Down By Where the River Flows

[RexRed]

New song still a work in progress .

 

Your comments and critiques are welcome beautiful Cakewalk peeps!

 

Big love!!!

RexRed

[amiller]

‘Love this song.  Great feel and solid vocals.  Having said that, the repetitive electronic sounding drums do not do this song justice.

Man, you’ve got a great sounding voice for this style.

 

[PhonoBrainer]

Vocals are great.

The arrangement is pretty cool, and I agree more variation in the drum programming. Just take the hi hat out every so often? Something like that every once in a while.

In the first minute of the song, it's a whole minute of vocal verses. I wonder if sparseness might be a benefit? Sing a verse, have a verse of instrumental groove, then back to singing a verse. Just a thought.

 

cool stuff.

cheers,

-Tom

[RexRed]

Hey AMIller and EmeraldSoul, thanks for the great suggestions! This song needs a lot, I got accustomed to the drums and did not notice the repetition aspect. I will work on that, I am thinking some tom rolls. I used a drum loop so I might try and isolate some beats maybe in drum replacer and try and rework the pattern in places.  It is going to have a guitar lead in the center and at the end. Maybe some organ and brass chords in places. The song needs a lot of embellishments to give the sections more differentiation. I will let you know when an uploaded version is available  

 

 

[Hidden Symmetry]

Very nice tune & vocals on this. I like that electronic groove, how it moves the song along. You could try an alt. version with the drums playing more of a  half time feel, maybe more an acoustic drum sound keeping the electronic for that break section. Good job.

[RexRed]

Thanks Hidden Symmetry and all others for the advice on this song. I am still considering what to do.

Maybe I will try other instruments to try and distract people from the drum beat. Organs, brass, distorted guitar chords, instrument melodic fills coming in at different parts.. the part where it stops I think a tom roll would be appropriate. 

I personally like the monotony of the drums, it reminds me of a song that plays in the tanning bed at my gym.

But, I will take your advice and look into trying to do something. I think distraction may be a good ploy.

I am thinking the mechanics of this song is that the drums are like a drone or they represent the river.  This is why even when the song stops the drums should have a tom roll representing that the river is "unstoppable".

BTW, I got this drum loop on splice.com I have bought a ton of drum and other loops from splice and this was just one that I dragged and dropped into a track and seemed to fit the song quite well. But as mentioned before it is a loop so I am limited on how I can edit it. I may be able to isolate the drums or I may just be stuck with using it. 

I will post something soon in the area of new edits of the song. I will be replacing the song so this version will soon no longer be available. My voice seems a bit buried in the song too but that makes the listener turn up the song more to hear it. Is that a bad thing? I am not sure yet. The edited version will surely be better with a guitar solo in the middle and end. That will also distract the listener from the monotonous drum pattern.

Back soon with some new edits

Best to you all!!!

[Grem]

I like this almost as is. Vocals sound really good. I am liking the drums sound you got going. I listened to it before I read the comments. Then listened to it again after I read the other posts.

4 hours ago, RexRed said:

I personally like the monotony of the drums

I do too. It fits the song style.  You got a good one going there. Let us know when ya get a new version up. 

[garybrun]

Great voice.
Little bit of Springsteen in there ?

Piano more forward and the vocal more forward.  (we all paint a different picture)
I believe a compressor might help a little.. its only when you go down in your bass tone that sometimes I have to listen closely to what you are singing.
 

Edited July 28, 2019 by garybrun

[Douglas Kirby]

Rex,

I thought the song and mix were excellent.  Really nice job on this one.  I like your vocal - it's smooth and just right for the song.

This could be a Top 40 hit - maybe a country hit - I'm not sure, if it fell into the right hands.

Nicely done.

[Rik]

Hey rex, i’m usually not a fan of drums ,but this works, like it, great job, great vocals and song, abit short maybe

 

[Old Joad]

On 7/28/2019 at 1:55 AM, garybrun said:

Great voice.
Little bit of Springsteen in there ?

Piano more forward and the vocal more forward.  (we all paint a different picture)
I believe a compressor might help a little.. its only when you go down in your bass tone that sometimes I have to listen closely to what you are singing.
 

agree, good song.