Hello forum friends. Hope all is well with you! I got a PM from David a little while back with some info about one of his posts. We decided to do a song together. I have always been a big fan of his music! He had a lyric which was a lovely metaphor about losing youthful passion and the magic of life as we age, a subject which is somewhat of a personal obsession with me lately. He wanted something with kind of a Sting vibe. I came up with the musical concept. We bounced the song back and forth a bit, and this is the way it ended up. Hope you like it! We'd love to hear what you think. Take care. David and Greg

https://soundcloud.com/gjohnson-2/set-the-prisoner-free?si=0f8ca43ba09240af89409eb690ea17a0&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Players:

Bass. 533
Guitars. 2714, 526
Pad. 1840
Drums. County Shuffle 12-8 brushes
I added some midi as well (Moon guitar from Labs, Pan Flute from a Wind Instrument bundle, Mandolin from Komplete, Pad from Omnisphere)

SET THE PRISONER FREE

V1

How wonderful
Is the rain that falls
upon this golden valley
Reminding me
Of our joyful youth
In years of eternal spring
How magnificent
The golden sun
Upon the fields if morning
But I'm a prisoner now, of my aging heart
And I'm crying for release

CH

In my heart
I'm begging
Someone tell me who I used to be
And in my soul
I hear these words
please set the prisoner free
Yeah in my soul I hear these words
please set the prisoner free

V2
How marvelous
is the summer rain
When it comes without a warning
So tell me why
I feel so lost
It’s like my soul's in mourning
How far away
is the heaven now
I feel lost on land and sea
Yes, I'm a prisoner now, of my aging heart
And I'm crying for release

CH

In my heart….

Bridge

How long have I been
locked away
afraid of even dreaming
How far must I retrace my steps
to find the love I’ve been missing


In my heart…

Hi David & Greg,

Nice song and well sung Greg.

Only minor comment - the vocal is lovely but a cut at around 120-150 Hz would take out the mic proximity boom and leave it nice and crisp.

Any room for an instrumental break?

Great work.

Best Regards
Nigel

Great write - sad and mournful for a time lost. Smooth vocals, clear mix.

Lovely to listen to - excellent job both of you!

Two of my favorites, getting together. How could it not be marvelous?!

A beautiful write. What a nice melody!

Beautiful vocal.

A really nice production. Light, ethereal...

A delightful listen. (even with these aging ears )

fj

Always good to hear one from you.
Vocal sounds a little muffled. Could be Nigel has the answer.

Vic

Indeed, it's 100 % Sting (minus the voice of course, but nobody else can sing like Sting).
I like it a lot! Great lyrics with a great voice and a really good arrangement and tasteful instrumentation.

Great work from all involved.

I can hear the anguish in this.
No suprise here, but a tad more bass would be nice

You guys did a great job!

Greg and David ..

A fantastic song! The lyric, backing tracks, arrangement, production, vocal - everything - sounds terrific. Multiple tips of ther hat to David for a gorgeous interpretation iof life's progress over the pages of the calender. And Greg, I think this is about as strong as I've ever heard you sing. There's gentle power in your voice.

What wonderful listen! best to bothg of you ...

Alan

If you do try that low cut be careful not to kill off the fundamentals & render the vocal thin/reedy.
Possibly a better option to try some shallow scoops after finding the freqs that have bothered folk.
I like it as is...prox. effects suggests intimacy & that's a lot of what this song offers.
A lovely collaboration.

Hi Ray,

I think you are right - you don't want a thin vocal sound.

I start EQing all vocals by first rolling off everything below 120 Hz with a gentle Q of .71. This allows the vocals to sit down in the mix without competing with the bass and kick.
(The only exception is with a very deep male voice where a different setting may be required e.g. rolling off everything below 90 Hz)

If there is still some mud I look at frequencies around 250 Hz and try some gentle 2-4 DB cuts with a Q of around 1.25.
The challenge here is that 250 Hz is in the fundamental range of most singers so I very rarely use this cut.

The only place I add EQ (where necessary) is a 2-4 Db shelf starting at 5K and a Q of .71.

If you use the Nectar Plugin (Izotope) vocal presets - many of them include an EQ with the above three settings or similar (highly recommended plugin).

I hope this information is of assistance and look forward to hearing about other members' vocal EQ settings.

