Tag: Song

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Sign of affection

A screen shot of UAD's PolyMAX synthesizer plugin

This is not a happy song. I had the initial ideas for it in about 2010, writing the lyrics of the first verse and chorus, and a vague idea of how I wanted the synths to sound in the chorus. I had a few attempts at singing and recording it, but nothing really came out how I wanted it, so I sat on it for 15 years. It’s really the complete antithesis of my recent song Pair Programming, presenting the perspective of someone stuck in a long-term relationship that seems to be slowly fading into indifference, making them feel lost and unwanted. I told you it wasn’t happy!

After discovering the amazing abilities of synthetic vocals a couple of years ago, I set about resurrecting and completing this song. I had always wanted it to have a Depeche Mode “Shake the disease” vibe, with perhaps a bit of Front 242 aggression. I recently got UAD’s PolyMAX synth plugin in a free offer, and it’s a really great synth, much simpler than impOSCar3 that I used in Dancing By Myself, but still sounds fantastic, particularly its unison and per-voice stereo panning features. It provides the primary “Zeow” in the chorus, the jingly verse chords, a pad in the second chorus, and the “jets” noise bursts. I used Logic’s ES2 for the sharp, metallic melody in the verse, Alchemy for the stabs and the awesomely violent bass in the chorus. The bass in the verse is a venerable Korg Wavestation, one of my all-time favourite synths.

Two instances of Logic’s drummer players provided drums using Logic’s Drum Machine Designer instrument and the “Heavy Industry” kit.

It’s harmonically curious. There are only really two chords, B♭ major and B minor, with a little Asus2 at one point; they are all very close together, and not really in any particular key.

The vocals are as usual provided by Synthesizer V. The lead is Noa HEX, and the backing vocals are Solaria II. SV has improved a lot in version 2, but I ended up not really using any automation of voice parameters; per-group voice settings were enough, as the style is pretty consistent all the way through the song. Solaria still sounds great; I particularly like the slow melody on the backing vocals in the second verse, and the somewhat discordant and unexpected harmonies in the second chorus.

The a capella section in the middle provides a dramatic contrast in its isolated vocals and hopeful message. This was quite fun to construct, but it was quite hard to stop the voices sounding a bit artificial, especially the lower one.

I used Logic’s lovely sounding Quantec Room Simulator for the main reverb, lots of bitcrushing and distortion on the “zeow” and chorus bass, sonible smart:EQ4 to handle masking and balance, and Logic’s mastering module placed after an instance of the famous SSL bus compressor.

All in all, I wanted aggression, discordance, and discomfort from this very depressing song, and I think it delivers them quite effectively.

[Verse]
We’ve been together forever, never apart.
But it seems like you’re a long way from my heart.
And though I’m beside you, it’s as if I’m not there.
Wanna feel your arms around me, your hands in my hair.
We’ve made so many memories, right from the start.  
Yet now it feels like we’re worlds apart.  
Though we walk side by side, I sense a divide.  
Need the warmth of your love, you back on my side

[Chorus]
Why aren’t you close when you are near?
Where are the words that I’m longing to hear?
How can I reach you when it’s you I can’t touch?
Is a sign of affection just asking too much?
How can you hide when you’re standing so near?
Is this isolation the thing that I fear?
How can I reach you when it’s you I can’t touch?
Is a sign of affection just asking too much?

[A capella break]
Even as our love descends
I want our fairy tale to have a happy end
Even as our love descends
I want our fairy tale to have a happy end
Even as our love descends
I want our fairy tale to have a happy end
Even as our love descends
I want our fairy tale to have a happy ending

[Verse]
You’re lying beside me when we’re going to sleep
but I wake and you’re gone, leaving cold, empty sheets.
No kisses or hugs, no touch of a hand;
None of this is going the way that I planned.
We used to share dreams, our futures combined
now silence fills the air, and I wonder why.
The laughter we had, the love we once knew,
is fading away and I don’t know what to do.

[Chorus]
So why aren’t you close when you are near?
Where are the words that I’m longing to hear?
How can I reach you when it’s you I can’t touch?
Is a sign of affection just asking too much?
How can you hide when you’re standing so near?
Is this isolation the thing that I fear?
How can I reach you when it’s you I can’t touch?
Is a sign of affection just asking too much?

If you like this song, please consider supporting me by buying my albums on Bandcamp, and sharing links to my music on your socials.

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God speed (Student Union remix)

Fadr and SoundCloud sent me a somewhat spammy email inviting me to take part in a remix event for the song “God speed” by Erin LeCount. I gave in, built a track, and submitted it. Listen and vote on the event site.

I’d never heard of Erin before, but this is a great song, with a very impressive vocal performance. I’ve not done much in the way of remixing, but I have done many cover versions, so I decided to combine aspects of both. Working in Apple’s Logic Pro X as usual, I kept the song’s original structure and vocals, but completely replaced the backing track. Much of the marketing pitch for this event was about using Fadr’s “AI remix” tools, but I’m not really very interested in that.

