https://soundcloud.com/dave-ranck/the-song-of-llorienne
 
I had a lot of fun doing this one. Comments / criticism welcome. It's an orchestral fantasy and my first attempt at 8Dio's vocal library "Jenifer". Still working on the mastering / mixing thing. Not my strong suit.
 
 - Dave

Hi Dave,
 
Great use of Jenifer, which I've never heard of before (had to google it).
 
There's a lot of dynamic there, with the song starting off quite quiet. And it builds steadily throughout the three minutes of the song. That's a nice change that, although it caught me out a bit because I had turned up the volume a touch to begin with. I should have noticed that from the SoundCloud graphic haha 
 
To me, the mix sounds perfect on my headphones. I guess I'm not qualified to comment on the mastering other than, as a listener (rather than an engineer) this piece does not disappoint.
 
As I said, I'm not familiar with Jenifer, or any of 8dio's stuff... Are the vocal samples "played" and can therefore have their pitch shifted?
 
cheers
 
andy

Thanks Andy!
 
There are 3 types of samples in Jenifer:

• Legato vowels  - these are mapped to keys and can be played like any sampled instrument. This is what is heard in the first verse. The legato transitions are quite nice.
• Phrases - these are short musical phrases recorded in different keys and styles. You can't "play" these like an instrument since the pitches are baked into the samples. The second verse consists of phrases pitch shifted down 1/2 tone.
• Arcs - different vowels of different lengths. These I did not use.

I think it is a beautiful library. My favorite solo vocal library with Shevannai a close second.
 
Thanks for listening,
 
Dave
 

Very nice Dave - excellent build up and crescendo towards the end. Plenty of variation to keep your interest. 
Good stuff

Thanks for the info Dave. I wish I was able to use this stuff in my own works, but I don't think it would suit the material I create. Who knows though... I could always try something like this out one day 

8Dio makes some ridiculously awesome Kontakt libraries, the whole collection seems worth getting, but it's way too expensive. I really like this track. I like how you play with density and texture throughout the piece, I think you really did a great job adding some great contrast. I like how the voice became a part of the ensemble initially, just a voice adding a nice color to the harmonies, and then how you stripped down the ensemble when she started 'singing' something more intelligible, and then how you increased the level of density with the vocal harmonizations and the rest of the ensemble was also cool. When the ensemble took over later on and carried the tune by itself, that was also a really nice way to keep developing contrast within the piece. Really, the way the voice existed in both worlds, one as a soloist and one as kind of an accompanist to the ensemble was a really nice touch from an orchestration perspective.
 
I have to ask because I am always curious about this. How did you go about sequencing this?

Amine Belkhouche
How did you go about sequencing this?

Hi Amine 
 
It's well worth a trip around Dave's website
 
http://www.daveranck.com/
 
 

synkrotron
Thanks for the info Dave. I wish I was able to use this stuff in my own works, but I don't think it would suit the material I create. Who knows though... I could always try something like this out one day 

Thanks Andy. I don't know, I can maybe hear some Jenifer is some of your stuff. It would be an adventure to fit her into your style of music. I think you could pull it off!
 
Thanks also for mentioning my site.
 
- Dave

Amine Belkhouche
 
I have to ask because I am always curious about this. How did you go about sequencing this?

Amine -
 
Thanks for listening so closely and taking the time to write thoughtful comments. I really appreciate it.
 
I had a basic idea for this piece for about a week, starting with a simple chord progression of 
Em / C / D / Em / Em / G / Am / Bm. I first wrote a melody and recorded a simple piano track to use as a reference. When I started using the vocal library, I wanted to use the phrases so I had to spend some time playing with phrases to get something even close to the original melody. It came out quite a bit different in the end. I had to pitch shift the vocal down a 1/2 step to get in the key I wanted (Dm).
 
I recorded the 2nd verse with the phrases first, and then added the harp and piano. Next I did the first verse (the legato vowels) and added the orchestration with the strings and other instruments. That flowed into the 2nd verse where I added some counterpoint and the full string orchestra. Now I  really had a feel for where it was going and I added a quiet beginning and the transition sections to the final sections.
 
I knew from the start I wanted a big final section with the full orchestra with the vocal singing a counter melody in the upper range. It just shows off her voice so well. That's how I approached the composition.
 
Is that what you were asking or were you looking to understand how the parts were programmed in Sonar? Something else?
 
Thanks again for your comments,
 
Dave

Beautiful. Very nicely constructed.