[CaliaMoko]

Steng: Thanks so much for the sweet compliment! I mainly notice what's wrong with my voice, not what's right. I'm on a lifelong journey of learning to focus on the positive instead of the negative.

TimCurtis: What a wonderful load of good information! I now have a pretty good idea what compression means. I went through the settings, as recommended and did some experimenting. The main thing I learned is that my ears are not adequate to the task! I also checked out an instructional video on EQ--it provided what I imagine are clear examples of with and without EQ applied. In all instances--my experimenting, and the contrasts on the instructional video, I can't hear the difference. 

What this means to me is--I will make my vocal tracks and someone else will mix and master for the final product. For the purpose of posting my songs as I write them, I'll continue to strum and sing, of course, and I'll mess with the VSTs, but I'll go by numbers, not by what I [don't] hear.

pompeyjazz: Thanks. I was confused by how the volume changed when I changed the sliders. I didn't understand it. Your explanation really helped with that.

Skub: I don't have any response for that, but I didn't want to ignore you. 

digger: After hearing from you and one or two others who are fine with the lack of rhyme, I am feeling more relaxed about that aspect. I've never dabbled with non-rhyming lyrics before. And, while I have no idea what a French sound is, apparently I've stumbled on it, as there were a few other similar comments about that. Thanks for the kind words; I'm glad you liked it.

And thanks to everyone who listened!

[adamfarr]

Vicky - really intriguing listen! I agree not so Celtic, but definitely a traditional feel. The accelerating and decelerating moving across lines really makes it interesting. I was half waiting for a killer image in the lyrics but I think the simplicity is actually a better way to go for this style.

Re production, I think the right question is "what problem am I trying to fix?" If you hear something you don't like (a vocal that goes from very soft to very loud, a vocal that clashes with other instruments, a vocal that sounds very flat and unnatural etc. etc.) then effects are there to help. I expect some would say that a close-mic'd vocal should usually have some reverb added as it may sound weird without any "space" around it. But I don't think you need to automatically add compression, EQ etc. every time, particularly in a 5 or 6 track mix, until you are very sure, as you may even risk creating more problems by doing so!