John...thanks for your input. A solo ending is a great idea and would take the song full circle. I lived with the full melody as a solo for a long time before choosing the backing tracks. Alone it really sounds like a movie theme...think "Bridges of Madison County"...and as such can stand on it's own. Here it is with no backup: Deahnah's Theme (solo) I re-recorded it after choosing the backing tracks to help it flow properly. Here's another one as an example that's never had backing tracks other than some bass I added with the synth: Wherever You Are Tonight Although my intention has been to create a great melody first on the keyboard and hope to inspire lyrics, all I've done so far is create songs I like just as instrumentals. Haha! I don't know where it's all going now.

As for mastering, first I've learned to get the best performances at the highest input possible in the tracking phase. Then when it's time to master I output the WAV file ( my primary DAW is Sonar Producer 8.5 ) at the highest non-clipping level I can. Then we master with Sony's Sound Forge. Generally I'll use an effect called WAVE HAMMER, a standard Sound Forge effect that incorporates normalization and compression, which has a preset called "Master for 16 bit." Sometimes I master a project manually in Sound Forge adding highs using a preset and rolling off some very low end, and then normalizing using a -16db or -10db preset, being careful to avoid clipping. For mastering a whole album at once I use Sony's CD Architect to create the master. I level the tracks and add a bit of highs back in and roll off some low end ( 50-80hz ). I NEVER add reverb to a project during mastering. It seems to muddy up the mix. Basically I get good tracks and don't mess with them much after that other than what I've related here. Keep it clean. Clients seem to like the results and relay to me that they often get compliments from fans/customers on how clean and bright their albums sound.

I've paid for mastering from some well-known duplicators and mastering companies and been less than pleased. I don't know how anyone can master your project if they have no idea what you wanted to accomplish in the first place. Perhaps I've just never found the right mastering company.

Thanks for the nice comments and suggestions....now take your pill and get back into bed before I call the nurse!

BIAB 2018 ULTRA
https://soundcloud.com/bob-buford
https://www.youtube.com/user/hawgly
https://www.songtradr.com/user/profile/bob.buford