After You've Gone (Synthesizer V)

After you've gone
Who'll stop to see the sun (See the sun)
Sinking low?

And after you're gone (After you're gone)
Who's left to tend the flowers (Who'll tend the flowers?)
Growing by the garden wall?

After you've gone
And everything has changed (Everything has changed)

I never dreamed you'd ever go
But here I am without you
Lonely as a child

An empty bed, a silent room,
Shoes no one can fill (Shoes no one will fill)
I'd give the world to have you back
No, I never will

Now you're gone
And life goes on (Flowers bloom)
The flowers bloomed without you there
They watched the sun (They watch the sunshine)
Like nothing's changed
One more day

Now you're gone (Now you're gone)
Now you're gone (You're gone)

I've tried to put your things away
But i just can't get started
Never letting go (Never let go)

Your folded clothes upon the bed
Shoes that sit there still (Shoes that wait but no one comes)

I'd give the world to have you back
I know I never will


This started out a _ASPEN.STY (Aspen Songwriter Pop) demo - the "Mary Tyler Moore" add2 sound of the piano got my attention - and went through a bunch of chord changes. I decided to experiment with irregular phrase lengths. I created the melody in BiaB - probably not something I'll repeat, as there's no punch in for MIDI, and the undo feature is erratic at best.

After hearing Shigeki Adachi's excellent mockup of 君の子供 (Translation: Your Child) done with a Vocaloid, I decided to try mocking up the lyrics using Synthesizer V.

I imported the MIDI into the Synthesizer V editor, and started working on the lyrics, and eventually got something I was pretty happy with for the first portion. It occurred to me that I could make the song a before/after mirror, and so the second half was a straightforward write.

Obviously, a strict rhyme scheme wasn't my priority. wink

The male vocals turned out much better than I expected - I really like the breathy vocal. So I figured that I'd just stick with that for the final version of the song.

The female vocal wasn't quite as successful, but with some tweaking I got it in the ballpark of where I wanted it.

The voice I used - the free Elanore Forte voice - is ostensibly a female voice, but there are options for modifying the gender.

But because Elanore Forte is only recorded on a single pitch, it doesn't fare as well in the upper register as other Synthesizer V voices. When they release a good English voice, I'll be first in line.

Writing the harmonies was fun - pretty much the same process I use in my DAW. smile

Getting the vocals to be clear was a bit of a challenge, and I'm not entirely happy with it. I may have another go at some places. For example, "Who'll tend the flowers" and "Flowers bloom".

It's always better if you don't have to read the lyric sheet in order to understand.

I added a cello for some variety, and decided to try to keep it simple and finish it up. I tried the multi-riff, but BiaB didn't want to play nice.


As always, comments are welcome! laugh


Technical Details:

~683:Bass, Electric, PopHalfNotesPush Ev 120
1533:Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm PopPowerPushArp Ev 120
2935:Guitar, Acoustic, Rhythm FolkPulse8thsFintan Ev 110
3768:Guitar, 12-String Electric, Rhythm ModernPopBrent Ev 120
1856:Cello, Background PopCountry Ev 085
NashvilleEven8^4-a,b:Sidestick, HiHat

Synthesizer V (vocals)
Neutron 3 Elements
Lurssen Mastering Console

-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?