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#221072 11/13/13 08:59 AM
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I married the girl next door.

Well, actually, the girl down the street...
We met the first day of 8th grade at the bus stop. I had just moved to town.
We became best friends... through junior high...until I moved away. Never "dated".
Sort of kept in touch. A few years later, I was in Ft. Lauderdale playing in bars.
Got a message from her that she wanted to visit over spring break.

She never left. We've been married 37 years.


THE GIRL NEXT DOOR

with two tin cans...some string from my kite
we made a telephone and talked half the night
when morning would come, she'd be waiting on my front porch
my very best friend.....the girl next door

the first time we danced... i was scared half to death
the whole time she held me, i was holding my breath
i knew we were friends...but i was feeling so much more
i was falling in love.... with the girl next door

   as time went on i just fell deeper
    could she ever feel the same
    a raging river starts high in the hills
   from a single drop of rain

a little french cafe....soft candlelight
i practiced all day to get the words just right
when i gave her that ring my heart heard what it'd been waiting for
she said, "it looks like i'll no longer be the girl next door"

   as time goes on i just fall deeper
   and i know she feels the same
   a raging river runs deep in our hearts
   from that single drop of rain

we still talk all night... we're still best of friends
our daughters have grown like weeds on a fence
can't help but laugh when we hear the knocks from our front porch
it's every boy on the block.... for our girls next door

gotta shake my head...cause i know how it feels to love ....
the girl next door


Here are the RealTracks used...
RealTracks in style: ~518:Bass, Electric, Pop HalfNotes Ev 085
RealTracks in song: ~2051:Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking CountryBrent Ev 085
RealTracks in song: ~365:Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking Ev 085
RealTracks in song: 1422:Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm PopCalypso Ev 100
RealTracks in style: 1856:Cello, Background PopCountry Ev 085
RealDrums in style: NashvilleEven8^1-a:Sidestick, HiHat , b:Snare, Ride

I did the vocals. Harmonies are me and the BIABettes.
I played the strings (not the violins, of course... a Yamaha P-85)

Have at it.

floyd

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Hi Floyd,

you did it again!
What a beautiful declaration of love.
I think I can spare my words on story, vocals,
harmonies, arrangement and mix, I've said that so
often.
I can't get enough of it.
(One nit: there's a pause at the end followed by an ugly crackle. Perhaps you can remove that).

Guenter

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Hi, Floyd !!

Yes, you really made it this time...
You got me crying....I have an almost
similar history as you, but we only
got 42 years, me and my sweet dear Beni !
I can only hope and pray that your marriage
would last much, much
longer !:))

Cheers
Dani

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Now THAT is how to write a love song! What a wonderful tribute Floyd.


Hundreds of Backing Tracks here Band-in-a-Box Files
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Nice story, great song, excellent mix and soulful delivery.

There's a lot of solid craftsmanship in the writing.

I liked the way you snuck in the cello, built to full strings, and then thinned out the instruments again. Very effective.


-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?
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Outstanding lyrics and the emotion you put in the vocal brings it to life. Top notch work here, very well produced tune, thanks for sharing and congrats on the marriage.


My Music


My Tunes

Psalm 57:7 My heart, O God, is steadfast, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music.
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Hi Floyd

Beautiful song. What even makes it more special as I was written from a very personal place. Most of my songs while only instrumentals were discovered from a very personal place. This is definitely my favorite song of yours. Well done.


Scott Collingwood
https://soundcloud.com/scottt709
https://soundcloud.com/spiritlevel-ca
https://www.youtube.com/@SpiritLevel-ge3hm/
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Hey Floyd, I'll bet this scores some major points at home, with the wife and the daughters too. Another great write, production and vocals. You leave us all in awe with

your work. One very minor thing I would change and as you know mixing is all opinions, the strings are very effective with crescendo as David pointed out, but I

thought they got too loud. Loud enough that they drowned out the other instrumentation. Could just be my compromised hearing too. Great song, one of your best of

which there are many. Tom

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Floyd,

This is very sweet... Love the sentiment and feel. Great job.

Bob

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Guenter - thanks for the nice comments - and thanks for the heads up on the ugly crackle - I took care of it.

Dani - never meant to make ya cry, man... hang on to the good memories..

Joanne - thanks for that...

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Almost lost for words.

Even without the message, the song screams out "professional". Wonderful arrangement, great choice of RTs and the usual Radio-Ready mix.

Add in the inspired lyrics, delivered with a beautifully emotional voice and well...

I'm lost for words!

ROG.

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Good job Floyd.

Yeah, I can relate to that having raised 2 daughters....


You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Hey Floyd,

Another outstanding job! Very well crafted and an excellent mix!
Your a machine! grin My beautiful wife & I will be celebrating 29 years on the 24th of this month. smile

Well Done!

