Laid Down My Crown

Very nice.  I love the string arrangement against the plaintive vocal.  The sound is huge, and it has a little Peter Gabriel quality to it, especially the work he is now doing with orchestras.  I can hear other instruments in this, but if it stays the same you've done well.

Thanks for listening and the compliments!

The strings are Kirk Hunter's Concert Strings II (with just a little bit of Sonitus reverb and that's it). It's my first song with those after getting it on the group buy last December. I started with one combined patch that had all string instruments in it (lazy again... ), but I quickly switched to seperate sections for each part (violins, violas and cellos: the basses only play a small part in unison with the cellos in the end): you have so much more control over everything that way! You can let the violas swell while the violins go down in volume and all that. It's impossible to create a rather convincing strings part with one combined patch. Well, maybe in a rock tune but not when they are more upfront like in this song.
 
I have to add that my piano playing is lifted to great heights with a lot of MIDI editing...

I love the instrumentation in this. Your vocals are well performed, but sound like you sang through a wrapping paper tube.

Some areas that I think could use some improvement.
 
On the build from around 1:50 to 2:20 there is so much going on in the same space that the sound gets lost.  You might want to see what you can do panning different parts to give them some seperation.  You probably also need to do some complimentary EQ on the different tracks to keep them from nullifying each others sound.
 
I think the verb on the vocals has a sound that you wanted to create.  I would turn it way down, but I don't think that is what you were after.  You might want to experiment with different reverbs/settings to get a better sound for the vocal reverb.  The current settings muffle the main vocal too much.
 
Nice song and composition.  I think it is worth investing a little more time in the mixing.
 
Glen

gcolbert
 
On the build from around 1:50 to 2:20 there is so much going on in the same space that the sound gets lost.  You might want to see what you can do panning different parts to give them some seperation.  You probably also need to do some complimentary EQ on the different tracks to keep them from nullifying each others sound. 
  

I second this part, but love everything else.  Outside of Glen's recommendations for 1:50 to 2:20 i wouldn't change a thing.

Thanks!

Those strings are great but also VERY easy to use! I love them. Specially since I got them for something like 180 dollars instead of some 750,-!

About the middle part: I agree with the comments. I had a terrible time already to get it a BIT right... (you should have heard the first mixes... ) I just couldn't get it done, really.... I agree something is still wrong there. I think I simply overdid the arrangement there: the violins and violas are all playing melodic lines (which you can't really hear anymore) and I will see what happens if I let the strings only play chords and leave the melodic part to the brass. I think that may help already. It's too crowded in that part and everything is drowning a little. The rest is exactly as I imagined it to be, though.

Mixing songs like this is something different then mixing pop/rock songs, where it is a lot easier to build a climax.
 
EDIT
Another thing that's problematic is that brass: the only sound I could find that was like I wanted it to be, was the brass from Spitfire's Albion. However, Albion comes with 'built' in reverb and also built in 'noises': they left things pretty natural (including slightly off tune notes and sounds other samplers would edit out). It's very hard to use Albion together with other samples, I found out... It works great when you only use Albion, but mix it with other stuff and you get weird effects.

Hi Jeroen

This sounds just great - I really love it. As the saying goes...the apple doesn't fall far from the tree ! I agree that it's slightly muddly in the section mentioned, but by no means a disaster, and other than that just great. Wow ! I would love to have a copy of this once you're done with it - though sadly not quite enough to make me want to sign up to Twatter ;).
 

Thanks for listening and the comments, Janet, paulo and Guitarpima! 

Guitarpima


Your song sings really well. 

Nice typo. 

hellogoodbye


Thanks for listening and the comments, Janet, paulo and Guitarpima! 

Guitarpima


Your song sings really well. 

Nice typo. 

I try not to. Your SON! Sings VERY nice!

Hi,

Very nice tune and your son's voice is excellent. The strings and overall mix sound great, to me.

This was really good. Very cool, and different.

Though I heard a lot of Travis/Snow Patrol in the verses. I like his gritty, somewhat lazy delivery...distinctive stuff.