A present for my wife (FINAL Version now Available!)

I wrote this song as a birthday present for my wife. I thought the good folks here in the Song forum would like to hear it.



FINAL VERSION NOW AVAILABLE!!! ----- This song couldn't have reached its potential without the folks on this Cakewalk Forum, THANK YOU!!!

"Gabriella" aka - "Memories of You" (FINAL VERSION)
hi-fi URL: http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=5634447&q=hi

"Gabriella" aka - "Memories of You" (ORIGINAL)
hi-fi URL: http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=5638969&q=hi

I have a couple areas I'd like feedback on.

General Mix:

Vocal Mix:

Bass Track performance:

Thanks for your feedback!!

Matthew

Well Matthew - what can I say. First things first: Gabriella is going to love that, for sure. You've said what you wanted to say in the lyrics, no doubt, and one can hear it came from the heart! So, what a nice tribute to her!
Now to the song itself:
General Mix - I think, generally your mix sounds very clear to me. It's not as spacious as I would have liked, but that's just a preference. When listening to the whole mix, I've noticed the bass lingering somewhere in the back most of the time (there are times, curiously enough, when it appears to be more upfront). The cymbals/crashes of the drums are too prominent, imo - but that's a minor tweak. The vocals could come up more to the front; it's not that they are too soft, but I think they should stand out a bit more. The whole drum kit you could bring back a tad.
I absolutely love the BGVs, Matt!! The vocal arrangement (and the way you've mixed all the voices together) sounds awesome. This, I'm sure, must have taken you a long time. The vocals are definitely the backbone of this song. Very well done.
As said above, I would have liked to hear more of the bass. I don't seem to actually hear an organized bass line - or a pattern for that matter. It sort of comes and goes (headphones). Did you play it yourself?
I have noticed that absolutely wonderful chord change between verse 2 and verse 3. To a chord lover like me, that was a treat! I also liked the change of pace that starts at around 3:25.
All in all, a wonderful song - a successful tribute. Good job.
Heinz.

Hi Matthew,

General mix: guitar sounds a little to far in the background to me. Maybe pan it a little more to center and bring it up a little--maybe reduce verb a little on it. Bass could come up overall a little too. In places, it seemed to vanish a little.

Vocal mix: I thought vocal mix was pretty good balance between lead and BGV-overall vocal level I think is good.

Bass performance: I would choose another note rather than the 5th of the chord at 1:12 or resolve to the 1 a 4th above. I think walking quarter notes might be more effective than the rhythmic bassline starting at 3:28. To me it seems to loose a little foundation there. Overall though I liked the bass track.

Good song-I'm sure your wife will love it!

Clark

ORIGINAL: clarkeo

Hi Matthew,

General mix: guitar sounds a little to far in the background to me. Maybe pan it a little more to center and bring it up a little--maybe reduce verb a little on it. Bass could come up overall a little too. In places, it seemed to vanish a little.

Vocal mix: I thought vocal mix was pretty good balance between lead and BGV-overall vocal level I think is good.

Bass performance: I would choose another note rather than the 5th of the chord at 1:12 or resolve to the 1 a 4th above. I think walking quarter notes might be more effective than the rhythmic bassline starting at 3:28. To me it seems to loose a little foundation there. Overall though I liked the bass track.

Good song-I'm sure your wife will love it!

Clark

Clark, Much thanks for the detail. It's extremely helpful to get specifics like that. I wasn't able to use the 1st a 4th above that note at 1:12. It seemed to change the resolving chord all together and didn't fit, however, I did take your advice on the walking bass line and have re-recorded ALL the bass tonight. Here is a copy:

Memories of You (With Walking bass and all mix change suggestions)
hi-fi URL: http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=5638969&q=hi

Please let me know what you think.

Hi Matthew,
I didn't hear you're first mix but this one sounded pretty good except the vocals seemed washed away at times. You have a good voice which needs to come out front more. And the BGV's and guitars were great. The bass was fine, I heard one unresolved bass note that created a tension that you might want there and might be something to want to hear upon relistening to the song. It's those little things that we want people to look for when listening to our songs over again. The surprises and unpredictability. Catches and hooks. So we take chances. Ok, enough already, i need to go to bed.
Praise God!
Rob

Matt, You have just got to sing this over and nail that vocal crossover part. It's the only part I think you need to revisit. This is for the wife and you want it perfect. Just get in the Spirit and do it. You can do it! Get er done buddy. I'm praying for you right now that you will nail it down tight. Great song. Praise the Lord.