Best Regards
Nigel

Oh, what a great coolab team. David Snyder & Greg Johnson, two of my favorite influences. DANG! What a terrific result. Yes, yes, yes, the magic of life as we age. It's so good to hear some of it coming from you two. This is an outstanding collab, and I hope you guys come out with a whole album. Beautifully done.

Greg and David...this is a beautiful piece of music....my first thought was 'how pleasant this is to the ear'...my mind was opened to the message by the joy of listening....gorgeous arrangement and accompaniment...Greg, your vocal was stellar...and David the lyric is profound...as one, like many of us, who has entered into the 'golden' years' wondering what that's supposed to mean, your song resonates with a myriad of thoughts and feelings...it checks all the boxes for me...well written, well crafted, well produced, well sung...touching, tender and terrific!

Excellent collaboration Greg and David. Perfect vocal and loved the lyric. Really neat instrumentation choices in the song. Such a cool unique overall sound to the song. Very original... Well done

Hey thanks for posting this, Greg. Man do you ever sound great! Happy Thanksgiving--and to everyone else as well!!

For the record peeps, I LOVE Greg Johnson's sound and songs, and have always found him to be very Sting-like in many of his songs, to have a voice that is Sting-caliber, and a style that is truly Sting-worthy!

So when he told me he wanted to do a co-write, I plopped down on the bed with a pad and a pen and said to myself,"OK, dude, channel some Sting."

I had the first half of it about five minutes. (The second verse came a little later.)

Anyway, I sent the beginning of it to Greg, and said, "make it sound like Sting."



This is essentially what he sent back, in just a few phases.

I went: "Wow! Dude you nailed it." !!!!

I want to do some more collabs with Greg. The man is epic!!

Hi, Greg and David !


what a superb tune and so
wonderfully presented !
I just love your voice Greg !
A masterpiece !:))

Cheers
Dani

Hi Greg and David,

What a fantastic song! Songwriting at its best, and man, that vocal! Track sounds great too.

Outstanding collaboration, the start of a new partnership perhaps?

This is a great collaboration! David’s introspective lyric and Greg’s soft vocal interpretation fit like a hand in a glove. It doesn’t get much better than this. Bravo, Tom

Hi Greg and David
What a beautiful soulful song
So great played and sung
Background track is top class
One of the best songs I have heard in a long time here
Great collaboration
Many greetings
Andi ;-)

That was a treat!

Excellent lyrics, DS. Some of your finest.

Vocal is top quality.

Instrumentation is richly textured==-silky.

Great collab, fantastic GJ singing. Didn't really get the Sting thing, sorry. Greg sounds like Greg, and that's a good thing.

Great collaboration on a great song! This was a great listen. Such good writing, fantastic vocals, instruments, mix and production - all top notch!

Greg and David,

Great song!
Very nice melody with very nice lyrics.
It's beautiful.
And yes, it's definitely Sting.
Enjoyed my listen a lot.

Best regards.

Shigeki Adachi

Greg & David - beautiful song and track, enjoyed everything about it.

Carl

BIAB collaborations are always a big hit with me. This is a really good one from two top posters.

Great collaboration guys.


Charlie

Hey Everybody,

David again. Want to say thanks to everyone who has posted so far, I and will try to circle back some some individual attention. Sorry! Have been involved in a huge work project.

But I am wondering where Greg is.

Greg??

Hello???

Are you there?

Greg man, are you ok??

Seems like you have some fans here man. They may need some love.

Greg & David,
Universal yearning for youth beautifully communicated through the write,lovely melody and, of course, Greg`s intimate vocal.
Very, very good!

Beautiful performances and relatable lyric.

Good collab y’all!

J&B

Greg & David

Lovely song and beautifully sung (as always).

Excellent.

Peter

Very unexpected collaboration, but works like a dream!
Aging, what a touching subject, I think it several times a day Lyrics express it beautifully and together with Greg's sorrowful vocals this is pure magic.
Beautiful melody and great chord progression.
Pleasant arrangement, I really enjoyed those MIDI instruments, especially the mandolin and the pan flute, they both give the right nostalgic feel (like from an 80's movie theme song).
Maybe there's Sting, but there is much more Greg, my current favorite interpreter of melancholy.

Janne

Thanks Nigel!

This song was a pleasure to work on.

I like the way it turned out.