This is my final entry in the Xtra Styles competition in the Country category.

Southern Comfort

I wasn’t going to enter in this category as Country’s not really my genre but then I thought “nothing ventured nothing gained”. Also BIAB makes it fairly easy to try out genres that you may not be so familiar with.

I used the _SALOON style which was very inspiring including both Resonator and Pedal Steel guitar tracks. However, I found it too busy so alternated between the Resonator and Steel guitars for the verse and chorus.

Also, the song has quite a few “pushes” which I found created unnatural sounding Pedal steel and resonator chord transitions so I created a parallel version of the song with no pushes and used the Resonator and Pedal steel tracks from this version.

For the solo guitar I decided to have the day off and found a very tasty RT (413:Guitar, Electric, Soloist Train Pickin'). I generated two versions of the solo and cherry picked the bits I liked the most from each one to create the final solo. I also added edgy (L) and clean (R) amp models and chorus to the solo track and finally added my vocals.

****** Song Summary *************
Title: Southern Comfort (Xtra Styles Comp)
File:Southern Comfort (Xtra Styles Comp).SGU
Key=E , Tempo 95, Length (m:s)=2:21
Style is _SALOON.STY (Saloon Funky Resonator Country)

RealTracks in style: 1416:Bass, Electric, PopSw16Sync Sw16 075
RealTracks in style: 2627:Guitar, Resonator, RhythmPlus BluesFunkyRandy Sw16 075
RealTracks in style: 1421:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm PopCrossover Sw16 075
RealTracks in style: 876:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm NorthernRockFuzzyQuarters Sw16 075
RealTracks in style: ~~363:Pedal Steel, Background Ev 085
RealDrums in style: NashCrossovrSw16^10-a:Snare, Closed Hat Push Beat 2 , b:Snare, Open Hat Boogaloo

RealTrack added: 413:Guitar, Electric, Soloist Train Pickin' Ev 130
*******************

Lyrics:
Well I’m driving this highway,
Through haunted dusty towns,
Heading for Nashville,
Near the Mason-Dixon line

The Grand Ole Opry
Looks mighty fine to me
But I won’t be stopping
Got somewhere else to be

Every place I see it just reminds me
Of every moment that I spend with you
With every mile I’m getting even closer
Southern Comfort pay your due

Now I’m headin for Memphis
Seeing sights that make me think
Of times gone by
Nearly drove me to drink

Now things are lookin better
Got you on my mind
Be there before you know it
Feeling mighty fine

Every place I see it just reminds me
Of every moment that I spend with you
With every mile I’m getting even closer
Southern Comfort pay your due


Enjoy!
Rec

Thanks for your nice comments Anne-Marie, greatly appreciated.

I'm working on version 2 as I still think it sounds too busy and the vocals are overwhelmed by all the various guitar tracks.

All the best,
Rec

Updated mix now posted on Soundcloud (use same link as before or click here).

- Removed a lot of overlaps for pedal steel, resonator and guitar.
- Brought vocals forward in the mix
- Other minor tweaks

Rec

Receder,

Cool song, this one is an improvement compared to the other mix.
Lovely blend of vocals again. Did you use BIAB's built in harmony function?

Rob

Thanks Rob,

I didn't use the BIAB built-in harmonizer as I only discovered it a couple of days ago, lol. Seriously, I had seen the green harmony button in BIAB but always passed over it assuming it to be for generating MIDI harmonies (I'm sure that's what it used to do in a really old version I used way back when). I really must get around to reading the BIAB manual some day!

Anyway, having discovered it I find that it's by TC Helicon and it's really rather good. I hope to use it in future tracks alongside my other harmony methods. I have also been reading Joanne's Blog which, among other things, talks about her way of learning and recording harmonies. Josie also wrote a "tips" post a while back with contributions from Floyd Jane about the built-in harmonizer so I have lots to think about for the next song.

Cheers
Rec

Good song, Rec. I enjoyed listening.

For what it's worth...

In relation to TC Helicon in BIAB/RB, I find it much better to use this in Realband and then export the tracks and use them in my DAW. The best about using RB for the harmony is that the individual parts can be put on separate tracks. This give much better control over the final mix. In BIAB, this is not possible.

Regards,
Noel

Thanks Noel glad you enjoyed it.

I still haven't used RB much as I tend to export from BIAB straight into Sonar.

I have discovered that you can also export individual WAV files for each harmony part in BIAB.
See screenshot below. Is that the same as you can do in RB?

Cheers
Rec