Here's my latest song. It probably needs to be remixed at some point, but my poor computer can barely handle the tracks - there are too many to play back in real time - so I'll give it a rest for the night.

As always, comments are welcome.

Just Turn Around

Now you're gone
Going down a road that runs forever
Moving on
East of the sun and westward of the moon

Traveling so far
Chasing after your wayward star
You lost the path
That leads you back

CHORUS
Just turn around
Just turn around
Someone is waiting for you
I'll light a candle to shine in the dark
You'll find me waiting for you

One more night
One more lonely night that's like a bad dream
One more day
One more day that never seems to end

REPEAT CHORUS

You are not alone
Your heart will guide you home

REPEAT CHORUS


Technical Details
Piano - ElectricVintage, Rhythm CoolJazzPopHeld Ev 085
Guitar - Acoustic, Fingerpicking Folky16thsBrent Ev16 085
Piano - Acoustic, Rhythm Pop16 Ev16 085
String Quartet - Rhythm PopChamber Ev 085

Drums - EZDrummer, Americana
Strummed Guitars - Session Guitars 1 & 2
Bass - Bass On Demand

Solo Violin, Horns, Oboe - Garritan Personal Orchestra
Vocal Processing - Waves Tune, Nectar Elements
Mastering - Ozone Elements
DAW - Reaper

Nice! I think this is the first time I've heard your music.

Good song! Man, that chorus is great, I love what you did with the vocals there.

Enjoyed the listen!

Loved it! But too short!!
How about extending with an instrumental chorus repeating taking it out?
It has a very reflective nature, and I think that allowing the listener to savor a few more non-verbal choruses would be great!
I especially liked the orchestration--I can see how high-quality sounds like Garritan make a difference.
Let us know how you did the vocals--multiple tracks, or all done in processing?
I will be turning around and looking back today!

David,

This is a very enjoyable listen.

The chorus is excellent! Great sound. Nice vocals. Really nice orchestration...

Drums sound good, too...

Well done. There is something about this that brings to mind songs from the AM radio top 10 - late 60's maybe?

fj

Outstanding. A wonderful listen.



Regards,


Bob

Thanks, Dave!

I don't write songs very often, but I'm making an effort this year to do more. President's Day was Monday, and I carved out some time to finally put something together.

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

That is a great use of tracks from multiple sources. My head would be spinning trying to put that together.

Your vocal although singing an uplifting lyric has a slight melancholy feel that is very effective. And the harmony is very nice.

For us everything works with the production, the mix, the arrangement and as mentioned the vocals.

Enjoyed it!

J&B

You're right, it's too short. As a challenge to myself, this song didn't follow my normal workflow. I decided to use some of the VSTi's that I'd bought but never used. So I started with the drum part in EZDrummer.

Since the tempo was slow (about 80 bpm) I figured that it was best to try to keep the song short. But as it stands, the ending sort of comes to a grinding halt, and it's not really satisfying. So, original mission accomplished, but it should be fixed at some point.


Each vocal line was sung separately.

• 1 Soft + 1 Loud lead
• 3 voices backing of the main lyric
• 3 voices on the harmony

When I sang the initial vocal, I had a lot of problems with pitch - I scoop into the start of notes, and add vibrato at the end, which makes the sound pinched, unpleasant and flat.

Best practice is to re-record vocals, but that wasn't getting me anywhere. So I recorded a softer version of the lead vocal, which helped a bit.

I'd initially thought of doing an echo part along the lines of what the violin is playing in the last chorus, but then I remembered floydjane mentioning singing in thirds on top of the melody in a recent song, so I figured I'd try something like that. So that's where the harmony came from.

I typically use ReaTune to fix the vocals, but it just wasn't up to the task. I was going to try out Melodyne, but Waves Tune offered a number of features that didn't come with the affordable version of Melodyne, so I ended up using that. It was a bit difficult to install and get working with Reaper, and the small window is a bit of a pain. But I'm pretty happy with the results.

Thanks for the feedback!

Hah! I was thinking about you when I put together the initial track. I have all these lovely EZDrum sounds, and figured that I should make use of them. Not that BiaB drums are bad... I just needed to justify spending all that money on other things.


Thanks! I'm a sucker for that 70's overly-produced sound. As I added in the french horns, the lyric from Rupert Holmes' "Studio Musician" came to mind:

I am the strings that enter softly
Or three guitars that glitter gold
I am the thousand trumpet lines
That were an afterthought
Intended as a way to get a dying record sold

Thanks for listening!

Thanks, Bob!

Thanks! That means a lot coming from you!

