Twilight Rain

Twilight Rain

this is a song i wrote some years ago, that i revised for my last album.

it's a somewhat autobiographical tune..
it blends acoustic and electric guitars, with harmony vocals and bass guitar, but no percussion of any kind.

i used every guitar i have on this one (Williams strat-paul hybrid, carvin dc200k, usacg strat, ibanez artist, taylor 414 and seagull artist mosiac)

a soft ballad, that is a bit trippy......

http://soundcloud.com/bats-brew/bb07-twilight-rain

Songs like this are the reason that I keep coming back to this forum day after day.  This is an absolute gem.  Never has your voice sounded more like Jon Anderson, and the whole song has that feel of Yes.  Yet, this is totally your own.  Your mastery of singing, playing, writing, and producing just gets better all the time.

I got your new CD awhile ago and have worn out the "Batsblues" track and right after it "Twilight Rain".  These are going on the mountain mp3 as soon as I get off my keester.  THIS IS A GREAT TUNE!  It also has the vibe of David Crosby's Album ( it was an album when I had it) "If I could Only Remember My Name", yet totally different.  How can that be?  You got me!!  If I knew how I'd do it.  I'm listening to this song now and am going out to the car to get the CD and load it into my mp3 player. 

Good stuff, beautiful guitar work. I think I remember you from the Vsplanet forum. Did you record this on the vs2400 by any chance?

Sounds good here and I agree the vocal is very Jon Anderson and a Yes vibe to the track.

Good stuff

Beautiful song and sounds

Great track! The guitars sound awesome. I'll say it has 80's pop influences?

Beautiful!  Guitars, vocals, bass...all sound great!

When I saw the title, I realized that a song about rain in the midwest would probably be a hard rock song, celebrating the end of the drought.  

But that's rather off-topic...just sayin'.  lol  

lynn
thanks for listening.....it's very kind of you to say those things...
i have to agree, a lot of what i hear at songs forum is pretty inspiring.
plus, it's a great place to steal ideas!!
LOL


warren
"batsblues", heheh, i had to go back and look at my track notes to remember which song you were referring to, the "Waiting to Shine" tune....!
"if i could only remember my name", man, i remember that song, i haven't thought about crosby (as a solo) in a long time, now i'm gonna have to go stream some "freak folk", yes sir.

clintmartin
thanks clint....
yes, i've been a member of the vsplanet forum since 1999.
i was a moderator of a couple of the sub forums for quite a while....

but no, i moved to 100% sonar about 2007, and recorded all of my most recent album using Sonar 6PE and a custom built PC.
i DID record most all of my first album using a roland VS1880.

thanks for listening, and commenting.


wookie
thanks chewy, maybe if i juxtoposed some 5/8 drum parts across the top of the 4/4, it would sound more Yes-like.
LOL
appreciate the comments, glad you liked this one.
where is bill bruford when i need him?


Makke
thank you very much.

vechung
thanks vicente, appreciate it!

you know, throughout the 80's (actually, from 1979 thru 1986) i worked on the road full time, doing mostly covers.
some were hard rock, but some were pure pop, R&b, and funk.
so, there's no way i could get away from all of that, for sure....

i think maybe i was thinking more along the lines of stuff off of eric johnson's 2nd album, ah via musicom, when i built this arrangement.
in fact, it sounded so close to that kind of thing, with the original demo i had, that included full drum kit, that i took the kit out.

tried to give it a more classic, or timeless feel, without the drums.
it throws some people.

maybe one day, i'll hook up with a really creative drummer that will come up with something for it that is totally unexpected, but i could'nt improve it on my own.
everything i did sounded so..... expected.
LOL


janet
thanks so much for checking this one out.
it is a song version of memories of my childhood growing up in florida.....
where it rained every single day!
LOL

now, out in Utah, maybe it rains once a month.
but it's a dry heat.
LOL again......

Gonzo, this is such a great tune. As I've said in the past - you always put out the best - most professional music. This is is just so interesting.

