After a brief and unsuccessful flirtation with auto-tune, I've decided to go back to singing off-key which is, after all, what I do best. I've even thrown in a bit of falsetto this time! Fortunately, the lovely Jessie and Courtney are there to help keep me in check.

We're still flying the flag for PowerTracks, so no RTs. Backing is guitar, bass, drums, brass and Hammond and then we somehow used up another thirty two tracks assembling the vocals.

LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT
I met this girl the other day
She stole my heart in some strange way
And she said don't you know you must
Never take anyone on trust
Because life is what you make it
Take your time don't try to fake it
Because life, can be so strange it
Turns around on you every time you try to change it

Every time you see a chance, take it
Anyway at all, you know you can, make it

She said when you look at me
All you know is what you see
But love is never at first sight
Just give it time and hold on tight
Because life is what you make it
Take your time don't try to fake it
Because life, can be so strange
It turns around every time you try to change it.

A bit experimental, this one, but hope at least some of you like it.

ROG.

Hi ROG,

You made me smile.

I like it.

Intro could be shorter, but, well done.

George

ROG

Good stuff, you certainly have the 80's vibe going. This could be Paul Young and Pepsi and Shirley!!

Good ending, perfect length
Your vocals are all right, I've heard worse....ME!!!
Keep 'em coming

Alyn

Hi ROG,

This is great! When I listened, I heard hours and hours of work in getting this together. The arrangement, the mix, the performances are amazing. I never cease being impressed at how professional sounding your Powertracks Pro mixes are. You definitely have the knack!

A huge round of applause to all involved with this one!

All the best,
Noel

P.S. For what it's worth, I never use autotune. I usually use the Reatune plugin in Reaper to manually adjust those notes that are in need of a bit of massaging. It usually takes me about 10 - 15 minutes to work through the vocal track. It's very easy to do. I also have Melodyne and the tuning plugin in iZotope Nectar. They took a bit of time to master but they're good at the odd manual adjustment too.

Rog,

Man, I just LOVE your songs! And I can't even articulate why.. there's just some mysterious quality that I can't put into words! But I'll try anyway...

For starters, your songs are highly original to my ears. Most songs in a songwriters forum tend to sound like modifications of existing songs. Rarely do I hear a song that doesn't remind me of something else. But your songs NEVER sound like another song to me... your chord structures, instrumentation, vocals etc are all signature ROG from start to finish.

And I don't understand why you say you can't sing... To me, the difference between a relaxed vocal style and somebody who can't sing is whether the song grates on your nerves when you listen to it. Your songs sound good. 'Nuff said.

finally, your mixing experience always produces a masterful end product. I'd kill for the ability to mix like you. Well, maybe not kill... but I would consider choking somebody a little bit.

Anyway, yet another remarkably innovative song! I am inspired!

(but I'm not sure if its a good thing or a bad thing to be inspired and incompetent at the same time. it just leads to frustration)

;-)

Hi Rog

Loved your song. Great vibe to it right out of the gate. Excellent message in the lyrics.

Scott C

Hi Rog & Co !

I too liked this very much !:))
I just love the caribbean feel
of the tune and your common superb
execution of this lovely tune !:)))

Cheers
Dani

Hi ROG and the girls,

nice production. Very laid back.

Guenter

ROG,

Pat is right... you have a sound that is uniquely your own. Even the sound of "the girls" is like no other. That alone makes your songs a joy to listen to.

The drums in this are nice. Your guitar solo is excellent! Your vocal in this is less "confident" than your vocals typically are. In other songs that you have sung there is a "punch" to your natural cadence that makes that vocal an integral part of the music. That "Tom Petty attitude" thing (which, you know, I really like). This one doesn't have that same quality. The best way I can think to explain it is that it doesn't have "the meatiness" that it should. Could be the effect that is applied (or not applied).

I think it would have been very effective to let the girls have the whole line on both of the "Because life..." lines - a call-and-response thing... (not that I have anything against your falsetto..) it just seemed to be set up well for that.

Oh, and the rhythm guitar was cool, too - the organ, too....

floyd

George - Glad it raised a smile. After years of having to do short intros for radio, I can sometimes be a bit gratuitous with them these days!

Alyn - Still love the 80s. Hey, maybe we should do a duet sometime?

Noel - Thanks for all the positives. I do still fix vocals for other people, but the girls don't need it and I think I'm just beyond help!

Pat - You make me blush every time. (But don't stop!)

Scott, Dani, Guenter - Thanks for all the nice words, guys.

Floyd - Always value your input. I know what you mean about the vocal - the gravel is missing. I think it was something about having to get in and out of falsetto, right on the break-point that made it difficult. I'll make sure it's back next time!

