Here is my first post. The song is an old favorite hymn. Sweet By and By or There's a Land that is Fairer than Day. It is in the Public Domain. For many years I have sang in church and mostly old hymns at that. I sing alost always accapella because when I was young I had a terrible time hearing or "knowing" where I was supposed to be in the song. Now many years hence I have band in a box and am trying to learn how to sing with canned music. This I think is one of my best tries so far.

https://soundcloud.com/the-hymn-singer/theres-a-land-that-is-fairer-than-day-1

Sweet By and By

I used BIAD to find the chords from a free midi file I found and then went to Real Band and found a style I liked.

_BENTS85.STY. Slow Swing Bent-note Piano
All RealTracks. Quintet. Tempo=85 (65-110)
RD: NashvilleSwing8^1-a:Snare, HiHat , b:Snare, Ride :Brian Fullen
RT2476: Bass, Acoustic, Held Sw 085 , Craig Nelson
RT2638: Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm CountryBentNoteJohn Sw 085 , John Jarvis
RT968: Guitar, Electric, Rhythm CountrySwingCleanA-B Sw 085 , Jason Roller
RT530: Guitar, Acoustic, Strumming Hank Sw 085 , Jason Roller
Memo: A classic down-tempo swing country band with bent note piano. Acoustic bass, two guitars, and NashvilleSwing8 drums complete the band.
Examples: Floyd Cramer

After rendering the music to a wav file I then went into Sonar X2 Essential and recorded the vocal track.

I am learning.....but you know how it is with old dogs and new tricks !!.... thanks for listening ....Chris

Hi Chris.......Welcome to a whole new world. I also like doing a lot of Gospel / Christian music. Played in various Gospel groups from church groups to professional Country Christian groups etc.

BIAB will be a Godsend for you in learning to develop your song and applying the proper vox and harmonies needed to fill it out.

Your first attempt is surprisingly well done. As you continue to work with BIAB you'll find more ways to do what you want to do. Importing midi is a great way to get the chord structure. Then you learn to refine your mix, and on a song like an old hymn maybe even simplify it a bit. Here is a remake of an old hymn that I did awhile back, as you can see I like to bring them up to a more modern sound than when I used to sing them growing up.

JESUS SAVIOR PILOT ME

Chris,

From what you described about your "history"... I'd say this is one mighty good start!

You did a good job on this. The vocal could be just a little less loud in the mix - keep it up-front, but down just a bit to "sit in the mix" a little better (but, like I said... for one of your first efforts, this is really well done).

Welcome to the Showcase!

floyd

Good job Chris. I think that for your first time out this is very good. You have a pleasant voice and your band was a good selection. I would recommend maybe a key change or a solo instrument. I enjoyed listening.
Sonny

Very nice first post.

Welcome!!

J&B

PS Janice's 94 year old mother plays that on the piano

Toucher....I listened to your song....very nice...I see what you mean by making it more modern...

Floyd Jane , I have listened to some of your songs while lurking here..Receiving a complement from you is quite satisfying in light of the quality of your work.....thank you

SRP...ahh , key changes , solo instruments and the like are things I can identify in a song but building the song myself is a akin to driving a car vs building one..or..knowing a good book when I read one but not being able to write one myself....to me listening to music and making music seem to have been mutually exclusive save for singing....I can rudimentarily read music say to play my sax or to pick notes out on a piano to learn a melody but being able to pull everything together to build a song has hithertofore been somewhat elusive. I do certainly though appreciate any and all constructive criticism and any help that might be sent my way.....

thank you all for the kind words and encouragement......

Very nice listen. Excellent start with BIAB

Hey,

Welcome to BIAB! Great first post!!! I really enjoyed it. Reminds me of my childhood in Seven Springs Baptist Church after a long week in the tobacco fields!!!

Keep up the great work.

Hi Chris,

welcome to the Showcase!
Nice first post.

Guenter

Good first post and you did a nice arrangement choosing instruments for the backing track. Nice vocals.

Welcome to the forum and I hope to see you posting more for us to listen to.

Hi Chris,

Welcome to the forum.
A very nice first post.
Like Floyd said, keep your vocal a bit down, but the vocal itself is very good.

Good job!

Rob and Anne-Marie

so as a newbie I have a question....when you guys do your mix do you often her quite a difference between you headphones and other speakers?......Some of you have noted that my vocal was a bit loud....in my headphones the vocals do not stand out nearly as much as on my computer speakers...I do not have studio monitors to listen through but my philips headphones come real close to my son's sol republic over the ear Master Tracks headphones.....so I was trusting my headphones.......I will make sure to try to get a listen through a greater variety of speakers................

As a general rule of thumb, headphones are the least desirable way to mix. Mix with speakers and reference your mix in a variety of sources, boom box, auto, mp3 player, etc.

These aren't hard, fast rules but more guidelines than rules.

If headphones are all you've got to mix with, use them. If you get feedback the vocals are too loud in your mix, turn the vocals down. It may not sound perfect in the headphones but good out of speakers. If the feedback is there is too much bass, cut the bass - again, your speaker output should sound better.

You will eventually learn to compensate for imbalance and lack of ambient room noise and reflections to get a satisfactory mix using just headphones. Just understand you may have to compensate and make adjustments.