I have been working on this for the last several weeks. In this version I increased the vocal presence and backed off of the piano volume somewhat. Tracked vocals into an MXL 990 with no vocal corrections(maybe you can tell)lol.
 
  The arrangement is a song written by Kelly Carpenter so I can't lay claim to the song. All parts recorded and played by myself.
 
 I appreciate your listening and feedback.
 
http://soundcloud.com/starise/draw-me-close
 
 

Vocal levels seem to fit OK with the piano and strings.  One thing I noticed is the lack of dynamics in the entire mix.  You must be hitting the compression pretty hard.  Just looking at the soundcloud waveform, one can see it looks like the side of a brick.  Vocals have some pitch issues that can be corrected with VVocal or overdubed.  Nice project.  Also could use some drums. (but thats just me)

I've always thought that was a beautiful song that can be very emotional in a large group. I liked it. I can hear those minor pitch issues that Bret mentioned. But ya know - I'd just leave it alone. I've said before here that one of my problems with my songs is I tweak them to death trying to perfect everything, and eventually kill the emotion. Sometimes it's the very rawness of the imperfections that make it great! The mix is a bit squashed. So IF you were going to remix, my only personal suggestion would be to back off the compression a bit and let the song breathe a bit more. Let it get bigger and smaller with the emotions of the song. Again - that's IF you are going to remix. It's really not bad the way it is. Cool, man! Good job and thanks for sharing!

Tim, too much compression pumping. A good ballad does not compression IMO. Needs drums.

Singing was one of your better ones. Take that from a non-singer as you will.

Hey Starise nice job on this song.  What did you use for piano?

As far as the mix, I agree with everyone above, the compressor is way overworked for this tune.  I think it will sound better with more natural dynamics.  Or maybe even a series of compressors working a little bit, instead of 1 compressor working real hard.  This sounds like the PC compressor to the extreme

Nice song and performance

 BretB- I thought the same thing about adding drums, not sure if I could latch some kind of a tempo to this or not. I'm no drummer  for sure.I didn't want to play it to a tempo because I had a unique feel I didn't want to loose in it,but maybe I could lock drums to it. Thanks for the tips on compression. I used Ozone 5 in the Master buss and this is mostly what you hear. In some of my past work I have been to whimpy on the volume. I guess I carried it a little too far the other way,might need to back off the compressors a little bit.

 Whineshop- Thanks for your comments and listening! I have tried to use V-vocal and it usually ends up sounding worse .I'm sure this has to do with the user. I recently bought Melodyne and maybe this is an opportunity to play with it a little bit and see if I can get better results. I'll also see what I can do to return some of the dynamics .

Bapu- You are one of the better non-vocalists I have heard. Actually you do pretty well man.The compression, ya I'll be looking into that Thanks.

LPMike75- Thanks for your comments.I used a piano sound layered from several sources. The main sound is the Sampletekk "white Lady". Secondary and less audible layers are Yamaha Motif hardware.

Starise

Whineshop- Thanks for your comments and listening! I have tried to use V-vocal and it usually ends up sounding worse .I'm sure this has to do with the user. I recently bought Melodyne and maybe this is an opportunity to play with it a little bit and see if I can get better results. I'll also see what I can do to return some of the dynamics . 

Bapu- You are one of the better non-vocalists I have heard. Actually you do pretty well man.The compression, ya I'll be looking into that Thanks.

Tim,


Melodyne is great IF and I say IF you don't over use it. Of course for us non-singers it means first getting the vocal as close as you can get it. I now loop a line and sing it several times until I get "into" it. Yes, then I may use pieces of the various takes to make single line. Then I get into Melodyne. I start by use the upper right corner dialog box for "Correct Pitch" and I generally set both sliders to 100%. Then I go into the individual notes and listen for a bad note. Now here's the simple solution to having it sound as good as it can. Never move a note more than one full step up or down. If you have move it more than one full step it's time to sing (at least) that one note again.


After all vocals are "done" I bounce the entire "corrected" track.


JMO on Melodyne. 

This is a lovely song that has a world of potential.  If you use compression, use it on the individual tracks prior to mixing, and use less on the mix.  Don't go overboard, but I think it will get the desired results without destroying the dynamics.  Also, the panning could be a little wider which will help the song breathe.  You have a good voice for this song, and sang it with conviction.  I look forward to hearing this again.

Lynn


 I look forward to hearing this again.

Hit rewind?

I love this song!   Good job all around.  I really like the orchestration and the piano's played really well.  You might consider lowering the velocity on the keys.  (I know... no one will believe I said that!  lol)  

Thanks...I hadn't heard this in awhile.