John, Billy, and Johnny, thanks for listening and for your well-considered comments. The new mix is up.
Al and I discussed the song at length, took people's comments (also from elsewhere) and suggestions carefully into account, and tried out different versions. It's been an interesting exercise.
The results have demonstrated, among other things, that - at least to
us:
- using a synth pad in the chorus doesn't work well (though I first thought it might)
- dropping the guitar in the bridge left the bodhran sounding too aggressive
- harmonies in the chorus don't sound good
- bringing the guitar too far forward in the mix made it compete with the vocals and the
bodhran
- dropping the bodhran completely in the bridge was akin to stopping the heartbeat of
the song
I feel this particular type of song functions best in its simple form. The simplicity is in the performance and vocal delivery. The complexity is in the message, delivered mainly by the strong vocals and supported by the sparsity of the instrumentation and the music's haunting mood/melody/tone.
Al's latest mix - and unsurprisingly it's not a great deal different from the original
- is the one we're both happy with.
Changes include:
- the bodhran coming in a little later
- the bodhran being pulled back a little in the mix (by 7dba peak)
- the guitar being brought up a fraction (by 2dba peak)
In terms of variety, there's a lot of melodic variation within the sections.
In addition, there are a number of guitar chord changes (three in the verses, seven in the chorus), though in the original mix these may not have been evident. Distinctions are much clearer in the WAV file. There are also distinctions in the way the bodhran is played, with little "twirls" coming in from time to time.
In summary, thank you each for your comments, which led to some very interesting experimentation.
Donna