Waiting To Shine rocks my mood every time I listen.  A GREAT tune that makes me move.  Batsblues, I didn't know if you'd remember that.  That's funny!

YEA, I should change the name of that song to 'batsblues'

LOL


guitar stuff:

i used the Williams Hybrid, for the majority of the rhythm work, and the middle solo

This is beautiful. I'm guessing John Anderson must have cost a fortune to hire in ;-)

That's a wonderful mix, I can only aspire to such things. 

stinga
thanks for listening and commenting.....
"Jon", was not available, he sent in an understudy.

Nice - I would probably lose the rain fx - feels kind of cliched, but then I guess cliche is just another word for popular .

thanks for checking it out paulo...

it's real rain, recorded right out the back door.

and it tells a story, it is an integral part of the story, i think if ever there was a place for it, it's right there.

it's gonna stay, and damn the cliches!!
LOL

++++ 1 

cool sounding track... vocals remind me of Jon Anderson/Yes (bet you've heard that one before)... great guitars... well done...

Love it! Who's Jon Anderson?

I like the rain... I expected it... and, yes, I was disappointed that you didn't lead in with a couple of minutes of it. And at the start of the second verse keep it longer underneath the instrumental...  I mean who doesn't like the pitter patter of a soft rain storm? :)

I hear the references to Yes and Jon Anderson..... but I also caught some serious CS&N vibe in there too, especially the harmony vocal stuff. 

nice job. and a beautiful tune. This may be my favorite thing from you. 

wow. how have i missed this track? friggin incredible. really, one of the coolest and slickest songs i have heard in a while.  vocals are stellar...very Steely Dan and Jon Anderson-esque. this song is a gem. A+ 

Terrific vocals layered perfectly. Well done.

Absolutely gorgeous song, excellent sound on these guitars - a very genuine CS&N kinda sound, only you've got your own stamp on this.  I'd love to know some details about how you process your vocals.  This is truly a great sound and awesome mix.   love it !! 

Biab-
+++thanks


NotNat
thanks man, thought you might dig the guitar work a bit....

scotty
heheh, you know, i know you do!
he's the lead singer of jethro tull......



;-)





keith
the rain, it's just gotta be there.

i experimented for a long time, with different versions of the RAIN sections....

how long to let it rain before the thunder, where to put the thunder in relation to the opening chords of the song, i let that 2nd section run all the way thru the 2nd verse on one version...
i tried a lot of variations, but ultimately, keeping it short and sweet seemed to be the right way to go with it.
thanks for listening

guitarhacker
csn, you just can't get away from.
i mean, they just covered so much ground with the 3 part harmony, it's always gonna be a cross connection somewhere.
glad you liked this one, it's a bit different than the other ones.

maybe closer to the 'Moonshine' song......


Virus
thanks a lot for listening, and commenting on this one....

jamesyoyo
thank you james.
the vox are very straightforward, it was just a matter of getting the timing of the words together, that was hard.
i kind of shoot from the hip with these things, making them up as i go along, then going back and trying to recreate them.
LOL
it makes it hard work.... but i like to work that way, keeps a feeling of unknown, of spur of the moment, and of improvisation, which is my thing.

JD1813
appreciate the kind words...



details of vocal 'processing'

well, it's very straightforward and old fashioned, in terms of production and tracking.


i've got 3 vocal mics i use at different times, a AT4033, a ADK Hamburg, a Shure SM57.

now i have a Shure KSM44 which i use on ALL vocals, but i did not have that when i did this recording.

the lead was the AT4033, the backups were all the ADK Hamburg.

my modest rig:


i have a nice tube mic pre, a A Designs Audio MP-1, that takes the input from the mic.
i run out of it, into the front of a small DBX compressor they no longer make, called a MC-6.
it's design is based on the DBX 160, a rack mount unit i used to use a long time ago...
i particularly like the way this unit colors my voice, so i use it always.

