Let Me Be The One

[RexRed]

Hello awesome Cakewalk peeps!

Here is my latest song peeps!

Hope you like it.

Song purchases are appreciated! ?

Best to you!

RexRed

[jack c.]

as usual nice job.jack c.

[RexRed]

Thanks Jack! Your comment is much appreciated! Best to you buddy!

[KSband]

You have a pretty melody there but the instruments are not up to the quality of the song. It sounds kind of flat. Maybe the arrangement needs some more work. I think the vocal is out front a bit too much. You do write some pretty songs for sure and your vocal is very nice too.

[RexRed]

Thanks Kurt, the song has some issues and maybe I will  go back and address some of them. I have currently moved on, some of these songs take me weeks to make and tie up a lot of my time and I simply have to put them aside and finish work on them at a later date. Thanks for the helpful critique.  Best to you! ??

[Jim Fogle]

Really nice vocal and background vocals.  You really know vocals.  The song lyrics are strong.  The instrumentation feels like it lags throughout the song.

[Bajan Blue]

Great vocals as always but I do agree with the comments re the instrumentation.

With some work, could be a great track

Nigel

 

[Myriad Rocker]

Very country ballad-ish to me, but I think that was more the vocals.  Nice vocals, as others have said.  The instrumentation...I would have like to hear more elements that carried the melody along.  Perhaps some clearer definition of the song structure.  I felt unsure when this chorus was gonna come.  Is this the hook?  Maybe?  I dunno.  That's a bit how I felt listening.  It's a good one, I enjoyed listening!

[RexRed]

Due to your awesome suggestions I have decided to revisit "Let Me Be The One".

I have smoothed out the vocal volume fluctuations and brought the vocal down more into the mix.

It may still be a bit too hot but I brought the mix up quite a bit.

Short of rewriting the song the structure will remain the same but I am putting some thought into making the instrumentation have more dramatic changes.

I did turn up some of the subtle instrumentation that was probably not pronounced enough but I am thinking there is semi hollow body guitar rhythm part left and a clean Les Paul rhythm right. They go throughout the whole song. This might be causing the lackluster feel of the instrumentation.  

I may cut them out in places and add other instruments instead to give the song more changes.

I am thinking instead of the rhythm guitars going throughout that maybe a pedal steel in places instead.

The pedal steel will come in on the line, there are many roads, and cut out at the chorus line, let me be the one. 

I replaced the song that was there at the top of the page with the new version and I will let you know when I have another new version with some new instrumentation.

Thanks for your help peeps! The suggestions were all great!

Oh, and the hook is where I sing,

let me be 

let me be

let me be...

(like I am saying leave me alone)

and then I sing, "the one" (that is the hook)

?

[KSband]

Better, but the bass and drums still sound weak to me.  Maybe an acoustic piano would sound nice in there. 

[RexRed]

 

Hey Kurt!

I just changed the bass to a fatter rounder sound and I will work on the drums, also adding a lot of pedal steel.

I will try an acoustic piano.

I can't take out the guitar rhythms, it changes the character of the song too much and leaves a big hole.

Will post something sometime today.

 

Edited August 24, 2021 by RexRed

[RexRed]

Okay, this song has consumed two more day of my life...

I must say all of your suggestions were very helpful!

This song was far from done and I simply dropped it and moved on.

If it had not been for all of the suggestions I would probably not have gone the extra mile and finished this song.

There may still be some problems but they are tiny tweaks that I can go in and fix when my ears are rested.

I added a lot of complex pedal steel parts.

And yes I played a piano part, it is not as "gran old opry" as I would have liked but it does have some complexity.

I added different pads to each section to give the sections their own unique character.

I took the flange off my vocal which was making is sound harsh and lifeless.

I added real-time tuning to the backup vocals and main vocal.

I also added vocal rider to all of the vocal tracks, recorded vocal rider envelopes and hand edited them.

The drums may still be a bit muffled, they are improved over what they were though. I did edit them. 

The new bass I changed has more punch and a lot more warmth.

The vocal may still be a bit up front but it is a lot better than it was.

Let me know what you think.

I am glad this song got more work, I think it is a nice song and really needs to be made right. 

Best to you all and thanks again for making me go back and fix it better.

 

Edited August 25, 2021 by RexRed

[KSband]

Sounds much fuller, the pedal steel sounds good. There is a weird thing going on in the intro with the violin? sound, maybe replace it with more pedal steel. Not a fan of the rhythmic synth on the chorus when the backup vocals come in, it is distracting. Overall much improved.

[RexRed]

I lowered the volume of the intro violin and panned it to the side and panned the pedal steel center.

I edited the vocals more and turned down the rhythmic synth, it was too loud and distracting.

Thanks Kurt for your insightful suggestions which have helped greatly in this song!

I think I will give it some time to incubate and maybe look at it again later.

Best to you all Cakewalk peeps!