Finally got around to making some adjustments I had in mind for this track - How’s it sounding?
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Sounding fantastic!! Love the string intro and the transition to near-metal-roughstuff… really cool. Wonderful flow, great levels, cool interest with the key shifts and changes and a fab professional feel. Actually it feels quite seamless and great production! Trying to find something to comment on other than rave… (ponder ponder…).
The only tiny thought I had was a total nitpick… the entry, first note for the strings… I wondered about a slight bit more silence before the first note, to hear more ‘attack’ rather than the sense of fade in which for me, gave a slight sense of synth rather than ‘real’. I strangely felt a sense of the Beatles - she’s leaving home, just with the opening strings painting a scene that then changed… only mentioning it out of possible random interest - no significance whatsoever! I was interested in the ‘phillistine’ rhyming with green as in NZ it rhymes with wine… maybe I mentioned that last time I heard the song, can’t remember, alas.
Awesome production! Great to listen to as the latest ‘atmospheric river’ washes and wails…
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sounds great. loving the rage against the machine tone of some of the guitars. Great balance and mojo as usual.
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Thanks Emma!
Hmm… that’s weird - 'cause its all real 
I was actually thinking more in terms of “Eleanor Rigby” … but that was strictly for the string arrangement.
Yes, I think you mentioned that last time…which I defended with a feeble “artistic license” 
Thank you for listening and commenting - much appreciated!
Thanks Eric - much appreciated. Yes, a little more gain happening here - I just turned up my Big Ben pedal a notch.
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Hi I know I am going to find many things to note where improvements are to be made. RIGHT
Not sure if I like the drums coming so dramatically at 39 to 44 while the purdy stuff was playing and before the craziness starts. Something hinting of a change maybe there?? There I listed something that made me cock my head sideways a tad. 
I tryed playing along with your opening riff and I will have you know I nailed four of the 17 notes.
You are the IRD GOAT
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I am with feaker, you are the IRD GOAT!
Love this composition, very traditional, yet super hip.
Your vocals is exquisite!!!
Lovely, simply lovely!!!
Love this.
Rene
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If you compare the intro strings with the bridge at 1:35, you’ll notice I’ve put the intro strings under the vocal there, just to highlight the connection between the two parts. That was the main change I made.
It’s much easier to play than it sounds… it is all pull-offs, hammer-ons and open strings on the E & A strings - start on the A string at the seventh fret, and make every second note an open string… it’s that easy!
Thanks Rene, glad you liked it.
You make it look easy and I’m not hearing all the details of this very detailed mix; a great study in color and blend and it’s all evenly presented without being squashed or hyped, very good!
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So real strings? The stereo is excellent on their arrangement, which only foreshadows the stereo in the rest of the track with harmony voices and the guitars, Andrew. A powerful mix and interesting arrangement. I do kind of wish the classical intro would pop up again before the end, but that’s not critical. It was the most emotional part of the song which was pretty much otherwise solid upbeat rock, as befits the lyrics.
Excellent performance!
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So real strings?
Yes indeed!
The stereo is excellent on their arrangement, which only foreshadows the stereo in the rest of the track with harmony voices and the guitars, Andrew. A powerful mix and interesting arrangement.
Thank you!
I do kind of wish the classical intro would pop up again before the end, but that’s not critical.
No worries… But it actually does in this version!.. If you listen carefully and compare the very beginning of the song with the bridge that comes in at 3:37 you’ll hear the entire string arrangement under the vocals. That was the main change I made in this version.
(I’ll probably have another version coming soon… with a few more changes.)
Excellent performance!
Thank you for listening and commenting - much appreciated!
@StylesBitchley Bob, just in case you’re wondering what’s happening with this… I’m workin’ on it! Watch this space!
You are a busy man, no problem.
