Without Saying A word

Absolutely beautiful Jimmy.  Really just beautiful and very well done!

This is very nicely done Jimmy cool tune nicely sung.
 
Minor observation I can hear a little noise during the intro and at a couple of points elsewhere, I did check on cans as well just to check it was not something in the speakers.

Sounds good Jimmy. Another one of your heartfelt tunes. Yeah, that technique on a song like this works the best. It just flow right!

I was enjoying the song too much to even notice the sound.  :-)

    Janet
     Absolutely beautiful Jimmy.  Really just beautiful and very well done!
    
    As usual I'm like a kid hoping to be worthy of your praise. You know my love
for the piano.

    Herb
     you are doing some pretty good tunes here recently..... and this is one of them.

not bad at all for a wannabe piano player...... I wannabe a piano player too... so I reckon I better get to work on that dream.

     Herb I'm looking at things as a "writer" but yet seeing if I can "perform". To do that
well is something to be thought about.

    Thanks Herb.

    Wookie
    This is very nicely done Jimmy cool tune nicely sung.
 
Minor observation I can hear a little noise during the intro and at a couple of points elsewhere, I did check on cans as well just to check it was not something in the speakers.

     I don't know the answer to the noise thing. There might be something there.
It isn't perfect quite in my recording area and the system will add some noise
even if it's small I'm sure. What I am glad of is that you mention that because
it has me thinking.

    Robby
   I like this, it actually gave me a Sara McLaughlin vibe, which is a good thing, I like her music. And I'm the same way with piano, I'd like to be more fluent with it. But that's the power of midi and time, you can actually represent pretty well with patience and some practice. Guitar doesn't work that way... But I'm glad piano does.

     Gave you a Sara vibe? That in itself means so much to me.

    Thank you so much Robby

    Tap
Sounds good Jimmy. Another one of your heartfelt tunes. Yeah, that technique on a song like this works the best. It just flow right!
      Thank you

    Scotty
love this! I'm a bit surprised Janet didn't comment on the piano sound. It sounds a bit edgy wavery, but you played it very well. Vocal is outstanding.

      She didn't because I'm a student and she don't want to be too hard on me :-)

   It is a bit edgy but it's because it's un edited in a sense. The weighted key controller
used I think only has 3 levels of velocity sensitivity. I just got it and am still working
on things.
      Thanks Scotty for checking this out and the remarks.

    Janet
     I was enjoying the song too much to even notice the sound.  :-)
        Smiles

    vechung
      Nice, very nice!  Love the singing.  Very expressive and nice tone.  Great melody and nice piano touch.

    Thank you so much. I've been listening to your stuff too. I really do like it.
      
  

   

This song really has a lot of feeling in it.  Really nice piece Jimmy.  I like the dynamics in the piano - as you play harder the tone opens up very naturally and expressively.  And your voice is always recorded well - and performed with a lot of feeling.  There is some very slight distortion on the piano - if you listen with headphones you can hear it at the beginning and in some of the middle parts.  Check out 0:17 through 0:26.  Something is getting slightly overloaded with those dark chord voicings.

Sounds really good, Jimmy.   Nice playing and smooth singing as always.

^

Hard for me to judge piano tone Jimmy as I'm not a player..

Did you put compression on it?

Your playing is emotive and I think matches the vox perfectly.

This is one of those tunes where you have to say "Damn the torpedoes" and just fire.. I think you've done that here.

You know what I mean.

Larry

The live feel works well for this song. I would agree with thalweg, though, that a couple of the paused felt a little awkward. Nice smooth vocals, and I thought the piano sound was awesome. Was it a sound module or real piano?

  Thalweg
      This song captured my attention.  What first comes to mind is the vocals, lyrics and melody line.  Lots of feeling conveyed here.  Its not rushed, doesn't feel forced for sake of getting something out. Although a very slight critique is some of the pauses between lyrics felt out of place, but that's just a very minor point and perhaps limited to my interpretation.  Also enjoyed the chord structure and flow.

   If the song gets a person to listen in the ways that you mention I really feel like
I'm accomplishing something. Music for me is a passion and I would hope that some
of that passion comes forth in the efforts in doing so. And is also displayed in the
performance as well.

   You mention the pauses feeling out of place and wondering if it's interpretation?
I don't know. I would think that if you hear it that way, then it must be a valid point.
I sometimes have unanswered questions too, as I was writing this I did ask myself
if those pauses fit?, didn't fit? On one hand they do and yet on one hand they don't.

  I think I look at much of my works as a test. To see what I can do, and am doing,
that would bring me closer to my self development as a writer/performer etc. Going
for and "hoping" to get a "live" sounding performance I'm sure played some part in
the way this turned out.

  Thank you so much for the remarks.

    Guitartek
    This song really has a lot of feeling in it.  Really nice piece Jimmy.  I like the dynamics in the piano - as you play harder the tone opens up very naturally and expressively.  And your voice is always recorded well - and performed with a lot of feeling.  There is some very slight distortion on the piano - if you listen with headphones you can hear it at the beginning and in some of the middle parts.  Check out 0:17 through 0:26.  Something is getting slightly overloaded with those dark chord voicings.

   Thanks for the kind words and the detailed remarks. The distortion subject is one
that I haven't figured out yet. It might be happening for "or coming from" "a place"
that I haven't found yet. The piano is "sampletank2" and I just started using it, as well
as just starting using weighted keys too.

   Your details will help in me seeing how things go as I use this VST more. I might start
putting my songs on my website that I hardly use to see if (as in your observations)
if a higher bit rate makes any difference. Still using soundclick of course but if the
higher bit rate doesn't change anything I'll know that isn't it.

