Here's my latest musical offering for the User Showcase"

https://soundcloud.com/user-952388172/lost-for-words

The melody features French oboe, piano and lead guitar and there are some lovely background guitar touches from Michael Thompson (RT1637:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm JazzFunkBreezyChords Ev16 07).
The rhythm section also includes:
RT2262:Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm 80sPopBallad Ev 085
RT1610:Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm Pop16 Ev16 110
RT701:Bass, Electric, PopHalfNotesSync Ev 085
RealDrums-JazzFunkPop (variations)

As always, I encourage your comments, criticism and suggestions.
Cheers,
Mike

Mike,

This is really well done. A delightful listen.

A great flow as instrument come in and out. The acoustic guitar figure is quite nice. Nice piano & oboe (are you playing those).

Excellent mix.

Everything about this is good...

fj

Nice work Mike! I really enjoyed the overall tone of this and rhythm is easy to follow. The Oboe is a nice touch to piece it all together. Well done!

hi mike wow!!! love this awesome work super enjoyable thanks for sharing this eric

Nice track! Love the melody played by the Oboe especially, piano is also nicely done. Some very cool changes happening here, very well thought out production.

Great composition & production...
Very pleasant to the ears...
Enjoyed it!

What a cool song Mike. Such a nice listen. Well done.

That surely took some time and thought to put together and to wrap it up in such a nice mix.

Like floyd we'd love to know who's playing what!

Kudos on everything about it...

J&B

Thanks for your comments. Coming from you guys, they are certainly appreciated.
RE: who plays what:
I am not set up for audio recording so I usually work things out on my guitar and then input the melody etc on a very old 'dumb' midi keyboard.
I also use this input method for particular parts/sections/riffs/fills for various instruments and drums I want that RealTracks cant provide.
I then manually tidy up and embellish the parts and assign them to the instruments I want. The French oboe, some bass guitar bits and the lead guitar (plus effects) in Lost For Words come from the Kontakt library.
Sometimes I'll take a RealTrack transcription and change some notes to suit my piece better.

RealTracks/Drums:
RT2262:Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm 80sPopBallad Ev 085
RT1610:Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm Pop16 Ev16 110
RT701:Bass, Electric, PopHalfNotesSync Ev 085
RealDrums-JazzFunkPop (variations).
The very tasty background guitar licks on this track are from Michael Thompson (RT1637).
Thanks again for your interest.
Mike

Extra fine movement with the various instruments coming to the fore. Engaging melody and well-considered rhythmic breaks. A very nice listen.

Mike,
I like the layers of sound and instruments coming through to solo.
You`re midi skills are impressive and the composition well thought out.
Very good!

Robert

Excellent stuff this could so easy be in a compilation mood instrumental cd.

Thanks

Thanks Joe. Thanks Eric. I really appreciate you taking the time to listen and comment.
Cheers,
Mike

Thanks Dave. Love your work.
Cheers,
Mike

Quite a nice melody Mike.
I have to admit that I found the centre a little annoying when it became crowded with little licks and touches. The left side seemed a little less occupied - or that may be the ear I'm slowly losing.
Nice melding of RT & Midi mate.

Thanks Jim. I appreciate your comments.
Mike
Thanks for listening Scott.
Cheers,
Mike

Hi Mike,

This is an outstanding listen. I love your arrangement and orchestration... it sits very, very comfortably on the ears. As others have already noted, the flow from instrument to instrument and section to section is smooth and leads the listener on a seamless journey.

All the best,
Noel

Thanks for listening Tangmo and for your kind comments.
Cheers,
Mike

Very nice, Mike!

Love the arrangement. Very well thought out. Everything has its place. I can see this as a background track to scene of driving through the countryside in a movie, or for a travel video. Very well done!

Steve

Love the song - interesting ideas supported with a great arrangement!

really enjoyed this

nice arrangement, love the guitars

everything sounds great,

Kenny

Thanks for listening and taking the time to comment Robert.
Cheers,
Mike

Thanks for your comments beatmaster.
Mike
Thanks Noel. I appreciate your kind and encouraging words.
Cheers,
Mike

Thanks for your honesty rayc.
On reflection, you might be right about the "crowded" middle eight.
You know what it's like: you write something you really like and you just can't let go of it or leave it out!
But as we all know, in most cases, "less is more".
Cheers,
Mike

Steve, I have great respect for your work and really appreciate your encouraging comments.
BTW, Yesterday I stumbled across your "Mixing Tips" post in the "Post Your Own Tips and Tricks" PG Music forum.
I know it was posted a few years ago but it contains so many great tips and ideas for mixing/mastering.
Thanks for sharing.
Mike

Nicely done - I thoroughly enjoyed my listen A lot of nice ebb and flows here, and a concise and clean mix job too. Listening in headphones - the panning was really well done and made it appear to have lots of intricacies to my ears.

Thanks for sharing!

Pretty tune Mike!! You have such a nice ear for melody and chord progressions! A really sweet listen!! Take care. Greg

Thanks for your interest and encouragement David.
Cheers,
Mike

Really classy stuff Mike! I love the melody and the varied textures provided by the instrumentation. Very skillfully put together! A wonderful piece of music! Thanks, Torrey

Thanks Kenny. Appreciate your comments.
Mike

Very nice mood, I like the melancholy in melody and chording. Brings feelings of a 70's movie soundtrack. Lots of things happening all the time in the arrangement, nice breaks, instruments are brought cleverly in and out.

Janne

Thanks for listening and for your detailed comments Deryk.
Cheers,
Mike

Thanks Greg. I certainly appreciate your comments.
Cheers,
Mike

Thanks for listening Torrey, and for your detailed response. Cheers,
Mike

This is so good in so many ways that I am lost for words! So I will take your suggestion:

1-comments - this is an outstanding piece of music. Plus the mix is perfect!

2-criticism - Ain't no criticism from me.

3-suggestions - please do more like this

You should be extra proud of this one!

Thanks for listening Janne. I appreciate your detailed comments.
Cheers,
Mike

Thanks Mario. Nice that you were "Lost for Words" but then found some nice ones to describe my song. As always, I appreciate your thoughts. Cheers mate,
Mike