Thanks to all.

ROG.

I like this.

Well done and nice job on the recording.

I would bump the vox up a bit, a few db should do it nicely....

32 tracks...wow..I assume that's all the tracks included.... not just vox.

Send the vox to a vocal buss...at least that's what I do. That way you can easily raise the entire vocal mix up or down as needed.

There were only a few places where the vox being out of tune was noticeable. I don't have autotune so I'm not sure if it can be used in a transparent manner.... but there is no problem with using it to nudge some notes to the proper pitch as long as it can do it in a clean manner.

All in all....I liked what you did with this tune.

Herb - thanks for the comments.

Actually the 32 tracks were all vox. There are a lot of bits and pieces coming and going in this track and they're all tracked-up several times to get that effect. The single word "life" in the chorus has 12 tracks in it, 13 if you include me.

I still do everything in Powertracks and each of the vocal parts has it's own sub-mix assigned to one of the 16 available groups with any effects routed to the group as well. Once that's done, the mix almost does itself.

For the type of work I do, I still rate Powertracks as the best DAW I've worked with.

ROG.

Man, I thought I was using a lot of tracks for vocals when I hit 10 on "Missing Person (2012 version)"

and 4 to 6 on my normal stuff..... but my tracks too are generally one take.... And, I will use the empty part of an existing track to add something new later on rather than add another track to the project. But that's just how I work....

Waste not want not my momma used to always tell me...... but momma.... I have 258 tracks available..... I don't care son.... be frugal.

Herb - Old habits die hard!

I remember working with tape in the 70s and 80s when all the little bits and pieces got stacked up on the last available track. It was OK if you were one of the lucky ones working on an SSL with Total Recall, but usually it'd be an old Soundcraft or Allen and Heath with no automation at all.

These days I like the luxury of a new track for every part, but I still find myself occasionally doing a sub-mix instead of using a group buss, just because it's how I had to work in the past and it keeps the screen tidy.

It's just old dogs and new tricks, I guess...

ROG.

At least we don't need a sharp razor blade and splicing tape anymore....right?

Yeah.. that was fun..

Nice work!
– kind of african rhythms on a straight groove and lots of "happy" vocals. Interesting! Really enjoyed it! A touch of many things, even Talking Heads ;-)

Molsenhouse - Thanks for the listen.

This was, indeed, more of an experiment with rhythm rather than chord structure.

Always a fan of Talking Heads, so thanks for that.

ROG.

Duet.... now that would sound interesting!! A Yorkshire Welsh version of Chas and Dave...ROG and Dai!!
I am going to, as an experiment, have a crack at that idea over the weekend. It'll take my mind off the chaos in my life at the moment

Alyn

32 tracks! Oh Boy!!! I once did Eve Of The War from War Of The Worlds and ended up with 25 tracks on the Cakewalk GTPro2- Boy did I get confused!!
It all worked out alright in the end - just like this. Loved the beat for this. I liked all of it - even the wonky vocal. You aint ever heard me try to sing - you dont want to either. It sort of fitted right in and the girls are a superb backing group. Excellent band you have constructed there - even a bit of Tele on OD perhaps, although it sounded a bit "warm" for a Tele?
Exellent.
cheers
ian

Many thanks, Ian.

You're really good at spotting which guitars are in use - you've been right before on my tracks. The rhythm guitar is a Tele on this one, but the one which you thought was warmer is an old Jazzmaster. These are difficult to spot, but you were certainly on the right lines - very similar to the Tele with just that bit of extra warmth and smoothness.

Thanks for the listen.

ROG.

Rog and Rogettes,

Finally got to listen to it, I have been having trouble staying logged into the forum. Here we go, song is very good, the vibe is great and the vocal (in my ears) sells the song, with the exception of when you are singing harmony with the ladies as for some reason that did not work for me. But make no mistake about it your vocal style fit this tune to a "T"!

Bottom-line is KEEP SINGING, this was a great effort and it will get better.

PS: Guitar playing was excellent!

Later,

Rog, What a cool song. Great guitar work. I got a little of a Paul Simon vibe. Your unique vocal quality actually adds to feel. Expertly mixed. My only nit is I think the intro is too long. I was wondering if was going to be an instrumental and glad to hear it wasn't. Tom

ROG,

What a fun pop song - loved the lyrics and the melody. I especially liked that catchy repetitive instrumental hook and the harmonies arrangement.

I'm impressed that you are able to use so many vocal tracks to thicken without it sounding like a choir.

ROG,

I don't know how I missed this one earlier. Sure glad I heard it today! Very catchy. Cool tune. Really a fun song, and I really enjoyed it!

Steve