I made two main edits to the vocals: picking the “god speed” line from later in the song and using it as the opening line, then overlaying the opening verse on top of the final one. The first verse is longer than the second, so there were some vocals left over to make a new ending. While the event provided stems, broken out into 18 tracks, these were not completely isolated. For example, the first half of the main vocal track is quite dry, but the second half has a ton of reverb on it, making it harder to reprocess. This was quite convenient though as the dry vocal made for a better ending. It’s very nice working with such good, real vocals, but they are much harder work to edit, and I can’t randomly change the lyrics and melody like I can with Synthesizer V!

I replaced each instrumental track in turn with my own version, and I found some good equivalents to the existing tracks, though some of the odder sounds like bow screeches were difficult to emulate, so I either left them or dropped them.

The keyboard part had some chord voicings I couldn’t figure out, so ended up using Excite Audio’s VISION 4X plugin (a very detailed audio spectrum analyser!) to figure out what notes and harmonics I needed by trial and error!

I replayed the electric guitar part, and really liked the recording, so I added more of it elsewhere in the track. Then I wanted a line that would hold everything together, for which I added a full-length acoustic guitar track using UJAM’s Amber2. Drums are played by Logic’s player with manual patterns, using the “Detroit Garage” kit with some modifications, notably a pitched-up snare, and a 40% “pull” on the feel. Bass and sub-bass tracks use Apple’s Alchemy synth. The electric and toy pianos, harp, and reverse synth hit are Logic sampler patches, a second electric piano uses Kontakt 8. Reverbs are all Logic Space Designer patches.

Overall it has come out sounding like something a college band would play at a student union gig, hence the choice of title.

This was a fun exercise. Some of the other remixes were rather more ambitious in rearranging, changing pace, or transforming it into other styles (like disco and breakbeat), but I’m pretty happy with what I produced.

If you like this song, please consider supporting me by buying my albums on Bandcamp, and sharing links to my music on your socials.

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Dancing by myself

A screen shot of GForce impOSCar version 3, showing the bass patch used in this song.

No, this isn’t about me; no, this isn’t a cover of a similarly named Billy Idol track. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about what this is: a full-blooded, unapologetic dance track that’s not going to require you to understand some odd geeky concept, like several of my other songs do…

I feel lucky to have had this song included in the second album in “The Four Seasons of Bonk Wave” series, entitled “A Midsummer Bonk’s Dream (1)“.

The inspiration for this song, in my usual feel requirements, is something along the lines of one of Shingo Nakamura’s oeuvres. Lots of synths, bass with a bit of oomph, satisfying, but somewhat predicable, chord progressions, and some sweet but essentially meaningless lyrics. This is head-down, late-night boppy stuff, no thinking required.

As for the sounds, well, I’ve long owned GForce’s impOSCar virtual synth, having played with an original OSC Oscar synth in a music shop in Oxford back when it first appeared in the early 80s. However, I’d not really paid it much attention (yes, having too many synth plugins is a problem). GForce released version 3, a very nice upgrade that grabbed my attention. Its arpeggiator, filters, polyphony, built-in effects, and all-round gnarliness just needed to be unleashed in lavish quantities, so here we are.

impOSCar3 is responsible for the bass, two pads, and a twinkly arpeggiator. The strummy guitar is by UJAM’s Amber2 virtual guitarist that I also used on “Pair programming”.

Bass and Drums are played by Logic’s usual players, with some manual overrides. Vocals are by Synthesizer V, as usual, but using the basic “Mai” voice database, which I used on “AI Girlfriend” for its wonderful squeaky artificiality. I’ve toned that down by pitching it lower and pushing the gender and tension sliders around appropriately. The repeat of the chorus has the more believable Solaria II voice on the backing vocal.

I came up with the main chord progression while just noodling about, and then asked Claude to suggest some alternative sections. There’s not a great deal of variation, but no worries, we’re just out to make a bangin’ choon.

To keep things interesting, I learned all about Logic’s Remix FX. This plugin has some fairly basic controls for filtering, repeating, gating, bitcrushing that are individually outdone by other plugins, but they are all in one place, are very easy to use and to automate, making things very dynamic.

Screen shot of Logic's Remix FX, showing it in action during the ending, using a high-pass filter and bit crushing effects.
Remix FX in action during the ending, using a high-pass filter and bitcrushing effects.

There is a lot of automation in this song: filter sweeps, pans, levels, reverb sends, plus all the swirly goodness that the Remix FX plugin provides. This is squarely in the genre of BT’s “Movement in Still Life”, which has production values I can only aspire to, but it’s all just for fun. Now go boogie, by yourself or otherwise!

