PG Music Home Forums General Discussion User Showcase First Song Post . . . Stay With Me

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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

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!

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~

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

Very cool backing track

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!

Nice song, well sung and played.

Some good hints and tips from others.

Welcome.

Peter

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

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

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.