There Was A Time

[Alison]

Hi everyone, finally got down to some recording! Been busy mostly adding cello to a bunch of other people's music (totally fun, Ray's song, a prog-rock band in Germany, and some for Annika) and finally got to one of mine!

Another sad song, unfortunately. This one is about my dad. . . it's been a mess and my sisters and I have been bearing the burden. This song depicts how I feel about him, written after we cleared out his apartment (he's in a nursing home) and found some old photos, there was a time when we actually had fun together, long ago!

Tried to keep this one pretty simple. Still don't have a proper bass so, my electric cello had to suffice. Hopefully, soon I'll be able to get one and move on to some more upbeat songs again. For now, thanks for indulging me. . .
Let me know your thoughts!

There Was A Time.mp3

[Mr Clean]

Beautiful song Alison. I love the little subtle harmonies. Very nicely done. Made me think of my dearly missed Mum.

[rayc]

Lovely melody and narrative.
The right, higher, guitar/uke reminds me of early Nilsson stuff.

[Alison]

Thank you @Mr Clean and @rayc I feel so fortunate to be able to express myself through song and this one definitely came from deep within. Thanks for listening!

[JD01]

There's nothing really wrong with the mix on this one, Alison.
Couple of things - tone is fine with your electric cello bass, but there's a few flubbed notes in really obvious places. At 10s right in the intro!
Only other thing - your timing isn't as tight as it normally is, the guitar and the uke pull against eachother in a few spots, sounds almost like it wasn't recorded to a metronome.

[Alison]

There's nothing really wrong with the mix on this one, Alison.
Couple of things - tone is fine with your electric cello bass, but there's a few flubbed notes in really obvious places. At 10s right in the intro!
Only other thing - your timing isn't as tight as it normally is, the guitar and the uke pull against eachother in a few spots, sounds almost like it wasn't recorded to a metronome.

Oh man, I must be losing my hearing! Totally missed the note in the beginning! I'll definitely check that out. I was thinking I should re-track the guitar. The uke I did with a click track, the guitar I tried to just do with the uke. It was a difficult part to play as I am not a great guitar player so, back to the drawing board on that one!

Thanks for listening, I appreciate it!

[JD01]

There's nothing really wrong with the mix on this one, Alison.
Couple of things - tone is fine with your electric cello bass, but there's a few flubbed notes in really obvious places. At 10s right in the intro!
Only other thing - your timing isn't as tight as it normally is, the guitar and the uke pull against eachother in a few spots, sounds almost like it wasn't recorded to a metronome.

Oh man, I must be losing my hearing! Totally missed the note in the beginning! I'll definitely check that out. I was thinking I should re-track the guitar. The uke I did with a click track, the guitar I tried to just do with the uke. It was a difficult part to play as I am not a great guitar player so, back to the drawing board on that one!

Thanks for listening, I appreciate it!

Yeah, the timing of the guitar just wanders a bit. I'm sure you'll sort it out - the guitar sounds pretty nice anyway, your playing is fine.

[Lt. Bob]

Lovely melody and narrative.
The right, higher, guitar/uke reminds me of early Nilsson stuff.

beat me to it ...... within a few notes I thought of Nilsson who I really, really like.
And of course this is loverly as always .....


And we already know I like it because ........ 'It's Alison .... it's awesome!'

.... there ya' go ....... I've given you your trademark phrase ...... no charge

[vomitHatSteve]

Mix-wise this sounds pretty good.

I think JD's right about the timing; it could use a little tightening up.

[Alison]

Lovely melody and narrative.
The right, higher, guitar/uke reminds me of early Nilsson stuff.

beat me to it ...... within a few notes I thought of Nilsson who I really, really like.
And of course this is loverly as always .....


And we already know I like it because ........ 'It's Alison .... it's awesome!'

.... there ya' go ....... I've given you your trademark phrase ...... no charge

You do my heart good, @Lt. Bob. Thank you! But, there are issues and I will address them as soon as I can. This is why I keep hanging around with you guys!! @JD01 and @vomitHatSteve you help me take my music to a higher level and I am grateful.

[Armistice]

Upvote on the timing issue with the guitar. The uke, as a strum lays down a strict rhythm that the acoustic guitar doesn't match very well in places. Not sure what order you recorded the instruments in, but the acoustic could use a re-track against the uke, or a click.

Correspondingly, if the uke wasn't there at all, no-one would notice the timing issues on the acoustic. But you need the uke - it's just that they're not working together so well in places.

Lovely song though!

[TripleM]

I thought the tone on everything was nice. Even the "bass" sounded pretty good. Maybe a little too strong in the low end, but just a little. But the guitar and uke sound real clear.

I agree on the timing issues. The larger ones are early in the song.

Maybe compress the vocal a little more? Notes jump out here and there. Vocal is very clear. Maybe notch it out in the mid-2Ks like I suggested once before?

Arrangement - the cello parts and uke are "doing lot's of stuff" - they're fairly active parts. Just a suggestion, but you might want to save that kind of thing for the spaces in between vocal lines. When they're that active during times when the vocal is present, the arrangement gets a bit distracting. Nothing super-bad. Just something you might want to think about.

Overall it's very nice.

[Alison]

i need to remind myself to write all these suggestions down! @TripleM you often have sent the same suggestions. . .my fault for not writing them down (old minds tend to forget!). Will hopefully have something to new to post after this next weekend! Thanks, everyone for your input!

[Alison]

Upvote on the timing issue with the guitar. The uke, as a strum lays down a strict rhythm that the acoustic guitar doesn't match very well in places. Not sure what order you recorded the instruments in, but the acoustic could use a re-track against the uke, or a click.

Correspondingly, if the uke wasn't there at all, no-one would notice the timing issues on the acoustic. But you need the uke - it's just that they're not working together so well in places.

Lovely song though!

Thanks @Armistice, I did the guitar part after the uke part. definitely need to re-track the guitar. Thanks for the input, I appreciate it!