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My Semi-Psychedelic Cover of "We Gotta Get Out of this Place" now posted!


Anderton

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I tried to get a license from Harry Fox, but they said "we don't license for this kind of application, but YouTube has signed agreements with multiple music publishers - just post it and see if they ask you to take it down."

Uh...okay. Anyway, catch it while you can smile.gif I doubt you've ever heard "We Gotta Get Out of this Place" with this kind of an arrangement before...

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That's a rip-rockin' version of a great tune.

I liked everything except the vocal treatment, but I have a problem with those bathroom/edge-of-flange delay treatments, they just bug my ears, so maybe that's just me. (Yes the same ears that want to jump off the sides of my head when they hear Auto-Tune. They have, let's say, very delicate sensibilities. Unlike their owner.)

Also, I find myself sort of in between camps on the vid. During the breakdown, when you had some cuts and screen movements nicely synced to the music, I thought it worked. Although the DAW shots looked a bit indistinct and computer-retro at that zoom. But I think I'd probably respond better to images and movement cut to the beat along with maybe some more animated text-graphic treatments of lyric frags. It's tough coming up with compelling vids when you're working from the desktop, as I know all too well. wink.gif

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Quote Originally Posted by Ernest Buckley View Post
Hi Craig,

I enjoy your stuff but I find videos to be distracting so I just close my eyes and listen.
Nice production and I love the way the drums pop.

Any reason you`re making videos of these tunes?

EB
Youtube? idea.gif
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I think my issue with the video is that even if its on Youtube... I don`t think the average listener really cares about all those DAW shots. I`m not a big fan of music videos but if one is going to do it, it should in someway reflect the nature of the song... again, I think most viewers will just be like what the?

Honestly, I rather see clips of Craig and the other players in the studio playing synth and guitars, recording, singing, etc...

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Quote Originally Posted by Ernest Buckley View Post
I think my issue with the video is that even if its on Youtube... I don`t think the average listener really cares about all those DAW shots.
Probably not, but all the videos I've done are more lyric videos than anything else...except for "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," because everyone knows the words anyway smile.gif

Basically, it's just eye candy. I used the metering from Ozone 5 for "Little Pieces" because it looked cool. I wouldn't be adverse to just doing background textures with no meaning whatsoever. Maybe I'll do that for my next video.

The videos are optional...you can just listen if you want smile.gif

I`m not a big fan of music videos but if one is going to do it, it should in someway reflect the nature of the song... again, I think most viewers will just be like what the?

Honestly, I rather see clips of Craig and the other players in the studio playing synth and guitars, recording, singing, etc...
But that's not the way the music is done, so there's no way to do a video of it. And if people think "what the?", controversy is a good thing. I'd rather have people say "It sure is weird a guy would do a video capturing his DAW playing the music in the video" than "there's some guy singing."

Anyway, music with videos get more clicks than music without videos. Some people really like the videos, some people couldn't care less, and one person said "There are videos? I just have the music on in the background while I'm doing other things on the computer."

Or, you can think of them as demos for Sony Vegas Pro that have a soundtrack icon_lol.gif
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The mix of acoustic and electronica is very cool and comes off as completely natural. The arrangement is very expressive and detailed, with a lot of great playing. I love the dynamic builds in the transitions between song sections. Overall I really love the attention to detail. If I could make one critical comment, it would be in regard to the way the vocals are mixed. I'm not sure how it's being done but it seems like there's a stereo chorus or phasing effect, and also a slap delay, and some reverb too. I don't have any problem with that per se but I'm left without the feeling of a focal point for the vocals. They come off as kind of hollowed out sounding. It's subjective, I know, I would just really like a vocal track that I can "sink my ears into." It's got nothing to do with the actual singing, which is expressive and great. Just the sound of the vocal track leaves me missing something. Just my opinion but I think you're shortchanging your singing a little bit with the way it's being mixed. I had the same feeling with the last track posted and hesitated to say anything because you're the man and it's your forum, plus you're not exactly asking for feedback. Oh well I gave some anyway. Just my 2cents.

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About the vocal treatment -

The vocal treatment seems a lot different to my ears in the sections where the vocal is in the lower range. That's where I'd say the effects icing is just a bit too thick. My guess is that the idea is to "sultryize" your voice when you're in the lower range, make it arresting and hypnotic (just scrambling for adjectives, here...).

