Barry Seymour

On 6/8/2025 at 6:36 AM, Paul Bush said:

Hi Barry you could sing the phone book and I´d be hooked , I loved the story , the production was great your voice just sublime , the strings came in and then the Telecaster ? another  great piece of work Barry thanks for sharing cheers paul 

Sorry I'm late to see this, thank you so much!

One of the biggest changes to Cakewalk Sonar is that it was redesigned from the ground up to handle scaleable graphics. Prior versions of Cakewalk / Sonar / whatever did not. So if you scale your Windows resolution up or down, you're going to have issues. Some parts of the UI will look right, others won't. Some things may scale, others won't.

A relatively ancient software program from nine years ago won't handle the ultra-high resolutions that modern Windows supports. If you want modern functionality, you'll have to upgrade to modern software.

 

Video is out.
 

Aw man, this is beautifully done! Heartfelt! Great playing and singing, strings wonderfully understated. 

Bump. Lookin' for any last minute fixes.

I like the sound of this - very early 70s. (And I was there.)  Great playing!

Not necessarily my cup of tea, but production-wise it sounds like you're off to a great start. My only observation is that piano riff sample sounds very analog (not a bad thing) but it's not quite on the beat (which is, IMHO.)  It sort of snags on my ear and won't let me ignore it.

 

This sounded great until my starship exceeded the speed of light, at which point it collapsed into my deflector dish.

Cool stuff!

New mix, same link.

https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=15019978

12 hours ago, garybrun said:

Very nice Barry.
I have always liked your vocals and story telling.

We all paint different pictures..  I beleive the drums could need some work.
The snare sounds very monotonous  and could be varied on the sample.
I cant really hear the kick.. in fact total drum volume needs and increase.
The break with the guitar solo need to be increased a by a few db.
A few vocal pitch corrections.

The accoustic sounds great and I love the panning.
Bass in nice and warm.
 

Well done Barry.

Great feedback for my tired ears, thanks for this.

Here's a new one. Let me know what you think, especially in mixing, as I'm just getting started on that.

Edit: Same link, but new mix as of 01 June 2025.

https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=15019978

58 minutes ago, Wookiee said:

Tough ain't it when your left behind, when they move on to the next life.  Nicely done Barry your skills have come on a long way.

Thank you sir, hope you're doing okay.

🙂

20 minutes ago, Waldemar Pawlik said:

Barry, this song is absolutely beautiful.

Your voice, the melody, the arrangement and above all the sentiment, all come together to make this brilliant and relatable.

Don't worry about those that are saying the drums don't somehow sit. The glory of your song, is the melody and emotions it evokes ..... at least in this listener.

It speaks directly to anyone who has been down that road.

My two cents worth.

Wal

 

That's very kind of you, Valdemar.  The emotions are what it's all about. Thank you.

6 hours ago, mark skinner said:

Fantastic song Barry.  Very honest. It sure is nice to hear your unmistakable and intimate voice again. Your ballads always sound like you are singing directly to the listener. I really liked the remix. It seems the harmony really came through and boosted the parts. Nice cello and guitar as well.  Loved it ..

on a side note , it was nice to have you and @Kevin Walsh back on the same page ..    ms

Very kind, thanks. Means a lot.

37 minutes ago, Kevin Walsh said:

I thought the first mix was perfect, but this one is perfecter.  😁 Your acoustic guitar sounds amazing.

Thanks. I had an Electro-Voice ND-457 microphone from the '80s that just died last year, my heart was broken until I bought a new one. Not the same model but similar, an ND96. it's great for recording just about anything.

5 hours ago, SUPAREELS said:

As my old guitarist used to say 'a great song is always a great song' this is a cracker ! Still brings a tear ...

Must have been hard to sing this .. well done

All the best

Steve (SRM)

Thank you, Steve. I always consider it a mark of success if somebody thinks a song or situation I wrote about actually happened to me. I mean, maybe it did years ago, but it tells me that I'm hitting the target, making it real. Thank you so much.

Here's the final...

13 hours ago, SUPAREELS said:

Boy! nearly made me cry ... Great song Mr Seymour.

Vocal is so heartfelt ... One thing to bear in mind when using strings is to revisit them at the mixdown stage and vary the timbre as though you were actually playing a string set . as oppose to just pressing the respective note  ... if you get my meaning ..

Great stuff

Steve 

Thank you, very kind.

I'm playing with the volume on the cellos to achieve the effect you describe. Whether I can vary the timbre or expression remains to be seen, but I'll look into it. Good thought.

Strings are BBC Orchestra, free version. For this song I just used cellos, ala Harry Chapin. I tried to keep it light, sounding like just one or two playing. I really like how it ended up.

Thanks for the kind words.

I've been out of commission for a bit, but I'm back.  Thoughts and recommendations welcome.

EDIT: Final Track!

EDIT AGAIN: Here's the video!

16 hours ago, SUPAREELS said:

Been going through your portfolio and to be honest if this work is all done from a kitchen table ... well, I take my hat off to you ... keep up the blues !!

Steve

Dining room. Not kitchen. Dining room.

I'm not an animal.

😁

(Thanks)

3 hours ago, SUPAREELS said:

This is an amazing bit of work, I absolutely love the chord change regarding the hook, and the way that changes at the last verse. It has been put together with skill with  a story of excellent lyrics ... I don't hear any timing issues ... however I have to agree with Gary regarding the drum track ... still a great piece of work and well mixed.

Steve ( SRM )

I would love to work with actual musicians, especially a drummer, but that would involve resources, time, equipment and space that I simply do not have available to me at present. I work from the dining room table, and break down when I'm done so I can make dinner for the family.

I tried getting a drummer friend of mine set up to collaborate online a few years ago, but he had the same constraints. And setting up to record drums is NOT trivial, as they say in the computer biz.

But thank you so much for the kind words!

- Bear

28 minutes ago, garybrun said:

Hi Barry.
This is one of my favorite songs of yous now.
The mix is really good on my Focal Trios.

I really love the vocals and the dynamics is a big improvment with an acoustic start.
Well done... you should be proud of this one mate.

Gary

 

: It would be amazing if you could get a colaberation with a real drummer... it would take it up another notch.

Jeezo Pete! Those are NOT cheap!

I guess I'm gratified and flattered to sound good on such fancy hardware!

Final song is out!
 

You can hear this and all my songs at www.youtube.com/@barryseymourmusic