Autumn Shades (country rock instrumental)

[Larry T.]

Hi all. Here's Autumn Shades.

Info:

All  guitars are tuned to FACGCE.

Drums and piano are MIDI, all else is recorded live section by section. 

link: https://larryterrano.bandcamp.com/track/autumn-shades

 

 

DAW: Cakewalk Sonar subscription 

 pc: windows 11, Ultra 9 285, 64GB Dual Channel DDR5 ram

instruments: DI Bass, Mic'ed acoustic guitars, SI Drums, Harmonica, Arturia minilab mkII, Arturia analog lab

reference speakers: M-Audio BX3

Edited November 22 by Larry T.

[Wookiee]

Is it just my or does the Bass come in a tad late at the start? Other than that it seems a reasonable mix.

[Larry T.]

2 hours ago, Wookiee said:

Is it just my or does the Bass come in a tad late at the start? Other than that it seems a reasonable mix.

That's what I thought too. But if you listen to the timing of both for the full 8 bars they sound metronomically correct.

Also, the acoustic guitar part is hitting an offbeat note.

Appreciate the listen 🎶 🎵 🎶

 

Edited November 21 by Larry T.

[timboalogo]

Hey Larry,

What a cool song! Bass is a touch forward for my tastes, otherwise the mix sounds fine.

I'm hearing something similar to what Wookie said, it sounded like the song was going to be off beat, then it wasn't.

Timbo

[Larry T.]

Just now, timboalogo said:

Hey Larry,

What a cool song! Bass is a touch forward for my tastes, otherwise the mix sounds fine.

I'm hearing something similar to what Wookie said, it sounded like the song was going to be off beat, then it wasn't.

Timbo

Thanks so much Timbo. 

I did mix most of the bass parts about a decibel or so high as their timing is crucial to the interplay with the acoustic guitar and other instruments. 

The riff the ag plays doesn't stay off beat. It kind of moves around the beats, I think.

[T Boog]

18 minutes ago, Larry T. said:

metronomically correct

"Metronomically"  🥳

   ...I'm giving u props just for using that word in a sentence. Bravo Larry 👏

[Chaps]

Sounds good to me. I do think the snare and kick are a bit monotonous, though. I like to use the Velocity>Randomize or CSHumanize MIDI effects to keep percussion instruments from sounding mechanical, when I don't manually do it in the Piano Roll. The MIDI effect Velocity is included with Sonar but CSHumanize is a third party plugin that has to be downloaded separately. When used judiciously it can be very effective in adding human-like randomness in a MIDI track. I will post a link to it below if you, or anyone else, wants to check it out.

CSHumanize MidiFX Plugin

[Larry T.]

1 minute ago, T Boog said:

"Metronomically"  🥳

   ...I'm giving u props just for using that word in a sentence. Bravo Larry 👏

Thanks! 👍

[Larry T.]

2 minutes ago, Chaps said:

Sounds good to me. I do think the snare and kick are a bit monotonous, though. I like to use the Velocity>Randomize or CSHumanize MIDI effects to keep percussion instruments from sounding mechanical, when I don't manually do it in the Piano Roll. The MIDI effect Velocity is included with Sonar but CSHumanize is a third party plugin that has to be downloaded separately. When used judiciously it can be very effective in adding human-like randomness in a MIDI track. I will post a link to it below if you, or anyone else, wants to check it out.

CSHumanize MidiFX Plugin

Thanks for the listen.

I agree with you. I actually had to remove a lot of the SI Drums (which is normal but this particular loop had a lot of bells and whistles) and pare them down to what's in the song.

[Chaps]

3 minutes ago, Larry T. said:

Thanks for the listen.

I agree with you. I actually had to remove a lot of the SI Drums (which is normal but this particular loop had a lot of bells and whistles) and pare them down to what's in the song.

I have to admit I have never been a fan of Cakewalk's Studio Instruments. If you're using the paid version of Sonar you have Session Drummer, which, IMO, is much superior in every way to the SI Drums. Some free drum plugins I have used and think are also much superior to the SI drums are the

Steven Slate SSD 5.5 Drums

BFD Player

MT Power Drum Kit

MODO DRUM CS 1.5 and other IK Multimedia free products

If you are looking for something different any of those are a good place to start, but I'd check out Session Drummer first. It's actually 'Session Drummer 3' but shows up as Session Drummer.

[Larry T.]

8 minutes ago, Chaps said:

I have to admit I have never been a fan of Cakewalk's Studio Instruments. If you're using the paid version of Sonar you have Session Drummer, which, IMO, is much superior in every way to the SI Drums. Some free drum plugins I have used and think are also much superior to the SI drums are the

Steven Slate SSD 5.5 Drums

BFD Player

MT Power Drum Kit

MODO DRUM CS 1.5 and other IK Multimedia free products

If you are looking for something different any of those are a good place to start, but I'd check out Session Drummer first. It's actually 'Session Drummer 3' but shows up as Session Drummer.

Thanks Chaps. I'll have a look at them.

[bjornpdx]

I like it though I'd call it more blues than rock.
Seemed a bit repetitive in spots and the drums could use more variation.
Except for those nits, I thought it was very well done. 
-Bjorn

[Larry T.]

14 hours ago, bjornpdx said:

I like it though I'd call it more blues than rock.
Seemed a bit repetitive in spots and the drums could use more variation.
Except for those nits, I thought it was very well done. 
-Bjorn

Thanks Bjorn, appreciate the listen and sound (pun intended) comments. 

I left it a bit long because I like the grooves but I did consider an edit or two and a fade out outro. 

Edited November 24 by Larry T.

[Bajan Blue]

Hi Larry

Like that tuning.

I think this sounds really good - agree with the comments re the Drums - personally any track I record, some of the longest time I spend is getting the Drums and Bass right and locked!

Cool

Nigel

 

[MichaelJohn]

Dig this acoustic laid back mood piece!  Feels like I'm on a road trip and stopped by a lonesome joint on the way to play some pool or have a burger.  

[Larry T.]

On 11/28/2025 at 3:09 AM, Bajan Blue said:

Hi Larry

Like that tuning.

I think this sounds really good - agree with the comments re the Drums - personally any track I record, some of the longest time I spend is getting the Drums and Bass right and locked!

Cool

Nigel

 

Thanks so much Nigel. I may go back and turn some knobs on the intro acoustic guitar/bass notes...see what happens. 

[Larry T.]

6 hours ago, MichaelJohn said:

Dig this acoustic laid back mood piece!  Feels like I'm on a road trip and stopped by a lonesome joint on the way to play some pool or have a burger.  

Thanks MichaelJohn. Appreciate the listen and kind words.

[KSband]

Cool tune. I like the guitars, nice sound. Is that a real harp, I like it in there?  I hear some timing issues through out, just slightly out, I think if it were all in time it would sound really good. Do you use audio transients to check things?