Blind (Face to Face Cover) (And my Shannycaster™ Debut {I think})

[WhiskeyJack]

Just a cover. Don't get excited. I stripped myself down to my absolute most naked and vulnerable situation i could and it clearly shows. Way outta my comfort zone here. It's pretty sloppy but i am at a point where i need nits, picks and crits.

Acoustic on the left is is my Taylor being spit roasted by my Blue Spark and e906.The clippity clop bullshit on the right is stock (sorry Mutt) Neck P90 on my Gibson LP Junior run thru a witchcraft 65 Twin Reverb in Amplitube 5, The little bullshit filler things and the solo is the bridge pickup on my Shannycaster™ run thru the same not real Twin reverb. Just made minor knob fiddling and dialing back the room mics to lose the ambiance to make room for the solo. The other little accentish bits at the last chorus is just some harmonics i thru in because why not. I think it was the LpJr. Pretty sure it was the LpJr.

I personally think some of the vocals need a better going over and i am not opposed to it just that whole time blocking thing to re track.

Please enjoy my hamfisted offering and rip it apart.

20230117 f2f Blind Cover Kinda but not really.mp3

1st Attempt

20230125 f2f Blind Cover Kinda but not really.mp3

2nd Attempt

Corked and Forked! Done with it.



I took liberties. I don't care. Here is the original for comparison.

[CrowsofFritz]

Yay! I’ll listen after work

[Armistice]

I think you're being a bit hard on yourself there young fella.

That said, the lack of cowbell is truly appalling - for shame laddie, for shame!! I can't even...

I'm only listening on the laptop and trying to keep an eye on dinner cooking so I'll have to take it upstairs in the morning and have a proper listen.

Comments:

I think the really low notes are almost all croak and no pitch, sort of works OK in the song, but you might try to push them a bit - sounds like you're down in the basement of your range. You've got a real Tex Perkins vibe going on there. (I'm assuming, as an honorary Australian, you're across Tex in his various incarnations - your cover here is very Cruel Sea - I'm sure ray will pick this as well)

As a low singer myself I can tell you the secret to low is to practice a full Elvis impersonation of I Can't Help Falling In Love - really gets the lows to open up a bit .... or so... wiiiise mennnnnn saaaaayyyyy....

I'd unreverb the noodly bits a little and push them further up in the mix.

That's all I've got until tomorrow - but nothing too much wrong with this Shan the Man. Really good to hear you get something up here, may I say on behalf of the rest of the civilised world.

That's two thumbs up from me.

[JD01]

Fuck me, a Shan recording - a momentous event on your fucking forum!

Really like the low vocal, suits your voice and sounds good.
The acoustic sounds a bit thin and quiet - so the mix is dominated by the guitar on the right (which sounds good) - maybe just get a bit more bottom into the acoustic and possibly bring it up a touch.

There a bass in there? Kind of sounds like there might be - but its very quiet and non-descript! I'll have to listen on headphones with more bottom end.
This is really good though, Shan. You should record more often!

[Manslick]

sounds good thru my tv. maybe dial back the verb on the vox.

[Manslick]

Okay cool now. You did a rockabilly version of a punk tune. That is awesome

[vomitHatSteve]

I like the sting at the end.

I was waiting for an octave jump the whole time. I was not anticipating it staying that low the whole time.

Mix-wise, the big nit I have is that the lead guitar feels pretty buried, especially in the middle 8.

Pretty cool take on the song.

[WhiskeyJack]

I think you're being a bit hard on yourself there young fella.

That said, the lack of cowbell is truly appalling - for shame laddie, for shame!! I can't even...

I'm only listening on the laptop and trying to keep an eye on dinner cooking so I'll have to take it upstairs in the morning and have a proper listen.

