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As a hobby I like to pick a song and do a "cover" of it by performing and track recording each of the parts myself (ie Drums, guitars, bass guitar, keys, etc). Some of you may remember my thread about getting the Roland V-Drums not too long ago (http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=77420&b=2), well I have been busy since then working on two covers: STP - Plush, and CandleBox - Far Behind. Plush is in the final edit/mix stage and will soon be ready for the mastering process. I have linked a wave file (mp3 is too "lossy") for anyone who wants to give my efforts a listen. I appreciate any comments or suggestions you may make prior to me going foward with mastering. The wave file is 50 megs so broadband is probably preferred. The mp3 (320bit) is 10 megs but is lossy.

Thanks to anyone who gives this a listen and can give any comments. If you spot the part where the snare "4-and" needs to be corrected, I am already on it (I missed it when listening back to the drum track)

Listening Notes: The tracks are volume mixed and have been cleaned up with various clip editing and gain envelopes, no other signal processing has been done in the audio software. All audio and effects are from what was recorded "as is". The mastering process will include EQ'ing and Compression so for now I recommend starting with a flat (all zeroed EQ) and no SRS/WOW effects (like in media player). The srs/wow effects will cause the audio to clip and go quiet here and there. The flat eq may cause the sound to be thin and tinny but its just a recommended starting point, you can adjust it to your liking as the song plays.

Thanks

here's the links:
http://www.mod2software.com/misc/music/plush_premaster.zip full quality waveform 50 MB
http://www.mod2software.com/misc/music/plush_premaster.mp3 320bit mp3 lossy 10 MB

Very nice CR Sound's more or less like it... after the mix mastering I'd be hard pressed to tell the difference. Only problems with it can all be fixed with some EQing, so there's no point in saying anything about them, just that the guitar effect seems to be chomping a lot of the noise.. but as I said, easily fixed. What do you use to line your guitar into your computer? I've been thinking about picking up a set of Rolands like your own, and I have a 16 track Behringer mixer right now that I use, but I only use it because its what I have and it goes into the computer... maybe there's something better? I think it would be really neat to have live music for video games or whatnot.

Rolled off on a slight tangent there, sorry, but great job CR. Kept the time great too, I've noticed some actual studio CD recordings by famous artists going faster at the end of the song than at the beginning, and you seem to have passed that great work.

How about some Mp3 compression for those of us who need not feel the want to download a 50mb wav? I suggest compressing it to 320kbps and your not gonna have much loss...

Either that or some OGG compression... pretty clean format there.

Thats really good. Im not too tech when it comes to music but Ive listened to Core about 100 million times. Are you attempting the vocals?

Yeah, CR! Lay out some vox!

I can do the vocals for the first section of Rush 2112 pretty good

Thanks! In short, NO on the vocals I can do pretty decent backup vocals which I did a lot of in the last band I was in (a the bassist) but I'm no lead vocalist


See the original post at the top, an mp3 now linked
Maybe when the song is done done, Ill post a high bitrate mp3 for general listening. The point of the wav was for musician/audio techie types to give the lossless cut a listen so they may point out any audio problems which even high quality mp3 may alter.

Saikoro, thanks for your comments - I'll briefly explain how I am currently going about recording and what hw I am using, which will address your comments/questions:
(Using Cakewalk Sonar 4 Home Studio XL as the tracking software)
First thing I did was rip the real song to a wma file and bring it into the .cwb (cakewalk bundle (audio) project) as the first track, then I insert a couple of measures of silence at the very beginning. By doing this I have an audio and visual guide to the real song. Each separate track was recorded by listening to the real song and playing the required part along with it, in its time, with any/all other of my tracks muted. The theory is if you play on perfect time with each part-with the real song, in the end when you mute the real song's track and listen to only your tracks, they should all line up perfectly (which they seem to have done) Previously I only recorded the drums by playing along with the cd, then recorded all the other tracks by playing along with only my recorded tracks. Both seem to have the same results but this new method is better imho.

Drums: I record the drums by running the L/R master outs to the pc line-in. The pc card in is an 1/8th inch stereo jack, the line outs on the drums are 1/4 inch. I use 2 converters that convert 1/4" jacks to rca pin type, then at the back of the pc I added a converter that converts the two rca pins to a single stereo 1/8" jack. Through the software I can play back any track/s and hear the drumkit simultaneously, while recording the drums onto their own track. Once I have a decent main drum track I will add another percussion track for filler like any china cymbals, extra hihats here and there if necessary (there are only so many triggers in the kit so I cant have a ride, 2 crashes AND chinas too so I need to add them separately).

I used 2 different setups for bass and for regular guitar...

Guitars: I use the same lines to the pc as I did for the drums (stereo line-in). The guitar is basically a piece of crap electric Gibson copy. The effects rack/pedal thing is a Digitech GNX 3 guitar effects processor. Each of the 8 tracks there for the guitars uses one of the gnx3's presets. Since there are like 65 preloaded presets I was able to find the right sounding ones without having to customize too much.