i can't tell you how i set it, because it varies from song to song.
i adjust every parameter by ear, til i get what i want.

then the signal comes out of the MC-6 and either heads directly to my Maudio Audiophile 192 card, using IT's convertors, or i use a ART DPS convertor section, and go into the sound card via SPDIF (digital)

and that's it.

once it's in Sonar, i may put a software compressor on it, or eq it a bit, or add some delay, rarely reverb, and that's it with the processing.

more times than not, i'll double track my lead vocals, and if i'm feeling REALLY work-a-holicky, i'll double track all my backups too!

double tracking is really hard, takes a lot of concentration and really hard listening, and a good bit of punch-in on the 2nd part!!
LOL

i'll create a part, more or less on the fly, and get a performance i really like, then i have to go back, learn that performance, memorize it, and sing it all over again!! matching the words, annunciations, emphasis, sometimes DE-emphasis, and then i'll blend that track in underneath the original.

so really, i don't do hardly any vocal processing.
it's really just capturing performances the old fashioned way.
same way i always worked with tape, only, now the tape is a waveform on a harddrive.

The last time I put thunder in a song I got chastized for it.

Early 70s drift, what's not to like.  Very well done as always.  I like it a bunch.

Daryl

thanks daryl!

actually, it's early 2012.....

Amazing ...I really thought I was listening to Jon Anderson and YES!!!!!!!!!

alkie

thanks for listening.....

but, wow...

this yes thing.






i would like just ONE person, to send me a link to ANYTHING by Yes, that sounds ANYTHING like this song.

just cuz, you know, i'd be interested to hear it...
i thought i had heard most of Yes' material over the years, and own just about everything from Drama back to the beginning...

but can't think of a single song that sounds like 'twilight rain'.

i just don't hear it.
but so many do, there must be something to it.....


.....reaching for my 'close to the edge' album to steal riffs......

batsbrew


alkie

thanks for listening.....

but, wow...

this yes thing.






i would like just ONE person, to send me a link to ANYTHING by Yes, that sounds ANYTHING like this song.

just cuz, you know, i'd be interested to hear it...
i thought i had heard most of Yes' material over the years, and own just about everything from Drama back to the beginning...

but can't think of a single song that sounds like 'twilight rain'.

i just don't hear it.
but so many do, there must be something to it.....


.....reaching for my 'close to the edge' album to steal riffs......

 
It`s not that it sounds similar to a particular song by YES...It was just as I was listening to it I thought of YES and the Vocals reminded me of Jon Anderson in quality...So I felt I was listening to a YES song. Sorry I didn`t read through the previous comments ..So I didn`t know anyone else felt the YES thing.

 

heheh, i guess there's something to it, so many have said a similar thing before...

yes, you are in company, apparently!

i will now embrace this as a 'tru-ism'.

maybe i should work on my southern drawl more.......

doesn't that billy kid from dookie day fake a british accent to make him appear more punk?!
that might work...

all i can really say is 'blimey'

or 'give over'.


LOL


thanks again alkie

Wow! How did I miss this. Great mix. I'm not in the "Yes" crowd, but the harmonies put me in the CS&N column..love it!

...and oddly enough, I just ordered that same ART tube preamp today.

CLEAN


Gonzo, this is such a great tune. As I've said in the past - you always put out the best - most professional music. This is is just so interesting.

hey mark, i missed this comment way back when, i'm sorry.....
i'm glad you liked this one....
it's definitely a more.... laid back groove, i was on the fence about playing it even slower, thinking maybe more breathing room?
either way, appreciate the kind words.

pgs
I appreciate the comments, CSN and CSNY would definitely have to be in the influences category.....

the little art tube pre, with the convertor section, it's a nice little unit.
if you do not push it too hard, it has a nice clean sound.

with the EQ presets, you just have to ignore the 'names' on the dial, and use your ears.
it will color the sound with every click. i mostly use the neutral setting tho....