PG Music Home Forums General Discussion User Showcase A Western Wet Dream

Hey There, Pilgrim:

I'll try to follow Mr. Gannon's suggestions regarding User Showcase posts. But if you find the information and/or my yammering to be too tedious, I suggest you bail out by clicking on an appropriate hypertext link and listening to my song file. So there!

So here:

A Western Wet Dream
(Words and Music by Bro. Dave Lister. All Rights Reserved.)
http://www.brodavelister.com/ditties/wwdream.htm
(Warning: This song is intended for a mature audience!)

No, I'm not a singer, musician, or record producer. Still, when I decided that I'd like to have demo recordings of some of the songs I've written, the most practical course to that end seemed to be that I should try to sing, orchestrate (via my computer), and produce homemade recordings myself — all of the preceding disclaimers notwithstanding.

So, anyway, in the Spring of 2009 I recorded, edited, and mixed a song demo for A Western Wet Dream — not a performance demo or commercially-viable production, just a songwriter's song demo. Okay!? At that time, WWD was only the third song for which I had worked at making a demo recording. Having gained more experience with the whole process since then, and having acquired more/all RealTracks as they are released and having collected some top-notch MIDI synths and samples plus a Ketron SD2 sound module, I expect I'll revisit this project sometime in the near future — to re-record, re-edit, and re-mix the song, hopefully to its benefit. Still, as it is now, it's a much better recording than I ever anticipated producing myself with just my old guitar and harmonica. So there!

You may freely download and listen to the MP3 file of the song. The link for the recording is posted toward the bottom of the song's webpage, immediately below the lyrics. (Note: The lyrics are also embedded in the MP3 file. I don't know about other players, but in the "Now Playing" window of Windows Media Player, the lyrics are displayed if the "Play > Lyrics, Captions, and Subtitles > Only If Available" option is selected.)

As I continued to work through my backlog of old songs, the process evolved to where I was much more meticulous in naming individual audio files, so that I might more easily analyze and/or recreate my work later, if need be. I now name each file with indications as to song name, instrument, voicing (whether RT or MIDI), BiaB style, tempo, et cetera. FYI:

• BellJarBlues_Bass_ GM34_Electric_Finger_ KetronSD2_C_LEROY.wav
• NewMoonTune_Drums_RD_NashvilleEven8-7-HHat.wav
  
• HomespunSong_Fiddle_RT-624_Soloist_George_Ev085.wav

However, with A Western Wet Dream being an early project, my notes were much more sketchy. Sorry. Following are names of most of the individual audio tracks that made the final mix:

• WWD_Vocal_Composite_02B.wav
  
• WWD_Bass_GM-33_Acoustic-String_C_TRAVIS_165.wav
  
• WWD_Drums_RD-PopShuffle1.wav
  
• WWD_Guitar_RT-412_Electric_Soloist_Cowboy_Ev165.wav
  
• WWD_Guitar_RT-AcFingGuitar.wav
  
• WWD_Guitar_GM-26_Acoustic_C_TRAVIS_165.wav
  
• WWD_Guitar_RT_Resonator.wav
  
• WWD_Fiddle_RT.wav

Usually, I like to generate lots of individual instrumental audio tracks in Band-in-a-Box — for example: several different bass lines, in both RT and MIDI forms, and in various compatible styles. Then, I typically pull each file into Acoustica 4 by Acon Digital Media, to at least "normalize" the audio level, if not also perform other basic signal processing functions. And then, I pull files into RealBand to compare and determine which files to actually use and which to discard. And continuing in RB, I mix an instrumental track to which I will sing between 12 to 36 times in succession, so I can cut-'n'-paste from among all the various phrases to, hopefully, produce the best vocal track I can from what little vocal talent I might possess. Oy!

And blah, de-blah, blah, blah.... More stuff happens, then I call it a wrap.

Me? I still like the song. I think the story is compelling and the imagery is interesting enough. Although it is intentionally full of clichés, I don't feel that the song is a cliché itself. (I mean, have you heard many others just like it?) It has plenty of internal rhyme and alliteration, to which I'm personally particularly partial, Marshal. It's clever, I think. And, although being sorta comic/novelty/satirical in its approach, I still appreciate that the basic Western Romance remains intact even after the telling of the tale.

Hey, I'm just sayin'....

Regardless of what you think of the performance and the production, I hope you'll like the song. But, hey, if you don’t, that’s cool. I mean, if we all liked the same stuff, there’d be so much less variety in art …and in everything else in this life, I guess.

Be well, be happy.

Sincerely (except, of course, for any intentionally-insincere item or items that may, or may not, have been included herein), Bro. Dave
A Western Wet Dream

Your use of the program was well done. Realtracks sounded good here. I think the vocals could use some clarity, they seem 'present' yet buried. Intelligibity suffered a bit here.
Considering your disclaimers (third song and all) I think you did a fine job on the project. Thanks for posting it.

Yup, you need to pull that out, polish it up, and work on the vocals so you can hear them without reading. Some good lines in there and the tune is catchy.

Not your average fare to say the least.

Hey, rharv and John:

Thanks for the comments regarding A Western Wet Dream.

While I'm not up to re-recording the vocal at this time, I performed a quick remix in an attempt to bring the vocal just a little more to the fore. Hopefully, I didn't overdo it. As I worked, I tried to remember "Fudd's First Law of Opposition" (according to The Firesign Theatre), which stipulates: If you push something hard enough, it will fall over.

I'm kinda hoping that, by the time I get around to wanting to lay down a new vocal track for A Western Wet Dream, PG Music will have released the first installments of their RealLeadVocals product line. Then my song demos will sound so much better and I will no longer have to reiterate that I'm not a singer, along with all my other disclaimers. What do you suppose? RealLeadVocals will debut this coming December with the release of BiaB 2011, or will PG hold off till next Summer? (One of the Great Mysteries of our time!)

Anyway,... I futzed around with the mix and uploaded the new file to my website. For whomever may care to give a listen, the link for the MP3 recording of A Western Wet Dream is located towards the bottom of the webpage, immediately following the posted lyrics.

And so it goes.

And so I go.

Be well, be happy.

Sincerely, Bro. Dave