"Cryin' In My Happiness" - Remix 4/30/12

Hi to all,

Here's another blues song I have been working on for a while.  I wanted to write a blues song about being happy that someone loves you instead of sad because you're lonely.

Much thanks to Heidi Holliday for her nice background vocals.
All instruments played by yours truly except for the horn samples.

Some interesting production notes:
Played live drum pads triggering SD3 and then tweaked as needed.  

Horns were demo samples from New York Brass.  I wanted something like this so I Googled "horn samples" and found them quickly.  I downloaded about 30 samples (all free) and was able to splice them into the song. That was fun and I think they sound really good.  Thank you New York Brass!

Playing guitar lead like this is hard for me but I used the comping technique to record multiple takes on a section and then compiled them all later.  This was also fun.

Hope you like it and please feel free to comment. 

Update: Re-mix    4/30/12: I took some boom out of the bass and kick, quantized more of the drum part, edited the kick part in places, brought up keys and rhythm guitar and brought down some highs on the background vocals.  I think this is better.  Thanks to those that pointed out some of these things!  What do you think of this new mix?

http://soundcloud.com/jimmy-saad/cryin-in-my-happiness-1-1
Rimshot

Soundcloud is back up.  

Those horns do sound good ! So does the rest for that matter. Only listening on lappy, but it all sounds good except for the bass being slightly missing, but I'm 99% sure that's the crappy speakers at play. Really enjoyed listening to that - I'm off for another go now !

Great tune. Love the lead vocal and harmonies. Those are some fine sounding samples for free.  Mix sounds good on my end. Kudos!

Kev

Hi Bapu - thanks much for your support and help!

Paulo, thanks for the listen.  Let me know if the bass is OK on your normal system.  

Lynn - thank you so much for your kind words.  I just updated my first thread with the New York Brass link.  I will tell Heidi you liked her vocals.  This was her first session ever.

Hi Kev, thanks much.  I am mixing using my new Equator D5's so I really appreciate that it sounds good out there.  I will pass on the vocal comments to Heidi as well. 

Wookiee - thanks for the listen.

Rimshot

I like it overall. I feel like the hat pattern makes the groove feel rushed. Too swing and not enough sitting in the pocket. But that's just me.

I thought the kit sounded fine. I thought you meant to have the boomy but open sounding kick. So it seemed natural to me.

Wow, crits on the drums for a drummer! HANG YOUR HEAD RIMMY! LOL!
 
And don't even THINK about criticizing my vocals on my next tune...

Love it. Great stuff.

You're just good at everything, aren't you?  This is GREAT!!  :)  LOVE those horns!  Good grief...slinky piano & organ, inspired drumming, superb guitars and so easy-to-listen-to vocals to boot.  I love it!!! :) 

Janet - you always make me feel good.  Thanks much!

Shad - thank you for the listen.  Are you sure the bass sounds muddy or is it the sound of the kick?  I am not getting a boomy/muddy bass on my system, phones, or car stereo.  As mentioned in a previous thread, the kick is intentionally fat (lke a double-headed kick drum). 

Appreciate your comments. 

Rimshot

Nice job Rimshot. I like an old blues tune and you nailed that feel in spades!Great vocals too.

Sforzando! horns sound excellent... cool tune... I do love a blues shuffle... Well done...

bottom sounds quite good to me... I am hearing some reverb on the kick, but I kinda' like it... 

Thanks for checking for me Frank!

Terry - thank you much.  I love your work BTW.

Rimshot