids. Nice touch at the end with the interweaving of the two vocals. This must have taken a long time to arrange and produce. Surely that was money well spent on the new plug-ins as this version is way better than the first. I really enjoyed listening to this a lot, Tom

Hi, Andi.

Thanks for listening and the positive feedback!

Hi, Charlie.

The synth vocalist follows a melody that's been loaded into the program.

There are a variety of ways that the pitch data can go into SynthesierV. You can draw it onto the piano roll, import MIDI, or play MIDI controller directly in the program. It's a lot like adding melody in BiaB, only there's no "regular" notation mode, only Piano Roll mode.

Once that's done, you add words to the notes, and it converts the words into phonetic representations. There are all sorts of parameters that can be tweaked to modify the singing from that point.

Thanks for stopping by, I'm glad you enjoyed the listen!

Thanks!


I've used both Vocaloid and SynthesizerV, and SynthesizerV is much, much better.


I agree. But it's simpler to use, so for the purpose of putting in scratch vocals on a song, it might be a better choice for some people.


You can always send me a message if you've got any questions about them!

Thanks for listening and commenting!

Actually, the mixing[/i[ was much more complicated than the song itself!

But that's mostly because I was trying to learn how my new toys worked.

The vocal is much better, but I was able to import that from the old [i]Vocaloid files. With the AI features, it didn't require a lot of tweaking.

But I sort of went overboard with the effects, trying to place the instruments and voices into a "real" environment.


Thanks, Vic!

Thanks, Tom!


That's actually the most fun part of using synthetic voices - there's room for experimentation with things like harmonies.

I think I stuck pretty close to the original harmonies, although I was tempted to add more in.



Well, the voices, anyway.

Mixing continues to be a challenge, especially with new toys to play with.

I had just purchased the FAME Studio Reverb, and wanted to try placing the voices and instruments into a "real" room to see how well that worked.

Of course, a little bit of reverb goes a long ways, and my first couple of mixes had a ludicrous amount of reverb on them.

I also got a bunch of HoRNet plugins, so I had to try those out as well.

And as I was doing what I thought was the final render, I got to thinking that perhaps Waves' spiffy new tube simulator might be cool to add to the vocal.


And I appreciate you taking the time to stop by to listen and comment.

David...I'm always amazed at your productions...very nice song...it's so cool how you do this!

It's not the kind of music I usually like to listen to, so I can't say anything about it.

But I listened to both versions of your song and the Synthesizer V vocals are much better.

Memorable melody and good work with Synth5.

Your mixes always sound fine to me, do you think otherwise?

Can Synth5 work with a swing groove as well, or are you confined to even groove?

Again, nice work on this, it still blows me away how far software has come with vocals after such a long, hard road.

Thanks, Dan!

Thanks, Rob!


It's hard for me to tell.

A good mix is clear and transfers well to a variety of systems. I think this mix has that quality.

But it's also a bit of a magic trick, arranging disparate elements that were recorded in different environments and convincing the ear that they all belong together.

With this mix, for example, I tried to create a sense of space, like the instruments were all in the same reverberant room. But too much 'verb just draws attention to itself.

I tend to push the vocal in the front, to the point where it doesn't really sit well in the mix. So with this mix, I tried to push it back a bit. The vocal is actually placed in a different room, with a plate reverb because plate reverbs sound lovely.

To keep the vocal clear, I added some tube effects on it. That adds a bit of distortion which brightens it and makes it stand out. But it also makes it harsh - which hopefully the plate reverb softens a bit.

The piano in the original mix has much less "bite" to it, and I was having a lot of trouble getting it to work with the new mix. With the reverb and wider panning, it pops out a lot more, so I have to do a lot more work to tame it. But now I wonder if I've put it too far back in the mix.

And on and on, one mixing decision after another.


You can set the grid to snap to 1/3, 1/6, 1/12 and so on.

Or you can turn of snapping entirely and put the notes down freeform.

So yes, it can swing.

Yes, it's very impressive.

I need to make a decision at some point if I should bother continuing my own vocal synthesis project, as the available software is very good, and there seems little chance of me coming near that level of quality.

Thanks for stopping to listen and comment!

Really smooth and well arranged backing. The flute solo leapt forward a bit but that settled quickly.
I did notice that some of the polysyllabic syllable words sounded a little rushed - or, rather were words I'd have chosen to extend
eg:
lovers and the closest friends
once gone never coming back again
you held your hand in mine only yesterday
now that memory is all that remains.

The plugs seem good - the bass became boomy in the louder sections.

That particular voice seems to suit an anodyne arrangement.

David,
The synth vocals are outstanding; if I had the patience and skill you posses I might try them.
The melody is cool;perfect for the genre and I think the flute RT is about the best I`ve heard.
A very enjoyable result for your remix efforts!

Hi, David !


I´m truly awed by your
mastering of music
and synth vocals !

This is another proof
of your superb skills !

Cheers
...and Happy Holidays too !

Dani

Good song is a good song, regardless of vocalist or effects. And this is a good song Dreamy lyrics, lovely melody, nice light bossa rhythm and the flute is beautiful. Good work with Eleanor, Avanna is good, but the new technology makes singing sound more fluent (those rushed parts that Ray mentioned caught my attention in Avanna version, but not in this new one).

I would prefer less effects on the vocal track to bring the vocal little bit closer, but that is matter of taste. Otherwise, the new reverb worked well in my ears.

Janne

Very cool David. Cool vocal and lyric. Very impressive technology. I can only imagine the work involved in the timing of the phrasing. Well done. Cool flute synth solo as well...

Hi, Ray.

I'll have another listen to the flute and perhaps take the volume down a bit at the start.


I'll have another listen. I was initially going for a feel of a poorly translated song, so a slightly stilted sound made sense. And it's sort of grown on me since then.


Interesting, I'll listen for that, too.


"Anodyne" is both a fun word and an appropriate one for my writing style!

Thanks for listening and the feedback!

If you can deal with piano roll notation, you'd do fine.

It's mostly a matter of being motivated, as the results are cool, but there's the irritation of having to buy and learn Yet Another Tool.


Thanks! I appreciate you taking the time to listen and give feedback!

Hi, Dani.

It's not me that you should be awed at - these tools are getting very impressive. I keep running into demos by other people who do truly amazing things with this program.


Thanks!

Happy Holidays to you as well.

Hi, Janne.

Thanks!


Yeah, how far back to place the vocal is a struggle for me.

Thanks for the kind words!

Thanks, Scott!


I should mention that's the BiaB flute, not something I did myself. I patched it together from multiple takes.

Thanks for stopping by!

David, nice song. I really love your mixes and the arrangements in this one are fantastic too. I love that flute!

David,

A pleasant BAND, a nice musical bed for the synth voice.
Mix sounds good (the Bass is slightly boom-y in earbuds).

The vocals are pleasant, too.
They sometime come across as "too perfect" (too exact?). Part of that impression comes from the movement and cadence of the melody (which made my ear "follow" the voice instead of simply "listening" to it - if that makes sense)

Nice re-do.

fj

We listened to the original 2015 version first, and although it is good, this one is better!

Eleanor’s voice is really good. You are a master at this. Reading how you accomplish it is head spinning.

We (both of us) enjoy reading about the magic of what you do.
The double reverb on the flute is something I've never considered on a track. It sounds good indeed.
Bud is fond of the EMT 140 reverb sim in Nectar.
And we note that you are using BB Tubes. We just got it -- Tom Adams is using it extensively.

This is a delightful bossa tune in every way!
As Janice says Bossa's are happy

J&B