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Say Goodbye

I've spent more on virtual instruments than I care to admit since lockdown...but I suppose I can't spend money on much else at the minute I suppose it's probably the best time to do it! I also bought a new, much better, microphone but understandably it's going to be quite a while until it arrives so I've used an Amazon Basics one to record the vocals. This song came about as one of the virtual instruments had a great violin sound so I put together a nice violin bit and then built the BIAB RealTracks around it.

I experimented a bit when arranging and mixing this. I'd definitely like a bit of feedback on mixing as I still struggle a little with it. People on here have been very helpful as I didn't have a clue about anything to do with mixing when I posted my first few songs.

Style is _BOWE110.STY. Acoustic Guitar w/ Even Bow Bass
All RealTracks. Quintet. Tempo=110 (85-140)
Instruments: Ac.Bass, Ac.Guitar, Ac.Guitar, Ac.Guitar, Drums
RD: NashvilleEven8^3-a:Sidestick, HiHat , b:Snare, HiHat Open :Brian Fullen
RT2488: Bass, Acoustic, Bowed Held Ev 110 , Craig Nelson
RT405: Guitar, Acoustic, Strumming Ev 120 , Jason Roller
RT1677: Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking CountryBrent Ev 120 , Brent Mason
RT522: Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking Ev 120 , Jason Roller

I also added a midi piano supertrack - PopRootsyJohn. As well as putting together the violin midi and a little piano track as accompaniment for the supertrack.

Lyrics

To say that I
Didn't expect this To happen
Would be the understatement
Of the year

Sometimes things just
Happen so quickly
That you don't see them coming
Till they're here

I'm thinking of all the things
That could have been different
Even though I couldn't change
a thing

What can I do
I know that I gotta accept it
Even if I'm breaking down inside
You might be gone but deep down
My love will never die
And I know I gotta say goodbye

Maybe I'm still
Stuck in denial
And I think you're gonna
Walk back through the door

Maybe the signs were there
And I didn't want to see them
But that only hurts
Even more

I'm thinking of all the times
that we had together
Wishing that I could live
them over again

What can I do
I know that I gotta accept it
Even if I'm breaking down inside
You might be gone but deep down
My love will never die
And I know I gotta say goodbye

I'm thinking of all the times
that we had together
Wishing that I could live
them over again

What can I do
I know that I gotta accept it
Even if I'm breaking down inside
You might be gone but deep down
My love will never die
And I know I gotta say goodbye

What can I do
I know that I gotta accept it
Even if I'm breaking down inside
You might be gone but deep down
My love will never die
And I know I gotta say goodbye

What can I do
I know that I gotta accept it
Even if I'm breaking down inside
You might be gone but deep down
My love will never die
And I know I gotta say goodbye

What can I do
I know that I gotta accept it
Even if I'm breaking down inside
You might be gone but deep down
My love will never die
And I know I gotta say goodbye

And I know I gotta say goodbye

My only problem with the mix is that I think the vocal is way too much up front. Turn that down and I you will have a winner.
Note that this is just my opinion and others may or may not agree.

The strings need softening: that'd be some gentle reverb and roll off some top end in your EQ.
The band sound fine and the arrangement is solid.
You lyrics are good.
You're out of tune enough to be singing a different song and sound like you've a cold which doesn't help.
When you recover - retrack.

Richard,
I hear a good melody and like the strings/acoustic guitar opening.
Being on the cusp of out of tune can sound good on a rock song ( think Joy Division), but,though RayC is a little harsh in his comments above,I tend to agree: to do the song justice a vocal redo is a good idea.
Let`s hear this again with the new microphone!

Robert

Richard,

A lot of good feedback above, but just wanted to chime in that I really like the melody and approach of the tune . . . it conveys a real sense of what you were shooting for . . . and the musical bed is strong, though the mix could be, as others mentioned above, a bit more balanced. Keep working this . . . there’s a really good tune here.

Best regards,

Deej

Richard,
I definitely see the progress in your skills. Interesting tune and I think a good candidate to experiment with some mixing / singing techniques. I agree with Mario that vocals are a bit upfront.
What I also noticed, you doubled up your voice in places... I do not have musical training, so I will try to explain in simple terms. You sing this low and when you have two low voices in same field it sounds a little mooshi. I would try singing second voice octave higher or swinging second voice slightly. To me, it is all about experimenting and practice Thank you for sharing.

Misha.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback. It's not always easy to get honest feedback so I'm really glad to get both positive and constructive feedback here. Thank you!

I was struggling with hay fever when I recorded it and I also rushed the recording which I think contributed to the pitch issues. I also managed to switch off autotune as my DAW was struggling when I was messing about with the settings on master bus plugins and I forgot to switch it back on when I saved the mixdown. It doesn't save the vocals so I'll be rerecording it. I also messed about with the backing vocals following Misha's advice by pitching them up and they do sound better (although obviously very artificial as I've just pitched them up using autotune).

I will definitely re-record this when I get a chance.

Hello Richard,

I fear I should take your title literally, because the link to your song wasn't working. It said 'oops, something is wrong'
Maybe you are working on another version, because of the reactions I see here?

Lots of success,
Hans

Hi Birchwood, Bandlab seems to do this sometimes, the link was working for me but for some reason it doesn't show up - not sure why. I have replaced it with a slightly updated version now but it still needs to be rerecorded.