Hello Cakewalk Friends,
 
“(I Need a) Vacation Again” is a song written in 2005 by my brother-in-law.  Of all his songs, which are many, this is my favorite.  Steve uses a multitrack digital recorder instead of a DAW so he ends up with more of a live feel because he plays each part from beginning to end with no editing.
 
My recording of this song is very different in many aspects. Steve’s version is a faster tempo, guitar-driven with slide acoustic instrumental plus some harmonica.  It’s almost like a bluesy Tom Petty song.  I decided on more of a slower ballad tempo.  I added a few sections that were not in his version, plus I changed quite a bit of the lyrics.  Fortunately, he approved after hearing my final mix.  I also got his okay to post it on Soundcloud.
 
If I told you how long I spent on this one recording, you may not believe me.  I got to the point of enough is enough and decided it’s time to move on.  However, there are still aspects of the mix that I would edit if I were to continue with it. 
 
What I would like to know is what would you fix after hearing the song?  This is the only reason I’ve posted it on Soundcloud, just to get Cakewalk user input here on this forum.  Please point out my mistakes so I can learn from them.  Your fresh set of ears is very valuable to me.
 
Thanks for all your input.  Enjoy.
 
https://soundcloud.com/user-126757021/i-need-a-vacation-again
 
 

Ooh where to start. Shades of Road To Hell Pt 1 in the intro, a definite 10cc vibe for me and the end reminded me of Steve Hackett's Ballad Of The Decomposing Man and that's an eclectic mix you don't often find on one track!

I liked the instrumentation, I really liked the bass sound and level and the vocal performance also with some great harmonies. Maybe the intro was a tad over long and the same with the outro but we're into real taste and fancy territory here. A song that contrives to be both simple and complex at the same time - liked the panning thing you had going on around 4:00 minutes in - I really enjoyed it and not sure I'd be making too many changes. Andy

AndyB01, thanks for the comments.  The bass is a free VST instrument, Ample Bass P Lite II.  I then processed it through Waves CLA Bass, both very fun to work with.  I used Ample Bass simply to lay down the bass part ideas for the song.  Then I was going to go back and play the bass myself.  But I liked what I heard so much that I just left it in.
 
During my recording, I used a reference track called “Caribbean Dream” by Bryan Duncan.  The idea for my intro was based on his intro.  My outro was based on the body of his song, as far as the feel goes.  I do agree that my intro could be shortened.
 
I thought the process of using a de-esser would be simple but it has not.  Because I’m learning different techniques, I feel as though I’m processing the vocal detrimentally.  That’s an area of mixing I need to keep practicing.  The offending S or T sounds are not in a small frequency range which is what I expected.  I end up butchering the vocal and then trying to over-process it to sound normal.  That's just one area of many I wold go back to see if I could fix it.
 
That panning of the heavenly choir was done with Waves Brauer Motion.  Another fun plug-in I picked up recently.
 
Thanks again for listening AndyB01.