Yes! Sorry I forgot to respond. The answer to your question is no. You're cool.

Hey, awesome! It's never too late to learn something new, especially in the field of music. And given that some of my students resist learning at every turn (even grad students... sigh...), I'm doubly impressed when someone does it because... well, just because!

As an aside, I once got stopped at customs on my way into the USA, where I was doing some grad school in music. The customs officer asked me what the chord progression for a 16-bar blues was, and - I was working with choirs at the time - I totally messed up. They made me sit for over 2 hours as they checked me out. Guess I should have paid a bit more attention back in undergrad

By the way, that "ducker" I thought I heard - are you running the vocals and mix through different compressors? That could have a similar effect (although I didn't notice it as much in your newer mix). I'll listen again on tomorrow on my main monitors, when it's a bit quieter here.

Yeah, there's different compressors. But I'm betting it's my singing, because I looked at the wave in V-vocal and some parts looked like I was gargling... my voice is recovering though from all the allergy and chest infection crud so I should be able to recut very soon.

Had a very cool day today. Last night the female vocalist, Julianna, emailed me her vocals for a western waltz. I played it and was blown away by her quality but the rendition sounded too punchy. I asked her about it and she said she wasn't used to singing that high (key was D). We went back and forth and she suggested transposing to E. I did, and then realized not only was that the better key for the song, but I had the wrong root (A instead of D) in the original! I rescored in E, correcting the goofs, and shot her back a rough result. She came back with clear, dead-on vocals that would make Emmylou Harris hang her head in shame. Ok, maybe not... but Julianna is awesome! When I get some backing cowboy-style vocals on this I've got dynamite.

Okay, I'm so excited to hear someone else sing one of my songs I can't stand it... so I'm posting a link to a VERY ROUGH mix that highlights her singing. There is zero mixing on instruments so just ignore that aspect.

http://cynicalsigns.com/projects/frc...nt-J1rough.mp3

Leaver's Lament

Leaving ain't easy
Don't care what they tell you
Parts of your heart start to fail

Right foot goes forward
The grave's got the left
And your mind's somewhere miles down the trail

O'er the lake on a limb
Where it's now think or swim
Praying the branch doesn't break

Leaving ain't easy
Don't care what they sell you
Never touch more than you'll take
Never touch more than you'll take

copr 2009 Randall G Arnold and Julianna McDuffie, Cynical Signs Publishing

You're right; she does have a nice voice!

I am so fortunate to have her on board!

A little update on "Leaver's Lament":

http://cynicalsigns.com/projects/frc...nt-J2rough.mp3

Note that I'm aware of the flaws...lol. Just getting started...

Update on "Leaver's Lament".

The singer says this mp3 sounds harsh on her system... can anyone else confirm or deny? I'm not hearing it...

http://cynicalsigns.com/projects/frc...nt-J3rough.mp3

Yes, it sounds rough here as well (listening on nice Genelec monitors, which are working fine). The vocal sounds very low-fi, and the bottom end of the mix is completely missing. Still, nice singing!

That's bizarre. On my PC system it sounds rich, full and clear... same in my wife's car using the CD I burned.

I don't get it...