Early-morning singing

Super great vocal, and the mix is kind of burying it in many parts of the song. First chorus, the piano and the strings are both crushing the vocal.
 
I haven't heard one of your tunes before, and this mix is really really clear, well thought out, well panned, effects are so tasteful. And the lead vocal is one of the best I've heard around here. You fill it out with the bgv's - those are some brilliant parts.
 
Clearly you know what you are doing, but if you ever are listening to this song, and you say to yourself "hey, that's a cool string part!!!" then that means the strings are too loud!  Particularly while you are singing.
 
If you took half a db away from everything else except the vocals, and pushed the vocals up half a db - something like that?
 
 
really, really good work.
 
-Tom
 
 

I really enjoyed this, especially your vocal and the trumpets.

Reading Tom's post above, I think I probably agree with his point about the levels at the start. I did feel that the vocals were competing with the other instruments in verse 1.

I hope you persuade your band with this. I think I'm going to suggest it to my band too. It's a great song!

After listening to the 128 kb/s MP3, I have to agree that the vocals are getting buried in places. Curiously, they sound much clearer and on-top when I listen to it as a FLAC or WAV.  You naturally expect to lose something when you downgrade to 128 kb/s, but I'm often surprised by just what gets altered in the process. For example, sometimes the reverb disappears while at other times it becomes too pronounced.
 
Great bit of trivia re Reggie Young, thanks! Those guitar licks are the main instrumental component that makes the original recording work. They sound simple but then the best licks usually do. Come to think of it, we took Brown Eyed Girl off the songlist because our guitarist never got those crucial licks right. That may explain his reluctance on this tune.

Very expressive vocals. Well done tune with a big ending!
As others have mentioned, I would showcase your voice a little more and
shave a little reverb.  I would want to hear this in your set list too.
Thanks for posting this.

Wonderful singing Dave. Really nice production. Perfect song for you!
I think the drums are too soft. My only crit. 

Wow Bit, never heard one of yours before. I must say, your voice has that same character that I loved about Joe Cocker.
 
Really well done cover, and your mixing skills are self evident.
 
Regards,
Dan
 

wow - the vocal is excellent Dave - really soulful

Wow, I'm super impressed with this.  Vocal work is spot on perfect, to my ears.  You have a comfortable sounding voice and this early AM singing is a fabulous idea.  The music and performance is top shelf professional.  Love hearing good musicians in their element.  
 
I don't believe the vocals are buried one bit.  If you raise them up in the mix, I'm afraid it will have that vocal-centric modern pop sound where music = background for singers.  The drums definitely need to come up, they were hard to hear in several places.  Just my two cents, bit.  
 
Made my morning.  Thanks for sharing.

Great job on this classic tune, really good emotional vocals.

jackson white
Is there a difference between staying up until 5:00 am and waking up at 5:00 am? 

Good question! The answer is "yes". If I work on something overnight - assuming I've been singing rather than partying - by morning my vocals will have become more consistent, more controlled and prettier. Something to do with stretching the throat muscles, perhaps.
 
But when I wake up at 4:00 or 5:00 I sound like Lurch from the Addams Family. In this case, it just happened to work out. I should note that the high harmony was added much later in the day, post-coffee.
 
I have a new mix, which I haven't posted yet. Prompted by suggestions here, I agreed that the drums were a little limp. Rather than making the drums louder, I added parallel distortion to them. This is one of my standard tricks and I don't know why it didn't occur to me that distortion would be a natural fit for a classic pop song.
 
My go-to plugin for this is Devastor from D16 Group. I use its internal filters, usually applying a wide band-pass that I sweep around to find the sweet spot for the drums, which usually ends up around 1.5 - 3 KHz. Soloed, it sounds nasty, like a tiny transistor radio in the next room. But in context, it lends definition to kick and toms and a nice crack to the snare, making the drums sound louder without actually being louder.

Me too. This trumpet part was thrown in the same day I got the beta version of the library. Kind of an awkward fit, but I just had to use it in something. Now I pretty much look for an excuse to put trumpets into everything.
 
I've done a write-up on Blue Street Brass for the next SoundBytes, which will be out next week. I'm a big fan of Indiginus stuff generally but BSB may well be Tracy's most impressive library yet. I am working in the Low Ensemble instrument into an orchestral piece today.

If I thought 5am, no coffee would yield these kinds of results; well you get it!
Dave that was outstanding!
Oh, and if I've never mentioned it, Sleepwalk is great as well, you're working that library very well.
T

very nice Dave! I didn't hear the previous versions, but this is great!  loved it!  takes me back!

Hey, Bit,
 
FANTASTIC job on this excellent, very soulful cover of one of the all time classics!
 
All the instruments are well played, the vocals are pure dynamite, and the mix sounds pro all the way, full, clean and fresh sounding.
 
By the way, "Sleepwalk" that comes up next on your SC channel is also spectacular.  I love the crisp, clean guitar melodies and harmony parts dancing over that fat, warm B3, and the sax and synth solos are to die for!
 
Great stuff, Bit, it's always great to hear something from you in the Songs Forum! 
 
Have a good one, buddy!
Bob

If anybody cares, I've uploaded a remix based on the recommendations you've all helpfully offered. It's mostly a Vocals-Up mix.
 
Another suggestion was bringing up the drums, but rather than do that, I added parallel distortion to make them cut through better. They are now clearer in the mix, even though levels were not changed (lowered the dry signal to compensate for the added distorted path). My longtime favorite plugin for drum distortion is Devastor from D16 Group, which can be as nasty or polite as you want.