old school country ballad

You'll Be Me

Roger,

Excellent. Well written, well produced.

Good vocals. Good mix.

Clever song idea/title...

Consider posting the lyrics. Folks can benefit from "seeing" how well written this is...

And others might benefit from seeing what RealTracks you used. Nice use of BIAB.

FJ

Thanks Floyd,

That's a track I did a while back and remixed now that I'm getting a better handle on that end of things.

Like a lot of folks on here, I'm assuming, I create the tracks in BIAB and then export to a DAW of choice (in my case, Logic Pro X). That's where I do all the edits/vocals/mixing/effects, always making sure that before I export, I've centered the pans and rolled off all of the reverb presets in BIAB so I have a cleaner slate to work from.

All that being said, early on I paid a lot of "stupid tax" by not saving everything I should....that included the BIAB file for this particular song. So I don't remember exactly what all I used. I'm pretty sure that I started with Country Ballad w Baritone Guitar, but I can't say for sure. Assuming that's correct, I then added piano, fiddle and steel, as well as another acoustic guitar (fingerpicking).

My process, for anyone who's interested, is that once a song is written and ready for a BIAB treatment, I clock the tempo and use that as the foundation for finding a RealTrack. So I'll open up the "browse styles" box, set the tempo approximately (this song wound up being 68bpm, I searched 70ish). I then just listen to everything in the ballpark tempo-wise, regardless of genre. Sometimes I'll apply additional parameters (swing feel vs even, 8th vs 16th), but I try to keep all the genre options on the table. At that point I try to find a track that either exactly what I want or close. Then I'll add/subtract instruments to my taste, create the track, export the audio files, and from that point everything happens in Logic.

The lesson I learned (the hard way) is that even though I've exported the audio, keeping the BIAB template is a good plan - wish I had figured that out before this particular song.

Appreciate your feedback!

Nice work Roger, I admired the overall vibe on this. The different elements really glue well together and the mix sounds well polished too. Keep it up!

A nicely composed polished tune...
Well produced & mixed...
I only wish you had included lyrics.

Love everything about this song. Pure country , like floyd says the lyrics would be nice . Please keep them coming roger

lyrics per request...


You’ll Be Me


Don’t smoke cigarettes, don’t drink whiskey
Don’t hang out in the bars at night, it’s too risky
Don’t be the kind who tends to lie and cheat
Cause if you do, you’ll be me

CHORUS
Trust me, that ain’t something that you wanna do
Cause soon you’ll find that nothing’s all you’ve got to lose
You don’t want to be someone that no one needs
Cause if you do, you’ll be me –

Don’t trust your heart at 2 AM
Don’t play the kind of games nobody wins
If you act a fool, that’s what you’ll be
And if you do, you’ll be me –

REPEAT CHORUS

The incidental noise at 4 seconds was a little harsh.
That up close intimate vocal style is excellent, (The free VST compressor Blockfish has a superb preset for it that comps but also colours the vocal really nicely), but it also exposes and emphasises essing and plosives.
Excellent song - deep, dark and damaged.

Love the lyrics - I can't pick any "best" because they're all great!

An excellent payoff of the chorus.

Everything else is good too. Nice singing, baritone guitar.

Welcome to the group of people on this forum I categorize as "Way too good at songwriting".

Excellent. I like a song with a message or that tells a story - this has both.

Nicely done! Loving the throwback to that old school country sound. Delightfully catchy, and I loved the lyrics on this. Very relatable and even more firmly reinstates the classic country vibe.

Great work, and thanks for sharing

Roger,
Beautiful song and excellent performance / recording.

P.S. Second on the playlist:
"I Bet You Weren't Expecting This"
Probably not intentionally placed "second" by you,
but rhymes well too

I enjoyed both tunes.

Thank you for sharing!

Misha.

Great all around but especially the lyrics stand out. Nicely done

Floyd nailed it!! This is extremely clever, well-written and produced and just.......hits the bullseye!! Great job!! Take care. Greg

It may have been an old school country ballad, but it was cleverly done! Well done.

Roger,

Country as it should be!

This is just freaking perfect country.

I would buy an album of songs like this!