Not too shabby!  The guitars are nice and crisp, the vocals are great. The mix is a little muddy. Would have liked to hear the violin counter the melody rather than stepping on it, but that's just my taste.

I hope your son gets feeling better soon. I'm kind of burried with projects right now so I'll take a rain cheque if you don't mind.

Scotty is like "a rare and special gem?" "He's like finding a peep hole in to Kim kardashian's dressing room at the local pool? It's a rare "and special treat..."

 He's rare and special? That's one of the things that makes him so rare and special? 

 If you understood more about the instrument? You would understand more about the man... And the very special gift he possesses? The instrument (there are many, but the main one is the violin)

But if you really understand the violin? "If you really understand it? I.e,. you try to play it well?" 

Well... Then, "and only then" 

Will you understand this man's talent... 

Because the instrument is virtually impossible to play? 

People? It's not like playing the guitar (which is hard enough) OK? It's not like playing the piano? Which is considerably easier... 

You just don't understand... 

People who can play this instrument as this man can? Are "rare..." And should be respected for their talent...

I'm not saying that you? "people?" don't have talent on their instruments? Hell... I'm pretty good on mine? In fact? I'm right on up there? 

The point I'm making is?  You just don't understand...

Many people can play the guitar? Many people...  Many people can play the bass and drums? Many people...

A few people can sing? (not many as well as me :-) 

But to play the strings? And play them well? :-) I love you Scotty :-) I'm not gay for you? But I just really appreciate and respect your talent.

As co-author of the song I would like to thank everyone for listening and commenting.  The story of this song ia a very long one, as some may have inferred from various posts on the thread.  I wrote the lyrics and melody based on a structure and single acoustic guitar track created by Michael and James.

I was also the original vocalist on the song, but was never satisfied with the way I sang the choruses (straining at the top of my range), so I decided to replace myself.  Robby was my first choice for the vocals, and I am absolutely thrilled with the job he did on them. 

So far as the lyrics go (Philip's comment) if they were only a 3 out of 10, well then that's on me.  All I can say is that I wrote what I felt at the time and I am happy with what I wrote.  While working on the song I saw a documentary on John Lennon (and Yoko Ono) and their days in New York.  As the lyrics took shape in my head, I think part of their story, and the harassment they endured got incorporated into the lyrics.  Perhaps that explains Philip's description of the lyrics as "womanly" which I personally don't see as necessarily being a negative.  In any case, I thank Philip for his extensive and thoughtful analysis.

@geeare1 - thanks for listening. 

BTW, yesterday a new mix was uploaded. Altered the bridge (cleaned up Strummy's guitar) and EQ'd the drums a bit.

I like it!

I really enjoyed this, guys. Dug the classic vibe as well as the mix and all the players involved here.
 
Ed: A few things because...well I know you can take them and if I ain't hard on you, you'll never get this stuff. :)
 
I've not listened to the tune since you released it originally. You know what I'm gonna say, right? Yep...I still don't like it. LOL! (The snare that is) It fits though. :)
 
I like to let you do your thing on this stuff and give your artistic take as an engineer. Some things I don't bring to your attention because they are "acceptable" as your vision. But now that I've had some time to digest things and you've done your thing, I'll give you my take...
 
As a music lover and even a hobbiest engineer...this is a solid mix that just about everyone should enjoy. Everything is audible at all times...lead vocals are mixed perfect and I love the sound of Robbie's voice on this. All instruments are performed superbly! So as a listener, this is really good man.
 
Putting on the REAL engineer hat now...the main issues I hear are subjective, but what I'd definitely work on.
 
Drums: This is probably your toughest area...which you should consider yourself lucky. Most people struggle with bass...but we know the bapu will never have that issue. :-Þ 
 
But, some of the drum lines themselves sound a little....hmmm what's the word....ok, it's not a word...more a phrase....ok, I got it, they don't sound like what a drummer would play at times which gives away the programming. Nothing bad, just a personal observation brother.
 
I also notice that sometimes your cymbals trigger inconsistently. Sometimes I hear them smash, other times they are subtle when they should smash. Sometimes this isn't a velocity thing...it's how the drum sampler may react. I have this issue at times when I use BFD and Superior....so these days, I've been mic'n up real cymbals and either playing them in later or playing them with my V Drums. Been on a "real kit" kick these days though, so I've not done much of this.
 
Toms seem to sound a bit strange too. Like they are a bit more hollow than they should be. Here's a great thing for you to do...since toms don't happen often in a mix and they are tough to eq when you only get little shots of them. Create a "drum check" midi.
 
Think of what happens during a drum check. Fire up Step Sequencer and blast off 10 kick hits. Run the vary velocity CAL and set it to randomize the hits to be 90-127.
 
