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Hello all, After a long hiatus here is my sophomore effort: Sunshine Lady Lyrics: Sublime summertime the days drift by So warm and heavenly Then I chime in, your nerves wear thin With words said carelessly An eyebrow raised at me The smile that used to be The warning signs are clear to see Sunshine lady it turned shady I tried to stay between the lines I see all the clues from your head to your shoes Tell me what's on your mind Clouds rollin' in at summer's end All good things come and go. The best intent, but words get bent Now here comes the show I've heard it all before Oh woman hear you roar I know there's more in store for me Sunshine lady it turned shady I tried to stay between the lines I see all the clues from your head to your shoes Tell me what's on your mind Sunshine lady I think maybe I just need a little more time But you gotta tell the truth are you gonna turn me loose Tell me what's on your mind I've been reading up a little about the mixing process so any help in that area would be appreciated. I'm currently using mixcraft 6 to mix. I'm playing a little sax and some acoustic guitar (apologies in advance). Realtracks: Bass - Electric PopHalfnotes ~518 Drums - NashvilleEven8 Acoustic Guitar ~693 Rhythm Electric Guitar ~696 B3 Organ ~686 Thanks for listening as always.
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Very nice work on this one; thanks for sharing!
My TunesPsalm 57:7 My heart, O God, is steadfast, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music.
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First, I think you have written a very good song. It's a good effort and I also like your vocal on this. I didn't think the sax added anything to the production and no more than it is used, I would take it out of the mix. I think you did a good job in your choice of instruments and the sax just never found its place in the mix.
Mixing, panning and instrument choices are personal choices and saying I would have arranged the song in a different way just means I would have made different choices, not that your choices and arrangement are wrong. Saying that, I would have treated the acoustic guitars panning a bit different than how you chose to do. I would suggest listening on YouTube to how other groups treat intros in similar songs.
I also liked your Sunshine Lady artwork in the video.
Enjoyed listening and look forward to hearing more from you soon.
Charlie
BIAB 2025:RB 2025, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.
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Very nice. I liked the melody a lot, and I liked the general arrangement and how it picked up on the key change near the end. I think the little sax "stabs" in that section worked OK, but they seemed very distant from the rest of the instruments.
The whole mix seemed somewhat blurred to me, nothing really standing out except the vocal and the sax stabs. Mixing is hard. Maybe there's different amounts and types of reverb on some tracks? I'm not sure. Good work, but the overall instrumentation could have been punchier somehow.
Thanks,
Bruce
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As Bruce said, nice melody and arrangement. I particularly liked the sound of your voice for this song.
I don't think there was anything drastically wrong with the mix, but a spot of EQ here and there would brighten it up and separate out the instruments better. Although the kick drum was there in the mix, the rest of the kit was a bit subdued and EQ might help here as well.
Hey, but you're definitely on the right lines and I enjoyed the track.
Keep posting.
ROG.
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Hey thanks for all the thoughtful comments. I really appreciate getting the feedback.
Charlie - I actually had a lot more sax on the track originally, but felt that it was a little out of place. Perhaps it isn't needed at all for this style.
Bruce - The mixing is indeed a challenge. I'm actually using some presets from mixcraft 6 for each instrument. I'll keep playing around with it.
ROG - Thanks for the tips. I'll play around with EQ a bit more to see if that helps.
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Hi, Jeff. First, nice song and nice singing! Since you've mentioned you appreciate feedback, hopefully I can offer something helpful. Feel free to ignore anything you disagree with...  I thought the intro was a bit quiet. Once the vocals come in, the "lead" guitar part seems to stumble a bit because it's got nothing to play against. If you raised the lead a bit in the intro, and then dropped it out until where the drum kicks in, I think it'll work a lot better. The sax is so intermittent, the first time I heard the track I wasn't sure what the sound was. I think dropping completely would work best. The volume changes into each section a bit abrupt. If you could build into them, it might feel a bit more organic. But those are small nits. The important thing is you've got a nice song with a catchy chorus. Nice work!
-- David Cuny My virtual singer development blogVocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
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Hi ...
Good to "meet" you!
A really nice song and your vocal works perfectly for this one. I agree with dropping the sax stabs. I also think that the "back-up lead" on the left channel would sound a wee bit better as an acoustic guitar.
All that said, it was a real nice listen and we enjoyed it a lot! Best to you ...
Alan & Di
BIAB 2024 Ultra Plus-all StylePaks*Win11*32GB DDR5*Rhyzen 9745x*AT 2035 Mic*Peavey Nashville 112 Amp*Ibanez ART120* Acoustic/Electric/Washburn D200S Acoustic*Stromberg Monterey Jazz Guitar Loops: https://aldavidmusic.wixsite.com/bestmusicloops
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Jeff,
I like your song. It has a terrific feel to it. Reminiscent of folk-pop like John Denver, Seals & Croft...
The instrument mix is good relative to the other instruments. But it sounds like you put some type of reverb on the whole (final) mix that makes everything sound like it was recorded too far away from the microphone - especially your vocal (and it is a very nice vocal).
That may be a wrong guess - but, if it is not, you might try a mix without whatever that last reverb is...
Look forward to more..
floyd
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Hi Jeff,
if you take some advice from above this is going to be a real good song. I like the melody and the voice.
Enjoyable listen.
Guenter
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David - Thanks for the tip on dropping the lead after the vocals come in. That thought never occurred to me, so I'll give it a try.
Alan and Di - The electric guitar could be switched out with another acoustic realtrack perhaps. Unfortunately, my own playing probably won't get it done. I'll experiment.
Floyd - Thanks for the comparisons, that was the sound I was after. You are right on with the mix. Each track has a little reverb, but I added another preset (from mixcraft 6) to the whole thing at the end. I'll revisit this and see if something sounds better.
I appreciate all the tips and encouragement (and the PG forums in general). It's nice to have this resource.
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Really nice song. I like the progressions, and you have a really nice voice.
There's some really good advice in the posts. Keep up the good work!
Steve
Steve Young Music"In order to compose, all you need to do is remember a tune that nobody else has thought of." - Robert Schumann
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Really like this!! Melodically and lyrically, there are a lot of great things going on here. It sounds like you've listened to a lot of stuff from the greatest era of rock/singer songwriter music (65 to 75). I would make the vocal more present (may try changing the predelay on the reverb?). You have a very good voice-don't be afraid to let it come through. Great stuff!! Take care. Greg
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Really like this!! Melodically and lyrically, there are a lot of great things going on here. It sounds like you've listened to a lot of stuff from the greatest era of rock/singer songwriter music (65 to 75). I would make the vocal more present (may try changing the predelay on the reverb?). You have a very good voice-don't be afraid to let it come through. Great stuff!! Take care. Greg +1 Couldn't have said it any better. Josie
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