Hello Friends,
This song, Stand There And Cry, was written and sung by my friend, Brent Beardeaux. The production and arrangement was done in my studio using Band In A Box. I did some guitar work. Brent and I are doing a country gospel album and this is the first cut. Comments are welcomed.
Marty
http://mgwitt.webplus.net/brent.html Stand There And Cry

Not really my cup of genre, but nice work and a very solid production.

A few highly subjective thoughts:

1. The fiddles on the introduction are weak. It sounds like you're trying to use background fiddles to play up front licks. Contrast that with the guitar break that you've got at 2:27. Why not use that break as the introduction?

2. The harmony at 2:00 and 3:42 sounds to me a bit sour. I think it's because you've got those scoops going, which sound great solo, but a bit harsh against a harmony part. Then again, it could be that I'm used to hearing everything autotuned to death.

3. You mix tenses throughout the song. After 0:37, why not keep everything in the present tense?

There's very little else to say, other than well done!

Hello David,
Thank you for listening to our music. You are right about the fiddle at the intro. I will address that. No auto tuning here just a couple of newbies trying to learn the art. I just purchased Izotope's Nectar plugin and it has auto tune. I am learning how to use it at this time.

I really appreciate your help on this forum It is obvious that you are up to speed in the studio by your helpful comments.

Please expand on your comment about "You mix tenses throughout the song", as I am not understanding what you mean.

Again thanks for your help and I am looking forward to hearing from you again.
Marty

Before anyone gets confused about my level of skill, I'm just a guy who's struggled with a cheap home recording equipment like everyone else. Real professionals around here are folk like you who've put stuff out for people to hear. That's the only measure that's worth anything. Me, most of the time I'm stuck in analysis paralysis.


When I say "mix tenses", I'm referring to whether you're talking about things that did happen (past tense), are happening (present tense) or will happen (future tense).

According to all-knowing Wikipedia, "would" is "future-in-past" tense:

"What would you do/Where would you go"

You then change, describing it as if it in past tense:

"You looked around"

and then switch back to the present again:

"And people begin to rise"

Throughout the song, you switch from present to future tense.

Now, there's nothing terribly wrong with this. But I think it would be stronger to talk about things in a consistent perspective, if possible. And using the present tense for your narrative is likely the one that will most closely connect to your listener, because you'll be asking them to imagine what they would do if something were to happen right now, instead of some point in the future. For example:

What will you do/Where will you go
If suddenly you knew/It's too late for your soul
You look around/And people begin to rise
And all you can do/Is stand there and cry

You want to keep If suddenly you knew... as it is, because it's part of the set up. Plus, you'd sacrifice a good rhyme!

Past that, talking in the past tense just moves the experience you're describing further away from the listener. So keep them in the present.

As for the harmony, it could be just fine. Seriously, I don't know if I'm being overly picky or even if it's just my imagination.

I mention "autotune" because there's a tendency to run everything through it and suck the life out of it. The little scoops and stuff are part of the country style, and small clashes might be part of the country style. It's not a genre I listen to much.

One of the things I like about Reaper is the ReaTune tool, because it shows a graph of pitches. When my vocal goes flat (always) I can see it. So if there's any doubt, you can always bring it up on the scope. It's always better to redo a vocal than to tune it, but if you've got to tune it, less is more. It's amazing how quickly tweaking and autotuning can destroy a vocal! A little human imperfection isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Nice to see all us Reaper folks finding a home im two places.

This is excellent work. If you do nothing at all to it at this point, you still have a winner. Is this country gospel though? I admit that even though I'm well versed with country, I'm not so with country gospel. This might fit the mold perfectly, so excuse my ignorance if it does. It hit me as a country ballad and then the spiritual lyrics reminded me it's a spiritual song. If you're putting together a cd of this type of music in a serious way, just be certain of it's classification. Counrty spiritual maybe? Like I said, what do I know. The vocal is very well done. I like the presence of it, but if I were twisting the dials I might see how it sits pulled back just a little bit. It's a really close call, but often times I mix vocal to be present but not too much so because it automatically makes the music bed seem too background. I try for a tighter marriage of the two, if you will. This gives the music weight, as well as the vocal. If that balance isn't just so, the music can start to sound like an incidental. This teeters ever so slightly in that direction for me, which is why I suggest at least trying the vocal pulled back a bit. About the comment on the intro- same approach applies. Give the fiddle as much weight as the dobro and it won't seem like a background part as much.

But like I said, if you do nothing at all to it at this point, you still have a winner. This track is standing tall for you. No real need to adjust anything. Nice job!

Dan

Thanks guys for the listen. I really appreciate your comments. Having different ears gives me food for thought!
Marty

This is excellent work. If you do nothing at all to it at this point, you still have a winner.

+1

Thanks Josi appreciate your opinion also.
Marty