Originally Posted by Janice & Bud
Tano pretty much nailed our thoughts on the harmonies and the arrangement.
And we further agree with the melody note repeats.
I think you were fortunate to connect with such a great vocalist.
And especially one that you could well communicate with.
I rambled on a bit about mastering below. Apologies smile
Enjoyed it,
J&B

PS There is a post entitled "Loudness Target Limits for Streaming Platforms" on the off topics forum. I responded twice and my second response has some reference to our mastering techniques. You might find the info regarding the use of a "reference song" of some interest. FWIW Mastering for us is very personal regarding what WE want it to achieve. No way could we turn that over to AI. I want control over every aspect of it. You can't make a bad mix sound good with mastering but you can make a good mix sound bad. For us the goal is to make good mix sound great. And you have a good mix.
And if your mastering program is brickwalling the mix it's time to try something else.

J&B, thanks for the response and for the extra re mastering. You echo what I've read online, many commenters being anti-AI. Soren AI Mastering also has the reference track options and I've tried many from my CD collection which I have on PC, but I found the same not good enough results as I did from the presets/profiles. What I found worked best, but still not quite good enough, was using the WAV file of the actual music I was attempting to master! I was peeved today to receive an email advertising the launch of the 1.2 version of SAIM which now has 27 Style presets, not just the 6 on my only recently bought 1.1 version, but I'm definitely not upgrading to it as they want another €99 and I just don't have any faith in the product. I even tried it on solos stem files - there's only 1 Style for Piano alone - but while it works with piano and organ stems when I try any other instrument - guitar, fiddle, saxophone, etc - I get an error message. I'll check out that 'off topic' post you mentioned once I'm done here. Thanks for that!

Some favourite Waoist Adages:
#1: Play on the Way.
#13: Ask not for whom the flower blooms, it blooms for you.
#58: Bring consciousness to it.
#63: On the road to effortlessness, effort must be made.
#92: Be Love Now, the rest will come on its own.