   I do think that maybe the issue is not in the conversion though. It shouldn't have that
issue in the first place?

   Thanks a lot for the mention of things.

   Ron
    Jimmy

I also hear some noises in the left ear. Very small and at first I thought they weren't there but I see that Wookie heard them as well.

Pianos have a habit of doing that.

Nice piece

Ron

      That's the way I'm hearing it too.  "faint" and didn't pick up on it until it was mentioned.
I'm still looking into things but haven't nailed down the reason yet.
   Thanks Ron

    No How
      Sounds really good, Jimmy.   Nice playing and smooth singing as always.
    Thank you

    Kev
     I'll keep it short.  WONDERFUL performance!

Kev

       Thank you Kev. That means a lot to me.

    Robby
        Thanks for the support. That is very kind of you.

    mgh
     loving this song Jimmy. Yes there is a little crackle with the piano at times, but it almost works in a vinyl crackle kinda way. This reminded me of a Nick Cave slow number. The understated vocals work really well. only thing was, i think you have a gate set too fast or you're chopping off the end of the line in the vocal, as listening on phones you lose the reverb tail at the end of a phrase.
otherwise superb.

  Thanks a lot for the details. I didn't think much about the "gated sound" until you
mentioned that. It is always fun to "get to thinking" about something when someone
as yourself mentions a subject such as that. It is somewhat like being a student
and learning something.

  I rarely use a gate on vocs (or should I say try to avoid that) but I did on this one.
And sense a gate shouldn't stop the verb tails (when set up correctly) (it did) on
this because I had it "after the verb".

    I didn't catch that. I may have not caught that because the vocs seem more
un verbed in a way even though the effect can be heard when the vocs are singing.
Giving the vocs a more "raw" sound maybe?

   That sure has me thinking now that you mention that and why didn't I at least
"know that". I need to create a list of things to be aware of as a mix guy.
   I've gotten some really great (mention of things) from the replies on this and some
really sharp ears from you guys.

  I'm so glad you mentioned that. Things like your mention of that go way beyond
a single song crit. It's more about hey? why didn't I catch that in the first place?

  Thanks so much for taking the time to remark.

    SMB/ Larry
    Hard for me to judge piano tone Jimmy as I'm not a player..

Did you put compression on it?

Your playing is emotive and I think matches the vox perfectly.

This is one of those tunes where you have to say "Damn the torpedoes" and just fire.. I think you've done that here.

You know what I mean.

Larry

     You describe things much in the manner of my intent. I was hoping for the
"go for it" and hope it works mindset on this one so yes I know what you mean
and I am glad that to your ears it came across that way.

  I sort of broke the rules in a way as far as having a "noticeable" compression
on the piano. As a rule one doesn't use that much on a piano, but I was trying for
an emotive thing.

  On one hand I could view this piece as a more natural or less effected sound
on the piano and mix it that way (or) (as I've done here) have a more emotive
sound at the cost of sounding more "effected"

   Thanks for the mention of things Larry

    gdugan
    Love the intimacy of this, Jimmy. Very nicely done.
     
     Thank you, not just thank you, but "really" thank you.

   mwall
     The live feel works well for this song. I would agree with thalweg, though, that a couple of the paused felt a little awkward. Nice smooth vocals, and I thought the piano sound was awesome. Was it a sound module or real piano?

    Yes the pause thing is a valid point. Thanks for the mention of the live feel working
well and the other kind words too. The piano is the free "sampleTank2" it doesn't have
a lot of "piano types" but I liked this one and I am using weighted keys as a controller.

  Thanks for the remarks

    Timidi
   Very pretty song Jimmy. I always love hearing your vocal delivery as it is so pure and honest. I've listened to this a few times and I keep coming back to the sound of the piano being overly compressed or something. The smashing of the peaks doesn't bother me as much as the way the quieter parts fade back up. I guess it's called pumping maybe. What kind of compression are you using? 

   Thanks for the vocal compliments. On the piano subject I used the sonitus multi band
and comped just the mids using the "vintage" type. I'm still learning the vst used
for the piano. I think that between that vst and the controller used some things come
across too strong but I was wanting to "not have to" tweak the velocities in the piano
roll and I didn't.

  So that left me with having to rely on comping instead. Much of "this" recording/mix
is to see how things work out in doing so. It seems that if I spend a lot of time
on the velocities (instead) that will create a less noticeable affect on the the things
that you mention but there is a less "emotive" sound (for lack of better words)
doing it that way.

  With that said "seeing" what others say about that tells me something. I think that
if I "could have" made that affect less noticeable and still had the expression I would
have, but I am still "getting to know" this piano vst.

   Thanks for remarking on the way it sounds to you.



      

I don't know about the compression, etc. and thus can't comment, but I do know just a wee bit about style and you have a wonderful way of directing emotions through instrumentation be they guitars, pianos, etc.  Your vocals were equally as good.
 
This is a very beautiful piece of work.
 
Freddy J

For being a wanna-be piano player, I wish I was as good as you.  Very emotive.  Hard to do one instrument and vox and keep it interesting, but you've done it.

nice song - on these little computer speakers it sounded fine.  That is kinda the standard these days, if not ear buds.  Still, such a nice and pretty song it would be worthwhile to track down any little tech probs.

@

Definitely a Sarah M. vibe on the piano, and that's a great thing, accompanied by your warm and soothing signature vocals. An extremely pleasurable listen, no less. Bravo jimmy! 

The one thing you always seem to manage is to make whatever you do sound effortless and this is no exception.


Crits  ? - maybe a little more reverb on the vox - they seem to cut off quite abruptly in comparision to the piano notes and there does seem to be some minor distortion throughout. Very nicely done all the same. Enjoyed the listen as always.