Hey Brad,

Good to see you again.

I really like the chord progression and the structure of this and the actual notes that you're playing. All very good! Excellent my friend!

I hope you don't mind a couple of comments on the sound of the effects though, because it's just a very, very minor perception. It can totally go exactly the way that you have it because I know you're going for the cowboy sound, but I do have a few ideas.

First, the 'mastering tools" I think you are speaking of have very little to do with the end product for the type of music that you are attempting to produce here.

99.9% of it occurs in the mix and any type of mastering tools simply puts an extra layer of polish on top of that.

In terms of the mix, anything that you use in an effect which colors the tone and the sound of the guitar cannot be changed later with any mastering tool known to man because the cake is already baked.

I have struggled for decades trying to get the right type of sound that I'm looking for with guitar instrumentals and it all occurs at the mix level and I'll tell you a little bit about what I've learned, not as a criticism of what you've done but just a couple of things that I've learned.

When you're using effects like this, especially in an effects rack, there can be a fine line where some of the knobs are turned just ever so slightly too far in one direction, with stuff like reverb and echo.

At that point the listener becomes too focused on the effects themselves and not the notes that are being played.

If you're going to be doing a lot more instrumentals, and I encourage you to do so, I would dial back the effects just a little bit so that the listener's concentration is drawn more to the beauty of the notes themselves and the tone of the guitar as opposed to the sound of the effects, but I'm not talking about a big change just a smidgen.

Also, I can't tell if you're using an amplifier in the effects chain before you're going to the effects box. The sound of a quality guitar through even a small Fender tube amp is a one of a kind classic sound that cannot be duplicated by any effects rack known to man even if you do add in effects pedals or something like Amplitube as best part of the chain after it passes through the audio interface. (The affordable Fender Super Champ is a hybrid that combines both tubes and onboard effects and can do just about anything.) In my opinion, the Telecaster or Stratocaster through an amp sounds are some of the most gorgeous sounds that have ever been invented and should be deployed whenever humanly possible.🙂 And a Gretsch is great too!!

Mixing solo electric guitar sounds is really really really really really really really hard.

In order to make it sound like it's all recorded in the same room so to speak there cannot be a drastic difference between the sound and effects of the guitar itself and the sound of the instrumental bed. It's an extremely tricky balance, but I hope this makes sense.

I love the song though.

I hope this wasn't too much information or an info dump but if you're going to be doing a whole lot of instrumentals in the future they may be just a couple of things to consider because I love the sound of your guitar and I love what you're doing.

I promise I will never give another piece of feedback that's this long ever again as long as I live.

David Snyder
Songwriter/Renaissance Man
Studio + Fingers

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