Inspired by the Tv Show, http://www.history.com/shows/swamp-people

Okay, I toyed with harmony, but am torn about that. This version is void of any. To get the musical feel I wanted, I used RT's at half-tempo. I hope it worked. Thanks for listening.

https://soundcloud.com/blushasta-music/swamp-people

Drums are EZ Drummer Americana, me on guitar with Guitar Rig 4.

518:Bass, Electric, Pop HalfNotes Ev 085
578:Harmonica, Background Blues BB Ev 085
382:Guitar, Slide, Background Blues Ev 085


SWAMP PEOPLE

Copyright 2014 by Scott H. Olson

Verse

We were here long before man
We done our part in nature's plan
Way on down in the cypress swamp
Spent our days doin' like we want

Climb

But lately we been thinkin'
Somethin' just ain't right
With the city slickers and the camera crews
Every day and night

Chorus

Swamp people what'd we ever do to you
Swamp people, can't we get along in the same bayou
You took my kin, you're huntin' me
I don't ever wanna' go on tv
Swamp people, what'd we ever do to you

Verse

Was a time we ain't forgot
We were in an awful spot
You brought us back from the brink
Weren't for you I might be extinct

Climb

But lately we been thinkin'
We cannot survive
The cable tv audience
That likes to watch us die


Repeat Chorus

Nice production Olemon, enjoy it very much.

Mike B.

Good job. Enjoyed the song.


Charlie

Thanks for the listens. After loading to Soundcloud, the mix sounded harsh to me, too much high-end and/or excitation, I made an adjustment and the link is to the updated version.

Enjoyed that. Nice mellow vocal and the RT's work suprisingly well on half speed. Cheers.

I liked this one the 1st time I heard it Scott, great job!

Later,

Really love the feel of this one. Tracks and arrangement work great!! Vocal too! Harmony might work-would be interesting to try. Fun listen! Take care. Greg

Dig this one Scott. Love that dirty guitar.



Regards,


Bob

Hi Scott,

nice production. Like the guitar.
Enjoyed listening.

Guenter

Scott,

I really like this. A solid write. I kept imagine a video of alligators singing (can you arrange that?).

The guitars are nice! the mix is good. And a good vocal. I don't think the drums are up to par with everything else. They sound programmed - and are distracting because of that. This is too good to allow that to happen. Hard for me to believe that a RealDrum wouldn't work better for this - there are so many to chose from.

Very enjoyable song.

floyd

Well put together tune, I think you got the sound you were after. I just read Floyd's comments on the drums -- yea, try a realdrum or two. Do you have a compressor on the main buss? I think you need one to "glue" everything together. Good tune and performance. The 1/2 speed RT's sound fine to me.

A winner, Scott. You definitely aced the "dirty guitar" vibe. Nice production all around.

Yeah, singing, dancing alligators would push this way over the top.

Thanks for posting.

You have a very listenable voice.

Hi Scott !:))

This must be one of your best !
I like your vocal as I usually do !:))
Really enjoyable !


Cheers
Dani

Hi Scott ...

Love the dirty guitar, like everyone else. The lyric and vocal match the music very nicely ... good prosody. I do feel a Real Drum track would probably enhance this, but I'm not as distracted by it as Floyd was. Very nice in indeed.

I have one called "Midnight In The Swamp" that's much different than this one. Might add a BIAB or RT to it so I can post it here.

Enjoyed the listen!!!

Al and Di

Scott, This is a good write. The real tracks are well mixed and your guitar sounds good. The vocal is once again excellent. I listened the other day and didn't get a chance to comment. The thing I was going to say was why not real drums? Keep writing and recording. It's working. Tom

Hi,
We listened to Swamp people and we like the sound, especially the slide guitar. Original lyrics!
Although recorded in half time as you mentioned, the real tracks behave pretty well.
Rob & Anne-Marie

Hey folks, thanks for listening. I'll respond to your comments later, but to clarify and explain the drums. I bring RT's into Sonar X for mixing.

The BiaB song, the RT's, are at 78 bpm, but the drums are double that at 156 bpm. I said the RT were at half tempo, but I didn't actually do that in BiaB (maybe you can, I'm not sure).

So, I started to make another BiaB song just for the Real Drums, another .sgu file, at 156 bpm with either 8 beats per measure or with twice the measures, but I knew I could do that easily in Sonar with the other drum instruments I have there.

So, I had a Sonar project at 156 in 8/4 with EZ Drummer, and I imported RTs at 78 in 4/4. After that, I recorded my guitar and vocal in Sonar.

Why am I hearing the voice of my computer science professor, who scoffed, 'Well, that's one way I suppose...'

funny tune! Nice production and vocal. Thanks for sharing!

Hi Scott

I listened to this a while back but am only just getting round to commenting now. Great song, great mix and the vocal is outstanding as usual. Love those low notes...

What they all said. Cool lyric/vocal, great guitar and the modified tempo RTs worked surprisingly well. A nice enjoyable production!!

Thanks guys, for listening and for your kind remarks. Like I've said before, if somebody likes my songs I am a happy camper:) So, that's Happy^5.

