Oh! What A Friend! with Clifford Amundsen, Russ Whaley, Tim Smith & more...

This song was originally written for a friend of mine who passed away about a year ago.  He was severely depressed and eventually the depression killed him.  It's a hybrid of an old hymn "What A Friend We Have in Jesus"
 
all comments and crits are welcome
 
cast:
Lyrics, arrangement, lead vocals, organ:  Beagle
Lead Guitar, rhythm 1, bass guitar:  Russ Whaley
Rhythm 2, Drums:  Clifford Amundsen
Acoustic:  Tim Smith
BGVs:  Beverly Bain (Mrs. Beagle!), Yvonne Utz
Editing and Mixing:  Clifford Amundsen, Beagle 
  
EDIT:

I've taken this one down for now until I can fix the lead vox.  thanks for stopping by.  I'll try to have them redone and respost this one soon.
 

So sorry for your friend :-( Many people including me struggle with depression. It was a nice tribute.

Very nice tribute to your friend.  It was well recorded, and everyone did their part just fine.  I've known several people who've suffered from depression, and I thank you for raising people's awareness of this problem.

Great tribute to your friend Beagle!
 
Thanks for sharing!

 I am sorry about your friend Beagle. This was a great tribute.

Always nice to honor a late friend, and I think he's smiling on your efforts here, Reece.  And this is a fitting tribute to be sure.  Nicely done all the way around.  I really liked the organ, myself.

Nice tune... and a good job on the recording.... nice to see the huge list of friends you have playing and singing on this.  

Great job on the harmonies toward the end.    

Hi, Reece,

This is a truly wonderful tribute to your friend!

Excellent performances by all.  You, Russ, Cliff, Tim, and the girls all did a fantastic job.  I'm sure that your friend is somewhere smiling every time that the song is played. 

Great work, buddy!
Bob

 Glad to help Reese!

Sorry about your friend - nice tribute from your group

A great tribute indeed. Great job on vox Reece. Instrumentation and production are spot on. Oh yea the Beagle's on a roll, great job!

nice tribute Reece sorry about your loss.

all the best ,

Kenny

Hi everyone - sorry I haven't responded lately, I've been on business travel and had very limited internet access.

amateur - thanks very much, I appreciate it!

Janet - thanks so much! 

Grant - thanks my friend!  I've got more comin'!  (check your email! )

Frank - mine too!  thanks!

Kenny - thanks so much!  I'm sure he's listening as well! 

Malcomb - very much appreciated, sir!  thanks!

Hi Beagle , sounds great ! Sorry about your friend struggling with depression , I was in the same boat last year and went to see a doctor who deals with depression .
Most of mine had to do with the internet such as forums , not sure what caused his but I was lucky enough where I decided to see a doctor and deal with it in the hands of a professional . Thank god I did because it really makes you think about life and other people around you in todays fast moving world  .

Depression as you know is a silent killer , your friend found out the hard way and for that I'm sorry his life ended like it did .
Your friend I'm sure is in heaven listening to your song and saying Beagle was a friend of mine for sure .

Thanks for sharing Beagle , your song shows how much you cared about your best friend while he was living here on earth .

Radio

Thanks spacealf!  I will check that out.

James (radio) - I'm sorry to hear that you have problems with depression.  It can really be difficult to deal with.  I hope you have gotten/are getting the help you need.  thanks for listening and commenting.

James yoyo - I assume you mean on the lead:
on this particular song I have 2 lead vocal tracks, one is set to the main lead vox and the other is a "secondary" track.  The main lead vocal track is first hit with a high pass filter at about 45Hz, and a bump at ~4k and another about 10k.  then it goes through VC64.  I started out with the "loud mix" preset and tweaked parameters from there.  the main output gain is attenuated -3dB and I did make tweaks on the 2 compressors of the VC64 (including the output gain of each compressor). 

this one also has a post fader send to a reverb bus.  the reverb bus has a high and low pass filter, it's IK's CSR with small concert room with some tweaks on it including reducing it's output severely, then the reverb bus has a channel tools on it to kill the center, spreading the verb out in the field and leaving the center for the main vox to come thru.

the secondary track is not a clone, but of me singing the same thing as closely as I can to the original track.  processing for that track is:
high pass at 80Hz, low pass at 6k and a dip notch at 2.2k.  then it goes to VX-64.  preset starting point was "Warm and Fuzzy" but I also added the Doubler so that this track would spread wide into the stereo field.  I then send it thru the PC Limiter and slammed it pretty hard, but the output of that track is attenuated severely (~ -15dB total).

there is no reverb on the secondary track.

There are a couple of places I can hear some phase issues that I don't like and had planned to clean those up on the next revision.

I guess you're asking because you hear something you don't like?  I'd love to hear your thoughts, please feel free to critique.  I welcome your sincere opinions.