Sweet Eyes

"Sweet Eyes" Notes

This is the first post from me in quite some time. I came across this old Mp3 file on a hard disk this morning and played around with it in BIAB.

It's an original song written and recorded in 1984. The original I played two acoustic guitar parts and a lead vocal. I only have a Mp3 of the original recording and the file is 2.21 mb at 96kb.

I used Spleeter to extract the vocal track and used an Audacity preset eq setting I developed for Spleeter Tracks and also used the Noise Reduction preset of Audacity to reduce instrumentation artifacts remaining in the extracted vocal track.

The original song recording was recorded without a click track and varied from 99 to 105 bpm throughout the song.

I used a copy of the original Mp3 imported into BIAB to analyze and populate the Chord Chart as well as determine a tempo map.

With the chords charted and a tempo map complete, I used the ACW to equalize the Mp3 copy to a constant tempo of 101bpm.

I used the ACW copy of the original Mp3 to extract the vocal track from Spleeter which provided vocals that align with the constant tempo. I imported the isolated vocal track and confirmed it was synced with the imported Mp3 track that has vocals and instrumentation and upon confirmation the two tracks were synced, I 'Killed' the imported Audio Track and left the isolated vocal track on Utility Track #1.

The BIAB Style and Track info:

****** Song Summary *************
Title: Sweet Eyes ACW
File:Sweet Eyes ACW.SGU
Key=D , Tempo 101, Length (m:s)=3:19
No intro. 82 bar chorus, from bar 1 to bar 82. Repeat x1 chorus

Song is saved with Volume,Pan,Reverb,Chorus,Bank0,
Song is saved with bar changes for Volume Changes,

Style is _ACHARGS.STY (Slow Country/Folk w/ Harmonica)

RealTracks in style: ~365:Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking Ev 085
RealTracks in style: ~362:Guitar, Acoustic, Strumming Ev 085
RealTracks in style: 626:Harmonica, Background Travis Ev 085
*******************



Enjoy. Comments or questions welcome.

Love this Charlie!

A very sweet song, with sweet soothing music. It has a great, soothing feel to it!

That's a good song. I enjoyed the chords you used. I like the acoustic feel you gave it.

And.... That's a lot of work to extract it from the original version and update it but.... It was worth the time.

Charlie,

Sweet, indeed. Has the feel of a familiar classic/favorite. An easy comfort.

A very intimate vocal. At first, I thought it needed a touch more reverb, but it settled-on-my-ear nicely in a short time.

An appropriate backing. Balanced.
Is the vocal "leaning left" a little? I'm getting it stronger from my left speaker.

Enjoyed this. Do some more!

fj

Nicely done, Charlie. What a wonderful song and the harmonica plays so well with your vocal. I love the simple band that makes the song even more special. Great effort with extraordinary results, and I appreciate the explanation very much. Thanks.

Charlie

This is a lovely song that was certainly worth resurrecting! The sparse backing suits this really well! Your vocal performance was great! Harmonica...perfect choice!

Thanks, Torrey

I appreciate the technical aspect, I'm kind of a gear nerd. You did a great job reconstructing this tune and while I'm more of an electric blues fan I liked the song a lot. Thanks for posting.

Rick

Pretty song. Lovely vocal and lyric. Well done

As said by others: a very sweet song.
Very nice to listen to.

Rob and Anne-Marie

Very nice Charlie. At first I thought the backing was going to be too sparse for my liking, but soon found my mind drifting back to a campfire out in the Pine-nut mountains of Nevada - and it was great. Turned out loving it. The mix is great and the guitar, voice and harmonica are working wonders together - oh, and loved that ending chord.

Lovely song - well done with the technology.
The vocal seems to move from L to R all the way through.
I'd be inclined to make the vocals and vocal processing mono so it doesn't do that.

I like that a lot, Charlie. Really nice chords and the harmonica is just right. Sometimes simple and sparse is just what the doctor ordered.
Regards,
Leon

Charlie,

I really like this song. Very cool how you extracted the vocal. The two guitar tracks sound great and the harmonica is the perfect touch.

Bob

Charlie,

Very pretty opening and melody—like those chord progressions a lot! Nice use of the harmonica on this as well. Agree with Floyd that the vocals sounds a little left—something worth addressing to move it a bit more center. Sweet tune!