When you move up to the higher vocal range, it sounds a lot more natural to me. Although still effected, the effects are not distracting.

It's those lower mids/upper lows that sound really hyped and distracting to me in the heavier-effected portions of the vocals.

Now here I am, Mr NobodyAtAll in the mixing/sound manipulation world, giving Craig Anderton advice, so please feel free to icon_lol.gif

Blithely treading on angels nonetheless...I'd say put a really natural sounding vocal track dead center, keep the vox effects to the sides, and dial down the effects till they don't distract - maybe HP out some of the lower end on the effected tracks, too...

You can sound plenty sultry and intense without so much VST-effect viagra...

And of course - I like your track, too! I would hardly have the nerve to try and cover something Eric Burdon ever sang....

nat whilk ii

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Mr. Craig Anderton will now enter the witness box and, having sworn on Electronic Projects For Musicians to tell the the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth in 4/4 time, will attempt to defend the allegation that he did wilfully and with malice aforethought add effects to his vocals
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Quote Originally Posted by MarkydeSad View Post
Mr. Craig Anderton will now enter the witness box and, having sworn on Electronic Projects For Musicians to tell the the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth in 4/4 time, will attempt to defend the allegation that he did wilfully and with malice aforethought add effects to his vocals, in order to confuse and anger the wider musical community
no no - the effects were added for the same reason we all add them - to attract the opposite sex of course.

And what are you doing out of bed? It's just afternoon in Texas - you should be asleep...

nat whilk ii
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That's an interesting treatment of a cherished song from my childhood, Craig. IMO, you've managed to retain the character of the song while modernizing the sonic treatment. Nice work.

You caught my ear with what sounded like a couple of bars of the riff from "Just Like You"... I don't recall that being in the original; perhaps my memory fails me. If that's your addition, it's clever. smile.gif

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I appreciate the feedback on the vocals. On some tunes I mix the vocals dryer, but I wanted to go for the "full psychedelia monty" on this one and make them sound like they're from some frozen time in the past. I also wanted to do something completely different from the super-dry, in-your-face vocals that Eric Burdon did on the original. I like doing covers that are as different as possible, and there's no way I could have taken a page from Burdon's songbook and come out ahead smile.gif

My next song is another Marky cover and the vocals are considerably dryer. Part of that is because one section has a choir part (Mark, don't freak out, it works - trust me!) so I wanted contrast.

I am interested in any and all feedback, positive and negative. I doubt that I'll post any revised versions, but at some point if these ever get "released," I may do a few tweaks here and there.

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Quote Originally Posted by Anderton View Post
I appreciate the feedback on the vocals. On some tunes I mix the vocals dryer, but I wanted to go for the "full psychedelia monty" on this one and make them sound like they're from some frozen time in the past. I also wanted to do something completely different from the super-dry, in-your-face vocals that Eric Burdon did on the original. I like doing covers that are as different as possible, and there's no way I could have taken a page from Burdon's songbook and come out ahead smile.gif

My next song is another Marky cover and the vocals are considerably dryer. Part of that is because one section has a choir part (Mark, don't freak out, it works - trust me!) so I wanted contrast.

I am interested in any and all feedback, positive and negative. I doubt that I'll post any revised versions, but at some point if these ever get "released," I may do a few tweaks here and there.
I'm a great fan of covers which don't sound too much like the originals. If I may hijack your thread temporarily, here's my dance version of Black Sabbath's Back Street Kids

I'm liking your current crop of tunes, Craig, and I'm not saying that in an arse-licking way. I just do! And I'm pleased if I am in any way responsible for your spurt of creativity smile.gif

A choir on My Lucky Day? Have you completely taken leave of your senses, sir?? Can't wait for that one! biggrin.gif:thumb.gif
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Quote Originally Posted by MarkydeSad View Post
And I'm pleased if I am in any way responsible for your spurt of creativity smile.gif
You definitely are, doing the cover of "Black Market Daydreams" made me realize that there's a lot of merit in just getting stuff done and out there. I'm sure I spent a lot more time on my version than you did on yours, but is my version "better"? No. The song didn't improve because I spent more time on it, only the mix did. And who listens to mixes? I mean, did anyone ever say "Those Brandenburg concertos - great mix on the cellos, don't you think?"

