Posted
Wow! Synfire is really fantastic!
Although I have barely scratched the surface of Synfire and most concepts are still mysteries, I still decided to post my very first training project. Maybe it can be of some help to other newbies. It started yesterday evening when I, by some mysterious reason, stumbled upon a video on YouTube with a live performance by a Bulgarian female choir. The lead singer was called Neli Andreeva so I googled the name and found, to my surprise, that she had three free songs for download at last.fm!
One on the songs caught my attention. It was only 38 sec long and no had accompanying instruments, only her beautiful voice. This morning when I woke up I decided to use it for a project in Synfire.
This is what I did: (maybe not a great workflow but I sure did have a lot of fun!)
I started by importing the song in Logic and then to Melodyne (as a plugin) and after some pitch correction, etc, I exported a MIDI file from Melodyne which I cleaned up in Logic and then imported in Synfire.
Then I "Rewired" Logic and Synfire and used the midi file to create a chord progression.
Then I made a library from the MIDI file and started having fun in Synfire! Wow! I was having the time of my life. I almost forgot to eat! Synfire is simply amazing!!!
I created several different voices or parts (or whatever it is called :) ) and exported this as MIDI to Logic where I put together a "song". It is definitely not a proper song in any respect since it doesn't have any kind of form or structure (or whatever it is called) but that is beside the point at this stage in my learning process.
Most sounds are standard Logic sounds but there are also some from Omnisphere and Tonehammer Liberambius.
The project is based entirely on the MIDI file from Melodyne. All those chord changes makes it a bit hysterical but what the heck, it is only for training and entertainment.
Anyway, tomorrow I will start another training project.
I can't wait till tomorrow :)
Click here to listen! (I don't know how to insert a fancy SoundCloud Player, but I'll try to find out until next time!)
Updated!! I removed the file due to potential copyright issues. I will ask the singer for permissing to use the song for testing :)
PS. It is probably not OK to use her song/voice in this way so maybe it is best to remove the file in a few days… Or what do you think? Are there special rules for "remixes"?
Sun, 2012-08-19 - 01:07 Permalink
Thanks soundcase and juergen for encouraging words. I am still amazed by the possibilities of Synfire. It seems like one can do a lot with almost nothing to begin with. :)
Sun, 2012-08-19 - 10:18 Permalink
Well done!
PS. It is probably not OK to use her song/voice in this way so maybe it
is best to remove the file in a few days… Or what do you think? Are
there special rules for "remixes"?
Go and ask her for permission. Don't expect a positive answer, though, unless you are a well-known producer.
Maybe you are lucky if she's still unsigned and open to cooperation. In any case you should offer to post a link to her original song. Mash-ups with her voice on the net may be considered good promotion today.
Everything else is asking for trouble. Serious trouble. It's her voice that makes your piece stand out and this is obvious. You could possibly use small
samples without danger, but these ought to be very short (one or two
words). However there is no law that supports this.
I remember seeing sound libraries with vocals for sale. You may want to look for these as a starting point. Once you caught fire and want to develop further, go look for unsigned artist on the web that may be interested in collaborating. There are thousands out there. I once ran a popular music portal with around 40,000 artists (long ago).
Sun, 2012-08-19 - 11:11 Permalink
Thanks Andre!
I will remove the file right away and, like you say, ask for permission. It is not really important as this is only an example of what I did for my first test in Synfire. :)
If she by a remote chance would grant such rights that would be great, but like you say there are lots of excellent sound libraries to choose from.
Sun, 2012-08-19 - 13:01 Permalink
There are a few sounds often used to subsitute vocals
Thanks, great idea!
I'll do some more work and upload a new legal version :)
But first I will start another project!
Fri, 2012-08-24 - 14:06 Permalink
Check out this one:
(http://www.loopmasters.com/product/details/1379/Siren-by-Veela)
She's got a beautiful clean voice and that whopping 1 GB of vocals is full of nice verses, phrases, hook lines, melody lines, laughter, spoken words, single tones (yep, you could even create a sampler instrument using her voice).
Don't get distracted by the simple techno beats. The vocals are clean without music. I reckon they are fine for other styles too. Chords are even included. I for one ordered the collection today (it's a download) and will probably use it for some sample projects and a tutorial video.
There seem to bee considerable community activity around her on the net:
Ha! I would not be surprised if we Synfire users could come up with something entirely different and mind bending!
8)
Fri, 2012-08-24 - 20:11 Permalink
Andre,
Thanks for that wonderful tip!!!!
I listened to the examples and bought "Siren by Veela" right away!!!
Fantastic stuff.
I also found a coupon code that gave me 20% discount: TWITCH20
No idea how long the code is valid…
Veela is now in my computer :)
Sat, 2012-08-25 - 14:16 Permalink
I have just learned the concept "remix kit". If you haven't come across this concept, a "remix kit" consists of individual sound tracks that can be used for creating new music. In some cases, like Veela that Andre wrote about, there are lots of audio fragments or "snippets" that can be pieced together in any order. In other cases there can be all the tracks of a complete song along with a MIDI file.