David

I like the treatment of the vocal (I have similar issues) - they sound very nice in the mix.
Pretty song - well written and produced. Looking forward to a few more.

Peter

Hi, Peter.

One of the side-effects of using pitch correction software is that you can see exactly what kind of issues there are. Sadly, awareness itself isn't enough to make a problem go away, especially when they're deeply ingrained habits.

So in addition to trying to write more songs, I'll need to work on improving my singing so the pitch correction software doesn't have to work so hard.

Thanks for the feedback!

Hi Dcuny, Thank you for sharing this with us. Great progressions and harmonies with this! Really dig the piano. Well done!

Thanks, Joe.

It's always pleasant to drop a BiaB track in and find that it's playing exactly what's needed in a song.

Hey David,

Really nice job on this! Orchestration, mix, vocals are all excellent. I think that's the most I've ever heard you sing. I didn't necessarily think it was too short.

I notice some thing you said in another post:
This directly speaks to the title of my latest song, and will eventually make you: "So Damn Good At Doin It Wrong"

Again, I very much enjoyed it!

Greg

Hi, Greg.

I really enjoyed your song! Also, it reminded me that I really need to focus on polishing my hooks.

Thanks for you comments,

What a nice song David. Awesome vocal and harmonies. Super backtrack and excellent choice of realtracks. Very well done..

Thanks, Scott!

This is a really good song and recording. I’m particularly impressed with how many elements you have integrated without getting muddy. Kudos!

Thanks, kybordr!

Great beautiful pop song, lovely chords progression with all those nice maj7 chords, excellent arrangement, I like especially the drums and violins. This has some nice Neil Finn vibe. And your singing is nice, I hope too that you don't have to use so much pitch correction in the future I'll be waiting for your next song.

Janne

Hi, Janne.

I see what you did there!

I'm a big fan of the group America, and a sucker for that major 7th sound. And the BiaB string trio has a very lovely sound.

I've been trying something different with my songwriting these days. I typically start with lyrics, and then work out a melody and a (hopefully) interesting chord progression.

Now, I'm starting with a chord progression, trying to build a melody with a strong chorus, and then adding the lyrics.

I end up using much simpler chord changes which actually come across as better than before. Lesson learned.

That said, I changed the chorus from:

Dmaj7 | Dmaj7 | Gmaj7 | Gmaj7

to:

Dmaj7 F#m/D | A/D F#m/D |Gmaj7 Bm/G | D/G Bm/G

I don't really think of that as changing the chord progression, though - it's basically the same harmony. It was more a trick to get some additional movement from the strings.

Thanks for listening!

This is a beautiful song, David! Really like your arrangement. All the orchestration works really well together. Very well thought out. I agree, it ends a little abruptly. Your voice sounds good, really fits this genre. This one is good enough to make the extra effort to redo your lead vocals without so much pitch correction (intended as a compliment). Great job on the harmonies. Very much enjoyed this. Would like to hear more like it!

Steve

Hi, David !


This is the best
I´ve heard from you
and that means it is
just fantastic !

Love those nice mayor 7th:s or 9th:s

Cheers
Dani

David, what a pretty sound!! To me a very late 70’s sounding pop tune! This to me sounds like something the group America would have done! It has a really pretty chorus in it! I could just hear Gerry Beckley singing this! Very nice work! Thanks, Torrey

Coming from you, that's quite a compliment!


And taken as such, thanks!

My son is working on a remix, and I'll post that when he gets done. After that I'll put this aside, and revisit it later once I've got better control of my voice.

Speaking of redoing a song, I was sorry to hear about you losing your hard drive. I lost my backup drive last year, with years of family photos on it. Fortunately, I was able to find a service to recover most of them, but it wasn't cheap. So I feel your pain.


So would I. I'll see what I can do.

Thanks, Dani.

Even the 11ths are quite nice!

Thanks, Torrey!

Hey Dave,

This is really awesome. What a beautiful production.

I can tell you put a lot of work into this. I like everything about the it, the vocals, the lyrics, the arrangement.

Super piece of work. So good to have posting!!

Loved this David.

Strong melody and tasteful harmonies.
Reminds me a little of some of my favorite King Crimson sounds (from long ago).

Tasteful indeed.

Cheers.

Hi, David.

It's good to hear from you. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Hi, RichMac.

I'm glad it brought back good memories for you!

Thanks for stopping by!

David,

This is excellent! A very cool song and great vocal - love what you did with the track selection and mix.

Bob

Hi, Bob.

Thanks for the kind words. I appreciate the feedback.

