jwnicholson78

Thanks! I did spend a fair amount of time farting around with EQ but didn't really come up with anything I liked better. Appreciate the suggestion. I'll give it a try.

Thanks! Appreciate the feedback! Jeff

Thanks, so much!

Awesome! Love the jazz fusion. Mix sounds great on my cheap headphones.

Sounds great! Very professional. Jeff

I missed the original with the vocal, but I thought this was outstanding, and the instrumental stands on it's own. Cool video, too. Jeff

Oh no. I went to listen, but got this:

A short piece with piano and strings. Any thoughts on how to tame some of the piano transients? Some of them are very sharp, and when I listen on my phone I find it overloads the little speaker. I don't want to squash the dynamic range, but I find I can't add anymore than a dB or so of compression with hating the sound of it. Update - it took me a while to get back to this, since I was traveling last week. I think a combination of narrow eq's to target some of the piano resonances along with some active eq using the really cool (and free!) TDR Nova has helped a lot.

Hi Freddy, Thanks so much. Jeff

Hi Bjorn, Yes, totally agree. I love making the summer vacation music video every year. Thanks for the listen and the comment.

I share my music space (I hesitate to even call it a studio) with the main TV in the house, a Peleton and the play area for 10 and 12 year old boys. Headphones are the only option.

Thanks so much. I really appreciate the feedback.

Thanks, Steve!

Indubitably

More excellent comments and suggestions. Thanks so much for taking the time to detail your experience. I don't think any of my songs are ready for prime time yet, including this one. Plus I spent so much time on it, I'm sick of it now and ready to move on, even though it's not perfect. I do like the idea of continuing to practice and get better and build up a body of work so that once my kids also go off to university and I have more time, submitting stuff to libraries is something I could think more seriously about.

Thanks Tom. I agree, it could still use a little more low end. The tablet did pretty well all things considered, especially considering most of the synths were doubled or tripled. FL Studio Mobile is pretty efficient, and the best $15 bucks I ever spent on an Android app. It's fun to noodle around with on long flights, too.

Thanks! Jeff

I really enjoyed the composition. Top notch.

Impressive. When I listen to these it strikes me how much improvement I need in mixing and mastering (but then I already knew that). I have a cheap pair of Panasonic headphones that I am listening on right now. I have never been able to get any of my songs to sound worth a damn on these headphones, They are like my own personal torture device. But what strikes me is how crystal clear everything is in your songs. Bass and kick have punch and the high ends sparkle. I feel like if I can get my songs to sound like this on these headphones I will be in good shape. That plus the writing and production is top notch. Thanks for sharing. Jeff

Impressive what you were able to do. 86 was a year before the first version of Cakewalk! I wouldn't know what to do if I didn't have a DAW. Really great cover.

Bass and organ are much more separated and distinct. Nice job. I'd love to hear the organ go up an octave at some point and play some fills to add punch in some of the bigger moments. But that's just me, I'm a sucker for a Leslie.

Thanks for the heads up about SYnthestration and their templates. I am going to have to check them out. I've got Spitfire BBC and I'd love to see what the templates can do with that. Do they have templates for Cakewalk? Jeff

Beautiful pictures and videos. The music has a melancholy note to it that fits the video well, I think. I especially liked the acoustic guitar when it came in. Curious what you are using for your orchestral library. Sorry to hear you got covid, but a glad you are over it. Our home family got it to even though we are all vaxed and boosted. These new buggers are hard to avoid. Jeff

Thanks. I really appreciate it.

Thank you for these comments. I really appreciate your feedback. A lot of what you say confirms what I expected - that it's a competitive space, and it takes a lot of work to have a significant chance. I feel like I have made some progress in improving in the last couple of years, but I also feel like, when I listen to songs that I have produced vs. professionally produced work, I still have a LOT more to do. Unfortunately, with a full time job (that I do enjoy) and young kids to take care of, I'm lucky if I can make a song or two every other month. I think I worked on this one for at least 3 months. So going all in isn't really feasible, and for now, I think about continuing to try and improve my skills for the time being and maybe when the kids go off to college, I can spend more time and get more serious in music production. In the meantime, I wonder if there are there libraries that I can submit my music to, on the off chance that someone would pick it up and use it? Again thanks for the feedback!