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wow love the contrast. Had a bit of a Farrokh vibe when questioned about Rhapsody “dont get me wrong…it IS a rock album” lol
love the strings intro. Who played it? Though they could be a wee bit distant. Sort of givng the vibe of rockers walking into an orchestra hall and joining in the session.
heard a bit of minor vocal phasing around 2:37 but nothing else i could pick apart.
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Thanks Michelle… yeah a lot of people don’t seem to want to “allow” you to put classical and rock in the same song, but I say “why not?”… it’s definitely been done before, as Farrokh and his mates could attest to.
Thanks. The strings were played by Maria Grigg, who is based in Indonesia. I used Logic Pro Studio Strings to mock up the arrangement, and she came back with a perfect note-for-note rendering with real instruments.
I wanted them close up. I was thinking an Eleanor Rigby vibe, but played outdoors, in a garden setting. My strongest memories of string quartets are in that setting, so I wanted to give that feeling. Plus, that section of the song relates to an epiphany I had when walking around the manicured grounds of an exclusive private school, so I was thinking outdoors, very dry.
There is a modulation effect of the background vocals there - that is definitely on purpose too.
Thanks for listening and commenting - much appreciated!
wonderful. Please convey my compliments. Nicely played. At first I thought it was electronic until I heard the re-bow sounds. There are very few VSTs that can pull a proper bow vs re-bow and require near expert handling of the vst mods.
ah. I visualized a rock group walking into an orchestra hall, interrupting a quartet lol (it has happened to me before) music works in strange ways.
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The production is great, guitar playing is great - it all sounds very good. But for me there were too many thematic elements. If there was a musical message to the song, I missed it. Of course, it may be that it is a bit deeper song than what I am used to and that more than one listen is required to really connect with it. Certainly though a whole bunch of great parts.
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Hi @Codger, thanks for listening and commenting!
I get where you’re coming from. You’re exactly right when you say it needs more than one listen - that is what I’m going for, actually. I see this as almost a suite rather than a single song.
Above @FluteCafe Michelle alluded to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody - a song which also has many and varied thematic elements….and although I would never have the audacity to compare my tune to that classic masterpiece, I’m trying to achieve a similar effect… to tell a story that engages the listener…
I have no problem writing very hooky conventional verse / chorus / bridge song structures (see my last album “Meandersaur” here), but this time I’m really trying deliberately to stretch further…
I think the key is repeated listening. Many of the songs that never caught my ear on the first listen later became my very favourite songs, but only after repeated plays. Conversely, I quickly tired some songs that were immediately accessible and that I loved on first listen.
Anyhoo, thanks again for your input!
There is often a tension between making something simple and accessible, and making it deeper and challenging the listener a bit more. I probably always tend too much towards the former, so I congratulate you for being a bit braver and more adventurous.
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I’m listening to this on my iPad but I find that everything sounds balanced well. The song has a good rock groove and I like that you added orchestration to it. I noticed you mentioning that this might be a song that is not immediately accessible, so it’s probably a good tune for me to give some repeated listens to. I prefer doing that to most BTR songs, because it takes a few listens to really tell what the best features are and/ or if anything feels “off”. Also, this iPad listening experience is quite suboptimal!
On first listen it sounds like you’ve got everything working well! Good job, Andrew!!
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If it were economical and available I might be impressed enough to hand over the entire catalog to get the “ColdRoomStudio’s” treatment package deal. Unfortunately, Free, as with naturally everyone else, is not in the vocabulary when discussing most things. So, yeah, I took the moment to listen critically to hopefully apply along with the messages I’ve heard here recently about my stuff sounding mono.
Your song does sound really good in my headphones but at 5 a.m. I can’t check through the external speakers to see how it translates for me there.
As for the imagery of it… the girl sipping red wine while lounging in the grass in an evening gown and enjoying watching the symphony perform on a mostly cloud free starry night, by the end of the night was ridding atop some dudes shoulders while punching beach balls to her also half clothed, half baked girlfriends atop other behemoth’s shoulder’s before running off with the band to party hearty!
uhm, yeah…
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