Larry T.

Remix is the better of the two as you improved the lows. Solid rhythm section letting the soloists shine brightly. Excellent????

I'd work more on the lyrics, the music and the vox are excellent, as usual????

Everything sounds excellent. Tasteful guitar in the outro section????

Excellent. I thought I heard a bit of a jazz feel in certain parts, Stephen Sondheim in others. Great work????

Excellent. Turn up her vox a dB or two prior to the 2:00 mark. Great arrangement although lacking an instrumental middle section. Nice clear tones on all the instruments. Love the chimes around 4:00????

Good demo, good song. Good lead & bg vox. Nice foundation of the production. I'd see about carving some low end and low-midrange off. And turn up the slide guitar (pedal steel????) in the instrumental outro. Was hoping for an instrumental middle section but that's just me????

Extremely well done composition, nicely realized. The Gilmour influence is present but used to enhance the song, not as the central theme????

Bass, synth drone, drums, various synth lead lines....all nicely put together at a comfortable tempo which really helped me to absorb and feel the music. Nice ending as well????

Hi Zargg. Listened to original version as well. Great choice of song to reinvent. Both versions sound great. Your vocals are extraordinary. I think the original has the overall clarity and mass accessibility that allows the listener to hear everything quite clear. So, right after I listened to the original I played yours. My ears at first couldn't hear much clarity as it seemed that more carving of the audio spectrum was needed to give each instrument a clear and present place to be clearly heard. I then listened to yours a few more times and my ears slowly picked up on your mixes completely different audio palette. So now I'm like.... both versions are excellently realized in completely different ways. Cheers!!????

Hi Glenn. Just my $.02. The synth voices don't have the varied inflections that we do. The overall vocal impression I get is stilted, self conscious and unnatural. The lead voice at the beginning is mixed too high. I'd love to hear human voices take a try at the song. Just my opinion. I understand this is a part of the future and will get progressively better. Good luck!!????

Extremely well realized composition. Ends a bit abruptly, though. The Yamaha classical sounds great. Sax lines are great, separately and together. Stereo drums are mixed really well????

Good one Jack. Has a beautiful Weather Report (one of the best bands to ever exist imho) flavor????

From 1:10 to 1:41. Listened again and it sounds fine. A matter of personal taste.

EDIT#2: A few more things you may want to try to get the timing sounding good: 1. First off record two tracks: 1. an acoustic guitar basic track to the metronome and, 2. the VST drums that fit with whatever beat per minute time you decide is correct. You can mute these two tracks later but they will be your timing reference so as to keep all instruments on the same page. 2. Make sure Snap is enabled and set to at least 1/32. 3. I use SI Drums and they will play to whatever BPM that you have specified. hope this helps????

I'll say it again, you write great songs. This is another one. The bass and drum timing issues are minimal imho. I can offer the solution I found when recording my VST bass and drum parts using piano roll view. The timing will be slightly off unless you Magnify the piano roll view to Maximum. At this view you will see that the placement of the bass and drum midi notes that appeared to be spot on timing ISN'T. Reposition them correctly, slight timing issue fixed. Cheers???? EDIT: make sure your piano roll view resolution is set to At Least 1/32 notes....if set lower you may still have timing issues depending on how fast the midi notes need to be played properly....heck, you may want to go to 1/64 notes but that's a lot of midi to edit....good luck!!!!

Excellent. Tasteful, elegant, relaxing, useful. 100% conceptually realized????

Excellent. Lyrics, vox, arrangements, playing, recording, mix....really liked the string arrangement????

Excellent. I'd say the mix is virtually perfect. The only part that I'm wondering about is the first electric guitar introduction. You hit the sweet spot for it the second time it appears, maybe take the first appearance down a dB or so. Great song, vox, performance, recording. Listened on my Yamaha 5.1 system. Cheers????

Solemn, mournful, dignified, powerful, deliberate, soulful????

Excellent????

Yes, I thought that notion would be an interesting idea to explore musically, the title was the first thing I thought of and the music followed????

Long Live Roger!!!!????

Thanks David. Agree with you and treesha, the piece would be a nice match with a short film or specific sequence in a longer one. Cheers????

Thanks treesha. Wanted to do something different. Cheers????

Steely Dan fans rejoice. If you haven't heard yet Roger Nichols daughter Cimcie found, had restored and released the last mix before being accidentally erased of "The Second Arrangement". We've all heard the less than stellar quality versions but this is probably as close to Steely Dan quality as there is at this time. I've read there is a 15ips version (as opposed to the studio 30ips standard tape speed) around but hasn't been released, as well as an actual complete re-recording by the Dan but was nixed by Donald. link to complete 20 minute cassette which has the song with vox, an instrumental version and early version of "Third World Man" (called "Were You Blind That Day"): https://expandingdan.substack.com/p/second-arrangement-steely-dan-roger-nichols-tape link to Cimcie's song/video on YouTube: