Passionate Hearts (Long Ballad)

[Glenn Stanton]

so, my friend who wrote this song back in H.S. (1978?) liked my updated electronic version, and thought about doing it as a ballad. being instructional, i decided to show the various steps to go from composition to finished via a number of emails and mp3 files (and was resounding mocked by some ? )...  on the rock part you can practically smell the lasers ? lol

 

basically - all synthetic vocals. using SynthV and the Natalie, Kevin, Asterian, and Solaria voices. i created the basic forms - a simple acoustic version followed by a progressive rock-like thingie using HookPad. export MIDI. import each into a separate project  and set up instruments, export to WAV. about 12 tracks (mainly drums) in the acoustic, and 18 tracks in the rock version (11 are drums). two vocals each. 

then create the vocals in Synth V - since they all going to sing all of it, i create the first track and get the vocals close. probably about 3 hours. export all four vocalists... import into their respective mix projects along with the instrument tracks. mix and export as 2-track WAV.

import the two WAV into a new project and do the overlap, a touch of reverb, some Ozone 10, and, voila! export as 2-track WAV and MP3 (using the export manager, again).

so all in all - about 12 hours between the two projects. acoustic tracks are jazz brush kit, upright bass, grand piano, cello, and hammered dulcimer (solo). the rock track is fairfax 1 rock drums, upright bass, b3 organ (pad), mono super saw-wave synth, electric guitar w/ tremolo, les paul with effects for lead.

 

Edited July 12, 2023 by Glenn Stanton

[AndyB01]

These are synthetic vocals? ?

Sounds pretty impressive to me - nice guitar tone - really great job.

Andy

[jack c.]

beautiful fine job.jack c

[KSband]

I had no idea you could do robot singing, kind of crazy. Nice work.

[Bajan Blue]

I think you can still tell these are synthetic vocals, but only just!!! I remember some years ago, trying a friend of mines full version of Vocaloid - even after a lot of work it sounded dreadful!!

But now, this is getting exceptionally good and I am sure will only get better.

Interesting

Nigel

 

 

[Glenn Stanton]

yeah, they tend to over-articulate and as i'm learning - i have to create word separations to better mimic how i want them pronounced (when the syllabic controls don't do it) and even tweaking in Melodyne (mainly for the de-essing) doesn't quick get the feel right. but agreed - getting close and in the right type of music or as backing vocals, they can be pretty hard to distinguish.

EDIT: i found that in the phoneme edits you can set the "s" and other sounds levels to effectively "de-ess" right in the performance, then add a very light de-esser to capture anything which may jump out.

Edited July 12, 2023 by Glenn Stanton

[bjornpdx]

I  bought Synthesizer V, Kevin and Solaria recently and I'm slowly getting the hang of making the voices sound adequate.  You did a great job with them!   Is that "Kevin" at the beginning of the song?
-Bjorn

[Glenn Stanton]

the "ballad" part is Natalie on lead + Asterian on the harmony / echo. i tweaked her voice to be soulful and warm, and moved gender to the right about 0.05, to thicken slightly. Asterian - as is. the key was using a lot of tweaks on the notes &  phoneme settings. and each voice does something a bit different.

the second half ("rock" portion) is Kevin on lead and Solaria on harmony / echo / oohs in lead solo section. both pushed the gender to the right to thicken, and a lot of work on Kevin to try and reduce the articulation and theatrical performance. a lot more on the notes & phoneme settings there. a lot of tweaks on phoneme levels and durations.

so it took me about 3 hours to get them tweaked to the level you hear. I think Natalie's voice is one of the more realistic ones. the male vocals ones (including vocaloid products) does not yet rise to the level of realism yet. i think if you can "bury" the male vocal slightly and really tweak, its possible to get a decent version though.

Edited July 12, 2023 by Glenn Stanton

[Larry T.]

Hi Glenn. Just my $.02. The synth voices don't have the varied inflections that we do. The overall vocal impression I get is stilted, self conscious and unnatural. The lead voice at the beginning is mixed too high. I'd love to hear human voices take a try at the song. Just my opinion. I understand this is a part of the future and will get progressively better. Good luck!!????

[Glenn Stanton]

thanks! yeah, in the ballad the vocal is a bit high but i was looking for a "soft" instrumental effect. definitely the synthetic vocals are still a work in progress ? i did this as a demo for my friend who was looking to create a new version as a ballad with a female vocalist, and then another friend complained it was too lame. this one being a pink floyd fan, i turned around the next day with the floyd-like version. finally i thought - why not combine them and get them both happy? ? 

[Glenn Stanton]

On 7/12/2023 at 6:13 PM, Larry T. said:

I'd love to hear human voices take a try at the song. 

i did an electronic version a while back - my vocals. i have a number of really old (1982? 83?) actual live band recordings with some folks who could actually sing but they're buried someone in storage at the moment.

which is what got my friend to contemplate the ballad version ?  

Edited July 16, 2023 by Glenn Stanton
getting the century correct lol