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[jwmullins]

glender,
I was trying to do exactly what you said, just get a reality check to see how I rate in the real world. I didn't expect to get forwarded for this listing. Good advice on the scores needing to be at least a 9. Thanks.

[jwmullins]

slowdance (Dick),
Thanks for the welcome and the advice.

[jwmullins]

Dean,
Thanks for the welcome and compliments. Definitely good advice on the time to hook. I'm very conscious of that with all the new material I'm writing.

I can definitely work on the presentation and production. I'll definitely pay attention to any repeating screener views as I get more critiques. Thanks!

[jwmullins]

Ott,
Thanks for the welcome and compliments. That's interesting, I never thought of it as an instrumental, but I'll definitely have to give that some consideration.

I'm starting to realize that I need to focus a lot less on what I would do left to my own devices with production and start focusing on how the "Nashville" sound is different and emulate that.

[jwmullins]

Rob,
Thanks for the welcome. I agree the drums could be much better. I don't play drums (don't have access to a drummer either), so I'm using the best drum machine that I currently have access to. I was thinking of investing in EZDrummer (which has a "Nashville Package" add on). Do you have any thoughts on that or alternatives?

Points taken on bass guitar and vocals. Great advice on putting the same amount of TLC into the instruments. I think part of it is just learning the craft of recording for me. The Truth Is is the very first song I recorded myself. I can personally hear a lot of improvement between it and What I Should've Done, but I know that there's a LOT more room for improvement.

I think I've probably spent a lot of time trying to be unique instead of emulating a sound. Sounds like, at least from the aspect of getting forwards on here, I need to rethink that. And maybe I need to bite the bullet and get a Telecaster instead of this Peavey Strat copy that I have to get more of a Nashville sound.

I appreciate the bluntness. There's no way that I can get better if I don't know what I need to improve on. Thanks for the compliments and the criticisms.

[jwmullins]

Len911,
Good point on Brooks and Dunn. I think a lot of duos like them do songs that aren't really duets (I think of the two people singing back and forth as part of the story for a duet). They aren't broken up yet, but they are on their farewell tour. As soon as it's done, they are too. Thanks for the reply.

[jwmullins]

1.7,
Thanks for the advice. I definitely like the advice on guitar attack and density.

[rnrmachine]

Rob,
I was thinking of investing in EZDrummer (which has a "Nashville Package" add on). Do you have any thoughts on that or alternatives?

The Truth Is is the very first song I recorded myself.

I would highly recomend getting Superior Drummer 2, it is for sale at Musicians Friend and Guitar Center (they are the same company btw) for $150. That is a HUGE upgrade over EZdrummer. It would actually cost you $99 to crossgrade from EZdrummer to Sup2. The anti-machine gun effect is amazing. You can have perfectly quantized MIDI info and it does not sound like it. I still highly recomend NOT perfectly quantizing MIDI drum parts. If you do, mess them up then with ceratin thoughts in mind.

When you mess up a perfectly quantized drum track. Imagine the drummer is either ahead of the click or behind. Tight drummers will either be agressive or submissive and do one or the other. Only sloppy drummers will be ahead and behind the click in the same passages, because they are actually listening to the click instead of going out of a professional habit of playing with a click. Also, when going into fills think the same way. Is the drummer a bit anxious and hitting the fills a tad early or late because he is relaxed? Thinking this way will enchance your realism by 10 fold alone. Couple that with Anitmachine drum softsynth and you will be making amazingly realistic drum tracks. Same works with any instrument you are trying to make "real" but yet sound pro, not sloppy.

AWESOME job for your first recording!!! I would be proud, seriously,

Rob

[rld]

Hey James,
Took a listen.
Country artist pitches...man, where do you begin?...they are TOUGH!
Lots of folks who have been here (and in the business in general) a while have heard scores of Nashville produced demos that are virtually indistinguishable from a pro release, and they still get passed over.
Going into the how and why would be like a political debate...everyone's got an opinion and its pretty damn confusing.
So where does that leave you?
I liked your voice. You've got that country twang that's tough to fake and pretty much a prerequisite for a successful pitch.
Like mentioned, the productions need work.
I'd like to offer another idea.
Can you produce good enough demos yourself to compete? Only you know for sure.
Even with the latest software tools it takes lots of practice and skill to convincingly pull it off, especially for country.
Its said that a great song will get through regardless of the demo, but that seems pretty rare these days.
You could go with a bare bones guitar/vocals (which still has to be really good) or full out Nashville type demo.
Anything in between seem to fall short.
If you still like the diy approach, you may want to look into having a Nashville demo of your tunes without vocals and add in your vocals via your home studio.
This can be done for $200 or so, and it can add up fast, but the results may be far better than what you may be able to achieve.
Just some food for thought.

[jwmullins]

Rob,
Thanks so much for the drums advice. And thanks for the props. I look forward to learning a lot more from all of you guys who've been at it a lot longer than I have.