Copy and paste the line to a snare drum alternating center hits and rim shot hits and slide them back so they don't hit at the same time as the kick. Keep at this until you have about 10 hits on each piece of your kit and save this midi. This way, you can get basic eq settings on the kit and save them as presets for that kit. The midi will always be there, so you can just import it and run another kit on it and do eq's for THAT kit too. It makes for a great starting point and this will help you immensely on toms because you'll have loads of hits coming at you to eq. When you do the toms, do 10 individual hits for each tom...then do the whole tom rack one at a time like 8-10 times so you can eq them as a unit as well and see how they sound together. You know, 1st rack tom, second, 3rd, 4th, 5th etc at one hit a piece going around the toms. Then what I like to do, after I have eq'd all instruments roughly, I play the full kit and make any changes there as well.
 
Actually, I have a test midi I can share with you if you are interested in this...but you'll need to change all the midi note numbers around because I use a really strange midi map due to having so many toms on my V Drums kit...so I had to put some of them on percussion type note numbers as well as other stuff that would fall in a different spot for general midi.
 
Next, I'd like to hear you use more precise automation on this stuff. As mentioned, some of the instrumentation was a bit in the back at times. It's all audible, don't get me wrong, but there are times when certain instruments should come out a bit more to the front lines. I hear you doing automation, but sometimes we have to be a bit more aggressive with it so that it allows certain instruments to break out and shine more than they do in some of your mixes. I know this is tough to do at times especially when your dealing with several instruments all over the place. It can be done though, you just have to spend a little time on it.
 
Here's the most important thing to listen for with stuff like this. You have to completely forget that you know the song and what part is coming next. I know..."what are smoking Danny, how can I do that?!" LOL! You have to think of yourself as a first time listener. Keep in mind that people not familiar with the song, will not know what is coming next and have not memorized the song or its parts. Also, you *MAY* get 2-3 listens out of them...hardly enough time for them to learn the parts like you know them from 3000 listens, ya know? So you have to mix things a bit more up front than you would normally. Anytime you have doubts on something, always shoot for +0.5dB hotter.
 
That was one of my problems with my lead vocals when I'd mix them. First I was ashamed of my horrible voice and second, I knew what I was singing so this made me bury it. After a few months of the +0.5dB technique I began to "get it". That said, your mixes seem to have great levels....I'm just saying, for certain instruments that need that cameo appearance sound, this is where you want to jump on the automation and let things shine.
 
I do so much automation in my mixes, sometimes it literally makes me throw up. From eq changes, effects, compression settings, levels, pans, busses...I'm a serious lunatic when it comes to that stuff. I'm not saying you need to be, but honest, it can really help your mixes shine. Just remember...there is no such thing as "leaving something" through an entire mix at one setting other than maybe a drum kit...but even that is subjective depending on how dynamic the playing is. I'd rather automate something than compress it to hopefully fix the problem. So keep this stuff in mind on your next mix.
 
That said, you're really doing well with this stuff man...seriously and from the heart. When you and I first started talking, I felt you were a decent engineer with some decent sounds. Now you've definitely taken it to the next level and have a grasp on the super important things that make or break a mix. This in turn has made you a VERY good engineer. Of course I'm not trying to imply that I had anything to do with your transformation...because that is not true. You did it all...I just taught you how to listen to a few things that were necessities and turned you on to ARC...which is really what helped you more than anything. So keep at it brother...I'm proud of you...you're really coming along with this stuff. Nice job on the song...everyone involved in it did a wonderful job and you guys should be proud. :)
 
-Danny 

Good stuff Danny. Always appreciated. 

Thanks my brother.

But Robby.....

I believe it was Ken Scott who said "I doubt that the sales or a record was ever made or broken over the hi-hat being to loud or too soft".
 

I don't know how I missed this.  I like this song very much, though the guitars are so bright they could cut glass.  A little bit of warmth could go a long ways.  Yet, this song still shines!

bapu

Dappa1

bapu

Dappa1


Was this done in Sonar X1??? 

I know I recorded my bass part in X1. Srummy used X1 too. Not sure about Robby. Michael stated below he used X1. Grant is probably a yes too. My son Jason did his parts into my X1c.


All the mixing and mastering was done in X1c. 

Bottom line is it's 99.44/100ths percent X1c to be sure.

I take it that no plug ins were used...you just used it as a recording and mastering agent????

I have about twelve 32bit bitbridged plugins and about fifteen 64bit plugins in this project. Ranging from Cakewalk, Nomad Factory, UAD, Sonitus, IK Multimedia, Steven Slate FG-X even some Waves plugs.

I didn't think the question was about how many plugs you have, but if any were used on the song.  Unless you used all of them.  

It's a very good track--no matter how many plugs you used.  Nice job, guys.