The Way It Goes

acoustic pop

The Way It Goes

The Way It Goes

You drown your sorrows
and hope Tomorrow will forget where you live
Your roommate hates you, your boss replaced you
that’s just the way that it is
Whoa, life’s not fair
we can’t all be stars or millionaires
Whoa, we all just exist
between one heartache and the next…

You spent the evening
watching your ceiling, hoping the sky would fall
you’re paralyzed
you’ve realized: they never loved you, at all…
Whoa, love slips away
then, again, was it ever there?
Whoa, you struggle each day
to find a pocket to hide your prayers…

But that’s the way it goes for the ordinary souls
there’s no rainbow waiting when we get home
there’s no one to miss us, while we’re gone
That’s the way it’ll always be, for everyone like you and me
ohhh, that’s the way it goes…

I drown my sorrows,
and hope tomorrow, the blues forget my address
Can’t help believing
this rainy season, will be all that I have left
Whoa, time slips away
and my young days are forever behind
Whoa, I struggle each day
to remind myself why I still try…

But that’s the way it goes for the ordinary souls
there’s no rainbow waiting when we get home
there’s no one to miss us, while we’re gone
That’s the way it’ll always be, for everyone like you and me
ohhh, that’s the way it goes…

BRIDGE
I know, I know, I know, I know…we all have our down days
but why, oh why, oh why, oh why, do mine last for years?
Who am I to cry? The world is filled with people like me
Then why are they never around when I need them to be

But that’s the way it goes for the ordinary souls
there’s no rainbow waiting when we get home
there’s no one to miss us, while we’re gone
That’s the way it’ll always be, for everyone like you and me
ohhh, that’s the way it goes…

danny that is superb!
what a vocal! i know you used autotune but it actaully gives the song a realy modern sound…
if that doesnt get you fans nothing will…great song… classy sax…tremendous vocal
best thing youve ever done!

Yup. It’s a smasher, Danny.

awwww shucks, you guys make me blush :)

Thats the best I’ve heard from you so far. I’d like to give you some advice but I’m afraid to do so, so I’ll just see if you want it. If you do I’ll say what I think would help you. But I must confess, I’ve been suffering the same thing so in a way it may be hypocritical for me to say, but on the other hand, at least I know where my own faults or improvements should be. Let me know if you want my ideas.

Nice stuff,
PACO

Go for it, Paco :)

You need to clean your vocals up, dump the reverb, even myself when recording the reverb sounds good but when I do the final mix, I can tell, especially when I compare it to store bought CD’s my vocals are too reverbed. With yours it seems much more, but thats just my opinion. If I had to put a ball park figure on it I’d say reduce by 80 to 90% of the reverb, bring your voice up close with very little reverb, just a touch with fast attack so it decays quickly. Center the vocals to about 20 to 30% off center just wider than your bass so it doesn’t get buried in the bass, with center being “0”. Just my thoughts.

PACO

LOL, I guess I use so much FX because I don’t like the sound of my voice. As far as the cleaning-up part, I used Gsnap on the vocals for that “keyboard” quality to the vocals, and it tends to waver parts I don’t want wavered, trying to figure out how to get around that little flaw…

Quote: (Paco572 @ Mar. 28 2011, 12:39 PM)

You need to clean your vocals up, dump the reverb, even myself when recording the reverb sounds good but when I do the final mix, I can tell, especially when I compare it to store bought CD's my vocals are too reverbed. With yours it seems much more, but thats just my opinion. If I had to put a ball park figure on it I'd say reduce by 80 to 90% of the reverb,

I've gotta agree with the reverb comments. And I've said it before. I don't think you're voice is all that bad.

Great song, but I think it's far too long without some kind of change to keep the listeners' interest. Sometimes that's that challenge of songwriting - when you've written 75 superb verses which ones do you leave out to make it a 3 minute pop song?

I would suggest at least changing the instrumentation and percussion though the song to give it a sense of movement.

Sonically I wonder if the acoustic guitar could be a little softer (I don't mean quieter, I mean softer - eq-wise).

HTH

Mark
Quote: (dannyraymilligan @ Mar. 28 2011, 12:45 PM)

LOL, I guess I use so much FX because I don't like the sound of my voice. As far as the cleaning-up part, I used Gsnap on the vocals for that "keyboard" quality to the vocals, and it tends to waver parts I don't want wavered, trying to figure out how to get around that little flaw....

You can either automate gsnap (turn it on/off via an envelope), or split the vocal across several tracks and put differing levels of the effect on each track as appropriate.
Quote: (Mark A @ Mar. 27 2011, 8:11 PM)

Quote: (dannyraymilligan @ Mar. 28 2011, 12:45 PM)

LOL, I guess I use so much FX because I don't like the sound of my voice. As far as the cleaning-up part, I used Gsnap on the vocals for that "keyboard" quality to the vocals, and it tends to waver parts I don't want wavered, trying to figure out how to get around that little flaw....

You can either automate gsnap (turn it on/off via an envelope), or split the vocal across several tracks and put differing levels of the effect on each track as appropriate.

You know, I thought of that a little while ago, and working on it, now, lol! (Dual vocal tracks, and shifting back and forth, I mean).

The effect seems to be a little screwy on some of the held notes, and on the "whoaaaa" parts, where it wobbles a bit much, I thought.

The song is posted on my collaboration site, waiting for a drummer to show interest in it. Sadly, sometimes songs can sit there for a month before someone notices. Some never get noticed. I've got songs I put up there back in November, and NOTHING... Guess I'll have to finish them off, myself, huh?

