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Journeyman
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Thank you for the listen and your comments Herb.
I’ll tweak the guitars as you suggest and I’ve also had some tweaks suggested by RayC. Im just waiting for the AC to bring my music room down from 35 degrees C. It’s roasting in Adelaide today.
Kind regards.
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Lee, this is fantastic. Your rhythm guitar and the bass together make this song. Great choice in backing tracks. Outstanding vocal and mix.
Dad, how will I know when I've become an adult.
When your day is ruined because they rearranged the grocery store.
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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Hi Lee
Excellent lead guitar. Good melody over a solid rhythm. Good vocals. Good listening. Good song.
Izzy
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Music for driving, sure, I shook in my chair to the music so I can imagine it would work well also in a car in Australian heat. the endless feel in the lyrics reflects the steadily advancing rhythm. Nice gravelly mix which matches with the title. Well chosen "driving" guitar and I like the solo parts, great work to get them sound so alive and fitting the mood and the whole, reminds me bit of Mark Knopfler. Pleasant vocals. No problems with the rhyming scheme or the lack of it, roads - fold works fine for me. Thanks for the ride!
Janne
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Thank you Mario,
I took a fair while auditioning the lead guitar tracks, I wanted to make sure they all flowed well into each other. Im working on an updated version just to open up the sound and add some reverb. Stay tuned.
Thank you again for listening, kind regards.
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Thank you Izzy,
Yeah I was really pleased how this turned out considering I had no theme in mind when I started playing with chords and writing lyrics. It was definitely a case of the music leading and the lyrics born from the feel of the music.
Cheers Izzy, kind regards.
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Thank you Janne
I’ve never made anyone shake in their chair before - missus included! You sure it wasn’t an earth tremor!
It does have that relentless beat of a long drive doesn’t it? I am working on an updated version as a few have mentioned it needs opening up a bit, and on playback I tend to agree. We’re in the middle of a heatwave here in Oz at the moment. I went to work on it yesterday, put the headphones on and couldn’t last more than 10 minutes. It’s amazing how much heat your head generates and how wearing headphones magnifies that heat. Hopefully the heatwave will break later today, so I’ll get back onto it, stayed tuned.
Thank you for the listening and kind comments. Kind regards.
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Loved this tune. Very cool vocal and lyric. Excellent groove and instrumentation choices. I agree is with Herb on the guitar. One trick I use is to put a reverb on aux buss. I then use a send on each track which you can blend the reverb to each accordingly. This will balance and give the song a same room feel.
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Thank you for the listen and advice Scott. Glad you enjoy the song. I’ll certainly take note of your advice, I’ve already noticed the benefit of adding reverb to the guitars as per version 3. I still have to work and understand some of the mix and production techniques. As long as we’re living, we’re learning…..well, most of us!!
Kind regards.
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“So long, Rusty at my side for so long. She don’t care, as to where, she’s got her bone. Ain’t nothing better than bombing along red dirt roads. With your best friend at your side. She’s not trying to catch you out. She’s just a ….. along for the ride.” We have hundreds of miles of red dirt roads in our area and frequently bicycle sections of them. And we've spent plenty of miles in a pickup on them. All meaning this tune is very relatable. Your vocals sound good for a 64 year old. Hey, just kidding they are fine - Janice is 68. ) Great band and regarding your BiaB thoughts … well RTs and RDs are played in a studio by humans - often famous ones. To us, FWIW, BiaB’s magic to make it fit your song doesn’t strip out the humanity.  You did good work with the soloists too. And, man, those video clips were so supportive of the song. Well done! J&B PS Comments based on reading both posts and listening to both.
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
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Hi, Lee. Cool song. Light and breezy as the guitars strum along. Hard to believe those vocals aren't AI!  All kidding aside, they sound fine.
-- David Cuny My virtual singer development blogVocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
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Thank you for your comments and feedback Janice and Bud,
It makes the song even more worthwhile when others, like yourselves, can relate and share their experiences to it. It’s even more so because I’m basically a city slicker, who only on odd occasions ventures outback, so to be able to paint a picture lyrically that you can relate to, tells me my story telling is working.
You’re correct about the real tracks and drums. It’s easy to forget that someone has actually recorded it, so I had in mind it was all digital wizardry rather than AI. Still it would be nice to do all those parts myself, but I know with my limited abilities and time I’ll not achieve perfection….. at least not in this lifetime, maybe the next!!
Thank you again for your kind words and comments, kind regards.
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Thank you David,
I think I got the mix as best as possible by the time I got to v3, without starting over completely. There were a few fluffs in the vocals that were glossed over and I really should have gone back and re-recorded them. But I thought I’d worked it too much and leave them before the song lost its sheen with me.
Thank you for your comments and feedback. Kind regards.
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Lee,
I listened to the version linked here then switch over and listened again to version3.
Cool song.
The solos are nicely chosen.
I like your 64-year-old vocals. They have a Grateful Dead-ish-ness. So do the write and the production.
A good listen.
fj
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A cool song, Lee.
I got the 'old days memories' back in my head with it.
The harmonies are very smooth, well... everything sounds smooth.
I can't see any 'but', no, just a lovely song about driving in the dirt. And what a place it is!
Hans
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Thank you for the listen fj,
I feel someone else mentioned the Grateful Dead on one of my prior posts. I’ve heard of them but I’ve never checked them out…perhaps I should. I did audition the solo quite thoroughly so that they all matched/flowed.
Glad you enjoyed it, kind regards
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Thank you Hans, I’m glad you found it a good listen. It’s always nice to hear that it resonates with the listener.
Kind regards.
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Hi Lee. I really enjoyed listening to this. As you sang, images of those road trains that we have in the long-haul desert regions of Australia kept appearing in my mind. ![[Linked Image - Only viewable when logged in]](https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=download&Number=32196&filename=road train.jpg) What began as an exercise turned into an excellent song. --Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Thank you Noel,
Yes the long haul road trains here are impressive indeed. I did have half a mind to include some obscure Aussie place names in the song at one stage, if only to confuse some of our international members.
Glad you enjoyed it and that it conjured up some great imagery for you. Kind regards.
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Apprentice
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Hey, K. "Red Dirt Roads" has an easy, gritty, haunting melody. Neil Young would love it! The grittiness is complimented well with smooth soft vocals. Works beautifully! I've always enjoyed songs about being on the road. It's terrific! This is a song I could listen to over and again. I'm on my third round now.
Warm regards, John
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Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac - Special Offers End at 11:59pm PDT on Friday, May 15th, 2026!
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- MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
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Band-in-a-Box 2026 for Mac Videos
With the release of Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac, we’re rolling out a collection of brand-new videos on our YouTube channel. We’ll keep this forum post updated so you can easily find all the latest videos in one convenient spot.
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