PG Music Home Forums General Discussion User Showcase Original songs with BIAB tracks

Hi everyone,

First off, I've really enjoyed the creativity and talents of everyone who has posted their BIAB original songs. This has indeed been a great pool of software users with suggestions to help each other out. What an awesome program! Who would of dreamed what would be possible in today's world in regards to songwriting and production tools.
Now on to my story. When I was a kid, my BIAB was a Baldwin organ with 16 rhythms. You could even trigger a drum roll with the side of your foot on the pedal! I'm not very good at this stuff but from age 12 until now, I enjoyed writing songs and putting them into album concepts. I remember them all through the years because i would throw them on cassette tapes and write lyrics in books. Except from a few isolated times, I never would play originals in bands plus someone else did all of the singing. I removed myself from music for quite awhile. Recently, I bought myself a computer and software. I've always wanted to record my catalog of songs and see what they sound like (bucket list). My problem is that i work full time and my wife has a lot of "honey-dos" She just "cringes" when I head down to the basement to record. Since I have so many songs I wanted to record and limited time, I decided that I would record rough demo songs to see what has possibilities so these songs may not be as tight on performance and production as other songs you will hear in here. Remember, I'm not a lead vocalist plus I'm a beginner guitar and a "so-so" keyboardist so I am really nervous about even posting anything online.
I organized my catalog into sub catalogs by genre. The first 13 (Classic R&B) genre songs I've posted here. These songs are influenced by Tower of Power, EW&F, AWB, ect. The basic songs was written back when I was 14. When I've recorded them in 2010, I changed the lyrics on some songs to a more updated theme. I also will be posting a country, classic rock and singer-songwriter genre in the next 2 weeks on reverb nation. In time, I'll work both directions from new songs while trying to catalog my old stuff. I don't use BIAB on every song mainly because I'm not sure which specific tracks to incorporate for already written songs. If you hear a track that you believe a specific BIAB style track I could use to replace my part with, let me know. I basically played all the keyboards, guitars, bass, horn and string parts but I used a lot of BIAB parts integrated with me. I will try to add the specific BIAB midi and real tracks but I'm not by my home computer. I'll add them later. Here is my link:
http://www.reverbnation.com/#/artist/artist_songs/1007765

Songs with BIAB tracks:
Another day in the city: MIDI style that uses BIAB bass and real drums. I did everything else.
Anything you say: real track guitar part from smooth jazz tracks
Everybody: MIDI BIAB bass track and drum
Free Your Mind: MIDI bass (sorry for the message of the lyrics from some of you. I write songs on both sides of the political isle)
In the streets (Unemployment Blues): Real track slide guitar solo, real drums, rhythm guitar real track
Magic Bottle: BIAB MIDI bass and drums, BIAB Tenor Sax solo
Something For You: BIAB MIDI bass
Pull the Plug: BIAB real track drums and bass, BIAB Tenor Sax solo

Let me know what you think. Be kind, LOL.

Rod

PS To Steve in Grand Junction, I've also played at the Norwood bar about 4 times. It has been about 6 years ago. I live in eastern Utah about 2 hours from Grand Junction. I like your music.

That's quite a collection of songs! I listened to some- very nice stuff. Very creatively done. Glad biab is working for you too. Since I didn't listen to everything in depth, I'll only comment on what I got overall- which is just to be careful when trying to master the songs. The few I listened to were heavily compressed and pumping. One was just plain distorted. It's actually ok if our songs aren't screaming loud like commercial tracks. We don't have to fight that loudness war. It's a good idea to always keep the sound of the track in mind when you're at the controls of that mastering brickwall limiter or compressor. It doesn't take much to hurt the sound of an otherwise fine sounding track, just for the sake of making it louder. And louder can sound fine too, if done by a skilled M.E. with better tools than the prosumer software market offers.

I'll tell you though- you have creative talent and you're assembling your productions nicely. With a little more care how you finish them off, they'll be right on. Great material!

Dan

Thanks Dan for the compliment and the tip. I really do appreciate that because there is just so much to learn about production. This mastering and mixing stuff is hard. I believe in the old analog days, a person wanted to peak around 0db but with I'm not sure where I should be with digital. Also, there are so many audio plugins. Sometimes I put compression on a bass and also put a multiband compressor on the master. It is easy to over do it! I know I need to take more time and listen to mixes on different systems and in another room than my unfinished basement. I will probably revisit songs and put new parts and remix. Like Frank Zappa said "a song is never finished, just abandoned". I hope I can end up with something good before I "abandon" the song.

Thank you again for the help!

Rod

Sorry Greg! I live in a small little town called Ferron. It is about 1 hour south of Price.