This is the first song I've posted in the User Showcase here at PG. It's a song I wrote in April 2018 without intending to. (Please read the description under the Youtube video at the link for the rest of the story behind this song.) This is also the first song I created an arrangement for in BiaB, which I just purchased last month. I was hoping to add a vocal track by a singer/songwriter friend from West Virginia before posting this song, but she declined my request because she didn't think she could do the song justice. So, I'm looking for another vocalist who would be willing to do that for me because I'm not a singer myself. In the meantime, I decided to share this instrumental version because I'm really pleased with the way it turned out with BiaB's arrangement and I'd like to know what others here think of it.

The style I used in BiaB is "Slow Country Ballad," and its demo was recorded at 85 bpm. My song, however has a tempo of 140 bpm, which exceeds the recommended range of 70-110. So, I was initially concerned that the increased tempo would ruin the use of this style in the arrangement, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it didn't. Also, I adjusted the volume and pan levels of the instruments to create a more balanced arrangement because the finger picking guitar track was barely audible compared to the other instruments.

The instruments used in this style are as follows:

RT518: Bass, Electric, Pop HalfNotes Ev 085 , Dow Tomlin
RealDrums: Nashville Even8^2-SideStick, HHat, Brian Fullen
RT362: Guitar, Acoustic, Strumming Ev 085 , Tony King
RT365: Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking Ev 085 , Jason Roller

Instead of using the midi acoustic piano for the melody in this song (which sounded cheesy), I used the piano output from MuseScore, which is the program I use for notation. I also used ActivePresenter to create the video of the song being played in MuseScore and then added the WAV file from BiaB before exporting the video to MP4. The lyrics are in the video, so I won't post them here.

The Gospel Song:

https://youtu.be/Un6N2Ph_yhE

Hi Muzikluver,

I think you have made a nice song here and I hope you'll find a vocalist who is ready to take it on. I will very much look forward to hear that.

While you're right that the change in tempo didn't ruin the style, I do believe you'll be able to find better sounding RealTracks if you try out some of those which are made originally in bpm 140 or around that tempo. Most instrumentalists play their instruments in a different style depending on the tempo.

I - as a guitarist - would not be strumming a guitar in exactly the same way if I had to change tempo from 85 to 140 bpm.

If I were you I would audition some of the RealTracks that were recorded in between 130 and 150 bpm to see if it was possible to find some tracks with a bit more "relaxed" playing style.

Thank you for sharing this nice song!
Will

Thanks, Will, for your compliments and your comments on my song. I should tell you that I couldn't find any styles in the ProPak edition in the 130-150 bpm range that I liked or I would have used one of those instead of this one. I suppose that the MegaPak or UltraPak editions would have one in this tempo range that would work better than the one I chose, but I'm not ready to upgrade yet. So, this style works fine for now because I only plan to use it as an introductory demo for this song. In the future, I will either have my producer create an original arrangement using this one as reference, or I'll just create another arrangement myself using a better style in BiaB after I upgrade. And if I find a vocalist to sing this for me before then, I'll share that version here as well. Thanks for listening and thanks again for your comments.

Yes, the ProPak is a bit limited, so I totally understand you. I hope you will upgrade soon - you will not regret it!

I wish you good luck with this song!
Will

Tom,

Welcome to the Showcase.

A very nice start with BIAB. Good balance in your mix - everything clear and "in a good place". Sounds good.

Stretching instrument recorded for 85 bpm to almost twice their original speed (to 140 in your case) does have a tendency to make them sound a bit busy at time (and for some instruments you might get a bit of "wobble"/artifacts - though I don;t hear that here). I imagine using instruments (RealTracks) near the tempo of your song would give you instruments that "breath" a bit more... (I understand your decision to start with the ProPak).

The video is fun to follow along with. How was that made?

fj

Thanks, Floyd! I'm glad you liked it and didn't hear any major problematic issues with the arrangement. To create the video, I played the melody in MuseScore and used ActivePresenter to capture the video and audio as it was being played. Both programs are free to download and use, but ActivePresenter does charge if the videos created are used for commercial purposes (which I'm not doing at the present time).

