markno999
Craig,
 
Great track.    This sounds a little more 70's rock to me, except for the guitar solo, definitely 80's:)   The BGV's are a nice touch.    Very fun and uplifting song.
 
1st concert, Cheap Trick opened for Queen in Jan 1977 (A Day At the Races tour).   Awesome show.
 
Regards

I'll never forget listening to "We are the Champions" when if first came out. Damn we were lucky to be a part of that.... I mean really... the music of that time was amazing.... Freddy Mercury....talk about talent!
 
 

eph221

markno999
Craig,
 
Great track.    This sounds a little more 70's rock to me, except for the guitar solo, definitely 80's:)   The BGV's are a nice touch.    Very fun and uplifting song.
 
1st concert, Cheap Trick opened for Queen in Jan 1977 (A Day At the Races tour).   Awesome show.
 
Regards

Craig, 
 
you know the baby boomers are the only people left on earth who actually remember paying for music.  Maybe you should try to monetize some of your songs.  :D:D

You know what I'd like to see happen... maybe a Car commercial for "Summer Drivin" or some kind of a movie soundtrack kinda thing. Branding the songs to something popular is a good way to do it.
I can't really be objective about them. I think if a song resonates with enough people there's really no stopping it.
          Unfortunately I don't think my songs are of that caliber. Listen to a song like "You'll be in My Heart" by Phill Collins and even though it was overplayed to death at one time it will still make you feel something very powerful inside. That is the magic element that is so elusive and so rare. How do you capture it? Where does it come from? Phil Collins is a song writing god for coming up with that tune.

philz
Catchy tune, good performances... sounds like a winner.  Listening to it the mix sounded just a tad hot to me.  If your running through a maximizer or limiter on the master, you may want to do a trial mix a notch lower and see how it sounds.  Just a thought.

Thanks.... you know.... now that I listen to it I think you are correct. I did make it too hot with that limiter.
I'm gonna pull back on it see what it sounds like.

jamesg1213
Not that I'm any judge at all, but this really ought to be a hit, you've nailed it. That hook is just too good. If I had one crit it would be to edit the guitar solo a little, it started perfectly then went 'off on one', which is great and it's beautifully played, but this song needs to get straight back to that hook asap.

Thanks for the kind words about the song.
Yeah, The guitar gets a little carried away;-) What I'd really love to hear on this song is some rock piano or maybe some crunchy Deep Purple type keyboard decorations. One thing that I find difficult when putting together a song is getting it across the finish line with the right type of vocal improv and instrument decorations. Those types of little things that people latch on to. You can always usually sniff out something trite and contrived. Those kinds of decorations have to be truthful.I ask my girl Robin to help me with that kind of thing. She has some really good ideas in my opinion.  
 
BTW.... I listened to your stuff. It's really special. There's great truth and sincerity in the music you make.

I really like this song, well done! How did you do those harmony backups? They sound amazing!

Mr. torture
I really like this song, well done! How did you do those harmony backups? They sound amazing!

Thanks for liking the song.
For the back up vocals on this song I used the following signal processing.....
 
**After getting the best performances I can (timing and pitch I melodyne lightly where needed)**
 
1) Each Track gets low pass eq-compression-high pass eq.   (Sonitus or Cakewalk Ca-2a compression)
 
2) Each Tack gets cloned with a real unison performance
 
3) The matching doubled tracks get panned left and right
 
4) Male and female backups get routed to their own buses with "BG Vocals 2 PX2" FX Preset on each bus
(The Cakewalk VX 64 Vocal strip is really an unsung hero. A real gem in my opinion!)
 
5) Each Backup bus routed to "All Back ups" bus with a light application of a quality doubler plugin and final cakewalk bus compressor (1db gain reduction.)
 
That's the way I do it.  I like produced sounding backup vocals in my stuff.
 
Sonar has some really good  stock plugins in my opinion. The VX 64 Vocal strip is a real gem! Also the sonitus compressor which is supposedly "long in the tooth" is really good and doesn't use much cpu.
 
Craig
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

daryl1968
Great stuff Craig - checks all the boxes

Thank Daryl,
 
I meant to ask..... What is the "Blue Peter Competition Winner"
 
Craig

Thanks Craig! Really cool process for doing backups. You said that you had big name interest in the song, do you go through a service to sell songs? How did you get hooked up with that? Sorry for all the questions!

Very cool on all levels - song itself, performances and arrangement. Those about have pretty much said it - I'll just say "enjoyed the tune a lot".  A hybrid Southern Rock  - Californian Rock sound to me years. Great job. A summer song for sure.

Mr. torture
Thanks Craig! Really cool process for doing backups. You said that you had big name interest in the song, do you go through a service to sell songs? How did you get hooked up with that? Sorry for all the questions!

My Girl is good friends with an 80's rockstar and that's basically my connection. Otherwise getting this song listened to by the even more famous guy that he knows would be impossible. If I were an ace songwriter I would be making a good living on writing songs with this connection. I literally have the ear of a very relevant industry heavyweight.
 
     For what it's worth I really don't expect anything to come of it but at least they both like the stuff and liked the guitar playing. That made me feel pretty good. I'm not real crazy about the music landscape today although the production methods and sounds of bands like 5 Finger Death Punch, Avenged Sevenfold and Disturbed blow me away. The last songwriter/performer to really floor me was Rob Thomas (Matchbox 20) He's really something.
 
I find myself constantly sifting through the hit songs of the late 60's and 70's these days. There is so much genius in the way that those songs where produced and mixed. Clever use of the stereo field was so much more prevalent in those days with the limited equipment they had. These days most songs in Rock and metal are crafted to sound like what the old pro engineers call "Big Mono" Lots of compression and loudness. To be honest I like the sound of a lot of that stuff but I think it would be great to see the pendulum swing back away from the loudness trend.  I'm guilty of using brickwall limiters too while trying to get my mixes to sound like what I hear on the radio. I've been toying around with mixing for about 2 years and have a lot to learn about the craft.
It's much more difficult than I ever imagined.
 
Craig