(I miss) The Madness of You

    Hi folks,


    My latest song - it’s a vocal led piece (my daughter is singing again on this one) so the guitar is doing a job, not the main event. Profile was from Selah Sounds. Other instruments are various virtual things from NI Komplete and Toontrack Superior Drummer 3.


    Most people who have heard it seem to think it’s an unrequited love song but, for me, it’s about getting older and reflecting on the past with honesty. I’m getting better at mixing (I think!) but would welcome constructive feedback :)


    https://doubleyou1.bandcamp.co…i-miss-the-madness-of-you

    Nice song! Great vocals.

    Two tiny nitpicks, for me I'd have punched the backing track up a notch when it gets going, but I have bad taste in commercial country style music with this sort of song so don't listen to me there. The only other thing for me is there are one or two points at the highest notes where your daughter is running out of breath after such a long line and it's affecting the pitch slightly, I know it's verboten but personally I think it's ok if you just slightly melodyne that one note ever so gently so it can be pure and breathy, either that or perhaps introduce a gap in the lyrics so she has space to take a breath there.

    Otherwise awesome job!

    Thank you Per and Nicky - I really appreciate you taking the time to listen and feedback :)


    Per - I have got a version of Melodyne but never really use it - I'll take a look / critical listen - thank you :) She wasn't 100% happy with her performance...... it was partly a bit of hayfever right now and partly my choice of wording...... Apparently the phrase 'will you stay' is murderous to sing in that register whilst making the words legible so she was beating herself up about the difficulty of hearing the word 'will' come through with clarity. I told her not to worry so much. She also commented that it was probably the most difficult thing she'd had to try and sing which surprised me. She has lessons with an opera singer and regularly does grade 8 classical pieces so I figured I could throw just about anything at her and therefore did :) That's the thing... in my quest to learn, I am still miles away from fully understanding music theory and consequently I probably trample through the field of no-nos like a heard of elephants (such as sticking in a difficult word that fits the lyrical message I'm wanting without thinking about the poor singer!)


    Nicky - Thank you :) I am amazed how many daft little things that I still discover. Confession time. Until now, I've been recording everything set to stereo. My guitar, voices, you name it. Whether it's a stereo instrument or not. That's how much of the basics I haven't yet got!! So on this one, the guitar in the chorus bits is a mono guitar a fair way left and I've panned a delayed instance of it elsewhere after hearing a tip on this. It worked for me far better than just panning a stereo guitar which is what I was doing before. I know this is probably a face palm moment for lots of people but there we have it. Confession over.


    Anyway, thanks again. I had great fun doing this one. I've got a few more on the go but I'm not the fastest worker so it may be a while before I go again....

    Yeah I bet that's a tough one to sing. One option is to split the line into two parts, that way you can have all the content but give her the space to catch a breath and even do a little harmony.