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Here's one I'm working on with Alison Reynold.
No name as yet.
It's slowish at 80bpm.
It needs ears - any thoughts, suggestions and crits gleefully accepted.
A VERY rough melody was worked out with MIDI by me and Alison took that, refined it, changed it to suit both mouth & mind.
I think the 1st counter melody is unsuccessful but the 2nd seems better.
Thanks in anticipation of your listening & commenting.
BIAB elements
RealDrums SoulRock70sEv^4
1155 organ reggae
2849 Midi Super Track organ (the reprise/outro only)
2296 Horn section Rhythm Slow
2792 Horn section background crooner
2803 Trumpet muted background crooner
SOLO - acoustic guitar but I didn't save that and can't find it. LOTS of "multiriff"ing for that little part as well as cut, paste & so forth.
Held Chord piano centred in verses and on the left in the choruses
Tinkly piano on the right in the choruses (alternating with the trem guitar)
Non BIAB ELEMENTS
Bruno Royal Artist guitar four tracks, one with tremolo one plucked, one accents & one "chop", all through an AC Tone Joyo pedal with a cab sim managed by ReaVerb in Reaper
Knockhofner bass DId.
I'll have to suss out what microphone Alison is using.
Tracked in Reaper with the PG Plugin
Airwindows Iron Oxide Classic is the only non standard, for me, free VST used on this one - it's on the vocals and gives a little presence boost.
W.I.P.

Here's a slight tweak with the 1st counter melody part dropped & some "warble" excised.
WIP tweak 1

I tried B.D's suggestion about the vocal "sparkle". I was wary as sibilance is also accentuated in that freq. range. I was tempted to grab an exciter plufin but opted for the old "Motown Exciter" process, ( double the track, absolutely squash the track with heavy compression, add oodles & glops of top end through EQ, then blend in with the original to taste). here's the result:
Sparkle mix

I tried Floyd Jane's suggestion - removed the horns and upped the organ...BUT...the reggae organ doesn't really cut it in that section. I tried every organ in BIAB within the tempo range & even after heaps of multiriffing the tracks had very weak, lazy offerings for about five bars. I then tried all of the Midi SuperTracks and found one that was okay but it had LOTS of silent parts so ended with blending the reggae organ in to flesh out those spots and using some volume automation to get the transition to fit.
NO HORNS

Another tweak...I added some "inbetweenness" and ooomphed the organ even more as suggested by FJ, added more "air/sparkle" to the vocals and reduced the ice pick in the solo as per Misha.
TWEAK 13/09

Adjustments made based on suggestions below..I dropped the SuperMidi organ as it didn't sound real enough & the phrasing was awful.
I boosted the reggae organ and did some envelope automation for the dynamic change into the final sections. I reworked the lead vocal having checked the regular EQ & Span to find that there was no visible, nor to me audible, dip in the upper freqs. that wasn't in the untreated audio.
I'm yet to get brutal with the acoustic guitar fills - some seem a little limp & should go.
14/09 mix


Lyrics (not too great but they'll do)
V1
One step
One word
One thought
One day
One plea
One love
Once all that was me then
Two steps
Two words
Too late
To see
To try, (twice me to be or not to be)
To fail,
To be or to not be.
C1
Is this, is this real?
Is this all that we can ever be?
Is this the total deal?
What do you
What do you
Want from me?
What can I do,
If it's true?

V2
Three steps
Three words
Three lives
Three see
Three hours
Thrice gone
Three is more than are we then
Four steps
Forewords
Forethought
Foresee
Forewarned
Fourth time (for me to be or not to be)
For t'was not to be
C2
Is this where we stand?
Is this how it will be, will it be ?
Is this what we had planned?
What do you
What do you
Want from me?
What can I do,
If it's true? (if it's true)
Rep
Is this, is this real?
Is this all that we can
ever be?
Here're some images of how the BIAB drums, (struggling as ever to removed the over represented batter/click on the bass drum head) in particular, have been treated. Bass has a sharp notch up high to counter some of the M & R Interference I encounter here. There's also an over view of the entire project as well as the chord chart. Click on any & select "open in a new tab" to be able to see details if desired: