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First Song Post . . . Stay With Me #760810 04/07/23 03:18 PM User Showcase
Joined: Feb 2023 Posts: 59 Arizona Desert Sawmill Music OP Enthusiast
OP Sawmill Music Enthusiast Joined: Feb 2023 Posts: 59 Arizona Desert	Written for the lovely Mrs. Sawmill Music Stay With Me I welcome any and all comments positive or otherwise. Yea I don't like my voice either but I think I can mostly stay in tune . . . LOL Yes, I do like steel guitar and it's what actually led me to finding BiaB so here's my first attempt at blending me and BiaB. ~Russell~ ME Acoustic Guitar (X2) Electric Guitar Bass Guitar Vocals BiaB Drums:RealDrums=TrainBeat: a: Train Snare, Kick b: Train Snare, BusyKick 2778:Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm TrainBeatMike12-key Ev16 090 2013:Piano, Acoustic, Soloist CountryWorkinJohn Ev16 90 (Bluesy) [Soloist] 2777:Pedal Steel, Background TrainBeatEddy12-key Ev16 090 3955:Pedal Steel, Soloist CajunTrain Ev16 090 EDIT - Forgot to add lyrics and gear - Recorded/Mixed in Cakewalk with tracks from BiaB and live recording. Stay With Me Russ Howe The first time that I saw you sittin in that chair Beautiful smile and that sexy blonde hair I think I fell in love the first time you laughed I know I wanted you and the feeling hasn't passed Lady would you stay with me awhile I'll do my best to make you smile I had to have you near me and hold you in my arms I couldn't fight the feeling well I guess you had me charmed The first time that you touched me set my soul on fire If I said I felt this way before you know I'd be a liar Lady would you stay with me awhile I’ll do my best to make you smile Lady would you stay with me awhile I'll be satisfied to make you smile Lady in the future there's no dark clouds in the sky Just a little place where we both learn how to fly I would like to see you smile thirty years from now I would like to stay with you if time and fate allow I don't know where you're going to or where you're coming from But while we're here together why don't we have some fun Who knows what the future holds it's better left unread The answers are a mystery and the questions hurt my head Lady would you stay with me awhile I'll be satisfied to make you smile Lady would you stay with me awhile I really love the way you smile Lady in the future there's no dark clouds in the sky Just a little place where we both can learn to fly I would like to make you smile a hundred years from now I would like to hang around if time and fate allow Not asking for your promises but don't tell me no lies One thing I will guarantee I'll never make you cry I would like to stay with you forever and a day As long as you're still smiling you will always hear me say Lady would you stay with me awhile I’ll do my best to make you smile Lady would you stay with me awhile I really love the way you smile Lady would you stay with me awhile I guarantee to make you smile Last edited by Sawmill Music; 04/08/23 12:14 AM. Don't ever try and be like anybody else and don't be afraid to take risks. -Waylon Jennings PC-Win 10 Pro-Intel i9 9900 3.6 GHz-32 gig ram-SSD (X3)-AMD RX 550 AUDIO INTERFACE-Presonus FP10/Firepods SOFTWARE-Cakewalk by Bandlab / BiaB 2024 UltraPAK

Re: First Song Post . . . Stay With Me Sawmill Music #760825 04/07/23 04:19 PM User Showcase
Joined: Aug 2007 Posts: 2,277 Florida, USA cubanpete Veteran
cubanpete Veteran Joined: Aug 2007 Posts: 2,277 Florida, USA	Hi Russell, if this is your first attempt to use BIB, I have to say that it came out pretty good. I'm sure other folks can say something about it in a very constructive way. Congrats and welcome to the forum. Mike B. Music should be part of your life http://www.soundclick.com/blackcatjazzcafeband

Re: First Song Post . . . Stay With Me Sawmill Music #760828 04/07/23 04:35 PM User Showcase
Joined: Nov 2007 Posts: 5,680 Ontario, Canada BlueAttitude Veteran
BlueAttitude Veteran Joined: Nov 2007 Posts: 5,680 Ontario, Canada	Hey Russell, Great to see a song from you, and welcome to the forum! First of all a very good song. I think your vocal is fine. Not listening on my best system at the moment, that’s shut down for the night. Listening on my evening system (iPad ;P ) I think you might have too much reverb on the vocal. But I like the song and great to hear the live instruments in the mix. Nicely done! I like your Waylon quote too, right on the money. Dave Blue Attitude Website Blue Attitude YouTube channel

Re: First Song Post . . . Stay With Me Sawmill Music #760857 04/07/23 09:12 PM User Showcase
Joined: Apr 2016 Posts: 6,960 Cooran Queensland Australia rayc Veteran
rayc Veteran Joined: Apr 2016 Posts: 6,960 Cooran Queensland Australia	Welcome. The rhythm guitar high on the right, (in headphones), is a little bright/brittle and loud compared to the band. Vocals settle in quickly but you may have either too much or a different reverb from the rest so you sound above and away from the band. If you didn't export the BIAB flat, dry & centred I'd suggest that'd be a great place to start next time as you can do you own reverb and match things. Nice driving song. Cheers rayc "What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe

Re: First Song Post . . . Stay With Me Sawmill Music #760867 04/08/23 01:44 AM User Showcase
Joined: Jan 2014 Posts: 2,372 Pembrokeshire vicarn Veteran
vicarn Veteran Joined: Jan 2014 Posts: 2,372 Pembrokeshire	Hi Russell. I like the song but agree about the reverb. Generally speaking it should be of the same type as the rest of the band. In this song it should be less of it, too. At the moment it sounds like you're singing in another room. Vic

Re: First Song Post . . . Stay With Me Sawmill Music #760877 04/08/23 03:26 AM User Showcase
Joined: May 2019 Posts: 4,421 Dallas, PA, USA BabuMusic Veteran
BabuMusic Veteran Joined: May 2019 Posts: 4,421 Dallas, PA, USA	Once again, a BIG welcome to the forum, Russell --Mr. Sawmill. Mrs. Sawmill must be very happy, and I bet needed no encouragement to stay. Fun song, and terrific first use of BiaB. Dang, that piano solo is wild and crazy. Love the whole song. Lots of good playing from yourself, too. There are some terrific folks here with very discriminating ears, and you love it here. Carry on. Enjoy whatever happens! marty YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@babumusic51 SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/marty-straub Band in a Box, Reaper, Cakewalk, Ozone 11

Re: First Song Post . . . Stay With Me Sawmill Music #760941 04/08/23 01:31 PM User Showcase
Joined: Sep 2018 Posts: 3,327 Virginia USA Ezekiel's Storm Veteran
Ezekiel's Storm Veteran Joined: Sep 2018 Posts: 3,327 Virginia USA	Welcome aboard! What a rollicking rocker! Your voice sounds good, so don't worry about that. I like your guitar and bass work too. The comments about the technical aspects about the mix that others had made are good ones to consider. Good job!

Re: First Song Post . . . Stay With Me Sawmill Music #760944 04/08/23 02:41 PM User Showcase
Joined: Aug 2014 Posts: 8,335 North Carolina David Snyder Veteran
David Snyder Veteran Joined: Aug 2014 Posts: 8,335 North Carolina	Russell, I think this is a really great debut and I applaud you for the use of the live played instruments with the band in a box tracks. You are off to a really great start. I have a few simple tips for you that I use all of the time when I'm trying to produce a complicated mix such as you're doing, especially one that's in the rock and roll vein. 1. First, mix down the bed with nothing but the instruments eqed and sounding exactly the way you want them to sound and creating a single stem from that. One of the commenters was right in that if you export the band in a box tracks flat, dry and center they usually sound better in most cases and you can apply subtle effects to them later. (Or keep the reverb mild.) Now take the master bed of just the instruments you mixed and put that on a single track in your DAW all by itself as an audio reference. 2. Now start to blend in the vocals, only using the instrument bed with all the other instrument faders down for now. Easy on the reverb. You have a great country voice and it's probably going to sound much better if we can hear those vocal chords on the raw vocal track. Feel free to use other vocal tracks (copies of the main used as doubles) with effects on them, just keep the raw vocal higher than those in the mix, fiddle and fool around with it until you get the right blend. You will find a sweet spot where your raw vocal track blended in with vocal tracks that have effects on them will begin to sound more powerful especially when they're sitting on top of the mix. 3. Next, when you're listening to what you have so far, you may want to pull those other tracks for the guitars, bass or whatever up or down a little bit in the mix using your own mastered instrument track as the reference. For example if you want a little bit more acoustic guitar then pull that acoustic guitar up against the master and find the Sweet spot where the instruments are enough but not too much and the vocals are predominant. 4. Once you've done that you can either keep the instrument reference track the way you have it with the other instruments too or you can completely fade it out and use the newly mixed tracks that you are adjusting against your own instrumental reference. In this way you'll be able to achieve a really great separation of instruments and get the type of dynamic range that you're looking for. It will also help you keep things simple and create that space in the song that you're always looking for. Anyway just my two cents and a couple of things that I had to learn how to do over the years with complicated rock mixes such as this. Rock and roll (or country rock) is really really hard to mix but I think you're doing a great job. David Snyder Songwriter/Renaissance Man Studio + Fingers https://davidsnydersongs.com/ https://spoti.fi/359Gigs www.davidsnydermusic.com/ www.reverbnation.com/davidpsnyder www.soundcloud.com/davidsnyderchannel https://www.songtradr.com/user/profile/david.snyder

Re: First Song Post . . . Stay With Me Sawmill Music #760989 04/09/23 08:30 AM User Showcase
Joined: Jun 2020 Posts: 2,570 United States Bass Thumper Veteran
Bass Thumper Veteran Joined: Jun 2020 Posts: 2,570 United States	As others have said, welcome. This was a good listen and good write. "Who knows what the future holds it's better left unread The answers are a mystery and the questions hurt my head" I can tell you've been doin music for quite some time. Keep up the good work. https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2025 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.

Re: First Song Post . . . Stay With Me Sawmill Music #760995 04/09/23 09:46 AM User Showcase
Joined: Jul 2022 Posts: 2,338 3rd rock from the sun B.D.Thomas Veteran
B.D.Thomas Veteran Joined: Jul 2022 Posts: 2,338 3rd rock from the sun	Good song with a nice drive, gets my feed moving. In terms of mix/production you already got some good advice, nothing I can add to that. Oh, and welcome to the showcase Goldmania Bella Listen on Spotify Watch on YouTube New on YouTube: Deeply Sad Music

Re: First Song Post . . . Stay With Me Sawmill Music #761008 04/09/23 12:43 PM User Showcase
Joined: Aug 2004 Posts: 1,824 Christchurch, New Zealand NigelSpiers Expert
NigelSpiers Expert Joined: Aug 2004 Posts: 1,824 Christchurch, New Zealand	Hi Russell, I enjoyed your first song a great deal. Particularly the electric twangy guitar in the left channel which I assume is you playing. This really rocks along. Yes I agree with others about the reverb on the voice - hopefully easy to fix in the mix. I would also like to hear the guitar fills and the solo piano a bit louder - they are very good. Best Regards Nigel Nigel Spiers Christchurch, New Zealand info@nzacoustics.com

Re: First Song Post . . . Stay With Me Sawmill Music #761030 04/09/23 08:22 PM User Showcase
Joined: Sep 2010 Posts: 7,584 Sacramento, California dcuny Veteran
dcuny Veteran Joined: Sep 2010 Posts: 7,584 Sacramento, California	Welcome to the forum! Excellent debut. Really nice work. Others have mentioned the minor issues and easy fixes, so no need to repeat that. Good write, well sung, good backing tracks with a mix that kept things interesting and moving along. Glad to have you here! -- David Cuny My virtual singer development blog Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?

Re: First Song Post . . . Stay With Me Sawmill Music #761073 04/10/23 09:11 AM User Showcase
Joined: Feb 2023 Posts: 59 Arizona Desert Sawmill Music OP Enthusiast
OP Sawmill Music Enthusiast Joined: Feb 2023 Posts: 59 Arizona Desert	I'd like to thank all of you who took the time to listen and comment on this. The feedback is appreciated and, more importantly, very helpful! I've re-exported the BaiB tracks dry and also revisiting the vocal effects and mix. Hopefully I can get it up to the level so many of you are already at! @David Snyder - I really appreciate you taking the time to detail out that information - That's exactly the type of feedback I was hoping for! I will re-post the song when it's fixed and look forward to additional advice! Thanks again!!! ~Russell~ Last edited by Sawmill Music; 04/10/23 09:16 AM. Don't ever try and be like anybody else and don't be afraid to take risks. -Waylon Jennings PC-Win 10 Pro-Intel i9 9900 3.6 GHz-32 gig ram-SSD (X3)-AMD RX 550 AUDIO INTERFACE-Presonus FP10/Firepods SOFTWARE-Cakewalk by Bandlab / BiaB 2024 UltraPAK