Hi Muzikluver, welcome to the best forum around! Here you will find a lot of positive, supportive people who will encourage you to grow as a writer/music creator! Your track sounds pretty good to me! I am amazed that the tracks went that far out out of the recommended BPM range without noticing any strange sounding artifacts. I think it's a testament to the quality of the program! I will be watching for a future post with vocals! Thanks, Torrey

Thanks, Torrey, for confirming my own thoughts about those tracks. It's good to have more sets of ears besides my own to hear this arrangement because I was surprised at how good it sounded to me considering the increased tempo. I shared it with my brother who listens to lots of music and has good ears, and he said it sounded very good to him. And I agree with your comment about the quality of the program. I'll post a new version with vocals as soon as I can find a suitable vocalist, which I'm working on. Thanks again!

You have a nice sounding composition...
I think it is a little fast for the lyrical subject matter...
The nice thing about YouTube is that the video speed is adjustable...
I slowed the video down 75% & it seemed to play without any artifacts...
To my ears it also sounded more suitable for the lyrical content...
That would be about 105 bpm in Biab which would be in the recommended range of 70-110.
Hope this helps... & I enjoyed listening.

Fantastic job Muzikluver! I really enjoyed the overall tone of this. The different elements really glue well together and great choices of chords too. Looking forward to hear more!

Welcome to the forum. This is an excellent tune. Loved the music score to view the song. I have tried in the past to score my guitar using Guitar pro but very pain full. Would like to have the scores as I forget most of the stuff I have done :-)...

Pretty music!! Would like to hear it sung. Nice job with arrangement and mix, and WELCOME to the forum!! Take care. Greg

Hi again, Muzikluver,

It might be a good idea to post this in the "Songwriter"-forum as well, because there could be somebody there who would be interested in doing the vocals.

Will

There's some fantastic singers one here and I'm sure at least one will jump at the chance. Good luck with this cracking song

Thanks, Jim for your comments. It may be a little fast for some singers, but the tempo of the song enhances the upbeat, happy, fun feel of the song. I didn't have any problems singing the lyrics (to myself, of course) at this tempo. However, someone else may want to slow the tempo a bit to make it easier to sing, but I don't think it should be slower than 130 partly because the "magic feel" of the song starts to fade and partly because the length of the song increases too much past the 5 minute mark. Also, I tried your suggestion to slow down the speed on Youtube, but I clearly heard some artifacts when I did that---especially in the cymbals on the drum track. To do a fair comparison without artifacts, I should redo the arrangement in BiaB at a lower tempo, which I may do if a vocalist objects to the current tempo.

Thanks, Joe for your compliments on my song and its arrangement. I'm glad you liked it, and I really appreciate receiving such positive and encouraging feedback from a PG Music staff member. Thanks for listening!

Thanks, Scott! I'm really glad you liked it. I've played this song in my head hundreds of times already and haven't begun to get tired of hearing it. Regarding the score, this is how I capture all of my songs after I've written them in my head. MuseScore is a great program (and free, too!), and I'm very thankful to have found it. You may want to check it out for your needs.

Thanks, Greg, for your compliments on my song and arrangement. Glsd you liked it! I hope to have a sung version to post here soon. Be on the lookout for it. And thanks for the "welcome." It's good to be here!

Thanks for the suggestion, Will. I hadn't thought of that, but I may if my current efforts to find a vocalist fall through. Two days ago I submitted a post about my need for a female vocalist to a songwriters group on Facebook that I'm a member of, and several good female vocalists have responded. Three of them expressed an interest in recording a vocal track after listening to my song. So, I sent them a PDF file and am waiting to hear back from them. Hopefully that will happen sometime this weekend.

Thanks, Graham. As I said to Will above, I may express my need in the songwriters forum if my current efforts fall through.