Hello all

I have been commissioned to make an SGU for this song... I am battling to find a suitable style or even work out the tempo and feel!! Any help or advice is appreciated.

The song sounds similar in tempo and style to "Amanda" by Don Williams or Waylon Jennings. The Familiar song search in the StylePicker found 117 possible matches in 3/4 sw8 at 110 BPM/

That's an interesting song Joanne.

While listening to it I noticed I was mentally counting in 2/4 time. That count worked with the vocal pauses because there would be one full bar of rest. So if Charlie's 3/4 time doesn't work, try some of the 2/4 time styles.

Hi Jim and Charlie
Tried both those options but neither sound right. Tried 12/8 and tempo of 55 and it sounds better but still not right. Any other suggestions are welcome.

First, thanks for introducting me to Sean Rowe. I really enjoy this intimate style of song writting and performance. Have to love the baritone.

IMO, this will be difficult to cover in BIAB. The vibe is set by his voice and his guitar. The strum pattern is loose and his voice is singing often between the pattern. Which is why I believe we do hear a 3/4 and 6/8 and 2/4 tempo. I found some Youtubes of him perfoming this and it helped to see how he was playing it.

If I find some time I will play with this and let you know if I stumble on anything.

Good luck,

Dan

I agree with Dan and Jim. The tempo varies quite a bit a changes abruptly when the singing starts. However, I believe BIAB\RB can handle this. The hard tedious part will be operator input. I've done this 'vibe' type of song before with success but I don't look forward to it and I'm not volunteering at this moment. ;=)

I suggest creating the tempo map manually using the Click Track option in RB and use Bars rather than Beats. (Image 1 )

For the guitar comp track - I suggest comping the track in this case by:
Guitar generation in Normal
Guitar generation in Half-time
Guitar generation in Holds

Apply the Time stretch/Pitch shift tool along with placing holds at difficult sections if necessary (Image 2 )

If, your SGU commission doesn't require the tempo variances of the original song but to the general feel, complete the project in BIAB and vary between ev and sw RealTracks and 3/4 - 12/8 count. Or alternately, attempt to use the BIAB ACW in 3/4 and equalize the tempo.

Use a sparse bass RT.

Charlie

Thanks guys. Looks like the client was happy with my work (left me a good review and tip on Fiverr)

Which style did you finally use?

That's great Joanne. That's a tough one to tackle. Along with the style requested by AudioTrack, it would interesting for a summary of the process you decided on to produce your arrangement. Particularly how you addressed the tempo.

Charlie

Thanks guys. Here is a video of the final SGU I delivered.

The selected style is RETHINK. It is a 12/8 style, which I think fits the best (not 100%, like Dan says). The process I went through was just to listen and try and establish the tempo by manually counting the beats. I also used the ACW to try and find the tempo, I then just tried the various time signatures and feels.

When I submitted the SGU to my client I did say that I battled with the song but that he should experiment with different styles.

Edited to add : oops I just noticed a mistake in my thumbnail. Will fix that

Excellent job. I see why your client was satisfied and tipped. Pretty impressive getting it delivered out so quickly too. Nice work in every way.

Your edit made me chuckle...... but not why you would think.....

I can totally picture and hear my teenage granddaughter coming out of a nail salon, looking at her hand saying, "oops I just noticed a mistake in my thumbnail. Will fix that." Read your line and that popped right into my head. ;=)