Hope all is well in your world!

Deej

David Snyder
Thanks for taking time to listen and comment David.

Herb
I appreciate you listening Herb.

Floyd
I appreciate that Floyd. Yes, vocals are a bit to the and wobble a bit too. I may revisit them but the original tracks were way out of balance which made it hard to keep those vocals from sounding weak and harsh.

Marty
Thanks for listening. Two guitars and the harmonica were the style and was fairly similar to the original recording.

Torrey
Thanks for your comments Torrey.

Rick
I like the technical aspect of recording too Rick. It's a lot of fun and be challenging at times. Thanks for listening.

Scott
I appreciate that Scott.

RnAM
Thanks for taking time to listen and comment. I've enjoyed hearing you guys posting here on the forum again.

Brad
I'm glad you stopped by and enjoyed the song Brad.

rayc
I appreciate your comments Ray. The original recording was pretty bad and I was surprised the vocal extraction was as good as it turned out. But, it make sense to maybe revisit it. The more I listen, the more things I want to adjust.

Leon1
Thanks Leon. Once I got the vocals extracted and had the style chosen, I played with chord progression a bit and think it's an improvement over the original recording.

rsdean

Thanks Bob. Your work always comes to mind when I do an acoustic song. Yours is some of the best there is.

Deej
I appreciate you listening and commenting. As time passes, the off center vocal does become distracting.

Charlie,
nice tune and an interesting reconstruction project. Easy listen. Enjoyed it.
P.S. I think Ray might be right about mixdown vocals to Mono. Thank you for sharing.

Misha.

Thanks for listening and commenting and I do plan to take the advice from here on the forum and revisit the vocal track. I appreciate your and the others valuable input.

Charlie

Thank you for the details on how you extracted that sweet vocal, Charley.
This is something Bud has long wanted to do with some of our old tunes.
You did it remarkably well and the effort and patience paid off.

We’re so glad you resurrected this song as for us it harkens back to a Waylon Jennings feel from his early days.

The guitars and harmonica sound just right too.

Enjoyed this and hope you rediscover more oldies!

J&B

Charlie, this is excellent

Great acoustic guitar work

That blues harp adds a lot

Great vocal, lyrics, and mix

Loved it

Charlie,

I am amazed what you are able to do with spleeter and BIAB to tempo match this all up and make it sound so nice. Glad you found it. This is such a pretty song and the way you sing it is straight to the heart.

Josie

Nice song Charlie. I don't remember hearing it before.

Hey Charlie...I really like this...both the technical aspects and the tune itself...love the chord arrangement and the track is perfect for the song...acoustic and harmonica...hard to beat!!

J&B
Thanks for listening and commenting. If Bud decides at some point to attempt recovering some of your early songs, I'll be glad to offer advice from what I've learned.

Isotope products work equally as well as Spleeter so you guys may already have the software needed.

The ACW and equalize tempo help make quick work of the process.

MarioD
I appreciate your kind words.

Sundance
I wish I could still sing that well.... those vocals were recorded 38 years ago when I was 32 years old. Thanks for listening.

Jim
Probably not. This got buried in a hard drive years ago...
I'm glad you took a listen.

firesong
Thanks. I enjoyed your recent release Heartstrings a lot.

Great work on the technical aspect of reworking the old recording.

Pleasant and beautiful song, Charlie.

Thanks. I appreciate you listening and commenting.

Charlie.

sorry i missed this.

a lovely song with lovely sentiments.
nice harmonica.
cute final chord.

best.

om

I'm glad you found it and appreciate you taking time to listen and comment. Particularly about the final chord. It's gotten a few favorable comments.

Charlie

Yes, sweet indeed!!! I always love the feel in your vocals!!! Harmonica is perfect! Great to hear from you Charlie! Take care. Greg

Sorry I was delayed in responding to your post Greg. Thanks for listening. I will hopefully be spending more time in the User Showcase now.

Hi Charlie
Sounds really good
A very nice melody
Very well sung
Everything harmonizes well together
I like it very much
Many greetings
Andi ;-)

Thanks for listening Andi. I appreciate it. You've brought a lot to the User Showcase since coming aboard and I always enjoy your latest project.

Charlie