[adrianallan]

Hi

This is a song that I wrote from scratch.

After months of trying to find a female vocalist, I gave up and decided to buy Vocaloid 2. The other other instrument sounds are from Symphonic Orchestra.

See what you think - I know that there are some diction problems with the vocaloid, but I'm quite pleased with the tone quality. I think of it as a "demo" for a potential singer rather than a finished product.

The video is on this page - the "karaoke words" are there to make the problematic words clearer:

http://www.soundclick.com/members/de...r=adrian+allan


Please comment

Thanks

Adrian

[XGener8or]

I had higher expectations for vocaloid 2 to tell you the truth

[adrianallan]

I agree that the problems are with the diction. The musical side of things are better, I think.

It depends what you want to use it for - ideal for me to show that a song "works" .... and as a demo to give a real vocalist; but not ready for use as final commercial recording.

[Thomas Regin]

Adrian,

I'm going to be completely honest here.

I personally think that any vocal you could have sung or added yourself one way or another would have been better than this. Especially for demo purposes. I had to stop the video after a minute or so, because the vocal sounded so agonizingly synthetic.

When Vocaloid first came out I was pretty impressed with the official demos, but so far I haven't heard a single "user demo" that sounded anywhere close.

I would really recommend only using Vocaloid for background-vocals and even then very sparingly. It can't be too hard getting a female vocalist. I mean, these days, you can't throw a dead fish up in the air without hitting at least 50 girls claiming that they can sing. Whether or not they really can is up to you, but it can't be hard to find one!

Thomas.

[adrianallan]

fair enough - but perhaps your musical ear is more finely tuned than most people's - who have said that the vocals give an illustration of how it could sound, even though it is a demo, including the designer of Notation Composer software, who was positive.

Although there are many female vocalists, the range in the song is too demanding for many that I've tried.

I posted the demo on youtube without vocals a few months ago and asked for interested singers. I sent out many MP3 backing tracks, but people make vague promises, but then you never hear from them again.

Thanks for the comments, but I hope that people can see behind the obvious limitations and judge the potential of the song itself - which is what I'm struggling to do - find recognition as a songwriter/ composer and not as a sound engineer.

[Dannthr]

find recognition as a songwriter/ composer and not as a sound engineer

Good luck with that.





Do you remember GENERIC FOOD branding?

I do.

We stopped buying GENERIC because one time we found a finger bone in our can of refried beans. BTW, fingers aren't supposed to be in refried beans.

Unfortunately, GENERIC branding disappeared because the low grade food quality basically tainted the notion of GENERIC branding.

What we're talking about here is psychology.

Let me put it this way:

Your unwillingness to make your own demos sparkle and shine are tantamount to GENERIC branding. Selling yourself is not about who you are as a composer or a songwriter, it's about what we believe you are as a composer or songwriter.

I couldn't listen to your whole song because you didn't spend time trying to make vocaloid sound like a singer and I'm willing to look at your potential.

Frankly, people are stupid. You have to take them all the way. Demonstrating potential is not about what I think you can do, it's about what I've heard you do. Growth is not a factor in a hiring/contracting situation. No one is going to hire you because you have growth potential, they're going to hire you because you can get the job done day one. No one is going to look for the potential in a song if they have to imagine the song itself being better.

You just simply have to MAKE IT BETTER YOURSELF.

Or hire someone, I don't care.

But don't post a song and reject the crits you get for it just because you believe it can be better--we're telling you how.

[adrianallan]

Well you've said it, I suppose.

You have to be a good writer and producer nowadays and although I'm fairly confident in one area, I still have some things to learn in others; whereas once upon a time a writer could come up with a great tune and pass it up the line to the next man to work on, and so on.

I wasn't rejecting the criticism, I just thought that people might want to hear the results of the vocaloid. I did spend a lot of time on it, but it will never sound like a real voice.

I hope I'm sufficient musician to not not delude myself completely - was it THAT terrible ?

[tys]

Great melody. Would fit in any musical theatre-play.

But true- it's not a good production. But don't mind. People can learn how to produce - not how to write good music

Mathias

[adrianallan]

apart from the vocals, was there anything else obviously wrong with the production ?

To my ears - it's not that bad - but the fine details of production are not my forte and I'm willing to learn.

[Thomas Regin]

Originally Posted by adrianallan

I hope I'm sufficient musician to not not delude myself completely - was it THAT terrible ?

I'm sorry to say this, but it was horrendous. It moved all focus away from an otherwise pretty nice melody.

Dan is right - if you have any plans to make it in this business today you need to work a LOT more on your production skills. The old days are dead and gone unless your name is John Williams or Alan Silvestri etc. Modern composers need to be able to turn an idea into a nearly finished product. It does sound like you have the ability to write lovely melodies, but you also need to have a market for them and "musical theater plays" like Mathias mentioned are hard to come by, so you need to be able to work in many different styles.

apart from the vocals, was there anything else obviously wrong with the production ?

The production was very dry and sounded very synthetic. It had its good parts, no doubt, but especially the piano sounded very dry and emotionless. It needed sustain pedal.

fair enough - but perhaps your musical ear is more finely tuned than most people's

Yes, my ears are very finely tuned!

Thomas