Hold Me Closely= Christian Song

Glad you posted this Mike! I think this is the first time I've heard anything from you. This is a good tune. Pretty good mix too man. A bit bass heavy but it works...it's not killing me with bass...just a bit more than I would have used. A few other little things if you don't mind?

I'd probably pan the hats a bit tighter. They sound like they are separated from the kit a bit way out to the left like they are.

Guitars: I like the sound of the acoustics. Be careful when you run one down the center with your vocals though. It's usually a good idea to either pan it a bit or put a stereo enhancement plug after the last effect. (use stereo effects so you can go stereo imaging instead of mono in this situation on the center panned guitar)

For example...try this on your center guitar. I don't know if you applied the chorus effect as it was recorded or you added the chorus after. I'm going to gamble here and say you recorded it that way possibly? But if you didn't...and you used lets say the Cake Efx chorus...set that track to stereo interleave and you'll notice the track will open up a bit and be stereo imaged. Then, place a Sonitus phase plug after the chorus and mess with the width. Remember that 100% on that is equal to an effect pan of hard left, hard right. So you may want to decrease it a little unless having at 100 sounds ok to you....and if it does, you won't need the imager because that's how stereo effects show up anyway....hard left, hard right by default. You could slightly open the width on the Sonitus phase a little to like 120% which would be nice.

Do you have a lot of compression or limiting on this Mike? Sounds like it pumps just a little and you picked up a little hiss. On acoustic tunes you have to be careful with compression and limiting because it can totally kill your dynamics and especially your picking execution. What sucks is...we can make acoustic stuff super loud because it's so clean, so it's easy to fall into making it loud and not even realizing it. Anyway...just give some of this stuff some thought. I think you did a really good job on this. I dig your voice as well as the message and the song. Thanks for sharing bro. :)

-Danny

Hey Mike,
GREAT tune.  The lyrics are very well written. The mix on my end isn't that bad. On the acoustic I'm getting a bad low end rumble. It also sounds like its over compressed. I would  play around with the acoustic guitar EQ and remove some of the low end.  I'm also hearing strong compression on the kick drum. All in all GREAT JOB on this piece.

Kev

Beautiful tune and words.  Nicely played and sung.  I like the orchestration when it comes in too.....I was 'hearing' it and hoping you had added some, if you know what I mean.  :)  Starting at 2:00 I'm hearing a few pitchy places I think.  And it might benefit from changing up the drums a little more here and there.  But it's not bad the way it is.  Well done.  :) 

I have uploaded a new version of this song making many of the changes that have been suggested from every one.  I lowered the bass just a hair.  I backed off on the compression to the acoustic guitar and made a few adjustments to the compression on the Master Buss; I believe that I have gotten rid of any pumping that was going on.  I had just a slight delay on the acoustic guitar also that Danny had picked up on; basically, I turned it off.  Also at Danny's suggestion, I widened the stereo spread on the acoustic a little and I think that has helped things from being bunched up the center.

Herb, I really appreciate you listening once again and am very pleased that you like the song.

Janet, thank you for listening as well.  I did not have time today to focus in on the vocals after the 2 minute mark as you suggested, but would n't be surprised at all if I had some pitchiness going on.  It has, after all, taken me my whole life to sound this remarkably mediocre.  :-)  I am getting better though.  I still struggle a little with Melodyne.  I have n't spent enough time with it yet to master the program.  Sometimes it will graph you being on pitch, but it seems like you are n't.  Sometimes I am certain that I am a little flat, but correcting it does n't sound as natural, or still just does n't sound right.  I will work on it some more though when I get a chance.  All in all, I find myself having fewer vocal glitches than in the past, so I guess I am finally getting some where.

Guitarpima, glad that you have listened as well and like the tune; that means a lot to me.  This one is much different for me, much slower and mellower, more intimate than I am used to sharing.  I always go back and foreth on the acoustic noises that I think you are refering too.  Fret noises.  I used to try to edit every little fret noise out of a production.  Lately, I am leaving some of them in.  It just seems more natural and intimate in a way....more real.  I guess that dates me.  Afterall, all, I turned the big 5-0 today.

Pretty good tune. The performance is pretty good. I have to agree about the bass sounding a little bit strong, and by eq'ing back a bit might make it sound a bit less muddy especially on the vocals. Very good other than that small tid bit.

 Nice song Makeshift.

Mike, Good song, well constructed and performed. The only thing I might consider changing in it is the string part. Maybe drop it an octave to give it a more traditional pop cello sound (If there is such a thing:). I think it might blend in a little nicer, but also fine as is. Regards

But....Beagle.....it is midi.    My instrument selection said (chello) but.....

I am not sure I can fix the sound, I am totally out of my element with almost anything other than drum programming with midi.  Obviously, as Markno999 has pointed out, I must be selecting and octave to hi up the key board????  Is there a simple way to just lower everything an octave in Sonar?

So, I guess adding a little more reverb to the kick might be in order as well.

Thanks for listening Reese and Mark!

Drag an octave....that means I am going to have to recognize an octive on prv...

Janet, I was afraid that the answer was going to be, spend more money.  Maybe I could just put a distortion plug in on it so that you can recognize it as a stringed instrument.  I think.... almost god-like might be out of my league as well. 

Actually there's a much easier way to do it than that. 

1)  use the MIDI FX to transpose the entire MIDI track
right click in the FX bin of the MIDI track, choose MIDI PLUGINS>CAKEWALK FX>TRANSPOSE
and change the notes by -12 to bring it down an octave.

but more than that, it could use a little "humanization" and a better library sound.  what are you using for the sound output?  DIMPRO should have a decent cello sound, but you might need to use some expression on it, add some verb to it, too.

I uploaded a new version.

Janet/ Beagle, making adjustments to the midi was not really all that difficult, I was probably just dragging my feet because I am ready to finish this one up.  DIMPRO had much better sounding strings as you had suggested.  I have moved the notes and octave lower and added some reverb to the strings to get them to sit a little better with everything else.  Reese, not sure what you meant by humanization, but I drew in some volume level variances to try to make things not so perfect.

Rimshot, thanks for listening, glad you liked the tune.  I don't think I am going to resign this one at this point.

Now if I could just get past one hand, one to two notes at a time, on the keys.  :-)

 Good job on the song , lyrics are great and your vocals sound great !
 I liked everything you added to your song but I'm not a fan of the drum track in this , bass drum & snare didn't do it for me .

Good Christian song I liked it ! Radio

Mike - using volume, expression will help with humanization of MIDI, but also, making sure that the timing is not perfect.  humans don't play in exactly perfect time.  don't make it too bad off time or it will be obvious that whoever is playing has bad timing, but a few ticks here and there make it "feel" more human.

Thanks for listening Philip, I hope you liked the song.  

I PM'd Danny and asked for a little more advice on the mix.  He sent me a message back this morning with a few tips, thanks again Danny.  So..... I will take one more stab at tweaking some of the tracks and see if I can get every thing to sound just a little better, mix-wise.  I'm very close, but just need a little more polish.

Reese, sounds like just sliding a note slightly off time hear and there might make for the human element.  Other than that, did the cello sound better than the prior mix?