First off, thanks to so many of you who helped me understand and correct the deesser issue. After many many trials with so many different suggestions on how to correct the problem, I realized the BIGGEST factor of all. Sure, the choice of mic and my distance from it were factors, but the big one was related to my current situation. Since September my wife and I are living with our daughter, her husband and our 5-year-old granddaughter. I can't blast the music like I used to, so the mixes were done solely in headphones. I got the Waves Abbey Road Studio plugin, and they warn you right from the beginning not to keep it on when making audio files. I did. Of course, here with the cans on my head, it sounded alright to me. THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR HELP --constructive criticism at its best.

The originals on SoundCloud have been updated, but not on YouTube. This song is a new one, so... Once again I used the fiddle and guitar to share the solos, and I just had to add in some of the Gospel backup. You KNOW I appreciate your comments.

Everybody Knows Your Name on SoundCloud
Everybody Knows Your Name on YouTube

RealTracks in style: ~688:Organ, B3, Background Pop Ev 065
RealTracks in style: 2534:Guitar, 12-String Acoustic, HeldChords
RealTracks in style: 803:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm DrivingCountryBalladClean Ev 065
RealTracks in song: 3075:Fiddle, Background BluesyPopAndy Ev 100
RealTracks in song: 2687:Guitar, Electric, Soloist BluesSlowEvenBrentSimple Ev 085
RealDrums [in style:NashvilleEven16^1-a:Sidestick, HiHat , b:Snare, Ride
Then a few different vocal tracks using various gospel parts from Biab 2020

Everybody Knows Your Name

Everybody knows your name. They call nobody else to blame.
Somehow they can sense your fear, holding what they know you hold dear.
Cryin' out would only hurt your soul, but sometimes you just lose control.
Plant the seed and pray for rain. Heaven also knows your name.

Everybody tells you somethin', but only you can tell if it's true.
You can never know for nothin', but everything you do you knew.
Search your soul then look inside for peace. Take control and then you'll be released.
This will keep the quiet time quite tame cuz N

Sometimes you just follow your heart. Sometimes you just lead with your head.
At no time should you ever start to follow all the money instead.
Life is meant to be a living thing. Feel the song and then begin to sing.
They'll seem to take what you've hardly gained, cuz N

Everyone is runnin' to some goal, but make sure yours stays deep within your soul.
Winners aren't the ones who cheat the game. Heaven also knows your name.

Excellent, love this one! Great groove, great vocal melody. And great writing too!

I'm happy you started posting music here, Marty, I'm a fan.

I'll echo what Dave said. I'm glad and I'm a fan too. This delivers the power of the lyric with great rock intensity. Man, this grabbed me by the neck. It says what I feel and sounds that way too and (happily) I've tried to follow that advice as well.

"You can never know for nothin', but everything you do you knew." Hell yeah. I'm happy for Heaven to judge.




As for mixing. I hear you as well. All I have is the cans, and too little privacy, so it's just doing what I know. This sounds good to me...but even if it had "issues", I'd love it.

Marty,
What an excellent tune! You done an ace job on it - all around. Super smooth! Vocal performance is stellar. Mix is very airy and flows to my ears like olive oil. Enjoyed it!

P.S. at 3:47 there is some artifact that I am not sure if supposed to be there... or a mix speck.

Thank you for sharing!

Misha.

Really nice - good mix and the vocals sound clear and well recorded.

Very enjoyable - and a strong composition.

Peter

Very good song and an excellent mix as well. Be proud of this track!

Will

Really enjoyed the use of the fiddle here. Thanks for sharing!

HI Marty,

This is a terrific song! Sounding good! Every track sits nicely in the mix ... loved the choir background! That was a great choice for the song. terrific lyric and vocal performance. i really enjoyed my listen! Best to you & yours ...

Alan

Nicely done.
What process for de-essing did you decide upon?
I reckon you could pan the fiddle and lead for the noodling parts a little to the left to give your voice more space.
Nice blues.

