All Along (4/20/2017)

https://soundcloud.com/lawrence-olivier/all-along

RealTracks in song: 1434:Bass, Electric, JazzFunkPoppy Ev16 110
RealTracks in song: 2448:Guitar, Electric, Background, PopDreamyBrent Ev 085
RealTracks in song: 1408:Piano, SynthLayer, Rhythm Soul70sHeld Ev16 100
RealTracks in song: 2556:Guitar, Acoustic, Rhythm Pop16thsJoe Ev16 110
RealTracks in song: ~1435:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm JazzFunkGroovinChords Ev16 110
RealDrums in Song: NashvillePop16^2-a:Sidestick, HiHat , b:Snare, Ride

Solo, Me on a Fender Starcaster through a Fender Mustang1; mic Rode M3. with Guitar rig 5 post recording


The objectives:
I wanted to write something new.
I wanted it to be less dense than some of my previous songs like "YaYa Sister"
and I wanted to play a guitar solo myself. I haven't played the electric guitar in many years.

The writing:
After I typed in a few chords and selected a style, I wrote the first line “I can’t remember what happened last December”. As I played BIAB the melody wrote itself. With my Acoustic guitar, I cleaned up the chord progression and then the narrative flowed from that. I had a rhyming scheme from the first verse so I spent a few days editing what I'd written; especially the lazy words like “and”, “but” and the worst offender “just”.


The recording:
I used the second vocal take and decide to leave in the vocal flaws, but in the end I wound up using around a 30% macro pitch correction from Melodyne.
I did eleven takes of the guitar solo. The final solo came from two of those takes and from fixing some timing/phasing issues with computer magic (editing).

The mixing:
In the process of all of this I somehow stumbled upon Isotope's Neutrino. I've had Ozone 5 since 2013, but all I can say about Neutrino is wow! I used it on every track along with a bit of Sonar's channel tool. I've also been experimenting with varying pre-delay reverb on different tracks for depth. That and some side-chain duc’ing.

Thanks for listening.

Lawrence,

You really know how to consistently turn out exceptionally good material. This sounds excellent. Your writing, your arranging, your playing, your vocals and mixing all weave a wonderful and very engaging aural tapestry. I love the feel of the groove. To my ears it sounded like pop/rock meets reggae meets singer-songwriter... no-one else on here does it quite the way you do!

All the best,
Noel

Lawrence,

My new favorite from you - I love this. An outstanding song, vocal and mix.

You are such a pro!

Bob

Hi Lawrence.

Stand back Elvis Costello!

Is that guitar a real track? So awesome. Well done!

Loved the intro. Super vocal and loved the sound of the guitar. Well done

Lawrence,

Clean, crisp, just so well orchestrated.

This is another winner.

The intro tempts us that there are great things to follow. No one is going to be disappointed.

The guitar work is flawless, everything works just so well, especially including the solo break.

I also love this! Great prosody in the conversational lyric. Great sound on the guitar solo. Well played. Once again a top shelf vocal. Super mix. I am on my 4th listen. I even like the surprise ending. Fantastic work. Tom

Lawrence,
Fantastic intro ( if that`s what Neutrino can do for a guitar RT I`m gonna try it!) and an infectious reggae-tinged groove.
The melody floats nicely above. I enjoy the touch of rasp in your vocal too.
Very enjoyable!

Robert

Lawrence, your track sounds really good!! Especially the vocal and guitar. Great clean beautiful mix! Thanks, Torrey

I agree completely with VT!

I really liked your vocal and especially your guitar lead. If you haven't played electric guitar is years then I'm afraid of what you could do if you played it every day!

I really liked that ending also.

Hi Lawrence,

This is our favorite from you. Great sound - production, vocal, backing tracks and arrangement. There's a n expressiveness in your vocal that brings out the brilliance of this song. And that reverb guitar, with a touch of tremolo, is perfect fore the piece. Totally loved it!

Alan & Di

Lawrence

A real stand out - really nice in every way. Love the vocal and well played guitar solo.
Top class.

Peter

Noel, thank you for the kind and generous comments. They are really appreciated. Bob it's always good to hear from you. Thank you very much.

Joanne, the guitar in the intro is a BIAB Dreamy electric. The number is in the OP. Thank you. And I really enjoyed your new song.