Greg

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Well thank you very much Floyd! Because of this wonderful song you may have just ruined it for every married male musician in the world!

My bride and I are approaching 50 years and I do have a song ready to go, thinking should I wait out the next five years before I publish it, cause hell in five years I may be in diapers unable to hold a guitar, or bite the bullet and do it now. Anyway I digress, I loved this song.

Re: The you ruined it for us part of this reply, I was just kidding, well sort of. grin

Later,

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Floyd,

What a sweet story and song. Love everything about it.

Also congrats on 37 years!

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Floyd, Dude, really!!!!

That folks is how it's done!


HP Win 11 12 gig ram, Mac mini with 16 gig of ram, BiaB 2025, Realband, Reaper 7, Harrison Mixbus 9 32c , Melodyne 5 editor, Presonus Audiobox 1818VSL, Presonus control app.
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Originally Posted By: dcuny
Nice story, great song, excellent mix and soulful delivery.

There's a lot of solid craftsmanship in the writing.

I liked the way you snuck in the cello, built to full strings, and then thinned out the instruments again. Very effective.


David - Thanks for all that. So.. you do a lot of "string work"... did you feel the levels were a bit high? First time I've added strings and I struggled with them a bit...


Originally Posted By: PgFantastic
Outstanding lyrics and the emotion you put in the vocal brings it to life. Top notch work here, very well produced tune, thanks for sharing and congrats on the marriage.
[/url]


Robert - thanks. good to see you dropping by.



Originally Posted By: Scottt709
Beautiful song. What even makes it more special as I was written from a very personal place. Most of my songs while only instrumentals were discovered from a very personal place. This is definitely my favorite song of yours. Well done.


Scott - every once in a while I still write something "real". Of course, there is a little "license" taken here as well. Thanks for the listen..

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Originally Posted By: tommyad
Hey Floyd, I'll bet this scores some major points at home, with the wife and the daughters too. Another great write, production and vocals. You leave us all in awe with

your work. One very minor thing I would change and as you know mixing is all opinions, the strings are very effective with crescendo as David pointed out, but I

thought they got too loud. Loud enough that they drowned out the other instrumentation. Could just be my compromised hearing too. Great song, one of your best of

which there are many. Tom


Tom - Thanks. Like I mentioned to David, this is the first time I've added strings - and I played them in one pass - which took about 40 times before I got one without totally flubbing it. Trying to get the level right was surprisingly hard. I did re-mix (again!!!) and brought them down just a smidgen. However... they were intended to "take over" the chorus. Like a full orchestra behind the singer (me). Like Glen Campbell when he would play with an orchestra behind him. Or Neil Diamond. That kind of thing.


I would be interested in impressions from anyone who might want to chime in on the subject. If they don't "work", I'd like to know - no need to hold back opinions...

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I think the strings sound good, the level is ok to me. I thought the effect you you were going for (Glen C orchestra, etc) was pretty much achieved... I mean short of actually having a full orchestra. wink

I'm liking it!

Greg

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Floyd,
That is a wonderful song; the sentiments, the vocal delivery and the arrangement are all top class.

Strings are in my opinion notoriously difficult for us "home recordists" to get to sound accurate as there are SO many variables to play with. I just mention attack and decay of the individual instruments as an example.
Then there is the arrangement of the notes. If the chord change is G to C, for example, then the movement of the notes are important, as are the inversions of the chords for each section of the orchestra. eg: the notes are G B D to G C E, or G B D to E G C or B G D to C E G, (no passing notes mentioned here)

I sometimes use Cakewalk Studio Instruments in my arrangements in my string sections and I try to get the 3 instruments Bass, Cello and Violins,recorded individually, to stay in the range of their real counterparts. Which is <swear word> difficult mad to get to sound right as it takes as long to do that as it does to do the writing,singing and recording.
So I usually just dial up an orchestra patch in say EMU Proteus Free and play the chords and then add some movement after.....sometimes!!
I also use the CHORD track, which can be saved from a BIAB song, for this as all the notes are already displayed as midi and need some judicious transposing which then achieves a simplified version of movement. A few songs I have done have involved many versions of that track, with notes added by me and some notes of the same pitch "glued together". In a 2 bar version of the 1st example above, G B D to G C E, I occasionally glue the G's together and say split the G in the second bar at beat 2.
In my DAW, Cubase SX, there is a midi mute tool which I use a lot to try and keep a part to, say, a 2 note chord which moves. Usually done visually by looking at the piano roll with a chorus/verse fitting the screen.

Here is an article giving advice on Arranging for Strings which explains it better than I could.


BUT the song, The Girl Next Door is still as in my first paragraph. A wonderful listen.Well done, I assume the wife is proud to be the subject of such a wonderful song.

Alyn

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