Hello all,

After a long hiatus here is my sophomore effort: Sunshine Lady

Lyrics:
Sublime summertime the days drift by
So warm and heavenly
Then I chime in, your nerves wear thin
With words said carelessly

An eyebrow raised at me
The smile that used to be
The warning signs are clear to see

Sunshine lady it turned shady
I tried to stay between the lines
I see all the clues from your head to your shoes
Tell me what's on your mind

Clouds rollin' in at summer's end
All good things come and go.
The best intent, but words get bent
Now here comes the show

I've heard it all before
Oh woman hear you roar
I know there's more in store for me

Sunshine lady it turned shady
I tried to stay between the lines
I see all the clues from your head to your shoes
Tell me what's on your mind

Sunshine lady I think maybe
I just need a little more time
But you gotta tell the truth are you gonna turn me loose
Tell me what's on your mind


I've been reading up a little about the mixing process so any help in that area would be appreciated. I'm currently using mixcraft 6 to mix. I'm playing a little sax and some acoustic guitar (apologies in advance).

Realtracks: Bass - Electric PopHalfnotes ~518
Drums - NashvilleEven8
Acoustic Guitar ~693
Rhythm Electric Guitar ~696
B3 Organ ~686

Thanks for listening as always.

Very nice work on this one; thanks for sharing!

First, I think you have written a very good song. It's a good effort and I also like your vocal on this. I didn't think the sax added anything to the production and no more than it is used, I would take it out of the mix. I think you did a good job in your choice of instruments and the sax just never found its place in the mix.

Mixing, panning and instrument choices are personal choices and saying I would have arranged the song in a different way just means I would have made different choices, not that your choices and arrangement are wrong. Saying that, I would have treated the acoustic guitars panning a bit different than how you chose to do. I would suggest listening on YouTube to how other groups treat intros in similar songs.

I also liked your Sunshine Lady artwork in the video.

Enjoyed listening and look forward to hearing more from you soon.

Charlie

Very nice. I liked the melody a lot, and I liked the general arrangement and how it picked up on the key change near the end. I think the little sax "stabs" in that section worked OK, but they seemed very distant from the rest of the instruments.

The whole mix seemed somewhat blurred to me, nothing really standing out except the vocal and the sax stabs. Mixing is hard. Maybe there's different amounts and types of reverb on some tracks? I'm not sure. Good work, but the overall instrumentation could have been punchier somehow.

Thanks,
Bruce

As Bruce said, nice melody and arrangement. I particularly liked the sound of your voice for this song.

I don't think there was anything drastically wrong with the mix, but a spot of EQ here and there would brighten it up and separate out the instruments better. Although the kick drum was there in the mix, the rest of the kit was a bit subdued and EQ might help here as well.

Hey, but you're definitely on the right lines and I enjoyed the track.

Keep posting.

ROG.

Hey thanks for all the thoughtful comments. I really appreciate getting the feedback.

Charlie - I actually had a lot more sax on the track originally, but felt that it was a little out of place. Perhaps it isn't needed at all for this style.

Bruce - The mixing is indeed a challenge. I'm actually using some presets from mixcraft 6 for each instrument. I'll keep playing around with it.

ROG - Thanks for the tips. I'll play around with EQ a bit more to see if that helps.

Hi, Jeff.

First, nice song and nice singing!

Since you've mentioned you appreciate feedback, hopefully I can offer something helpful. Feel free to ignore anything you disagree with...

I thought the intro was a bit quiet. Once the vocals come in, the "lead" guitar part seems to stumble a bit because it's got nothing to play against. If you raised the lead a bit in the intro, and then dropped it out until where the drum kicks in, I think it'll work a lot better.

The sax is so intermittent, the first time I heard the track I wasn't sure what the sound was. I think dropping completely would work best.

The volume changes into each section a bit abrupt. If you could build into them, it might feel a bit more organic.

But those are small nits. The important thing is you've got a nice song with a catchy chorus.

Nice work!

Hi ...

Good to "meet" you!

A really nice song and your vocal works perfectly for this one. I agree with dropping the sax stabs. I also think that the "back-up lead" on the left channel would sound a wee bit better as an acoustic guitar.

All that said, it was a real nice listen and we enjoyed it a lot! Best to you ...

Alan & Di

Jeff,

I like your song. It has a terrific feel to it. Reminiscent of folk-pop like John Denver, Seals & Croft...

The instrument mix is good relative to the other instruments. But it sounds like you put some type of reverb on the whole (final) mix that makes everything sound like it was recorded too far away from the microphone - especially your vocal (and it is a very nice vocal).

That may be a wrong guess - but, if it is not, you might try a mix without whatever that last reverb is...

Look forward to more..

floyd

Hi Jeff,

if you take some advice from above this is going to be a real good song. I like the melody and the voice.
Enjoyable listen.

Guenter

David - Thanks for the tip on dropping the lead after the vocals come in. That thought never occurred to me, so I'll give it a try.

Alan and Di - The electric guitar could be switched out with another acoustic realtrack perhaps. Unfortunately, my own playing probably won't get it done. I'll experiment.

Floyd - Thanks for the comparisons, that was the sound I was after. You are right on with the mix. Each track has a little reverb, but I added another preset (from mixcraft 6) to the whole thing at the end. I'll revisit this and see if something sounds better.

I appreciate all the tips and encouragement (and the PG forums in general). It's nice to have this resource.

Really nice song. I like the progressions, and you have a really nice voice.

There's some really good advice in the posts. Keep up the good work!

Steve

Really like this!! Melodically and lyrically, there are a lot of great things going on here. It sounds like you've listened to a lot of stuff from the greatest era of rock/singer songwriter music (65 to 75). I would make the vocal more present (may try changing the predelay on the reverb?). You have a very good voice-don't be afraid to let it come through. Great stuff!! Take care. Greg

+1 Couldn't have said it any better.

Josie