One of the more obscure songs from the band America, this one was a movie score for The Last Unicorn animation movie. It isn't easy to find on music streaming services. It uses acoustic instruments resembling more of a folk song.

The most challenging aspect of this recording was the combination of delicate instrument parts to produce something melodic.

Vocals

The first attempts in practicing and recording the vocals track were one octave lower. The results were really bad however and I decided to increase the pitch instead. I am getting close to my current chest voice limitations but I combined several takes to get to acceptable results.

Originally the song had backing vocals but I found a strings backing tune to be better to my liking.

Classical lead guitar

Used sparingly as a backing during the solos and the outro, I used it as a replacement to what I believe is a mandolin.

Rhythm guitars

The original recording has what sounds as several layers of acoustic guitars and mandolins. I have no mandolin or mandolin sound emulation and I relied instead of combining acoustic steel and classical nylon guitars in both strummed and arpeggiated variants.

Bass

Just playing the root note with minimal embellishments. It has to keep the rhythm flowing and otherwise stay out of the way.

Piano

I played a simple piano chords pattern with some arpeggiated sections. There's no instrument standing out but their tasteful combination should result in a pleasant sounding song.

Drums

There are no snare or tom drums just playing the rim and the kick drum. I exercised playing rhythmic patterns on the hi-hat and cymbals.

Violins

There are both backing violins from the original recording as well as replacements for the backing vocals.

Other instruments

There some helper instruments. The chime pops up frequently to maintain the dream like atmosphere of the movie. The outro has a triangle. Of course, the easiest was to replicate both with sampled instruments triggered by a drum pad.

Mixing

I used my most recent arsenal of tools, this time with Neutron 3 for non-vocals tracks and Nectar 3 for the vocals. Of course, auto-tune for the vocals but with gentle corrections. It turned out to be an interesting exercise to arrange the many guitars in the stereo space and set their correct levels so that they are heard and combine nicely.

Video recording & editing

I recorded with a combination of Canon M50 and Canon RP with f1.8/f2.8 Sigma lenses. I followed my usual editing workflow and decided to include a screen recording of the DAW to better understand what's happening there. In particular, you can tell which songs have analog recordings and which are MIDI. Also you can see how the takes are combined.

Misc

The background image was from a nice hike north-east of Berkeley, CA.