freddy j

Thank you Bjorn. I tend to reach back to that era for inspiration (perhaps too often). I find the simplicity refreshing! I often wonder how studio gurus like Tom Dowd produced the work that he did without the sophistication of today's studios. Many thanks again my friend!

Wonderful!!! I love the way that the bass just pushes this song along and the guitar playing is excellent. The whole thing is put together as close to perfection as one can get. To borrow from 1940's this song is "in the groove, Jackson". This might sound a bit weird but the guitar work (particularly panned right - toward the end) has a slight afrobeat flavour to it (al la Newen Afrobeat). Excellent work y'all!!

Welcome back! I was wondering what happened to you and you have returned with one hot number that defines cool (am I mixing metaphors?)! This is one of your best pal! The idea of matching the toxin from a South American vine to a romantic breakup is definitely on the creative side!! Your performance is excellent. That is some doggone nice guitar work as are your vocals. To these old ears the mix sounded great and I enjoyed the panning. Listening to this was a real treat!!

Excellent lyrics (passion, compassion, introspective, etc.) and the feeling in your vocal most definitely delivered the message. The musical arrangement, performance, and mix all sounded excellent. This is an impressive piece of work!

I have been using the Alesis Q25 keyboard controller for several years with Cakewalk and Cakewalk by BandLab. I went to use it today using soft synth (as usual) and got the error message below. It appears in Preferences and all of the inputs and outputs seem to be connected as they usually have been. However, as soon as I pressed any of the keys I got the error message. What might cause such aberrant behaviour to suddenly start? Any not too technical suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

Hi David. Thank you very much for the kind comments - very much appreciated!! I am guilty of trying to play all the instruments. The exception is the drums. I used some WAV clips from Beta Monkey for this song! BTW, I really enjoyed your recent post!! Nice work.

Aaaah - the sounds of early rock 'n roll -- the real rock and roll. Love the lyrics and the performance sounds like you all were having fun (a requirement of old time R 'n R). The chaps commenting above know what they are talking about and should be listened to but I love the mix (sort of a 1950's retro sound). Keep on rockin' cats!!

Wow, this more gentle sound was unexpected but I am diggin' it!!! I do have one problem with it! It ended too soon. Cool sounds --- keep 'em coming Jesse!!!!

Oops, I went to listen but got an error message on the link that said "Oops, we couldn't find that track." I'll try again later!

Oh ya -- you have captured that down home style 100%!! Luv everything about this song/performance including the "in person/live" feel. Excellent!!!

Cool rocker indeed - luv it!!! Good lyrics and story. Great guitar work!!!

This is an interesting, and suspenseful piece of music. An aural treat of listening. Well done!

Excellent all the way around --- video, lyrics, composition, performance, and mix!!! It asks an excellent question but maybe the vocal could come up a bit. I must add a brief support of the broad area of real Science. Pure science is simply a body of knowledge, and the methods and protocols used to pursue gaining this knowledge. Conclusions are based upon a hypothesis which is tested by using empirical data obtained by observation and experimentation. These conclusions are then published and sent out for peer review. Science is one of the few disciplines that begs to have its results questioned. What is done with this knowledge (e.g., product development, applied engineering, environmental management, politics, etc., etc.,) falls outside of the realm of pure science. Sorry for the rant --- longer than I thought. Again, I really enjoyed this well done and excellent piece!

Thank you Douglas. You are most kind and I appreciate the encouragement!!! Hi Allan and Jack. You may have read some of my whining, in previous posts, about my relationship with MIDI, synths, etc. I knew something was a wee bit off in this song but I could not exactly place it. Being a suspicious sort of person, I immediately suspected the MIDI piano. I was struggling with its latency. I figured that if I put this song on the forum surely some one would catch it and help. I was right and took your advice and re-recorded the guitars panned left and right. I think that might have addressed most of the suggestions that you made. At least to these tired old ears it does sound a bit better. The bass and drums were brought up a bit and sounded OK on my system but after loading it up on SoundClick they still sound as if they could come up just a bit more. Thanks very much for listening and offering the suggestions!! Hi tom. Thank you very much my friend! I have only one good thing that I can say about the CoVid pandemic --- it has given me much more spare time to play with my guitars and Cakewalk by BandLab (hmmm, I have never been that much of an optimist before ☺️). Thanks again!

Here is a kind of rockin', pop-ish song. The subject in this song is absolutely thrilled with his lover. It has undergone a number of iterations since I wrote it (a long while ago) for my wife. This is the latest version. I have applied some techniques that are new and/or different for me (e.g., Q values for EQ, panning, high pass) and hopefully this will address some of the issues that I have had previously. As always comments, suggestions, crit's, etc. will be much appreciated. I hope you enjoy. THE ANSWER TO MY QUESTIONS https://www.soundclick.com/artist/default.cfm?bandid=963481

Hi Wookiee! Thank you! I appreciate your suggestions. They match with other comments above. I am working on a new number and experimenting on some possible fixes that could be used on this song. The panning is definitely a requirement but I think I am using too high of a Q on the EQ (one of the problems). I will try it out on this song if it seems that it might work! Thanks again for the help! Hi Nigel! Thanks for listening and for the suggestions. I think there is a consensus in all of the comments (above an yours) that panning is an issue (that might be an understatement). As I mentioned in my comments to Wookiee above, I am also trying a couple of others things on a new song that might apply to this song. Your help is always appreciated. Thanks very much!

Cool!!! In my lexicon cool is always a high complement. A fun, interesting and poignant piece. Congrat's on a very nice piece of work!!

A treat to watch and listen to. Nice composition and the video and music match each other perfectly!

Great song and performance Douglas. This is one of those song where the melody on the choruses just sticks in one's head and you hum it all day long. Good guitar work and mix. Oh ya, and vocals. Nice one!

Beautiful seasonal song Jack. The mix sounds great - Jack and tom!! Nice one!

Great guitar work and I love that sax. Your drummer has done some really good live work on this track. Very nice indeed!

Another wonderful piece from you! I love the lyrics! The vocals (lead and harmonies), and over all performance are excellent. This a well constructed, very creative piece and the mix sounds good on my system. Well done my friend!

Yes indeed it is sequential and it definitely keeps your interest. I always like your music and in this case I luv the title (how appropriate)!

I like this song. You are right the lyrics are good and I really like the change in tempo. I always hate to comment on mixing since I always have trouble with my own mixes and I use "dollar store" equipment. However, I will make an attempt anyway! This sounds like a very rhythmic song and thus the bass, drums, and rhythm guitars should be driving this song ( not prominent but present). There are many ways to pan these instruments and all ways can work but a common way is the spread these out in the center area of the recording. The lead and organ can be place more to the L or R. All of this is up to the tastes of the mixer of course. Early on in my participation in this forum I received early advice concerning Dynamic Range and over compression. I normally try and keep my dynamic range around 8 or 9, with the realization that the current trend is to apply more compression. Before considering any of the above suggestions, I suggest you wait for other suggestions, from persons such as Douglas, who really know about which they are talking. With a little work I think you have a good song going here. I look forward to more of your songs.

First of all Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a good holiday season. My apologies for taking so long to respond but this was the first Christmas since the start of the pandemic that my wife and I had a chance to spend it with our son and my sister. We took some time to enjoy it and yes appropriate pandemic procedures were followed. My family is too important to me not! Hi Old Joad. Thanks very much for listening and taking the time to comment! The early electric blues of the 1950's and somewhat into the early 1960's is one of my favourite listening pleasures. The music was: raw; had a live emotional feel to it; loved the over-driven guitars; and the "under production" (is that a term?) are all what appeals to me. Thank you Antler! Good suggestions and I very much appreciate them. I am also having a problem with the competition among instruments and vocals in current number on which I am working. It is driving me crazy! I will apply some of your suggestions to this effort! Hi Allan. You are right we can all use advise on our songs and I very much appreciate the advice that I have been given. Thank you very much for your kind words and encouragement. That also is very much appreciated!!!!