Cheers Gordon 
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Sounded good, warm and accessible. High marks for playing and singing with emotion – those are high bars to hit!
I was about to comment on something that I could just as easily nit about my own playing. That is the concept of adding dynamics. It’s the idea of bringing some kind of emotional shift for the chorus vs the verses. There were some opportunities missed, but you did bring a bit of an uplift toward the end (just as I was thinking that thought). Nicely done! Good share.
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Thanks Clint, yes you’re definitely right with dynamics but glad I was able to pause you with your comment at the end of the song!!
Definitely missed opportunities in it on this recording as you say but it’ll remain firmly on my repertoire and hopefully develop further!
Cheers for the comments and listen!
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First off great production, nice clear video, good camera positioning and the sound balance sounded good. Song sounded very good and the finger picking sounded very clear to me. Really good control on the vocal as well. I agree with a previous comment I’d look at the strummed section. Take a look at live versions of this (either covers or the original) and I think you’ll see this is played as pumping 8s and sounds fantastic. At this point the song lifts off in terms of tempo and power.
Great performance though and good cover.
Take a look here at REM’s live glasto performance around the 2:25 mark >> R.E.M. - Everybody Hurts (Live from Glastonbury Festival, 1999) - YouTube
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Hi,
Can’t recall earlier efforts from you. But this was pretty good. Timing was pretty good, though it probably could be smoothed out a bit in spots.
You recording playback level on YouTube is quite low. Might want to look into pulling that up a bit.
All in all, great job and all the best,
LB
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@Rossco01 Thanks Jason especially for the comments on production, I was getting tired of the camera positioning I’ve been using to date. Additionally I’ve found using the acoustic I need more room in front of me for better mic positioning using a condenser for both guitar and vocals. I think I still need to play with the positioning more however as it still sounded to me like the vocals were a bit too dominant?
That Glasto performance is legendary imo, interesting to study it now from a different perspective. Cool little aside story on that… My brother was working at Virgin Records at the time and via that we got tickets to see REM’s warm up gig for that Glasto set at Brixton Academy the weekend before. In that much of a tight and intimate venue (I do love Brixton Academy!) it was mind blowing, ranks as one of the most memorable gigs I’ve ever been lucky enough to go to!
@LBro Thanks! Love your stuff so appreciate your input. When you talk about the YouTube level, that’s not something I can manage when I’m uploading is it? Do you mean I should turn the gain up a little when actually recording?
Hi,
No, you cannot adjust the volume of what you post on YouTube, at YouTube. You have to do it prior to uploading it there. Not sure what you are using to record your productions. If a phone, then yes, you could try pulling up the recording level a bit, being careful not to overdo it and cause other issues. If on the other hand you are using some DAW or other software to mix with. Then you want to up the output level there.
Hope that helps!
LB
Will need to do some playing around 
I use a Scarlett 2i2 interface for the mic and record using OBS.
mark, you can boost the output levels in OBS using either filters or the Audio Mix editor.
Do you record with a single track or dual track as inputs from the 2i2? That could influence the approach you take.
Thanks David. Assuming I’ve understood you correctly, I used single track input on this (as in only using one input to the 2i2, which was the XLR connection). OBS has the 2i2 set to mono in the audio capture device settings.
When I’ve recorded the electric and vocals that uses both inputs in the interface.
Thats a great story Mark and having been to a few “Academy” concerts (all be it Birmingham and Bristol) they are great because of their size. I personally thought the mix was spot on so I wouldn’t change a lot.
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Firstly, this is what LBro is talking about, Mark. If not familiar, put the mouse pointer into the video, right click, and select Stats for nerds. You will see Content Loudness is -18.3dB which means that your video loudness is that much below the YT norm. Note this is not a serious problem. It just means people listening may have to turn up their volume more than usual listening level.
With a single audio source, the first thing I would check is to make sure that the halo around the gain knob on the 2i2 is mostly green. Some orange flashes in the louder moments is fine. It should never flash red.
Then on that track you can add filters. The first filter is a gain boost. You can use this to boost the signal received from the 2i2. Based on the YT audio level of your video, you have room to boost up significantly. The aim would be for the YT level to be around -3dB.
And the second I’d add is a Limiter. Set the Limiter to maybe -2dB, -3dB. The Limiter ensure that if there is an extra loud moment that you’ll not experience any clipping. In digital audio, if you exceed 0dB then you experience unpleasant distortion.
You can play around with the settings and watch the meter on the track to ensure it does not end up being pretty much in the red zone, close to 0dB all the time. The Limiter will prevent it reaching 0dB.
But as I say, also not a big deal really, and it is just something that us nerds obsess over.
Superb David, thank you for taking the time to go through that.
This comment is particularly useful, I’ve been more trying to avoid any orange whatsoever so that in itself probably isn’t helping. I’ll delve a little into it over the weekend.
I’m kind of a nerd with a 20+ year IT career so I’m intrigued and interested to learn 
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That was absolutely beautiful Mark 
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Very good advice given so far and hopefully not too much as to stretch out your recording gaps even further. I would continue to focus on the playing aspects over production at this point. There is plenty of time to tie the production aspects together (if you are so inclined).
Not at all Clint, my focus is absolutely on playing and improving. Production stuff is a side hobby at the moment but this is all useful stuff to take on board.
A busy summer, more than anything, has been the reason for the gap in posting a recording. Now the UK is back to its usual self (weather wise!) it’s time to knuckle down 
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Really nice. Picking was perfect. 
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Nice one, Mark. The title brought me to you. I love this song. Have you heard the Lee DeWyze cover? That’s the one I have on my phone’s playlist. Like others have said, I enjoyed the varied ways you played with fingerpicking and strumming. Nice vocals.
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Mark, that was wonderful. Excellent playing and singing and what a great tune to cover.
Your rhythm and picking were spot on and man, that guitar is sooooooo sexy.
Bravo!
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G’Day Notter,
One of my favourites, nd one that I use regularly as a warm up or just picking practice but that was really well done and good vocal. Watching you play it has had me looking to revisit it tomorrow as there is obviously some stuff in there that I have missed out on good work and thanks.
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