Really well done! Loved the groove, and the vocal performance is right on the money. A solid ear worm too - really catchy stuff. The instrumentation stood out to me. The fiddle and backing choirs both took it to the next level.

You should be proud of this one - thanks for sharing

I am with Dave on this one. Love the way the song sets up and drops into a very cool groove. The guitar in the background was excellent. Super vocal and lyric. Well done...

Marty,

Like others, I thought Dave hit the nail right off the bat...

You seemed to really notch it up this time. There is a Confidence flowing throughout - the instrument selections, the mix, and especially the vocal.

Outta the park.

fj

Marty,
A powerful, gritty vocal delivery of hard hitting lyrics.
The arrangement is good (I liked the gospel chorus at the end)-all working for me, though I agree with RayC about panning the fiddle wider on the verses.
I can relate to having to adapt your mixing to whose in the house- mine is also all headphones `til there`s a clearout and I can crank the monitors.
Excellent song!

Robert

Thanks, Dave. You KNOW the respect is mutual, man.

Thanks, Tangmo. Love that "Hell yeah" into the Heaven part. Well said. In a few months our new home will be completed and I'll be able to invite others to my studio again. You are always welcome.

Thanks, Peter. So glad you liked it!

Thanks so much, Will.

Thanks for saying so, Ember. A good friend of mine is a world-class fiddle player, although he calls it a violin. hehe. He thinks these BiaB fiddle parts are amazing.

Thanks for your encouragement, Alan. It was when I heard those gospel vocals on BiaB 2020 that I had to dig up this old tune for a redo. It's never been better. Best to you and yours as well!!

Ah, I was hoping you'd give it a listen, rayc. Just so you know, I zero in on your comments wherever I find them. Thanks so much for being so helpful to all of us. I tried nearly every suggestion in the links that you provided to get rid of the Sss stuff. In the end, turning off the Abbey Road plug in for the exporting was the biggest factor. I settled on a Sibilance plug in from Waves because it was versatile and easy and kept the air in the vocals. Still, I occasionally have to go in and tweak some parts using your method.

The fiddle is panned at about 10 o'clock and the guitar at 2, but you're right. They should probably be more like 9 and 3 o'clock for the vocal parts, then brought back to 10 and 2 for the solo section. Thanks so much, man!

Thanks, Deryk. Love that "ear worm" expression! Never heard it before. You're right, 2020's gospel ooz and oz (hehe) were a big plus.

Thanks, Scott. I can't imagine this piece without that guitar/fiddle thing and especially the gospel singers.

Thanks for such encouraging comments, Misha. Love that "olive oil" part. Oh, you have an excellent ear, my friend! It was a brain fart on my bass track. Somehow my conscious mind crept in, and that's what happened. I figured, "Well, no one really listens to the bass anyway." So I left it in.

Thanks so much, Floyd. Very encouraging remarks. One of the best things about this forum is how helpful y'all are to each other. Keep up the good word, man.

Thanks, Robert. Seems I live for those "clearout" moments.

"Search your soul then look inside for peace. Take control and then you'll be released."

Indeed.

Firstly, give your self credit for that bass track in the post!

This sounds GREAT through the KRK's...never use cans.

It's a very tight mix with plenty of dynamics and "nobody is steppin' on nobody."

Good solo RT performance...I assume some amount of consideration, etc., went into that.

The gospel backup is nice but ultimately it's your fine vocal performance that carries the tune.

Kudos!!!

J&B

Janice & Bud, you guys always bring a smile. Thanks for all your very-lifting comments.

I agree with the other posters: What a groove! I'll the mention the background vocals too--they added a nice dimension to the sound,. Good work!

Love the passion of your vocal.
Good job on the production.
Really well done Marty.
Rob4580

Oh, right you are on that, J&B! I spend more time on picking soloists thatn anything else --except mixing, of course, which never seems to be done. I can't wait to get our new place built so I can invite friends in to play.

Thanks so much for your kind words and encouragement!!

Thanks, Ezekiel. I'm loving your Storm in the background as I type.



Thanks so much, Rob.