Audioslave cover

[secretagent]

We've 'ad a go at covering audioslaves LIKE A STONE

I mentioned ealier that i try and change the feel of a song but as the original was perfect i couldn't change it too much,just slow it down and fill it up with analogue stuff.

[Gavin]

Nice one,could even be one of your own.
Nope,ive never heard the original.

[NumeralEye]

That was really good Martin. ;D
Not familiar with the song or the band though, but you impressed me enough to look out the original and possibly some their other material.
Lou was'nt 'alf bad either.

[TheProdigy]

;D from me Martin ;D

I have nothing else to add. It's great!

[dlm21uk]

Great job Martin. I don't know the original either, but your version sounds really good.

;D

[secretagent]

Thanks for the comments gav,johnny,mark 'n' dan much appreciated as usual.

I wish it was our own song,i love it.

I have a stripped down piano version which i feel suits the mood even better,but i don't want you all to get bored of us by flooding the forum with screaming liquid

[Dubsounds]

In the words of Henry Cooper... "Splash it all over"

Right, I've listened a few times so brace yourselves

First off, a couple of technical issues:

Louise is singing flat in places (particularly the low notes)... One possible reason is that the song isn't in her key and needs to come up a note or two. Another may be that you didn't giver her a pitching reference (remember we talked about that before). Either way the vocal does "bottom out" a bit and I would suggest going up two semitones and try that.

At the moment I think it's in G with Louise singing a lot of D notes. The easiest key to sing in is A with a lot of E notes (which funnily enough is Gary Numan's favourite key and is only two up as I suggested). It might make the song sound more "numany" though but that could be a good or a bad thing depending on which way you're running.

The drums aren't quite together in the middle of the song, the snare in particular loses synch and begins to drift and drags a bit.

Everything else is just peachy, although I might have been a little less polite with some of the levels on the synths (that’s down to personal taste and the effect you wanted to create). Also I think it can gets a bit ploddy so you could try some “devices” to break it up a bit and add some tension/release.

A bit of positivity:

I think you'll both discover that the most interesting thing about this song is that it is more melodically satisfying to a general public than some of your previous stuff and as an exercise it’s invaluable if you can both now sit down together and discuss what it is that makes this song work.

Aside from the obvious “well it’s a great song”, you need to be asking yourselves “Why is it a great song? What is it about the structure, the chords and melody that make it so good?” Once you have that figured out, you can learn from it to help you structure your own material in a similar vein.

If I were to hazard a guess, I would say it has two things that are immediately apparent. Structurally it’s much simpler (and therefore easily digested by a casual listener) and vocally, the melody is more varied and adventurous, i.e. it goes up and down a bit more and uses more notes, (being confident of scales helps).

Remember what I was saying about a really good song being one that you could do in a subway with an acoustic guitar busker style. This is one of those songs. As you’ve already alluded, it works as well with just a piano. That’s my point exactly! All good and memorable songs can stand that test.

So overall, a nice little tune that I also wish was your own because if it were, I would have been seriously impressed. Personally, I think your both not that far from doing something like this yourselves. You both just need to figure out how to write a morbid pop choon that’s as catchy, simple and melodically satisfying as this one.


No rush… ;D


Anyhow... perhaps a different garnish and a spinkling of the Captain's secret recipe may help?

Mastered

It's brought the instruments up a bit to my own taste. Still needs doing a bit higher though and with something to help Lou in her cans ;D

[secretagent]

It's as though the OBXA and the minimoog were 2 big fat dogs lazing in front of a log fire then you've come along and poked them with a sharp stick,now they are like 2 rabid monsters,chained up trying to get at you :Dalso the "and on i read"part felt like i had my head inside a ballon,watching all the sounds float around my head

When we did the vox i said to louise that some of it was fantastic but a couple of parts(the 1st couple of lines in each verse)were a bit flat so we tried it again and the same thing happened.(as you say,probably just out of her range,especially when she had to reach down for some notes.

Yeah,the main reason i do all these covers is to see how all the songs are put together and it's really suprising how simple most of them are.

Cheers mate

[Dubsounds]

So are you going to try it again in A rather than G and give her some sustained root notes in her cans to help with the pitching. Just to see if I'm right and so you know what to do if/when this happens again?

Love your analogies btw ;D

Now here's that same track speeded up exactly two semitones.

Up Two

It isn't timestretched so the tempo has increased as well (which is a good thing to my ears). The bass guitar in particular benefits greatly from going up a bit. OK Louise sounds very odd because she's speeded up (so do the high synths) but to my mind this really works now. All you need to do is re-record it all a bit faster and up two and with a proper vocal (rather than pinky & perky) i think you could be really onto something. The high synth & vocal will sort itself out if recorded at the actual pitch rather than sounding like a speeded up record.

[Minimoog]

Superb Follow Shaun's excellent advice and you'll be two smilin' mofos

[secretagent]

Re-recording the whole thing would be a major operation,i love the sounds i used but you just know i never kept a note of all the settings

As your advice,as always,is spot on,i'm gonna do the song in A on the piano(ok the tritons piano)then re-record the vocals.

If that works,then i will attempt to re-create all the sounds.

p.s cheers jordan ;D

[vortex]

secretagent said:

i never kept a note of all the settings

Knob

I photograph patches I like

[secretagent]

vortex said:

secretagent said:

i never kept a note of all the settings

Knob

I photograph patches I like

That's the correct way to do it joe,i tend to do things the wrong way

I've redone the piano in Am so i just need to wait for louise to redo the vocal,in the meantime,as it's a lazy sunday morning,HERE'Sthe piano version with the Gm vocal