instrumental song
Hi. This is the first instrumental song I have written. I am primarily a vocalists so this is kinda different for me.
http://home.earthlink.net/~cindy.reding/RoadToSpain.mp3
Instruments: PC Drummer, Roland SPD-6 for percussion (congas, claves, bells), trumpet, tenor sax, alto sax, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and bass guitar.
Recorded through a Fender Passport 250 or Yamaha EMX88S power mixer for an input into my soundcard (SoundBlaster Live 5.1).
Software: N-tracks 2.3.
The is my composition and I played all of the instruments, except hiring professionals to play the instruments 
I would appreciate any feedback on how to make this better, especially with the mixing aspect. I have mild compression on the entire song. Individual tracks were EQ’d but the overall song was not. I used reverb and delay on most of the horn and lead guitar tracks.
Thanks for your help!
Keith
Keith,
I like the melody (it seems like a theme and variations thing to me) and the way you play around with it. I like the drum breakdown. It kind of gives the listener a breath before hitting the next part. I would say that you could vary the melody a little more and even have a nice solo section with the trumpet, as you seem to be accomplished on it You got a nice tone from it as well.
As far as the dislikes go, the trumpet seemed to be a little to far up front and overpowered the other instruments. The delay was somewhat distracting, also. I think you could have put some nice, velvety reverb under the trumpet with a touch of delay and it would have sounded amazing! The guitar sounded like it could have used some more compression, just to even out the playing a little.
Overall, I like the tune . . . well done!
If you’d like me to put acoustic drums and percussion to it sometime, just let me know.
Keep it up,
Drummer
Thanks for the comments! I thought that the delay might me a bit much. I can reduce that to just a “touch” and move the trumpet back somewhat in the mix.
As for the lead guitar, I don’t have any compression on it so far, but that would be easy to add. The electronic guitar was recorded using a clean Les Paul through a Fender Pro Junior amp with a Shure beta 57A mic.
I appreciate your offer for some acoustic drums. That would sound great! How should I work with you to get that done?
Keith
saxappeal@earthlink.net
I’ve done some collaboration work with TomS before and the way we approached it was to send the pure .wav files via mail on a disc. We could even use a CD-RW if you wanted, so we don’t “waste” $.18 .
I would need until November 11th (Veteran’s Day) to record anything, because that’s when I’ll have some time off of school, but you could send me the .wav files and I could start getting famliar with the tune if you wanted.
I modified the song as suggested by Drummer. I reduce the volume of the trumpet and removed most of the delay effect. I think it sounds much better now. All of the instruments seem to come through very clearly.
The new song is at
http://home.earthlink.net/~cindy.reding/RoadToSpain2.mp3
I am using my wife’s web space to give me more space!!
Keith
Sax, listening to the 2’nd mix. I think the mix is good. I’m at work on computer speakers so I think the bass could come up a notch.(remember to try and listen on all types of speakers). I’m sure it’s fine on good speakers though.
Good tune and arrangement !!!