What Am I Without You

https://soundcloud.com/kfl44/what-am-i-without-you

Bass 1418 Elec Southern Rock

Piano 1839 Acoustic Pop

Drums Rock Brit Driving EV16

Guitar 2644 Elec Rhy Modern Pop Hard

Guitar 1168 Soloist Rock Ballad Brent

Organ 2619 Rhy Funk

Thanks for listening and commenting,
Kenny

Kenny,

This is really good. One of my favorites from you. Smokin' guitar man. Consider me impressed.

What flavor of guitar is that??

A different side of Kenny! Cool song!! Has sort of a John Lennon Yer Blues vibe. Vocal comes across very emotive and sincere. And again, you've made everything sound very natural and "band-like" with a little help from you friend Brent. Very enjoyable!! Take care. Greg

Kenny
Nice build up the band sounds really good, and supports the vocal well.
Good song.

"Sleep out in the pouring rain
I will suffer any pain
Just to get you back again
Face the odds and still come thru"

Wow. Kenny...I hope you don't truly hold that much pain...
But the fact that you can put that into a song is impressive.

A bunch of BIAB users tend to "stay in the box"... it's easy to note - yeah, sounds like BIAB (same stuff over and over). You are DEFINITELY NOT one of those. You use it as a tool to "get what you need" to express a song. Awesome stuff. Pick and choose. Mix it up... This is a GREAT sound. Original, unique. Kenny music. Awesome stuff. Great listen.

Man! I like that!... a lot...

(stuck in my head).

floyd

What can we say, we definitely agree!

Thanks David for the kind words, the solos are all Brent this time, I like to play the solos on a lot of my stuff but tried out this Brent style and loved it right away.

Thanks Greg, I've been listening to and watching a lot of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers lately and they're so good live that I was drawn to wanting to create some kind of bluesy rock groove like the Heartbreakers. I take the Lennon reference as a compliment, things usually don't end up the way they start out anyway. When I added that funk organ to the mix I knew I had to make something out of that.

Thanks guys

This is really good. You did a masterful job bringing all the elements together. The solo sounds like BM was in the studio. It fits in perfectly. Enjoyed this.

Hi Kenny,

impressive. Very punchy.
Brent's rock ballad fits like a glove.
Enjoyable listen.

Guenter

Thanks Charlie, that is I hope you meant BM as in Brent Mason and
not the other well known bm...

Thanks Peter

Thanks,
nah, not too much pain here, ya know place holder words become actual words cause ya can't come up with better words...
yes BIAB is good at mix and match, everyone should have at it and enjoy.

Hello Kenny,

one of your best for me.
Very nice listening.

Sergio

Excellent song and mix.

Thanks for sharing it.

Trax

Between the organ, piano and those pained vocals (in the right way) I missed the rest of the arrangement.
I was focussed on those three elements.
I reckon you could strip it of the guitars and focus on the pain.

Kenny, Like floyd said "A bunch of BIAB users tend to "stay in the box"... it's easy to note - yeah, sounds like BIAB (same stuff over and over). You are DEFINITELY NOT one of those. You use it as a tool to "get what you need" to express a song. Awesome stuff. Pick and choose. Mix it up... This is a GREAT sound. Original, unique. Kenny music. Awesome stuff. Great listen." I always enjoy what you post here. You are one of my favorite writers and singers on this forum. Another good one. Tom

I agree 100%. Great blues.

All I can add is this is a keeper!

You are correct. Although the other could have been quite the 'Classical Gas' also.

Kenny that is a really fine production. Janice and I listen frequently to Lennon and his songs immediately came to mind listening to this. We are also Petty fans so it obvious that this is right in our rock wheelhouse.

Did you render the Brent track direct and apply your own effects? Man, it is so cohesive...sounds like a band that's played together for years.

The write is top notch
The vocals are nailed
The mix is superb. What a soundstage!

One of the best productions we've heard in a long time!!!

J&B

Thanks so much guys for the kind words, I had to jump right to this question and try to answer as best as I can. I mixed the tracks in Sonar/Windows and the Brent Guitar has a small amount of one of Sonar's nicest reverbs added and a good amount (about 65% total) of an effect called "Grit" kind of a tube overdrive sound. Then it is part of the overall Izotope Rock Mix which has Exciter, EQ, and stereo imaging of course for the entire instrument mix. Then I drag that mix over to Logic Pro and do vocals because everything works so smoothly there, none of that windows 10 insanity. I usually take my BIAB tracks thru RB to strip away the effects of BIAB before moving them into any DAW, this time I didn't and the organ is pretty much as is and sounds good to me.
Means a lot to me that you think the production is good, I've lost most hearing in the right ear, some in the left and have nagging ringing, especially when blood pressure goes up. I think a lot of us here have reached the point of having some hearing challenges so what can you do, listen for short periods of time, take long breaks, go back and listen some and tweak some more.
Thanks again

Kenny,

Your recording delivers a great compelling song and performance. Your vocal emotes the message of the song very convincingly and resides well in your song. The lyric and melody “What Am I Without” has a very strong hook and worthy of the title of the song. It is also is a strong lynch pin for your very soulful lyrics in your song. Guitar sound and solo is awesome.

Only one thing I would try to change if I heard this in my mixes is I would want to eliminate the drum snare artifact or digital distortion I seem to hear in your mix. Really stands out on beats 2 and 4. I’m listening to your song through some Yamaha NS 80 that are known to find flaws in recordings other monitors miss. I acknowledge that is a personal preference and regardless the drum part is still musical and does well in the song.

Look forward to hearing more from you and thanks for sharing.

Atze

Hey Kenny, I've got bilateral tinnitus and a serious bilateral high frequency hearing loss. I got some high end hearing aids a couple of years ago. The relatively young audiologist has a Ph.D. and she has done a fair amount of research. She was very interested in my ability to discuss db's, frequency ranges, etc., and she sorta took me on as an experiment re music production. Together we worked on a program tailored to enhance my mixing (one of two different programs). Without this I would never have gotten back into music things several years ago. The technology of the aids is, like all things digital, simply amazing.

As I'm sure you are aware there is currently no real cure for tinnitus but I found that after getting fitted with the aids I tended to focus much less on the tinnitus as I am able to hear other things...you know like crickets, birds, percussion, etc., PM me if you want any more info.

Bud

PS Thanks for the info on how you processed the guitar. It really worked. I'm more impressed each time I listen.

Hey, thanks for the kind words.
I didn't change anything in the drums, just imported into the DAW, didn't distort anything and as I stated in the response just before this one, I can't hear anymore. So I guess I'm saying...
Some folks make art, Hell I make art-i-facts!

LOL, "musical art-i-facts" sounds good to me.

Kenny,

add my name to the ever growing list of people who really enjoyed this!

Thanks Guenter!



Thanks Sergio,
glad that you liked it.


Thanks Trax

Thanks for listening and commenting Ray, I usually never make too big of an arrangement of any song. I wanted you to focus on those and then the lead guitar and practically drown in that gorgeous organ sound.

Thanks Tom,
very kind words, this was a bit of a stretch for me and I decided to let Brent have all the lead guitar fun on it too, maybe next time I'll rip some pentatonic blues.

Thanks Mario,
I can tell by your Souncloud comment that you hung in there till the end, glad that you liked it.
Kenny

Kenny,

This sounds great - you really push BIAB to another level - loved it!

Bob

Nice and rocky song ! God performance and voice !

Thanks Bob

Thanks Leo

Yeah man I'm diggin' it.

Sweet groove!