Comments:

I think the really low notes are almost all croak and no pitch, sort of works OK in the song, but you might try to push them a bit - sounds like you're down in the basement of your range. You've got a real Tex Perkins vibe going on there. (I'm assuming, as an honorary Australian, you're across Tex in his various incarnations - your cover here is very Cruel Sea - I'm sure ray will pick this as well)

As a low singer myself I can tell you the secret to low is to practice a full Elvis impersonation of I Can't Help Falling In Love - really gets the lows to open up a bit .... or so... wiiiise mennnnnn saaaaayyyyy....

I'd unreverb the noodly bits a little and push them further up in the mix.

That's all I've got until tomorrow - but nothing too much wrong with this Shan the Man. Really good to hear you get something up here, may I say on behalf of the rest of the civilised world.

That's two thumbs up from me.

Cheers and thanks. I didn't do much in the way of warm ups really, I just kind of ran thru it multiple times start to finish over the course of a few nights and then just started cherry picking what i thought were the best bits to comp together. I by no means have a low register but my basement get's me close. Interesting you went with croak. That is kind of the perfect i word for how i felt in parts of it. Espically the last backing bits at the end. I kind of wanted those to fill out a bit better i just wasn't sure what wizardry i needed to do to nest them in there.

Ok I'll try out the less reverb on the noodly bits. I kinda wanted them sort of in the back as more of an accent not really as part of all the peices so as not to downplay or crowd the solo. This song's solo is this particular bands "Freebird" or "Stairway to Heaven" so i'd like to keep those noodly bits as more back ground players to make that solo popout when it comes along to the listener. But i have no qualms with reducing the verb a bit.

thanks for checking it out.

Fuck me, a Shan recording - a momentous event on your fucking forum!

Really like the low vocal, suits your voice and sounds good.
The acoustic sounds a bit thin and quiet - so the mix is dominated by the guitar on the right (which sounds good) - maybe just get a bit more bottom into the acoustic and possibly bring it up a touch.

There a bass in there? Kind of sounds like there might be - but its very quiet and non-descript! I'll have to listen on headphones with more bottom end.
This is really good though, Shan. You should record more often!

LOL. I knew you'd bust my balls over this!!

Ok, i can agree the Acoustic bit needs some beefing up. I was happy with the clarity i managed to get i just might have dropped something out i needed in the process. I will go back and reacess. Also i noticed that converting it to mp3 some parts of the acoustic part almost kind of over saturate really quick and then go. Must be a comp setting somewhere maybe? I can't figure that one out this morning.

No bass. As i started doing this cover it was just going to be a basic vocal / acoustic thing but then i got it in my head i wanted to do something where i create the illusion of percussion and bass and i mixed it with that sort of thing in mind. NO bass. I am not going to add any either. I think it will only muddy it up.

I have a little list here of songs i gotta finish. All covers. the originals will be a stretch. Thanks for the all your confidence boosters over the years.

sounds good thru my tv. maybe dial back the verb on the vox. ...
....Okay cool now. You did a rockabilly version of a punk tune. That is awesome

Cheers thanks man. I also agree that the verb needs to be dialed back a bit on the vox. or possibly take out some of that excessive sibilance? It's kind of grating on the mp3 version.

I like the sting at the end.

I was waiting for an octave jump the whole time. I was not anticipating it staying that low the whole time.

Mix-wise, the big nit I have is that the lead guitar feels pretty buried, especially in the middle 8.

Pretty cool take on the song.

VHS, i tried to throw in a layer of vocals that matched the original songs pitch range or octave or whatever but it honestly just sounded shitty in this as a harmony / layer of depth. So i took it the other direction at the end. Still don't love it but it works and fills out kind of cool.

I am going to address the Middle 8 noodly bits as i mentioned to Armi but they are purposefully slightly in behind for my own creative whims. But perhaps addressing the lead part too might help a bit. I see what i can come up with. If you read my notes about what i was trying to do maybe you can give some guidance too I'm all for it.

Thanks for checking it out.

[JD01]

Haha, not busting your balls, babes. Sounds better than anything I've ever recorded.