It doesn’t mean I’m lonely
when I’m dancing by myself.
I’m happy when I’m dancing,
I don’t need your help.
My night-times are for dancing;
you can’t take that away.
Dancing is for everyone,
but you don’t have to stay.

If you like this song, please consider supporting me by buying my albums on Bandcamp, and sharing links to my music on your socials.

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Pair Programming

Sorry to mislead you, but this page is not about pair programming. Well it is, but it’s mainly about a song about pair programming. Or is it a love song? Who can tell.

Pair programming is an approach where two developers sit side by side, sharing a keyboard and mouse, and work together on the same task/problem together, critiquing, explaining, understanding, and supporting each other’s work, taking it in turns to “drive”. It’s a good environment for mentoring, onboarding new developers, and working on difficult bugs. Obviously there’s close personal interaction in such a situation, so I thought I’d explore the romantic possibilities in a song!

While this song is entitled “Pair Programming”, there isn’t any direct reference to the activity of that name. It might use some terminology familiar to those used to it, but I’ve deliberately used double meanings and ambiguity to leave things “uncommitted”. Hopefully it will still make sense to someone that has no idea what pair programming is, and takes the sentiments at face value! I’m not going to list them all, but hopefully some of the puns will elicit a few groans. My favourite line is “we could share a set of keys”, which could refer to the humble shared keyboard, but more intriguingly the prospect of moving in together. Similarly, does “making something beautiful, all it takes is you and me” refer to their co-written code, or forthcoming offspring? There is a minor break of the “4th wall” when our protagonists refer to “striking up a little nerd duet”.

The final line, repeated a few times, refers to “writing love letters to the people that we’re going to be”. This is a reference to a nice programming maxim – write clean, understandable code as a love letter to your future self, that you will thank yourself for when you revisit it to refactor or revise it, possibly many years later. Here though, they could easily be talking about each other.

I’ve said before that I often start out with how I want a song to feel, rather than any particular genre, instrumentation, or content; this one is no different. In terms of influences, this song owes a lot to “You + me”, by Public Service Broadcasting, from the lovely “Every Valley” album. It’s just a beautiful, simple duet, and from a production perspective I love the initial dry mix with that clean guitar that slowly builds into full orchestral backing. I don’t understand a word of Welsh though 🤷‍♂️.

Vocals are, again, courtesy of Synthesizer V, newly upgraded to version 2.0, using the Solaria and NOA Hex voice databases. It’s possibly the most complex set of vocals I’ve written, from both a lyrical and harmonic perspective. Building those harmonies was quite tricky. I also made much better use of the UJAM Amber2 virtual guitarist plugin I bought for “I’ve only met you once”, using more of its pattern library. I decided to go to town a bit for the orchestral backing, so in addition to Logic’s lush Studio Strings, we also have a wind ensemble (bassoon, clarinet, oboe, cor anglais, and flute), and some extra clarinets.

Bass and drums are, comme d’hab, using Logic’s built-in Bass and Drum kit libraries, played by Logic’s excellent players.

The overall mix is really quite simple (there are only 9 tracks), but I used a lot of automation, particularly on the reverb sends on the voices; dry voices have a certain raw appeal, but they really come to life with a little ambiance, and I wanted to capture that transition, which you can hear in the first verse.

To finish it off with a little more romance, I commissioned a sweet, Flamenco-ish nylon string guitar solo from Spanish guitarist Javi Sanchez on Fiverr.

Anyway, this duet is sung by a pair of developers who are clearly into each other, and I wish them all the luck in the world.

[M verse]
I love flying solo
I’ve made the whole world I can see
I might be going in the wrong direction,
but I’m enjoying being free.
I could use another point of view
to put my feet back on the ground.
Somebody to take my hand
guide me back in to land 

[F verse]
I see the words fall from your lips
in ideas that flowed from fingertips.
You’ve got my attention now,
we just need to work out how
you’re finishing my sentences,
reading between the lines.
Together we’ll make something
beautiful.

[Chorus]
We’re writing love letters
to the people that we’re going to be.
I was hoping that perhaps one day
we could share a set of keys.
With you by my side we’d be a force
taking turns to take the lead.
We're building something beautiful
all it takes is you and me.

[Verse]
I’m staying up reading your every last letter
wondering if I could have said it any better.
Your echoes filling the gaps I’ve left,
striking up a little nerd duet.
I love the way you question
every choice I think I've made.
Not afraid to challenge, reconsider, rearrange.
When I’m sitting side by side with you
one and one is sometimes more than two.

[Chorus]
We’re writing love letters
to the people that we’re going to be.
I was hoping that perhaps one day
we could share a set of keys.
With you by my side we’d be a force
taking turns to take the lead.
We're building something beautiful
all it takes is you and me.

[Outro]
We’re writing love letters
to the people that we’re going to be.

If you like this song, please consider supporting me by buying my albums on Bandcamp, and sharing links to my music on your socials.