Matt, I haven't read the other replies, so this may have been covered.
Great vocals and a terrific harmony. Guitars sound good, particularly the lead, and especially where the lead goes into guitar harmony. The snare comes across as a bit loud throughout, except the last verse where it drops out altogether. rhythm guitar and bass are too low in the mix. And the entire mix is really quiet. But it's a really good song, and well performed. I'm sure Mrs. Hoffman loved it.
Mark

ORIGINAL: AsherLongley

ORIGINAL: clarkeo

Hi Matthew,

General mix: guitar sounds a little to far in the background to me. Maybe pan it a little more to center and bring it up a little--maybe reduce verb a little on it. Bass could come up overall a little too. In places, it seemed to vanish a little.

Vocal mix: I thought vocal mix was pretty good balance between lead and BGV-overall vocal level I think is good.

Bass performance: I would choose another note rather than the 5th of the chord at 1:12 or resolve to the 1 a 4th above. I think walking quarter notes might be more effective than the rhythmic bassline starting at 3:28. To me it seems to loose a little foundation there. Overall though I liked the bass track.

Good song-I'm sure your wife will love it!

Clark

Clark, Much thanks for the detail. It's extremely helpful to get specifics like that. I wasn't able to use the 1st a 4th above that note at 1:12. It seemed to change the resolving chord all together and didn't fit, however, I did take your advice on the walking bass line and have re-recorded ALL the bass tonight. Here is a copy:

Memories of You (With Walking bass and all mix change suggestions)
hi-fi URL: http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=5638969&q=hi

Please let me know what you think.

Hey Matt,

I like the changes in the bass line. I do think it gives a little more foundation and it kind of accents that 16th note passage (cool.) I still think the guitar could stand a little less verb. Nice work!

Clark

ORIGINAL: mcourter

Matt, I haven't read the other replies, so this may have been covered.
Great vocals and a terrific harmony. Guitars sound good, particularly the lead, and especially where the lead goes into guitar harmony. The snare comes across as a bit loud throughout, except the last verse where it drops out altogether. rhythm guitar and bass are too low in the mix. And the entire mix is really quiet. But it's a really good song, and well performed. I'm sure Mrs. Hoffman loved it.
Mark

Mark, Thanks for the comments. I really like the guitar lead. I recorded it twice and panned the individual performances to give the lead more room. It was fun to do (and my wife loves my guitar playing, so this is a great add to the song). Thanks for the comments on the snare.

MOD snare level, CHECK

Hey Matt,

I like the changes in the bass line. I do think it gives a little more foundation and it kind of accents that 16th note passage (cool.) I still think the guitar could stand a little less verb. Nice work!

Clark

Clark, I totally missed your reverb modification suggestion, after listening to the song again, I hear the need to change that. Thanks again, I'll work on it tonight and post another update. -Matt

I just posted a fully updated version of this song.

1. Reduced reverb on rhythm acoustic
2. Adjusted levels on snare, drums in general, bass, vocals
3. Corrected vocal "youch!" before guitar solo

There were some semi-major changes so if you hear anything that sounds off, please let me know. You've all been great. Thanks for helping me perfect this song (as much as I can)

I just posted a fully updated version of this song.

Yeh, much more freedom at the top, excellent.

You could even bring out the bass a bit more by putting a separate VC MasterMix on it, plus an instance of Xcita! over it, this makes it superfat, but if you bring it down in the mix, you'll notice you can mix it in at the same level as before, but much more separated from the rest.

bit hard to find the plug these days, it's free, would get it while you still can, it's very useful at times.

http://www.uv.es/~ruizcan/p_vst.htm

I'm getting an error message when I try to stream. I'll try again later.

<edit> I had to go to you myspace page to listen so have to listen at lower bitrate. It sounds good. I think that helped the guitar to bring down the verb some. I agree with Rofl that it'd be nice to fatten up the bass a little but I think this sounds great! Really has come together. A really nice tribute to your wife too.

Clark

Matt, I told you you could nail those vocals and you did extremely well buddy. This song is done and extremely AWESOME!!!! WOW, what a difference. Make me almost wish I was your wife. She's going to love you when she get this. Praise the Lord Mat, you got this down to a science. Absolutely wonderful job on this and a great song to boot!! John

Very nice! Sweet vox, and I love the drum groove... I'm always impressed when someone manages to get that subtle swing feel. A "frankenstein of loops & one hits" definitely did the job!

But I've got to say this just because it cracked me up so much. I totally mis-read your title: "A present for my wife (FINAL Version now Available!)"

I won't say what I accidentally read, but I'll just say that sometimes the capital letters "FI" can look like an "A".