I’m 60% done with my seventh CD, which currently has no title. During my last album, I became painfully aware that my voice was starting to go. Some of the smooth tonality I’d worked to achieve was giving way to a gravel-tinged croak, and that might be fine for some, but it wouldn’t work for me. I finished the album (Attack of the 80s Synths) and started looking into all of the different new vocal synthesizers to see if any of them were good enough to use. If I couldn’t sing, I’d find someone or something else that could. Besides – I’d always wanted to work with other singers.
After much reading and research, I picked the one my daughter told me to use, which is Synthesizer V. It turned out to be a great choice – it’s not a subscription model, so I own it. I bought four vocal databases with it, the best of which being Solaria.
Solaria is the voice database provided by the super talented and wonderful singer Emma Rowley. You know how you can sample a bunch of drums and put them in a drum machine? Well, we can do that with singers now, too. On the bridge, there are two other Synth V singers – Hayden and Natalie.
Programming Synth V singers is sort of painful and time consuming. But when you hear the end result, I think it’s pretty astonishing. It really sounds like Emma Rowley is singing this song, because in a way, she is. It’s her voice. It’s just my words and melody.
The drums come from the LinnDrum machine in Logic. This track also features the Arturia Model D (MiniMoog), the Cherry Audio version of the Arp Quadra, the Arturia Juno 60, and my black Fender Stratocaster through a HX Stomp. Lyrics below the track.
FALSE ALARM
2 am, you leave without a sound
The city is asleep and you
know you won’t be seen
so you drive back home
and fall to sleep alone
You got no obligations
You didn’t even tell him your name
Chorus
He thinks he might find out tomorrow
but you didn’t leave your number
because you don’t want him to find you
Just another false alarm
Every night, another place to be
You’re looking for perfection
You’ll know it when you see it
and you’re dressed to kill
they’re asking you to dance
and no one measures up
But you’ve got all the time in the world
Chorus
You know you might find him tomorrow
And you might give him your number
And then a spark becomes a fire
Not another false alarm
Bridge (Hayden and Natalie)
You know that waiting for perfection
could take a lifetime, maybe more
And while you’re waiting for perfection
it could be walking out the door
Chorus
You know you might find him tomorrow
And you might give him your number
And then a spark becomes a fire
Not another false alarm