Cool song. I don't think it's particularly bluegrass though. More like country ballad.
I agree with you, but it does have some bluegrass characteristics. As I explained in my reply to mrgeeze, I really don't want it to be a full-blown bluegrass song, but I do want it to have some of the upbeat bluegrass characteristics.
That said..... I've heard fiddle tracks straight out of the BB real tracks that were easily as good, if not better than the live fiddle player. The key to getting a good fiddle out of BB/real tracks is to use volume automation to pull them in and out of the mix. I rarely ever let the instruments play continuously thru the track. Aside from the Bass, and Drums and the Acoustic guitar....everything else is volume automated and only plays when it;s supposed to be playing. The rest of the time it's volume automated completely out. If you are using a DAW..... I'd recommend that you create several fiddle tracks... One being a background fiddle and the other a solo fiddle. The background can be used to drone in the background of a verse or a chorus while the solo can do fills and a quick turnaround after the second verse....
I use automation, too, but mostly for drums and any lead instruments. As I also explained to mrgeeze, I'm not familiar enough with bluegrass or country music to create a good, pro-level fiddle track in BiaB. That's why I hired a pro on Fiverr to create a custom track for me. Check out the new fiddle track she created for the new arrangement at the link at the bottom of my reply to your comment.
Same with using Synth V with a good female vocalist. If you have Synth V, and are willing to learn and take your time with the edits, you can get a very reasonable approximation of a live vocalist that will convince the majority of your listeners. Especially if you don't tell them it's a synth.
I have the the original Synth V and the new Synth V Studio, but I only use the original version to create scratch vocal tracks for my songs so that I can give them to pro-level vocalists that I hire to sing my songs because it's too time-consuming for me to create vocal tracks using Synth V Studio. Plus, the program has a steep learning curve.
Next aspect of the song.... it's too long. I'd suggest editing it down to the essentials and making it about 3 minutes to 3:30 minutes long. Some of the chord changes didn't feel appropriate to me. But that might just be how I expect a song to sound as I listen. The songs that go where I'm expecting them to go tend to be the ones that capture my interest. If you are going to throw in an interesting chord change, it would have to be something that makes me say... "whoa! that was really cool. "
I read what you said to my producer, and he agreed with what you said about it being "too long." But he suggested that I cut the second verse when we're done producing it to create a "radio edit" version, which will be about 4:15 long instead of 5:05. That's about as short as I can make it without re-writing the entire song and cutting out important parts of the lyrics. He also agreed with what you said about the chord changes. In fact, he had mentioned the same thing to me the night before you had commented on my post. So, we reviewed all the chords over the phone and thought that we could eliminate about fifteen chord changes until he played through the song afterwards and realized that we had to keep some of the chords after all because the song didn't sound right without them. In the end, we eliminated a Bm chord near the end of each verse and a Bm and Bsus chord at the end of the last chorus. We also changed a F#m chord in the middle of each verse to an A chord, and we added an A chord on the last pickup note at the beginning of each verse. We also eliminated one 2/4 measure in the middle of the first two verses. These changes made the song flow better and sound "tighter."
Strings are totally out of place in a bluegrass song as are drums for the purists. If you have a "producer" (not sure what that means), who suggested a string section, I'd reconsider working with them if they thought strings in a BG song would be cool.
I agree, and I'm sure he would agree as well. But he probably suggested strings because he didn't view this song as a bluegrass song when he first heard it.
So, this has potential, but you should sit and contemplate what you want and then edit it or better yet, start a new version from scratch using what you have already as a guideline. Don't hire anybody until you have a final demo that you are completely satisfied with. And then you only hire what you absolutely can not get on your own with BB & SV. And.... run the demos past the folks here who can give you guidance on what they think before you do anything that is going to cost money out of pocket. You definitely don't want to throw money at something that is still in a state of flux and isn't a finished, ready to go, project.
EDIT: If you're going bluegrass.... use only BG instruments. Bass, acoustic guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo. Use a BG song structure and chord progressions that are common to the genre. Styles can vary widely in the genre so you have some leeway in that aspect.
Of course...all of this is simply my personal opinion.
Thanks for your advice! I've been thinking about this song for nearly six years and pretty much know what I want now since I hired someone to create a custom fiddle track to complete the arrangement. That was the only instrument I experimented with in BiaB that seemed like it would work. Every other instrument I tried just didn't mesh well with the other instruments and with the overall vibe of the song. Hiring a professional country singer to record all of the vocal tracks also helped a lot. Check out the new arrangement with the new fiddle track and let me know what you think of it. Thanks again for your input!
https://app.box.com/s/z87yivfjead5gxux7equgaexq4jeavkrTom
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