Kind of a quirky country song. This was done with the Rising Fingerpicking w/ Drums RealTrack, and I added a bunch of other stuff (cello, synth, electric guitar, dobro). Vocals & mix done with Logic Pro X.

Not entirely happy with the mix, there are some acoustic guitar squeaks I couldn't get out without losing tone, so I got it as good as I could & moved on.

For the applied use of these that I have, it does exactly what I need it to - which is just present the song. Enjoy!

It Ain't Funny Is It

It Ain't Funny Is It

How you laughed the day she left me
Cause she was leaving me for you
Weren’t you the proud one, it must’ve been fun
You made sure everybody knew

So I’ve been hearing that it’s over
And you’re the one who’s broken now
Looks like you’ve been burned, I guess the table’s turned
And maybe you have figured out –

CHORUS
It ain’t funny is it
Not when you’re the one who has to live it
You didn’t then, but now you get it
Cause she’s gone
It ain’t funny is it –

You thought for you it would be different
You had yourself a big old time
With the hell you’re going through walking in my shoes
I’m betting now you’ve changed your mind –

REPEAT CHORUS

BRIDGE:
She’s found somebody new
This time the joke’s on you

REPEAT CHORUS

I really like this. Fantastic lyrics and great instrumentation. Really enjoyed the listen, thanks for sharing.

Another really well-written song!! Love the feel of that atmospheric pedal steel.......perfect! I love the way you use "it" at the end of each chorus line....fresh and effective! Really like this!! Take care. Greg

I think the lyrics definitely provide an important message - you shouldn't look down on another's misfortunes because you never know when they could happen to you.

Great stuff, thanks for sharing!

Roger,

This is another winner in my book. Everything about this is perfect.

You should put out a CD as your songs are far superior then anything on country radio up here!

String squeaks annoy the hell out of me but most folk are OK with it as it sounds real. Sibilance is another issue that gets to me more than others - I think I mentioned there were some essing probs in your last track according to my ears.
The quickest & easiest way to deal with the string squeaks is to create volume automation and do quick notches at those spots.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwYN-QhhAEs
Additionally you could use an auto de-esser and adjust that to the problem frequency
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=+Logic+Pro+X+de+--esser
- lastly you could set up an EQ that removes it but automate that to bypass except where the problems are
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sWcPCJWX-A
Great song by the way.

Thanks for the feedback.
Essing is an issue I've wrestled with for decades. My vocals are susceptible to it more than others for some reason. I've worked in the studio with more recording engineers than I can count, and it's always been a problem.
As I've mentioned on other posts, my use for the songs & tracks I record are for pitching purposes. I write a lot, and consequently don't have the time or need to fine-tune the mixes in the way I would if I were planning on releasing them commercially. My "studio" is a corner hutch in my office - if you were to solo one of the vocal tracks, you'd very likely hear the ambient sound of a neighbor's dog barking, a garbage truck going by, or dozens of other pops, squeaks, & whistles.
My goal is to get the songs I write presented in a way that an artist can hear them and hopefully want to record them on their own projects. I actually fought being my own engineer and having my own studio for decades, because that's not what I'm interested in doing. The economy of the music industry forced my hand, and here I am.
The tracks/songs that I've posted, I probably spent 4 hours on each - from typing in the chord sheet in BIAB to bouncing the final mix to my external HD. That's about all the time I can spare to put into them, and again, for my application it's all I need. Your observations are entirely correct - I simply face a point of diminishing return when it comes to the amount of time I spend on these. My focus leans much more to the song itself - lyric, melody and the feel of the track - than fine tuning the mixes. My ear also likes brighter mixes with with a lot of air & presence, which of course accents any sibilance issues that are present.
Thanks again for your thoughts & feedback, you have a great ear for this. Nashville could use more engineers who care enough to drill down on a mix.
Best to you,
RB

IMHO the easiest way to reduce string squeak is by Spectral Editing. By this method you simply see where the issue is and reduce it. Not as intrusive as dropping the volume as you only get shy of the squeak not the note. See Kenny Gioia on Spectral Editing in Reaper. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSBO_VC9q3E

For de-essing sometimes using a multiband compressor with a narrow bandwidth at the ss point works well.

Tony

Most has already been said but I do like this.
Rob4580

Had a listen, this is a beautiful song (my battery was low last night). Well put together, beautifully sung, very relaxing. IMHO I agree getting shy of some of the squeak would improve it heaps.

This went over to “I bet you weren’t expecting this”. Yes you’re right I was not expecting this. Really very nice.

As I commented earlier use a process such as Spectral Editing which will help get shy of string squeak one can also use the same procedure to reduce essing. It is a very simple procedure that is very quick (once you’ve done it a couple of times).

Well done

Tony

Ah, makes complete sense then.
For me I try to make them as good as I can get them as I know no one else will want to use them. That's the principal reason I seek singers for my songs rather than grunting & autotuning a facsimile of the melody. I'm also pretty poor in the melody stakes so a sing that can add a communicative voice and melody is key. I'm always stunned at my sensitivity to squeaks and essing as I'd have thought my tinnitus would've reduced the sensitivity - instead those things and unnecessary volume/level bug me.
Thanks for the clarification.
BIAB is a superb demo tool.

Thanks and yep, Tony, that works a treat - except for the colour-blind - which I'm not so that leaves it as something I can use when needed. I've found that, at certain level of zoom, the wave form of esses is very easy to spot and using pre FX volume automation from the visual & auditory perspective does the job well.
Kenny also demonstrates setting up an EQ -> Comp chain that does a great job once the frequency is isolated. It's a little complex to set up but, if saved as an FX chain, is easy to use. I've it saved to use as & when needed.
Thanks for the perspective and the reminder to use that spectral editing sequence more often.

I, unfortunately, AM color blind.

Well I think it is still easy to see the blobs of noise (unwanted noise) higher than the rest of the Spectral graph.

Why would I bother. Well I think the song is truly excellent and to have it suffer through something that can be easy fixed is a real pity.

I went past the McLaren car dealership this morning. What really made the cars stand out was the polish (which I would think would be the easiest part of the presentation.)

I really like the song

Tony

As I've said previously....I'm not making commercially available recordings, I'm making song demos. The intended audience for my projects (recording artists/producers/etc.) are listening to the melody, the feel, and most importantly the lyric. The mix is totally irrelevant to them, because (assuming they like the song) they're going to re-record it anyway. I write on average 60-100 songs per year, in addition to producing 3 artists, administering my publishing, and serving as legislative chair on the BOD of the songwriters association. The ROI of spending too much time on demo mixes simply isn't there for me.

I don't disagree at all that there are sibilance issues, I stated that previously. It's not worth a remix for me, because quite frankly, I've never even once in my career had an artist turn down a song because they didn't like the mix of the demo. The first song I ever had recorded, for example...we recorded the tracks with studio musicians at 10am, along with 5 other songs. About 30 minutes was spent on each song. After lunch, I sang the vocals to all 6 songs. We then mixed, and by about 8 or 9pm I walked out of the studio with the final mixes. They were, by commercial standards, pitiful - I would never have wanted them released on something like spotify or iTunes if they had existed then. In spite of that, Tanya Tucker recorded one of the songs from that session, and two others were recorded as well by indy artists.

If I could justify the time to go back & tweak some things, I certainly would - but I can't. I do appreciate your thoughts & critique.

Nice hook...
And thought provoking lyrics...
Good job.

hi roger really well done great vocal and mix its all been said eric

Personally I like your approach to song demos. It makes perfect sense to me. It's why you are able to turn out the number of songs you do that are actually not desperate attempts and just pushing songs out. Your songs work! Well done!

Wow - you really did a number on this one. Very thought provoking, and very relatable on the lyrical side of things. The entire tune is soaked in a layer of sincerity and heartbreak. I loved the instrumentation as well - really lush, and simply gorgeous to listen to.

You should be proud of this one - thanks for sharing!