I've been working on this for a week or so.

Here's the band:

Nashville even 8 drums
Bass 1522
Mando 1948 Andy
Steel 2541
Steel solo 1669 Paul
Fiddle 618
Synth strings 1943

Style is Songwriter Style ... which kinda pleasantly surprised me.

I'm on all guitars played through the MBS22 with the Tele. 2 crunchy panned left and right. one with fills and solo using the same settings as the crunchy stuff.

3 vox tracks.

Missing You

Lyrics....

Well some things change but remain the same baby it's a shame
What can you say when there's no one left to blame
Yesterday has come and gone, baby now I know
All we have is embers from long ago.

Just hold me one more time, pretend that you're still mine
You know we'll both be fine when the morning comes
But if you walk away don't turn your back to me and say
Baby I'll be missing you

On the road to forever somebody lost their way
They say you should count your blessings each and every day
Is it lost romance or give it one last chance before you go
Just give it one more day to let your feelings show

Just hold me one more time, pretend that you're still mine
You know we'll both be fine when the morning comes
But if you walk away don't turn your back to me and say
Baby I'll be missing you



I don't have time to go into the production right now, but I'll comment on what I did a bit later because there's some things I did in this one that I generally have steered away from in the past. And they seem to work well..... better than I expected.

This was such a lovely song, and I especially loved the guitars. The song has such a nice flow to it. Thanks for sharing!

Well done, Herb. A nice production and a good mix. Vocals sound good, too.

Thank you for listening.... Yeah I really like the groove and flow in this tune too. The style is really nice and works well.

Floyd, glad you took the time to listen and that you like the song.

Everything works for me: nice production, catchy melody, solid chorus, memorable song.

Very nice country rocker Herb! Great guitar sound and play! Also love the use of the steel contrasted with the guitars! Chorus is lovely and catchy! Another very fine production from you! Thanks, Torrey

This sounds great Herb.

You are mixing some excellent sounds together here, and I really like the vocals. Well done!

Herb

Nice work all round - everything sounds good - excellent guitar sounds and a nice catchy chorus.

Peter

What a great mix you have here.Love the vocals and lyrics. Stellar job on this.
Rob

A fine production from start to finish.

Cool multi-instrument break, and I did enjoy both the phrasing and the way the instruments answer the vocals.

Nice work on this one, Herb The groove is incredible, and the guitar work is seriously on point. It got my toe tapping along - not to mention, the hook here is great! Super catchy and super easy to sing along to.

Great work, and thanks for sharing!

Excellent.



Regards,


Bob

Dcuny, Torrey B, David Snyder, PeterF, Rob4580, VideoTrack, Deryk PG, & 90 db...... Thank you all for listening and commenting on this. Your time and comments are much appreciated.

Loved this tune Herb. Excellent lyric and backtrack. I thought the vocal and harmonies were so good. And the guitars very cool. Loved how all the different guitar tracks weaved in and out of each other each being so complimentary to your melody. Very nice. Super tone as well.

Nicely done Herb. The vocal/guitar performances sound really good as does the entire mix.

The soundstage really works listening on the monitors. It's got that live feel that we so like.

Kudos!

J&B

You never disappoint when you stay in the country rock area. Great editing on the steel. Love the tone of guitar and some tasty work there. Your vocal is so easy to listen too. Your comfort level is evident throughout this. I also really enjoy the melody. Great job, Tom

Herb,
Excellent catchy song. I especially enjoyed your vocals here ( like that subtle double vocal track I`ve heard on your songs before.)
The pedal steel is very nicely done too.

Robert

Herb,

I really like this - feels like an early 70s BJ Thomas vibe. Very nice!

Great vocal and guitars as well - loved it!

Bob

Herb, this is pro all the way. Everything is perfect; great vocals, super backing tracks and an outstanding mix.

This is a keeper.

Hi Herb,

Enjoyed all as it's so very well done start to finish.
Particularly like your vocals here.

Cheers.

Scott C, Thanks

Janet & Bud, thanks... yep, I like the live feeling in recordings too.

Tommyad, yep, I certainly have a love for country rock. Thanks for listening

Robertkc..... I'll comment on this below. Thanks for noticing this.

Rsdean, I'd have never guessed BJT.... thanks for listening

Mario, Thanks for the kind words. Glad you liked this.

RichMac, thank you for taking the time to listen.

OK... so.....

Normally, I will record the lead vox and then 2 duplicates get recorded and panned left and right. Then, if I have harmony I record the harmony tracks and do the same thing.

This time I did something totally different.

I recorded just one track. The lead vocal. I cloned the tracks in my DAW and panned them hard left and hard right. I nudged one of them one click right and the other 2 clicks right.

I ran melodyne (MDE) on the lead vocal manually "fixing" the imperfections and off note stuff.

I rendered that to hard copy and ran MDE on each of the cloned tracks capturing only the chorus parts and the tags. I shifted one track up a few steps and the other down a few steps leaving the rest of the track unaltered and unfixed. In the chorus, since you can't just shift up or down and have everything be correct musically, I edited a few notes to make the harmony sound good. I dropped the levels to -17db or so and let it roll.

The band had it's own buss and EQ, the vox had the same setup, and the guitars were in their own buss as well with a loudness limiter from Cakewalk..... the infamous Boost11 plug. I have been known to use that on vocals as well but generally when I find I have to use B11 on vox, it's time to reexamine the mix and start over.

Overall, the vox eq is a little rounded off for my personal taste, but it seems to work well, so I left it where it was.

Regarding the vocals..... and cloning them.... Not saying at all that one way is right or the other wrong, but many folks do kinda look at the way this vocal mix was done as the way "not to do it". However, it seems to work well and I didn't notice any overtly ill effects..... comb filtering and the like.... so it might be something I look at in the future. I did notice some artifacts that gave a distortion kind of sound in there but the guitars tended to cover it fairly well. I don't know how well this would work on a song where the vocals were up front and center though. I will be playing around with this a bit from time to time. So, I will keep you posted.

that was a great song and you have used real band to perfection!!!

Two thumbs up from me, Herb.

Great song, great guitar work!

Cliftond, & Curt Young

Thank you... glad you like it.

Nice job on this song... I think I can hear a lot of your musical influences in this song & they are all good... Enjoyed it very much!

"Guitarhacker"...

Huh??? You worked on "Missing You" for only a week??? Generally speaking, years have passed before I felt that a song I composed and performed is ready to offer to the public's ears. Obviously, I am doing something wrong.

Regardless, "Missing You" has the kind of musical and lyrical attractiveness that everybody can relate to. I can imagine women gathered together by their lonesome selves at the edge of a dance floor, thumbs hooked through their belt loops while tapping their fingertips on their hips to the rhythm and waiting for the "shy" guys on the other side to notice the signal they're sending: "Are any a'you fellahs plannin' on comin' over here to ask a lady to dance before they turn the lights off in this place???"

Your song sounds swell, the words run the gamut of emotions for the particular romantic situation you describe, and, in particular, "Guitarhacker", your voice sounds so youthful that I imagined you were singing something of an autobiographical nature that happened to you long ago.

Good as it gets,

LOREN

REALLY catchy song Herb, with excellent performance and mixing.

I really enjoyed this one. It is a winner.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ditto!! Everything works!!! It is catchy, well-written, well sung (love the harmonies) and just plain fun to listen to!! One of my faves of yours for sure!!! Take care. Greg