We Go Alone...Together

[Craig Anderton]

Genre

Pop

Instruments

Presence (nylon guitar, cello, choir, staccato strings)
Kontakt (additional layered choir)
Cherry Audio P10 synthesizer
Gibson Les Paul guitar
Gibson Midtown bass
Universal Audio DLX Microphone
Chris McHugh drum loops (heavily edited/rearranged)

Effects

Studio One effects (Pro EQ, Room Reverb, X-Trem, Analog Delay, Compressor)
Helix on all guitars
Waves Morphoder
Waves MV2
Waves RVox
Rare Signals Transatlantic Reverb
Mastering chain: Pro EQ + Waves L3-16

Special techniques

Blog/eBook tips used in the song:

Enhance Solo Vocals – lead vocals
Better Vocals with Phrase Normalization and Gain Envelopes – all vocals
Analog Tape Character Emulator - bass
Ban Boring Loops – all drum loops
Create Your Own X-Trem LFO Waveforms – hi-hat
Extract Polyphonic MIDI Guitar Parts with Melodyne Essential – Presence nylon guitar and cello
The Session Keyboard Player – choir parts
Superior Stretching Fidelity with Acoustic Drum Loops (not yet published) – drums
Sweeten Amp Sims with Equalization – all electric guitar parts
Two Crucial Tips for Quantizing Rhythm Guitar – rhythm guitar
Smoother Lead Guitar Sounds – lead guitar
Multiband Distortion for Guitar – all Helix presets

Released when

August 22, 2025

This is the first release from my 2025 project, "Resonance." It was written, mixed, and mastered in Studio One. Unlike previous projects, the video is minimalist. It was done in Magix Vegas.

I've included info on the blog post tips used in this song. If anyone has questions on the production techniques, feel free to ask.

 

[AAV]

Lovely Craig. The mix and dynamics are excellent and the song is well produced as always. Good choices on instrumentation. Could really feel the sentiment in the vocals. I read your tips all the time both in your blog and in your "big books of...". Thanks for posting the song details. Very helpful.

 

[Craig Anderton]

Good choices on instrumentation.

I think Presence may be underrated...I didn't choose the Presence instruments because they were all I had, but because they sounded the best of all the options available to me. Even the choir was mostly Presence, with just a little layering from Kontakt.

 

[Gerran]

The break at 1:38 got me!
Nice song and super cool to get more context to the blogpost and Book. I can see hear some of the tips in action, extremely informative.

 

[JBMusic]

Magnificent production, Craig.

John B