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Great song, Bob. Reminds me of Dan Fogleberg, as well as John Denver.

Tell me, how were those harmonies created? Were they live?

Sweet sound throughout...:)


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Harmonies are live. All Brad. He can do his own parts in one take usually. I think the high one at the end is beyond his range and should have been cut or replaced. Too late now...it's a CD. I'll have to listen to it the rest of my life and wince. Sheesh!

Bob

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Got a nice Poco like groove to me. BTW, the panorama sounds great sitting betwixt my KRK monitors.


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The instrumentation on this (your guitar and BIAB) is outstanding. The production is A+. The vocals are good too, as are the lyrics. No nits at all.

Great song.


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Yep...I picked out all the nits...so that would make me a.... Haha.

Glad you enjoyed it.

Thanks for listening,

Bob

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Bob,

Very nice! Good production. I've been out for the past couple of months, but I really enjoy your work! Thanks for sharing it!

Steve


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Nice job Bob! Thanks for sharing!

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Bob,
Fantastic! The pinging sound of the guitar picking really pluses-up this song. The vocals are outstanding as well. JD would have loved it.
SD

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Thanks, guys. Glad you enjoyed the song. It has proven to be a big hit for Brad this summer performing in Estes Park, and the album is selling very well.

Thanks for listening,
Bob

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Nice work Bob! I like the feel you have going on with this, it really fits Brad's style. Glad the cd is doing well.

Production question - do you always normalize the RT's you use?

Interesting to know your workflow. You always get such a good sound.

Thank you for sharing such detailed info as well as the song.

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My "normalizing" of RTs includes setting the pan at center, and maximizing the volume to 127, removing all reverb. I do this with the little BIAB mixer. This allows me to export the tracks in a neutral state so we can use our own panning, volume settings, and reverb. I also export the tracks as stereo tracks just in case there's something special that was done in the creation of the tracks by PG. I don't want to lose anything. Once the tracks are exported, usually to Reaper, we don't do any other normalizing in the traditional sense as the tracks are usually hot enough. After that it's just mixing, panning, using effects "to taste". The one thing I do that I imagine most engineers would frown upon is to mix with headphones. We do have some nice monitors and I use them as a final audition. But the headphones allow me to be more accurate in my panorama placement of tracks and experiment to get the best sound. You'll probably notice that, rather than being grouped closely to the center, that Brad's three vocal parts are split fairly wide left and right. It's a really fat sound that perks up the ears. I'll also do that with lead instruments like steel and fiddle so they don't conflict with each other. Mixing is a very subjective process. You just have to listen a lot and do what YOU like with the music.

Thanks for listening,
Bob

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John Denver sometimes played an Ovation Adamas (carbon fiber top) onstage, and I loved the sound of it so much I attempted to recreate it here. The acoustic guitar I played for the intro and fills is an Ovation Elite, super shallow bowl, acoustic-electric, circa 1985, plugged directly into the board. The low "E" string is tuned down to "D" for that full, folky sound. I put on a new set of phosphor bronze medium gauge strings for the tracking session to give it some "bite." This guitar has an onboard three-band EQ: high and low bands are boosted and the mids are cut slightly. When recorded using the guitar's own electrics, Ovations have a cool rubber-bandy kinda sound. TWANG!

Check out John Denver playing "I'd Rather Be A Cowboy" with the Ovation Adamas live onstage on YouTube here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgU_emE5_so

God, I miss him.

Bob

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Nice one!

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Quote:

Nice one!





Thanks Anthony, glad you enjoyed our work

Bob

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