Re: First Song Post . . . Stay With Me Sawmill Music #761178 04/11/23 08:20 AM User Showcase
Joined: Feb 2022 Posts: 1,031 California Brad Williams Expert
Brad Williams Expert Joined: Feb 2022 Posts: 1,031 California	Really love that country rock sound you've got Russell. Great start with Biab! Cool groove to this song. Both the electric and acoustic rhythm guitars really stood out. I too, love steel guitar, and I liked the one you chose for this song. It fits really well. Personally, I would have liked to hear it further up in the mix during the majority of the song, not necessarily as loud as it was at the end, but enough to let it stand out a little more. Don't get hung up on your singing. First of all, I think it's pretty good - it sometimes reminds me a bit of Jerry Reed. I'm not a singer either, which becomes painfully obvious at times, but the folks on the forum have been great at putting up with me and helping me out with production and giving several ideas in an encouraging way. Judging by this song, I'm really going to enjoy hearing your stuff - welcome! Brad https://soundcloud.com/user-722422510/tracks

Re: First Song Post . . . Stay With Me Sawmill Music #761215 04/11/23 01:15 PM User Showcase
Joined: Dec 2008 Posts: 851 Florida Elliott Kayne Expert
Elliott Kayne Expert Joined: Dec 2008 Posts: 851 Florida	Very cool backing track Elliott Kayne elliottkayne@gmail.com https://www.reverbnation.com/kaynemusic https://www.facebook.com/ekayne Health, Wealth, Family, Faith, Friends, and Fun

Re: First Song Post . . . Stay With Me Sawmill Music #761216 04/11/23 01:16 PM User Showcase
Joined: Dec 2008 Posts: 851 Florida Elliott Kayne Expert
Elliott Kayne Expert Joined: Dec 2008 Posts: 851 Florida	Very cool backing track I like the whole groove of it My only comment would be to reduce the reverb on the mix of your voice To put you in the same room as the instrumentation. Good job! Elliott Kayne elliottkayne@gmail.com https://www.reverbnation.com/kaynemusic https://www.facebook.com/ekayne Health, Wealth, Family, Faith, Friends, and Fun

Re: First Song Post . . . Stay With Me Sawmill Music #761283 04/12/23 02:04 AM User Showcase
Joined: Dec 2003 Posts: 5,644 Sydney Australia PeterF Veteran
PeterF Veteran Joined: Dec 2003 Posts: 5,644 Sydney Australia	Nice song, well sung and played. Some good hints and tips from others. Welcome. Peter

Re: First Song Post . . . Stay With Me Sawmill Music #761354 04/12/23 01:35 PM User Showcase
Joined: Apr 2018 Posts: 2,030 Mill Valley, California USA D Deej56 Veteran
Deej56 Veteran D Joined: Apr 2018 Posts: 2,030 Mill Valley, California USA	Russell, This is an excellent first post . . . Welcome to the forum! The write is really good and your vocal is solid. This fare exceeds the production value of my first post some five years ago. From a production standpoint, you’ve gotten a ton of good suggestions and advice, and I can’t add anything more in addition. Quite honestly, I wish when I started I got the David Snyder “Missing Tips” . . . that’s great stuff and I’d agree wholeheartedly with his summary. The song itself has a great vibe . . . and you have a lot to work with here. Like that piano in this song an awful lot. Good stuff . . . I’ll look forward to hearing more from you! All my best, Deej

Re: First Song Post . . . Stay With Me Sawmill Music #761436 04/13/23 09:25 AM User Showcase
Joined: Dec 2011 Posts: 15,396 GA USA Janice & Bud Veteran
Janice & Bud Veteran Joined: Dec 2011 Posts: 15,396 GA USA	First, welcome to the forum! Second, your vocals sound just fine and your phrasing is very natural. The pedal steel sounds great and made us smile. We have nothing to add to the previous advice regarding the mix. Excellent performances by you and a nice BiaB session. Enjoyed it! J&B Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos are here on our website.

Re: First Song Post . . . Stay With Me Janice & Bud #761456 04/13/23 12:57 PM User Showcase
Joined: Dec 2003 Posts: 23,216 Hamlin NY MarioD Veteran
MarioD Veteran Joined: Dec 2003 Posts: 23,216 Hamlin NY	I didn't hear the original post but this one is really good. Great singing and bass and guitar chops. Super mix. A real toe tapper and you had me from the git-go. Whenever I get something stuck in the back of my throat, I dislodge it by drinking a beer. It's called the Heineken Maneuver. 64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware

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