Bass: Originally I ran thru the gnx3 with a "Bass" preset which sounded ok but it ended up making the bass to "thick", so I rerecorded with the bass high and mid dials turned up. When I did this I had a good bass sound but was getting a lot of string "clack" and "fretting" in the recording so I went to plan B. I got rid of the gnx and used my Mackie mixer (like you said it had the right ports to connect L/R outs) but in between I used my Boss Bass EQ pedal to brighten up the sound a bit without getting the bass electronics noise or "fretting/clacking" in the recorded audio.

The remainder of the guitar tracks are done the same as the main guitars, just on diff tracks with the appropriate effects.

Mixing: The Cakewalk SONAR HS 4 XL software is the greatest thing ever. I havent track recorded in about 6 years, previously I used a Fostex DMT-8VL digital tracker which is in plastic in my closet, and guess what, its staying there! This software blows that thing away. It handles 64 Audio tracks (unlimited midi) and the editing capabilities are out of this world. Not to mention each track, has an effect bin that you could add any group of effects to, from the myriad of preloaded effects etc. I havent used that feature on this particular song but I can see it coming in very handy. I mostly just cleaned up the content with track/clip fades and gain envelopes, etc.

Mastering: Not yet done but I am reading up on the techniques which are all new to me. I don't claim to be any sort of studio engineer - I can rock out playing-wise, and am pretty good at editing/mixing but thats where my knowledge-base stops. Once I am happy with the mix I will begin experimenting with adding EQ and compression to the overall mix via the master effects bus (bin).

hopefully that gives a little insight to my process. I would be interested in hearing what others do for their recordings (regardless of covers vs. originals and audio vs. midi - its all music man!)

cheers

srs/wow sucks, why would you want to ruin several thousands of dollars of work in a pro mastering house for a squashed sound? Will give a listen and some advice soonish...

agreed. it does some compression, and "something else" that I cant quite place, to the overall sound - hence my note to others recommending not to use it if listening to this in media player. I cant speak for winamp or other wav playing software.

thanks I look forward to your comments

I was just trying to play this last night, but couldn't remember it to save my life. Sounded great.

candlebox is another fun one to play. When are you going to get to that one?

Ah, whatever happened to the days of good music?

Here's a 320 bitrate mp3 at about 10mb. I didn't notice any quality difference.
link removed

hehe, thanks. I just tried to do a 320 and cakewalk moaned that the encoder is expired So now I have shell out 20 more bucks for the encoder, you'd think for the price they charge for CW Sonar HS4 XL (which was a fair price for what it does) they'd at least include a non-trial mp3 encoder - even if they raised the inital price a few bucks, meh.

Ill give your mp3 a comparitive listen, thanks


EDIT: Thanks phaelax, I downloaded the mp3 and copied it up to my server so you can remove from yours if you like

http://www.mod2software.com/misc/music/plush_premaster.mp3

I do notice the differences but thats just these ears - both a curse and a blessing.

Phaelax, just realized I didnt answer this:


Its actually done (pre-master stage as well) but I want to rerecord the bass with the new settings, and for performance alterations. Also I still have to relearn the guitar solo. I had it like 95% down a couple years back but havent played it in a while and lost most of it (kinda like what you said about playing plush last night)
Once I correct the bass I can post a mix of it, even if theres no lead guitar atm.

probably by this weekend

Sounds good to me, but the timbre sounded a bit false somehow. I think it is too high pitched, and sometimes seemed to cut off too early.

Wow! One of my alltime favourites--- this sounds almost exactly the same as the original. In fact I can't think of anything that doesn't sound perfect on here. This is great for karaoke

Could you elab on that a bit? Do you mean overall or just on a specific instrument/track? Did you listen to wav or mp3?


Jeku, thanks! But hold off on karaoke until after its mastered!

Also theres something I want to change slightly in the mix. Theres a little riff/lead-like bit that happens twice in the song (during the heavier strut G-F-E-D#-D parts) It needs to be lower in volume, slightly more to the right pan, and more tinny in effect (listen to real song under headphones). Problem was I didnt find the correct effect for this in the gnx and settled for one that was close, but I think i can fix it in HS. If not I'll just rerecord that little riff twice.

thanks for the feedback so far people

As I said, not one of my favs but you did a nice job. Listening to the song and it's very accurate, but you might want to turn down the splash down a little bit.

Matt

I listened to the Wav, and the hi-hat and cymbals sound a bit like tamborines, but the sound is cut off too quickly. The sound needs deepening slightly, and needs more sustain, maybe resonate with the kit more. In fact it sounds like a straight sample at a low sample rate with no effects.

I would have personally gone for a thicker bass sound, but still give it some definition with mid/high EQ

Nice overdubbing with guitars btw

thanks guys. taking all comments into account.
I have heard in a couple of places that the drums need a bit of thickening ala some reverb. I am also going to fix the riff part during the 2 times of the "Wh-en the dogs do find her...", the backing riff is a bit too loud, not panned far enough to the right, and is to rich actually - needs to be "tinned" a bit.

EDIT: Oops, I said that already in a previous post - sowwy


Im actually thinking its too thick currently, in relation to the rest of the tracks in the mix, which may cause a problem when mastering - may need to rerecord it a bit thinner, then thicken the whole mix during mastering, not sure tho (this is so much work )


thanks for the comments