A Visit With George

I put this together earlier today.

A little backstory: As most of the long-time members on the forum know, Di (my wife) had a major, debilitating stroke a few years ago. She's also significantly disabled. She almost died twice over the past 30 months or so (not COVID-19) and her health is very poor. That's why she hasn't sung anything new for the past three or four years. When she was in the hospital the two times after the stroke, the doctors gave her, at most, a 30% chance of surviving. But she did, both times.

Those were some pretty dark days. For comfort, I would go home from the hospital and put on some easy music - often George Benson. Regardless of the state of mind I was in, every time a George Benson song played, it made me smile and gave me a sense of comfort. Those were my "Visits With George". So, thinking back on all that, I put this together. It just felt good to do so.


If interested, this was my approach to creating the song:

I tried to "frame" the guitar by using what I call the "shadow box method". The two rhythm guitars are panned l/r at 28 separation on each side respectively, slightly behind the piano in the mix. The electric piano is panned slightly wider than the rhythm guitars. I then centered the lead guitar and placed it between the rhythm guitars and the EP in the depth of the mix. I then introduced the vibes in the first chorus to fill out and expand the background ambience. I dropped the vibes back somewhat in the second verse and brought them back up in the second chorus.

I created a new chord arrangement for the style (leaving the chord pattern in the chorus about 70% the same as the style demo) added the lead guitar, replaced the drums and bass. I added a small amount of echo/delay to the lead guitar. I tried to mix the new bass track such that it was solid but not overbearing. I placed the new drums slightly more forward in the mix than some Smooth Jazz pieces, but it sounded somewhat better to me as such. This is where all that ended up. About 6 hours of work.

Hope you enjoy it.

Alan



File:A Visit With George.SGU

Key=D , Tempo 75, Length (m:s)=2:59

Style is _LAYBACK.STY (Lay Back Atmospheric Lounge Funk)

RealTracks in song: ~1636:Bass, Electric, JazzFunkBreezy Ev16 075
RealTracks in style: ~1639:Piano, Electric, Rhythm JazzFunkBreezy Ev16 075
RealTracks in style: 3331:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm JazzyPop16thsMark Ev16 080
RealTracks in style: 3329:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm LoungeFunkSwells Ev16 080
RealTracks in song: 2816:Guitar, Electric, Soloist SmoothSoulSlowBrent Ev 085
RealTracks in song: 3765:Vibes, Rhythm PopBallad Ev 085
RealDrums [in Song:NashvillePop16^1-a:Snare, Hihat , b:Snare, Ride

Last edited by Al-David; 01/31/21 07:36 AM.

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