Misery Loves Company

Friends, I haven't been around much lately, but in my absence I continue to annoy the neighbors by practicing with the windows open. Those of you who know me know that I usually write fiction, but this one is based upon a true story. Steph and I had a spat, which is really rare, and made up quickly. While making up, I made a wry comment and she laughed: "There has to be a song there somewhere." My eyes lit up and within 48 hours I had the whole thing worked out in my head. Of course I had to learn the parts before I could record them, especially as I was moved to rely upon keyboards for half the rhythm section. For the first time ever, I did not do a rhythm guitar track, although there is a lead. Actually, I DID do one, but it clashed with the organ. Great idea if I were a good keys man, but I'm a rank novice. So here it is, I hope you like it, but if you don't, tell me why. How's the mix? Simplest mix I've done, it SHOULD be easy, right? I mean, drums, bass, organ, piano, vocal. How hard can that be to mix? But I'll rely upon the judgment of my peers, and betters. http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11865517 Thanks for the use of your ears. Mark

Mark, tonight has been an emotional night... Based on a number of other things.  I enjoyed your blues tune... I could make every part of it better? But I enjoyed every part of it :-) So there it is.

Mark, I love down home blues, and you really did some good, old fashioned home cooking on this.  As others have mentioned, I hear the clicking sound which I associated with the bass drum for some reason.  A clicky foot pedal?  I didn't hear the tracks as being too hot, necessarily.  In fact, I thought the overall sound was a bit thin.  A  nice, warm compressor or limiter might help with this on the lead guitar track and vocal.  Still, it's good home cooking and tasty, just needs a little zing.

 Band, I too feel confident you could do it better. I'm no pro. And I just started learning keys in January. I'm merely a singing guitarist whose reach exceeds his grasp. But maybe you could be more specific.........thanks

Lynn, thanks for listening. I don't I think it's the bass drum, as I use Jammer Pro to generating drums. But I think it's a good enough song to fix it. However, about the zing...well, a better keys player could provide that. My piano skills are very rudimentary. Iappreciate the comments, thanks. Mark

Now thats how you write/play the Blues. LOVED your guitar solo.  KUIDOS!

Kev

LYNN: I take it back. After retracking the vocal and isolating the kick...well, you were right and I'm man enough to admit it. The kick IS clicking. It being midi, I have no idea how to correct it. Any ideas?

 Ed, a man of your skills can casually knock off a song on your lunch break, or even while sleeping, although I imagine that annoys your wife a bit. It usually takes me weeks to flesh out a tune. By the way, I've been accused of overcompression before; if I keep trying I might get it right one day.

mcourter


LYNN: I take it back. After retracking the vocal and isolating the kick...well, you were right and I'm man enough to admit it. The kick IS clicking. It being midi, I have no idea how to correct it. Any ideas?

Mark, you can adjust the kick volume level in the SD2 GUI.
How are you triggering the drums?

good job on the song... put the pain into music.... that's what the blues are all about. 

keep annoying those neighbors..... in a nice kinda bluesy way..... 

I enjoyed the feel of this song a bunch, Mark.  I couldn't figure out what was sounding wrong to me.  It sounds thin or something and I think Ed might have called it.  Compression?  I don't know it has the feeling of a 60s recording to me and I liked that.  Loved the back story so it's a kiss and makeup song, not a hit and run tune.  Hey the keys sound like you've been doing it a while.  No one could do it as good as Robby, we all know that, but you did fine.  :-)

nice one.. great song. good playing & singing

Hey, this is nice.  Glad you got over it quickly and got a song out of it to boot. :)  Nice bluesy blues.  Interesting chords and melody...I like it.

And how hard can it be to mix?  I can mess up a piano solo.  lol

 Thanks, Janet. Sure, we always get over it quick. Eighteen years together, and we get along pretty darn well. Your last comment made me laugh.

Hey, Mark,
 
Very nice job on this cool sounding vintage blues number!
 
Great lyrics and vocals, cool keys and a clean, very tasty blues guitar solo.  I'm with Tim about the authentic sounding vintage mix, and being able to picture this being played by a band in a smoky lounge someplace.
 
Great stuff, Mark, have a dynamite weekend, buddy!
Bob