Janet, very sweet tune.

On the mix / production, I'd suggest getting a better set of drum samples, the snare in particular.

I'd like to make a comment on you compositional approach, the melodic line essentially starts at the beginning and goes continuously through; I think more use of breaks in the line for phrasing would highlight the melody.

But overall, very nice and well played.

Perfectspace is a plugin that comes with Sonar to recreate the ambient reverb of a real place. I just assumed you already have it. Does the version of Sonar you use come with a reverb plugin?

Regards,
Dan

ORIGINAL: Mamabear

Thanks, Dan. I have the Classic reverb and also KarmaFX Reverb, neither of which has perfect space as a choice in their presets. I'm not sure what reverbs came with Sonar.

Perfectspace isn't a preset, it's a separate plugin. But that doesn't really matter, my real point was to try experimenting with different plugs to beef up your drums. Just don't overdo it (like I sometimes have been known to).

Regards,
Dan

ORIGINAL: Mamabear

It's still such a struggle to even find BEATS that sound good that I haven't tried going beyond that much. Perhaps that should be my next mountain to try to scale!

Janet

I feel your pain...

http://www.toontrack.com/ezplayer_free.asp

You have to register but it is painless then once you log in to download you get some free beats with it, then if you rummage through the folders in there you'll find another bundle of beats called the 'Jacker Pack' too.

You can use it with any midi beats you have already and you can use it with any drum sampler too. I don't use EZDrummer or Superior but I use this gizmo all the time.

HTH

Mamabear,

Great piano work. I can feel the emotion you put into the this song. I know you've been working on this one for a bit (now on the third page of the forum), so forgive me if this is a "oh, no not another suggestion".

I think the kick drum is just not right (mix wise). You have far too much of the paper sound coming from the kick. Meaning you need more of a "thump" out of the kick sound. Not sure if you can separate out the kick or this is just a pattern you use for the song. If it is midi, you could use a CAL and split notes to tracks and record the audio of the kick (either with a different kick sound) or try EQing some of the upper mids of the kick out.

I do like the song very much, I just felt that the kick was distracting. I see that others have tried to help you with drums so everything I said may just be a "I KNOW ALREADY!!!" statement. ;)

Tom

Jon--you may feel my pain, but it must be a lot easier being a drummer! But thanks for the idea about Toontrack. I'll look into that. Either that or I'll just let you do all my drum tracks for me.

Jeff--thanks!

Tom--I think I actually may be able to change that kick drum. Thanks for pointing that out! In SD2 it's easy to separate the drums into separate tracks, making it easy to edit each one of them. I never would have thought of it, but that's one reason I post here--to get you guys' feedback and great ideas! Thanks!

Dan--actually I've tried creating my own beats and it HASN'T given me a better result. Maybe some day.