all ears on deck!

[billg]

yesterday evening i received a music request from a company i'm signed with for a cover version of neil young's "long may you run". Of course they needed by today. soooo . . . wade mosher and i gave it a shot. this is the first mix and i had to send it out, but it's not too late to change anything glaring i suppose. my ears are fired (as is my brain) and i think wade is asleep.i know there is probably a zillion little things that could make this better but does anyone hear any big problems?thanks-http://www.billgaunce.com/song/110

[jonathanm]

Man, you're just a machine. Got the request yesterday, cranked it out last night, ho hum. At first I was gonna suggest that the vox hit the beginning of each verse phrase with a little more confidence, but after reviewing Neil's performance on YouTube, you got it right...he just kind of eases into each phrase.Nice job.

[billg]

Thanks Johnatan, it was hard singing as lazy as Neil Young that's for sure! Sometimes he trails of at the end of phrases too, to the point that it's hard to tell what "note" he's supposed to be singing.

[Mark Kaufman]

Now how do you end up scoring the FUN assignments??Guess you need to submit in about five minutes, but I just cranked this up in the restaurant before we open, and here's what I catch:Harp sounds louder than the vocal, a wee bit overwhelming. Might benefit from just a touch more reverb to warm it up. Just a tad harsh in the mix.The vocal sounds like Petty or McGuinn singing Young, very cool. But it sounds too thin...might want to EQ more warmth into it.The only other thing I catch is that it's missing the languid flow of Neil's version...there's something a bit stiff about the rhythm...maybe it's the drums?There's the stuff I'd tweak. But the good stuff? Well, that's obvious! It's all there, man. Great track.

[Mark Kaufman]

So maybe there's something in this cover business, hmm? Good to know...I'm working on Steely Dan's "Pearl of the Quarter" right now, and wondering why.

[jchitty]

I think this is better than Neil's version, Bill....good luck with it! I really enjoyed the listen.

[deantaylor]

Bill,Sounds fine to me. Nothing glaring that I can hear.Dean

[billg]

thanks everyone.mark, thanks for the heads up. I've had to send it in but I'm gonna check out your mix comments (as soon as my ears recover a bit). Harmonicas are a bitch for me to get right in the mix. I think maybe this would have been better if Wade had done the final mix, but he had already done a big share of the heavy lifting and it was waaaaay getting late.As far as there being something to this cover thing . . . I wouldn't know. Folks have ask for stuff, companies have signed stuff, nobody's paid me anything . . . boohoo.

[partyofone]

sound great Bill! good luck on this one. nothing sticks out to be tweaked to me except the really twangy guitar seems a little piercing on my crappy headphones.

[billg]

Hey Patrick, that guitar is a little edgy. We had to do this mix kind of goofy . . . Wade sent me the mixed stereo track of everything except bass, guitars, vox, and harp and I just laid that stuff in. I didn't want to go messing with the eq on the entire music bed just for that guitar . . . especially at 3 this morning, that would have been a real recipe for disaster I think. In retrospect I also think I have the harp to far over in the stereo field, that's why it's sticking out so much.Anyway heres's an update . . . we got it signed and the contracts been faxed out so it's passed the first hurdle and has moved up the line. I guess from here I'll either hear good news or silence.