When googling "remix kit" one finds mostly what seems to be unauthorized compilations at obscure and dubious sites but there are exceptions. At loopmasters.com, where I bought Veela, they have many more products but Veela is definitely among the most popular ones. But as far as I can tell they do not offer complete songs.
I did, however, find something really great! I found an artist called "Unwoman"! She is a Californian cellist who is generous enough to provide remix kits of five of her songs! The kits consist of several individual 24-bit AIF tracks without effects and a MIDI file! That is absolutely amazing and totally free. And the tracks can even be used for commercial purposes with a few restrictions like: "If either Unwoman or you earn a profit over $10,000 directly from selling a remix, money will change hands in an equitable manner to be decided." :)
You can read more and download the remix kits at: http://unwoman.com/remix.html
Update: Now I have downloaded all the Unwoman remix kits and they are organized in different ways. The first two consists of complete tracks and MIDI while the others consists of some full length tracks and some samples plus MIDI.
Sat, 2012-08-25 - 23:13 Permalink
Here's what I started today. Still under construction, incomplete and rough pieces only:
(https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/track…)
The singer is from a different kit, containing only a single title "Circles". It's just 4 takes (dry & wet) purchased for 4 pounds. Did not yet get around to Veela. This little gem was just right for a first remix test.
That's what I did:
> Got 128 BPM vocals, originally produced for techno
> Have nice drums "Liquid Grooves" from 1996, at 55 BPM
> Changed tempo to 64 = 1:2 with vocals
> Pulled both into Logic (needed to to some time scaling on drums)
> Built a linear song structure based on 16 bars in Logic
> Synched with Synfire, mirrored the song structure as containers
> Understood rhythm of the voice (1/8 off-beat with syncopes, fix audio regions)
> Transcribed melody as static pitches & used Harmonizer to find cords (C# Minor)
> Added "Reverie" piano from Debussy, cut/trim/slice/etc
> Added a bass
> Added a 12-string guitar in B part (simple off-beat strokes, ostinato)
> Added "Auto-Chords" with a synth pad
Heck, working on remixes with vocals is real fun! I will post more progress later. This is a proof that techno can easily be turned into slow pop using Synfire ;-)EDIT: Updated the file with a little improved mix.
Sat, 2012-08-25 - 23:51 Permalink
Wow! That is really great and very inspiring! The piano is very nice. I will start a new remix project first tomorrow morning and try to make something from all my new stuff.
Sun, 2012-08-26 - 23:40 Permalink
OK, here is a new attempt at remixing a song. This time I based it on the vocals from Unwoman's song "The City". I wanted to do a fun and "original" verions so I avoided listening to the finished song and the audio tracks except the vocals.
This is what I did:
-> created a project in Logic and imported all the tracks from "The City", including the MIDI file of the song.
-> immediately muted all tracks except the vocals, not to be distracted by the original version
-> used Melodyne to create a MIDI track from the lead vocals and imported that into Synfire as a basis for chords.
-> spent a long time creating a progression that at least made some "sense" while listening to the vocals in Logic (via Rewire)
-> tried listening critically and deleted several "interesting" chords that were cool but too strange and completely unnecessary :)
-> in the standard Synfire phrase library I found an arpeggio that would work for a piano. I also found a suitable phrase the bass
-> found some nice guitar phrases in one of the user submitted libraries (from Mark Styles I believe. Thanks!)
-> After lots of fun tweaking I exported a MIDI file with: chords, piano, guitar, and bass and imported it into Logic.
-> spent (wasted) many hours on finding the "right" sounds. Right for what…? Ha ha :)
-> a funny detail. I used the plugin Antares "Throat" to make her voice sound a little darker and her a little older.
-> That's about it!
(Still to do: fixing the the vocal "aha's" in Melodyne so they fit the chords a little better)
And here it is:
(https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/track…)
When I finally listened through the whole original song I realize that my version turned out to be too close to it. And I thought that I was being so incredibly creative… :)
Mon, 2012-08-27 - 01:08 Permalink
Thanks Janamdo
Do you realize that a scale and harmony ( progression ) can influence the mood of a song ?
Well, yes, sort of. And I am beginning to realize many things partly because of you :) After reading your post about minimalism I started searching the internet for information about music theory and found some great videos at Mac Pro Videos!
And I just happen to have a subscription for MacPro Videos since some time. I started the subscription mainly for their videos on PhotoShop CS6 and Final Cut Pro X. But I wasn't aware that they also have three excellent videos on music theory, I just found that out yesterday :)
I watched the first two but the tempo is very high so I need to look at them many times before I get it!
But I learned a little about concepts like ostinato, modes, scales, etc. and I finally got an explanation of all those mysterious scales like, dorian, lydian, etc.
As you know "it is difficult to teach an old dog new tricks" but I have time and I learn little by little.
So thanks again for the "minimalism" post!!!