Btw, the acoustic guitar is tuned Drop D, which I'm sure you picked up on, and then I just added Guitar Rig to the track to get some distortion.

Very pleased indeed, aside from the drums, that the mix is where it should be and that you like the song. I set the bass fairly high on this one:) I posted about the drums. I don't know that much about BiaB and RB...I just recently realized you could modify the RD's per measure - think it was in another post you were explaining to someone else. I'll revisit this with RD and see what I can do. I get impatient, write the song, record the song, edit, mix, post, next! Thank you Floyd, for all of your comments and suggestions.

Oh, regarding singing gators, watch for a video I'll link to in Off-Topic.



Thank you Kevin. Yeah, I am compressing the main bus, but not very much so perhaps it could stand some more squashing.

Thank you, Amigo!




You're the kind one Dani:) I appreciate it sir.

Gosh Al, thank you so much! Would you believe one the first songs I started to write, I was prolly 16 and living in the Midwest mind you, was something about a 'Bayou Party'. I just recently remembered that:) Looking forward to your swamp tune.

Tom,

I don't know if you realize how much you helped me with mixing! Thank you. And thanks for the compliments too:)

Scott - and anyone else reading this....

You owe it to yourself to spend some time listening through the drum choices. In the RealDrum selection screen, double-click a drum set - you'll get a preview - turn the band off so you hear just the drums... on many, you can double-click the variations (on the right side) and hear what each of those sound like (there are some that don't have demos, but MANY do)... The choices are PHENOMENAL. Then as you find ones that might work with what you are doing, try them out in your song. They can make a HUGE difference - and when you find the "just right" one... oh, man.... I like to do it with JUST the bass playing along. If you can get the bass/drum combination to sound right for a song, heck...you're almost done - so that time spent is really important. I urge you strongly...take the time required to listen through one day - you'll be amazed... I know I took far too long to learn this lesson - and regret that...

Oleman you’re a happy camper and so am I for listening!

I really like your guitar work in this one as well as your vocals and lyrics, super job on that. You mix was top notch also.

I do agree about the drums and RealDrums may be one alternative however another alternative would be MIDI drums. You have Sonar so you have Additive drums as well as EZ Drummer. Many of BiaB drums parts will work with both, plus there are many available MIDI drum parts out there. I like MIDI drums as you can easily make them do what you want them to do. A disclaimer here: I am not against RDs and in fact use them occasionally myself. I’m just suggesting another option.

This is a really good song and with a better drummer it would be over the top for me.

R & AM, Pg,

Appreciate the listens and those comments:)




I have been doing just that Floyd...thanks for the motivation. I haven't found a drum groove that I like as much as the EZ kit yet, the Nashville Skip RD is close though. However, I've learned quite a lot about Real Drums in the process. Still working on it....






Josie, Janice and Bud,

I value your feedback and those comments mean a great deal to me:)




Hey Mario. So glad you like the song! I hear you on the drums. Both the AD and Session Drummer have so much rock stuff, I could never find beats I liked. The groove I found in EZD worked, I thought, but perhaps I can make it sound less distracting if not RD. I appreciate all of your comments. See you around Street Jelly:)

Nice change up from the usual.

So you started out with RealDrums in Song: NashvilleEven8^5-a:Snare, HiHat , b:Snare, Ride (Tempo 156)

Measures 1-16 SideStick, HiHat

Measures 17-32 Snare, HiHat

and that was the bed, then you went and tried to match that with Toontrack's?


The setup above tracks perfect to the song, but the breaks in the middle measures after the second set of 16 are the tricky part, is this why you left the RT and went for midi with Drummer?

Thanks for all of that Eric:) I uploaded a Real Drum version with Nashville Skip^01 SideStick, Ride. The original link will take you there, but here it is also:

https://soundcloud.com/blushasta-music/swamp-people

Nice job working on a real life producers quandary, when asked to change something and thinking I rather go fishing than rack my brains working on drum parts in BIAB.

I truly commend you for pushing the envelope and perhaps even learning a little more on how tricky it is to get the drummer to quit texting while playing:)


Your awesome!



DA...

I almost missed this one Scott you ole Gator. Reminds me of Hank Jr. - that's a compliment. Good stuff.


Josie

As kin to swamp people I say great groove. and I like the solo vocal in this tune.

Yep, learned some more and hopefully the production is better. I think it need's some EQ'ing though, muddy. I'll probably tweak later on. Thanks Eric.



I appreciate that Josie!



Glad you liked it. My friends and neighbors hunt gators, but they seem to like the tune, which means I don't have to move:)

Thanks for listening.

Scott...

First and foremost... Congrats on going over the 1000 mark on a "current" post (not "dug up" after it's time)... that is huge!

The new drums sound great. A job very well done!

You should be very proud of this one!!! A truly enjoyable listen.

floyd

Floyd,

I feel like I'm 'digging' a little right now, but I want to say thanks for those generous comments.

And thank you for all of your help and mentoring!!!

And thank BiaB for giving us a way to give life to our songs and share our music:)