Hello,

here's the new release from Peter's Garage

Like A Cannonball

Bass: 1178:Bass,Electric, PopWaltz Ev 120 (until second chorus)
Bass: my own playing (a few bars before the second chorus and rest of the song)
Piano: 2865:Piano,Acoustic, Rhythm CelticSlowWaltzDave Ev100 (exported as Midi into Waves Grand Piano plugin)
Drums: Logic Pro X - Ai drummer with lots of tweaking
Strings: based on a midi export of 3268:Cello, Background CelticWaltzNathalie EV100
Synths: played by myself
Synth Flute: played by myself
Acoustic Guitar: 855:Guitar, 12-String Acoustic, Rhythm RockWaltzPicking Ev140
Rhythm Guitar: 3755:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm PopWaltzBrentDelayPhase Ev140
Solo Guitars: played by myself
Vocals: Myself

The song is about always carrying the "monkey on your shoulder" always telling yourself, that you are no good and not worth anything. I know that a lot of people like me, with low self esteem carry such a "monkey" through the entire life as a quite heavy and invisible burdon.

If you made the reading this far, thank you for reading and listening, and as always comments are truly appreciated.

That's cool...
the vocal reverbs don't quite sit the voice IN the mix...I know the "Like a cannonball" part is meant to sound different.
The different spaces make more sense as the song progresses.
There's a little bit of sibilant/plosive stuff you could reduce but, generally, your voice sits in its effects well.
Nice prog touches...
Well done PG.

Hi Peter,

Thanks for posting this song - I enjoyed the whole lot. The vocals are good and the mix very good also.

Well done.

Best Regards
Nigel

Hi Peter
WOW !!!
What should I write there ?
This song is a work of art
Rarely heard so many different elements in one song
And everything fits together perfectly
This is really impressive
Your singing fits really well to this music
I am really excited
Thanks for sharing

Wish you and your loved ones a great Christmas
and a healthy start into the new year 2022

Many greetings
Andi ;-)

Hi Peter,

thanks a lot for covering that issue - I' one of those 'monkey carriers' as well...

But as far as this song is concerned you have every reaons to chase that beatst off your shoulder - it's a very cool one and I liked it a lot. Good vocals, good backing track, and it sounds pretty good to me.

Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year,

Stefan

Hello Ray,

first of all thank you for taking the time to listen and provide me feedback again - it is highly appreciated.

I admit that when using various and different "spaces" on the vocal through a song, this is a bit of a hit and miss thing. During the mixing process, I found especially the vocals in the verses to be quite difficult to sound right. This was mainly caused by I'm at the edge of my singing capabilities, where controlling the dynamics was extremely hard to get right.

I have been shopping quite heavily into plugins during Black Friday in order for me to work with different "colors" of compressing ect - I even bought Waves CLA Suite in order to have a last exit if any other processing chain fail.

I'm glad you hear the progressive - I wanted to give people the tingling sense of Marillion in the early years (Script for a jesters' tear - album)

Again - I highly appreciate you take the time to listen and comment.

Merry Xmas
Peter

Hello Nigel,

thank you for taking the time to listen and thank you for your kind comments

Merry Xmas
Peter

Grüss Gott Andi,

you will probably find a lot of the progressive rock from 1970'ies and 80's with a lot of elements - just like this song. I aimed to bring prog into this decade, since you liked it, I am very pleased you took the time to listen and comment.

I wish you the very best 2022 - hoffentlich mit viel Spass

Merry Xmas
Peter

First of all, the lyrics caught my attention - an interesting write. The large intervals of the melody also caught my ear. So it had me hooked right away.

The mix and orchestration were also different than most of what I hear, and they held my attention throughout. Cool soundscape!

Excellent build into the chorus. Some of the background vocals on the chorus were a bit hard to make out on my speakers. But that's a minor nit.

Very cool sound! And the vocoder was especially nice ear candy.

Creative and very musical.

Grüss Gott Stefan,

thank you for taking the time to listen and comment on the song.

When it comes to chasing the monkey away - I manage to do that in some part of my life, but once the monkey has settled in, it appears to stay there permanently. I believe everybody has a monkey on their shoulder, but some monkeys tend to make more noise than others, and some people just ignore their monkey.

I somehow have come to the conclusion being 55 years old, that the monkey has become a vital part of my personality, and the struggle is to ensure, that the monkey doesn't take over. You probably know what I'm on about :-)

I wish you a safe and merry Xmas
Peter

I like the way you built this piece up, starting with only a piano and then adding more and more musical treatments, if you will. Obviously this took a lot of work and you should feel really good about the result. I enjoyed it a great deal. The only (very minor) problem I had with it was the synth flute, which I found unpleasing to the ear. Small detail. Great work overall!

Hi Peter ...

The entire soundscape is very ethereal and exotic. I like this a lot. It's a very nice composition with an intriguing lyric. The variations keep it fresh throughout. Your vocal is excellent abs is the mix.

This is a really nice piece of music! Loved it!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year...

Alan

The vocal was excellent. Love your vocal style. Backtrack instrumentation was very cool. Well done

Hello David,

first of all thank you for taking the time to listen and comment my song. I'm very happy that you liked the song.

Lyrics and mix are inspired from early years of Marillion and Genesis - though I'm quite far from achieving that level. (less is not bad though!)

The background vocals have been tested on my Samsung Note 20 internal speakers - to ensure some kind of clarity, and it was a fine balance to keep them in the background and give them the sense of "flying"

The vocoder was so fun and cool to make :-)

A humble thank you and a merry Xmas

Peter

Hi,

thank you for taking time to listen and comment, and I'm so glad you liked it.
I acknowledge that I used quite a bit of saturation on the synth flute, I aimed for a mix of a flute and a Mellotron Flute - and that might have put your ears off...it is harsh, but by intention.

Merry Xmas
Peter

Hi Al-David,

thank you for taking the time to listen and comment on the song. I'm very glad you liked it.

Merry Xmas
Peter

Hi Scott,

thank you for listening and taking the time to leave a comment. I'm glad you liked the song.

Merry Xmas
Peter

Peter,

This is a lovely arrangement that has had a lot of loving care put into it! Your vocal is wonderful! I'm hearing traces of 70's era Elton John in this! Love the beautiful melody! This is excellent and worthy of the attention of many listeners! Thanks, Torrey

Hello Torrey

thank you for your kind comments - I appreciate you took the time to listen to my song.

Happy New Year
Peter

Very cool song!!! Vocals are wonderful, and I love the dreamy retro vibe you've captured!! It reminds me a lot of Anton Barbeau, a small independent artist I really like!! Great job with everything!!! Take care. Greg

Hello Greg,

thank you for your kind review, I'm very happy that you liked the song.
Anton Barbeau is actually pretty cool - though I didn't know him before I saw your comment :-)

Happy New Year
Peter

Wow! Such talent, Peter. I really like the way keep adding more magic to the song. So much to appreciate. Such an excellent vocal, and mix. Yes, I like your bass much better. Right about 3:30 where you come back in after the echoey part the (what is that a) high-hat clicking back in sounds strange. Other than that, everything sounds so good. Man, what a good song.

I'm getting kind of a RUSH vibe here... Clever song, and an excellent arrangement/production... Very well done.

Hello Marty,

thank you for your kind review and taking the time to both listen and provide feed back. It's an honor to receive so many positive strokes about the song.

The click around 3:30 is a high percussive sound from the Bass Guitar - I have inspected what sounds is active around this time, and also listened from artefacts from processing.

Happy new year
Peter

RUSH - well, that's 100% unintentional, though I'm well familiar with the band......it's more a Mariallion/Genesis rip off :-)