David,
I agree with all the kudos- this is very well done! Such a pretty melody on the chorus and your vocal doubles and harmonies work very well.Nice strings too.
I have the same issue with an underpowered computer struggling to handle all the tracks- in RealBand anyway - it sure makes mixing a bigger headache, so I admire your perseverance with this!

Robert

Hi, Robert.

Yeah, it's past time for an upgrade, but it's not in the budget.

Usually the CPU issue are the VST effects. I can typically render stems so that I'm working with a plain .wav file, but for some reason getting the Waves VSTs has been a challenge. I think I've got a workaround for that, but that'll wait for future productions.

Also, I've typically added the mastering effects after the mix chain. I think I'll change my workflow by rendering a final mix, and then do mastering as a separate process. That'll take a small load off the computer.

Anyway, thanks for the kudos! They're appreciated.

I'm late to the party, really glad that I could hear this and I agree with everything that has already been said. But am I the only one that heard a touch of The Beatles in this? That was the first group that came to mind when you started to sing, which BTW was absolutely outstanding.

You should write and sing more often.

I think this is the best you have ever done.

This is a keeper.

Hi, Mario.

That's my line! There are too many excellent songs posted here, and far too few adjectives not already used by the time I get around to listening!


I'll do what I can, thanks!

Bravo! Great song writing! Fill with engaging elements throughout.

A creative chorus and strong lyrics, lush instrument choices and flourishes, dreamy harmonies.

And the auto-tune/chorus effect on the vocal is a great choice. It reminds me of the band 10cc.

super job!

Hrm... I'll definitely need to re-do the vocals at some point. I'm just no good at layering vocals!

Thanks for the positive feedback!

Hello, David

Very nice tune with great orchestration!
The beginning of melody is really good.
I am a big fun of orchestral sounds.
Your orchestration of solo violin, French horn, oboe is modest but very brilliant and comfortable.
Enjoyed my listen a lot.

Best regards.

Shigeki Adachi

Man, This sounds really good. The vocals are excellent. Great melody throughout. The mix is just right. Love the drums. I liked every bit of it, Tom

This is a really nice piece. I like the way it builds. Lots of good stuff here. I love the horns. Them and the strings give this a very ellegant sound.

Hi, Shigeki.

Thanks for having a listen - I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Hi, Tom.

Thanks!

David,

You've done a wonderful job with this.

The orchestration is fantastic... lush and very, very tastefully arranged. It must have taken hours and hours to get this so precise and so seamlessley integrated.

From start to end, my attention was focused on what I was hearing. When the ending arrived, I blinked because it seemed like I'd only started listening a few seconds earlier. I don't know how you did it but you managed to make time stand still for me for three minutes! Amazing!!

All the best,
Noel

Hi, Samuel.

I love the horns, too! I also tried to sneak in an english horn - which is neither English nor a Horn - but I ended up using an oboe instead. Maybe next time.

Thanks!

Hi, Noel.

Obviously, I tried to create a build and flow to the song. But I think another factor was the I put this song together backwards, starting with the backing tracks, then adding BiaB to sweeten it, figured out a melody, and finally wrote the lyric.

So I think that had a lot to do with how well the parts locked in together. Where a BiaB track sounded good, I turned it up, if only for a measure or two. Where it clashed, I just took it out.


That's what every songwriter wants to hear, thanks!

You're welcome! - Glad you're enjoying the program!

Nice!! I'm a sucker for soft rock. Love those sweet harmonies and the arrangement. Also a very pretty melody David.

Thanks, Josie.

Glad you could stop by for a listen. I appreciate the kind words.

David,

We don't believe we actually ever heard you sing
We do remember some vocaloid like recordings in the past.
This is really good! A 70s/Dan Fogelberg kind of sound.
Beautiful harmonies as well.

Rob and Anne-Marie

Hi, Rob and Anne-Marie.

That's 'cause I don't sound as good as you two.

I've actually sung on some other songs, but this is one where I've actually put some work into the vocals. So you haven't missed much.


Sometimes it's hard to find quiet time around the house. Right now, my daughter is doing dishes, my son is loudly and dramatically running a D&D campaign on his computer in the other room, and the heater is wooshing. I'm grateful for all of these, but it does make recording vocals difficult.


Thanks!

I agree with my friend Floyd. Excellent!!! I don't know that I've heard you sing before and now I wonder: WHY NOT??? Really beautiful, warm, feel good song. DO MORE!!! Take care. Greg

Hi, Greg.

In all honesty: thank goodness for pitch correction.

I'm an OK singer, but recording vocals has brought front and center many things I need to work on vocally.

Thanks!