First, a very creative use of the Brent dreamy realtrack.
And then the chorus which comes in so nice and rhythmically with again a very nice choice of RTs.
And then the vocals... we won't say anything about that, because everyone here on the forum knows they are among the best

Rob and Anne-Marie

Super job, Lawrence! I like everything about this one. Great arrangement, great production, very well written. Your vocals really do the job on this one. Really enjoyed the guitar solo. Going back for another listen!

Steve

less dense is a good description,

I love the spaces in between

makes the song breathe, very nice feel

this is a killer song, so good

I never do a perfect vocal and usually keep

about the second pass and don't like to do punch ins

guitar solo sounds great

nice write

Kenny

Lawrence,

A real pleasure to listen to.

The opening is really nice - made me look back to see what the guitars, bass and drums were. The mix is excellent - crisp without being too sharp. Tasty fills all over, without ever getting in the way, supportive and interesting. The choice of guitar RTs is a sweet combination.

Nice write. The cadence of the lyric is superb. Makes for a great listen. "..editing ...especially the lazy words like “and”, “but” and the worst offender “just”." That's a lesson that a lot of writers should take to heart. There are no "bumps' in this - falls on the ear perfectly.

Stellar vocal. There were a few spots that I thought it needed to come up very slightly (the rhythm electric pulled my attention).

Great listen.

fj

Back for another listen. We just wanted to double-down on what we said the first time.

Just one more thing -

Although they are much different groups, we can hear this dine by either The Eagles or Dire Straits. We think the tight harmony of The Eagles would be the next best - after your version. The backing trax are more Dire Straits but the vocal said Don Henley to us. Still, you take to a better tplace than either of them might have. Our opinion, of course, be we're pretty danged confident with it.

Alan & Di

Thank you Scott.

Thank you for listening and for the kind remarks.

Tom, thank you very much. Glad you liked it.

Robert, thank you. And I am very impressed with the Nuetrino.

Torrey, thank you for the kind words.

Mario, thank you. I wasn't sure about that ending but I went with anyway. Glad that it worked for you.

Lawrence,

This is outstanding. I'll just echo the others here. This feels like a record, not just a recording. Well done.


Regards,


Bob

Al & Di, thank you so much!

Thank you for your kind words Peter.

So very kind of you. You two rock! (And it seems that there is almost nothing you can't do with that Dreamy guitar)

Steve, thank you for your kind remarks.

Kenny, thank you. Sounds like we take a similar approach. Striving for that feel.

Floyd, thank you. Some words stand out to me as placeholders and I feel that with a little more thought a stronger, tighter lyric can be had. So when I do leave a "just" in the lyric it's thought out. On the vocal I am experimenting with the dynamic eq that comes with Ozone 7 (which I bought last week) to try and resolve some of the focus issues. Thank you for honing my awareness.

Thank you again! It's funny you mention those two bands. I definitely hear the Don Henley in the vibe and vocal and I tried some Dire Strait guitars before I settled on this mix.

Bob, thank you very much. That is very nice to hear.

Mr Gruve we think you certainly met your objectives and then some. A few random thoughts:

"Vocal flaws" is not a phrase we would ever associate with your singing. Earthy and heatrfelt does come to mind.

The electric guitar is a great complement to your vocal and the entire production. Gotta wonder why you would put that away for years. Keep it coming!

"The melody wrote itself" Well, it did a fine job of it.

"especially the lazy words like “and”, “but” and the worst offender “just”. Amen. I've learned a bit about that over the last few years and, yet, I still fall into it.

If you like Neutrino you will love Neutron with it's amazing presets for all instruments and it's "masking meter" that literally shows you where tracks are sonically competing with one another.

Finally, we think floyd pretty much nailed everything that is so good about this production. It's one of those productions where for us it's hard to parse things out to comment on. Why, because it's so cohesive that you just want to kick back and, well, listen to the song in it's totality.

Kudos!

J&B

Wow! Gotta love this! Cool voice, well played and produced...just all the way around really great song. Thanks for sharing this. It's impressive to say the least!

You are both so generous and your comments always bring a smile to my face. What I didn't expect was a Neutrino laugh! lol!

Thanks so very much. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Hello, Lawrence

Super sound with great vocal and guitar.
Elvis Costello x Stevie Wonder!!
I also love this circulating chord progression that starts with subdominant.
Enjoyed my listen a lot.

Best regards.

Shigeki Adachi

Elvis Costello x Stevie Wonder, what can I possibly say to that except thank you!