The collab site has some phenomenal singers, I'm hoping to talk one of them into taking a shot at this song, (without autotune, of course, lol!).

-Danny
Quote: (Mark A @ Mar. 27 2011, 8:09 PM)

Great song, but I think it's far too long without some kind of change to keep the listeners' interest.
Sometimes that's that challenge of songwriting - when you've written 75 superb verses which ones do you leave out to make it a 3 minute pop song?

I would suggest at least changing the instrumentation and percussion though the song to give it a sense of movement.

Sonically I wonder if the acoustic guitar could be a little softer (I don't mean quieter, I mean softer - eq-wise).

HTH

Mark

I appreciate the input on this, but this is becoming more about art, for me. Am I concerned about whether a record company will like my work? nope, lol!

As I've stated elsewhere, to me, many of my songs are like painting with music. Do you recall the movie "Amadeus", where the critic told Mozart there were too many notes in the music?

When I saw the six minute time on this song, I was like OMG, yet as I listen to it, it seems to fly right by for me. I have four minute songs that seem ETERNAL, they drag on and on and on...

In 20 years, nobody will be talking about this song like they do about "Stairway To Heaven" or "Hotel California", but in twenty years, I'll be able to listen to it, and not regret something I took out in the interest of shaving seconds off the clock.

What's amazing to ME is that I did this song without putting a 3 minute guitar solo in it, lol! Now THAT was a miracle!!!!

-Danny

I understand what you mean about the length of the song. But honestly, it’s too long for the type of song. The thing about 'Stairway" and 'Hotel" is there are dramatic changes in the songs that keep the listener interested and make the songs more dynamic.
This is a very nice song, apart from shortening it, I would love to hear you bring your voice forward in the mix, it’s a personal song and you need the voice to be that way also. I would be tempted to drop the reverb entirely and put just a little echo on the vocal.
Nicely written and performed Danny! :agree:

The Way It Goes - Radio Edit

Here it is, 2 minutes shorter, and slightly different vocal sound…

Ya that was heaps better. I’m not sure of the voice treatment your using but it sounds robotic in a way. Perhaps you intended it to be that way or there there’s too much voice correction. In any case the voice could use a touch of delay (Fast with quick release) or even a small amount of reverb to spread it out a little to match the airy feels of this classic but be careful not to add very much in my opinion. Other wise, this is the best song I’ve heard you do. Very good. You took the advice that was given by the responders and ran with it with good results. Well done.

Edit: Just a thought, I’ve been studying some store bought CD’s trying to figure out how their getting such great vocals in some songs. Now I been using the mind set that 1 vocal track recorded in stereo, then cloned then panned gives me the stereo separation in my vocals however the tone always remains the same on each side of the stereo separation. I’ve noticed in some store bought cd’s the vocals seem fairly centered with what I think is addition separation (more reverb than the center vocals with considerately less volume on the sides) giving a full body sound and I was thinking how one might be able to get that same sound. So I came up with this idea.

If your interested, instead of adding reverb to your vocal tracks, leave it alone, clone them, then pan your cloned tracks both to about 50% L+R and add some reverb to them and then slowly increase the volume till your voice just comes through on the sides. This should add that airy feels while keeping the center of your voice intact. I’ll be trying this method out on my next project.


PACO

Quote: (Paco572 @ Mar. 29 2011, 10:31 AM)

Ya that was heaps better. I'm not sure of the voice treatment your using but it sounds robotic in a way. Perhaps you intended it to be that way or there there's too much voice correction. In any case the voice could use a touch of delay (Fast with quick release) or even a small amount of reverb to spread it out a little to match the airy feels of this classic but be careful not to add very much in my opinion. Other wise, this is the best song I've heard you do. Very good. You took the advice that was given by the responders and ran with it with good results. Well done.

Edit: Just a thought, I've been studying some store bought CD's trying to figure out how their getting such great vocals in some songs. Now I been using the mind set that 1 vocal track recorded in stereo, then cloned then panned gives me the stereo separation in my vocals however the tone always remains the same on each side of the stereo separation. I've noticed in some store bought cd's the vocals seem fairly centered with what I think is addition separation (more reverb than the center vocals with considerately less volume on the sides) giving a full body sound and I was thinking how one might be able to get that same sound. So I came up with this idea.

If your interested, instead of adding reverb to your vocal tracks, leave it alone, clone them, then pan your cloned tracks both to about 50% L+R and add some reverb to them and then slowly increase the volume till your voice just comes through on the sides. This should add that airy feels while keeping the center of your voice intact. I'll be trying this method out on my next project.


PACO

I found a trick that I used with the acoustic guitar on this song. I panned it all the way to the left, cloned the track, then I panned the clone all the way to the right, added n-track reverb, and dropped the dry mix all the way down, so only the wet reverb was coming through. I hadn't thought to try it on the vocals, but that might work, too.

I got the idea from the description of Eddie Van Halen's sound on the first few records. They put his guitar all on one channel, and then reverb and slap-back delay on the other....

-Danny

The vocal effect was achieved with Gsnap, which is a free autotune clone. If you know “Believe” by Cher, or “Only God Knows Why” by Kid Rock, that’s the one, lol

Quote: (dannyraymilligan @ Mar. 29 2011, 11:15 AM)

The vocal effect was achieved with Gsnap, which is a free autotune clone. If you know "Believe" by Cher, or "Only God Knows Why" by Kid Rock, that's the one, lol

Ya thats what I thought, it sounds cool.


PACO