[musicturtle]

@WhiskeyJack

This is really good. I really like the vocal. You reach for some of the lower notes but it fits the context of the song. But I wouldn't change a thing about it myself.

I think the acoustic needs some attention, I think you should bring it up some gain wise and brighten it with some EQ on the middle and top end to create a balance as the electric on the right is basically handling the low end of the song. Not too bright, but just bring out some of the strumming sound.

Less verb on the lead and bring it up a notch is what I would do there.

Also, I hear some sort of click/artifact at about :59.

Good work man! Great to hear your stuff.

[Greg_L]

Damn this is good. I wouldn't change anything. Awesome vocals.

[paulman]

Damn, this is really cool. I don’t know that anything needs less reverb. I’m usually all for a light touch on reverb, but I think it works well in this mix. The whole vibe is really cool, I just think it needs more meat somehow. JD mentioned the acoustic sounding kind of lean, and I think that may be it. Beef that up, and I think it may be just what the mix needs.

[WhiskeyJack]

Cheers guys. Thanks @musicturtle , @Greg_L & @paulman

I plan tackling some further turd polish on this on the weekend. I'll put all your guys notes to good use and repost.


And i listened to it in the car and yes the noodly bits might be a bit too far back. I think i'll knock a bit of verb off those and maybe dial the stere spread on it in just a tiny bit closer to middle. Whatever, I'll fix it.

[Tadpui]

Dude this is great! That vocal range suits you very well. Maybe tame the highs of the reverb a bit, as it's catching the sibilance of the vocal a little too much. But holy hell that vocal! That's downright inspiring.

I could use a little more Shannycaster solo volume.

Nice work man, it's great to hear a tune from you. I've sucked at listening and replying here in the LHAL forum, but I'm hoping to turn that around this year and comment more on mixes.

[rayc]

Let it stand...your voice has character and expression. the guitars are right for your version.
Leave it & move on.
Well done youngster!

[Alison]

Wow, @WhiskeyJack, this was SO good! The song really suits your voice and I thought your guitars sounded great.

Well done!

[Mr Clean]

I don't know the original and didn't listen to compare. I really like this. I love the raw-ness of it all. It's real and almost off the cuff sounding. Things like that hold a lot of weight for me and they sound more natural and personal.

Great stuff. Dig it a lot.

[JD01]

Shan, listening to this again now - its really good.
The vocal and the verby distant tele are perfect. I think you should just leave this as is. You could make a few tweaks to it, but it would be diminishing returns really.

It doesn't happen very often but this is one of them mixes that gets posted that I immediately want to just listen to again 'cos its good and abandon critical listening all together.

[TripleM]

I think the vocal performance was excellent. The acoustic guitar on the left sounded perfect. Bass sounds pretty good - it could use a little more definition.

The guitar on the right has a great "chug" to it. It's just a bit boomy. Maybe take out a bit of its low end?

Maybe dry up the lead vocal just a bit. It's a little "reverby."

[WhiskeyJack]

Ok. I took some advice and made some changes. New mix in the OP.

- I think i dialed back some boom and dominance on the right guitar and hopefully brought the left a little bit more forward.
- Addressed the reverb on the vocals. Somehow had three layers of reverbs in there. See note below.
- reeled in some reverb on the noodle notes and lessened the stereo spread.
- nudges the Shannycaster Lead Solo up a hair
- readjusted master mix compression. I had it really clamped down bu then mixed in a shit load of dry signal for some unknown reason. This 2nd mix feels a bit more smooth but also a bit more dynamic. Maybe? I've been at this off and on all day in between dadding a sick Calamari.

I started this one a couple years ago and it was entirely different acoustic kind of attempt. It changed and morphed as time went on and some tracks still had old effects on it and it was kind of making weird things happen. Goes to show you should just start something and finish it and not forget what you put where and why etc. A very untidy project to say the least. Ha!


Thank you @Tadpui @rayc @Alison @JD01 @Mr Clean & @TripleM for checking it out. I think i might just call it here unles anyone hears anything that leaps out at them.