Steve Winwood - Valerie

Click on 480p for better sound.

This time it is a rendition of a classic track from Steven Winwood's 1982 album "Talking back to the Night". Chances are you've heard the 2004 remix "Call on me", which actually samples only a few seconds.

The vocal is recorded with Yamaha Vocaloid, of which I only have a female singer available, so please don't read too much into the song's lyrics. :)

The original track can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anCg5EiB2AM&fmt=18

A few boring details:
* Tempo: 116.33 bpm
* Played mostly in A major.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Steve
• Winwood
• Valerie
• UF70
• Xboard
• 49
• Reason
• Vocaloid
• smartech

[seventhwave87]

Very nice - I'd love to know what chords you used - I'm baffled trying to work them out from the song.

[polysmart]

@seventhwave87 Search ultimateguitar for chords. There are several extended chords I doubt I transcribed accurately for the song anyway.

[peanutzinuk]

Polysmart - thanks for explaining how you do it! However, I'm none the wiser as I'm not a musician - ecept for the time I played a Hofner violin Bass like Paul McCarthney's - back in '64, when i had my own local band, "The Gi-T-Ups. I would be interested in hearing what Vocaloid 3 sound like when it's up and runing. Tks for taking the time to answer my questions. CFN. PS - I'm gonna listen to you again!

[polysmart]

@peanutzinuk

This set here: smartech.bandcamp.com/album/10­-reasons has a few other examples of generated lyrics (especially Telephone), in case you are interested.

[peanutzinuk]

Polysmart - had to look @ you vid a 2nd time. Again - awesome! Not knowing anything of the technicalities, were words/phrases assigned to each keys(s)? Great sound. Tks for uploading this great song.

[polysmart]

@peanutzinuk Thanks for your kind comments. The synthesized singing is not done in real time. I couldn't get Vocaloid to play phonemes in real-time, and the program is overall rather slow. Instead I rendered the voice as a wav file and played it synchronously with the other instrumentation. I haven't used it in a while since it only runs in Windows XP. I hope Vocaloid 3 will support real-time performance features when it comes out.

[equesfuscus]

That was ... awesome! I love the way you add a number of ambient effects throughout the song, while you take Winwood's instrumental tones and embellish them with something new. I bet Steve Winwood is proud to see someone emulate his work this way. At least he should be.

[zergling333]

I just want to say that i am an extreme fan of this song. classic hit.

I know you don't know me in person, but I am a strong music critic, and I want you to take this compliment from me. Absolutely fantastic job with the solo, you tweaked it to the right sound to make it your own. I absolutely cannot get enough of this solo. Great Job.

[gustavdito]

Excellent...very good

[gergsllaf]

valerieeeeeeeeeeeeeeee call on me :)

[MrPman851]

What keyboards are you using here?

[peanutzinuk]

3rd time - still sounds great! And still figuring out how 'ya do it! Tks very much. CFN