So I started working through songs faster, whereupon it was driven home to me (again - sometimes I need to be hit over the head multiple times before I figure things out) that every additional minute spent working on a song's direction is a minute spent taking you further away from the original inspiration.

That's when I realized GET THE DAMN THING RECORDED AS FAST AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE. Then you can always go back and do the little ear candy tweaks without taking away from the inspiration. I gotta say, on your song I'm doing now, the essence of the song was locked in after the drums, bass, and scratch vocal. Everything since then has just been putting a nice shiny finish on it while keeping the original inspiration intact smile.gif
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Quote Originally Posted by Anderton

View Post

I am interested in any and all feedback, positive and negative. I doubt that I'll post any revised versions, but at some point if these ever get "released," I may do a few tweaks here and there.

 

But then I started thinking about what I said, and thought it might be fun to take EVERY single piece of feedback everyone has on the song, and do "the SSS remix." I'd start with putting the vocals more upfront and dryer, and putting some bite on the bass. If those are the only changes people have, I probably won't do a remix but if someone says "Why don't you extend that middle section into a true dance remix?" or there are a bunch of other suggestions, it might be fun to do an "on-demand" remix smile.gif
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Quote Originally Posted by Anderton View Post
You definitely are, doing the cover of "Black Market Daydreams" made me realize that there's a lot of merit in just getting stuff done and out there. I'm sure I spent a lot more time on my version than you did on yours, but is my version "better"? No. The song didn't improve because I spent more time on it, only the mix did. And who listens to mixes? I mean, did anyone ever say "Those Brandenburg concertos - great mix on the cellos, don't you think?"

So I started working through songs faster, whereupon it was driven home to me (again - sometimes I need to be hit over the head multiple times before I figure things out) that every additional minute spent working on a song's direction is a minute spent taking you further away from the original inspiration.

That's when I realized GET THE DAMN THING RECORDED AS FAST AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE. Then you can always go back and do the little ear candy tweaks without taking away from the inspiration. I gotta say, on your song I'm doing now, the essence of the song was locked in after the drums, bass, and scratch vocal. Everything since then has just been putting a nice shiny finish on it while keeping the original inspiration intact smile.gif
I'm quite sure you did

It took about half-an-hour to write and probably 2 hours in total to record and mix biggrin.gif
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Sounds great CA!

Talk to me about the stereo stereo'd guitars. I'm assuming they are duped and panned because the meters seemed to be behaving identically. You have the two stereo pairs panned like this.

ScreenShot2012-12-01at74814PM.png

What is the reasoning behind doing that? Does it sound wider than if you just panned each stereo signal hard opposite......does it still send a hard pan each way but retain some of the actual stereo soundstage of the guitar patch itself...especially when you have stereo chorus on it?

I have never liked the sound of duped tracks panned one side all one way..... and the other to the opposite. It just kills the width and I get no sense of extreme spread at all. In fact...it sounds like wide Mono.......LOL!!!

I LOVE the little nuances you get in real double tracking. I just love big, overdriven, mono guitar tracks double tracked and panned opposite.

But I want to try this.....next time.

What sequencer is that? Logic, Ableton?

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Well, I guess that question is as good a reason for doing videos as any smile.gif

You're right, I was going for a "big guitar sound" and used two separate overdubs (not just duplicating a track). I very rarely pan any instruments instruments hard left or hard right, because even though my music pretty much lives in a virtual world, I want to retain a live vibe and you never hear hard left and right live. But you DO hear ambience all around, so I go for as wide an image as possible on reverb and other ambience effects, both overall (reverb bus) and when I (rarely) use reverb on single tracks.

Panning the two guitars left and right of center gives some "bleed" in the middle that makes a nice bed for the guitar solo when it comes up the middle. I don't know if you can tell from the video but I'm also constantly moving the faders for the guitars with the rhythm of the song - subtle, only a dB or two, but it sure adds life. I also pan the lead very subtly off-center and again, it adds animation.

The DAW is Sonar X2.

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BTW in the next song I'll be posting, which is epic (thanks Mark!!), there's an interesting trick with the background voices. I did two premixes of the song, and transposed one down -1 semitone and the other -2 semitones. I then sang the background part along with each one, and transposed them up +1 and +2 semitones respectively on playback to return to the song's original pitch. It's wild, brings back the days of tape and varispeed smile.gif

Besides, that way I could hit the high notes!

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