Members wheresgrant3 Posted October 22, 2004 Members Share Posted October 22, 2004 Originally posted by wheresgrant3 on 10-22-2004 09:24 AM I know many of you hate covers... but hatred aside, if you were asked to compliment a live performance of Nine Inch Nail's "Head like A Hole" with a four other players (bass, guitar, vocals, drummer) how would you approach it. For the record I have tried playing this song with other bands and it was never really "there". This band it's teetering on the brink of actually being listenable. It's definately tight, and despite not having and electronic drums, our drummer hits all the cues right on target. For me the big emptiness is in the sounds and sample department. I don't expect to recreate the same soundscape that Reznor and Co. does with all of the proprietary samples, however I just can seem to find the right combination of "noise" and sounds to fill in the gaps. Opinions? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ EDIT 1-14-05 Well I finally have a live clip of us performing this song in a club. I just got back a slew of songs we had recorded for club demos. These were just rough mixes taken off the sound board using an ADAT recorder. It starts off into the end of Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer and then quickly shifts into "HLAH". (Don't laugh... the crowd really digs it) Head Like a Hole-Live clip I'm really 50/50 on what I like and what I hate about how we play this tune. I feel like it flows pretty well until the chorus, then it just falls apart like bread crumbs. I'm trying to fill it up as much as possible. Here is what I'm playing Verse: Triton Le Fat pad sustained using a pedal for that Pedal tone effect XP30: JP Stack playing the stabs Chorus: MS2000 Fat rez stab arpeggiator at 120bpm XP30: Ambient Story pad (for angelic voice effect) I sampled the end og the NIN song (and I mistakenly played a beeper sample) I know I'll take a bashing by some Reznor purists. Some people will I'm sure nitpick our singer, guitar tone, the timing etc... I'm more interested in opinions on the arrangement and sounds used. I'll go find my flame retardent suit and you guys let me know what you think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members oddbods finger Posted October 22, 2004 Members Share Posted October 22, 2004 .....that's 22.86 Centimeter Nails for us Europeans:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jigg Posted October 22, 2004 Members Share Posted October 22, 2004 Try changing the rhythm a little on the guitar lead line. Something more like a triplet ala Metallica, with a very open hi-hat on the intro. Just a thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Loreman Posted October 22, 2004 Members Share Posted October 22, 2004 wheresgrant3 Hey I'm into NIN. From what I understand Trent Reznor pretty much re-interprets his stuff anyway when he performs live, so you're pretty much following along his ethos... Can you get any of his live performances on Cd or DVD? May be worth a look to see just how he overcomes some of those studio processed sounds, onto the stage. Good Luck though, I imagine it aint an easy task. Hey if you do it can you post a copy of your live performance? I'd love to hear what you do. Best o'lLuck Loreman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cybermooks Posted October 22, 2004 Members Share Posted October 22, 2004 Reznor signature sound is from an OB MX, which hardly anyone has. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wheresgrant3 Posted October 22, 2004 Author Members Share Posted October 22, 2004 Originally posted by cybermooks Reznor signature sound is from an OB MX, which hardly anyone has. I know.... it sounds so FAT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cybermooks Posted October 22, 2004 Members Share Posted October 22, 2004 Interesting you say that since there are constant misstatments that it is thin, echoing a few early opinions. I have one and it is not; just need to work a big batch of controls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ExplodingBoy Posted October 22, 2004 Members Share Posted October 22, 2004 I'd approach it verrrrry carefully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members drowse Posted October 22, 2004 Members Share Posted October 22, 2004 Do what you can do with it.. My band has performed in the past.. Hurt, Wish, A Warm Place and We're In This Together.. and I'd honestly say that none of them sounded NIN'y but with 2 guitars and one synth player.. (and bass & drums & vox of course).. it got as close as we could get it.. and it sounded pretty good.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members J3RK Posted October 22, 2004 Members Share Posted October 22, 2004 So is it a cover of Nine Inch Nails' Head Like a Hole, or is it a cover of NIN's cover of a Devo song? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wishfulsinful909 Posted October 22, 2004 Members Share Posted October 22, 2004 If you're covering that song with the traditional 4 man band setup, I would try to make it as dirty sounding as possible. Fuzz Bass! And wah/q-tron action to get thatwattery flow of the main melody Dirty Fuzz Guitar! Trash can lids for the drummer? That should help a little with the "emptiness", I think! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hyperstationjr Posted October 22, 2004 Members Share Posted October 22, 2004 I would probably try adding Fuzz and a tiny big of Reverb to the Bass. The guitar, LOTS of Fuzz/distortion. Before the guita part come in on the Chorus, maybe have another fuzz/distortion on that cuts most of the low freq. and maybe play with pick scratching and banging the guitars body, maybe with some delay/reverb, see how that works for noise? You could probably make the synth sound during the "Bow down before the one you serve..." section with guitar, a really good filter and delay (set at moderate speed, withhigh feedback and output, but with the guitar volume lowered). try that while speed picking. I use that to make really lush "synthy" sounds with my Super Phaser and DD3. And yeah, I agree, try throwing in weird stuff with the drum set, trash cans, jugs, whatever.... Bob Burt has a c--k ring in one of his sets along with car parts.. go buck nutty... Hope that helps... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members void Posted October 22, 2004 Members Share Posted October 22, 2004 Live the arrangment is made up of 3 guitars(reznor, lohner, finck) keys and drums, the bass is on tape. have you tried downloading a midi file to see if you can track down some of the stuff your missing as far as note data? on a side note: cybermooks, which signiture sound are you referring to? the OB-MX didnt arrive until 1994, the sounds your hear on pretty hate machine are all prophet VS, Obie Xpander, minimoog or EmaxII. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wheresgrant3 Posted January 14, 2005 Author Members Share Posted January 14, 2005 Well I finally have a live clip of us performing this song. I just got back a slew of songs we had recorded for club demos. These were just rough mixes taken off the sound board using an ADAT recorder. It starts off into the end of Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer and then quickly shifts into "HLAH". (Don't laugh... the crowd really digs it) Head Like a Hole-Live clip I'm really 50/50 on what I like and what I hate about how we play this tune. I feel like it flows pretty well until the chorus, then it just falls apart like bread crumbs. I'm trying to fill it up as much as possible. Here is what I'm playing Verse: Triton Le Fat pad sustained using a pedal for that Pedal tone effect XP30: JP Stack playing the stabs Chorus: MS2000 Fat rez stab arpeggiator at 120bpm XP30: Ambient Story pad (for angelic voice effect) I sampled the end og the NIN song (and I mistakenly played a beeper sample) I know I'll take a bashing by some Reznor purists. Some people will I'm sure nitpick our singer, guitar tone, the timing etc... I'm more interested in opinions on the arrangement and sounds used. I'll go find my flame retardent suit and you guys let me know what you think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mike51 Posted January 14, 2005 Members Share Posted January 14, 2005 how about a crap load of noise samples that create a wall? Run the guitars through a {censored}load of fuzz and distortion, and play them behind the wall of noise that you have in the sampler. Put your own twist on it. But I think you want as little space in between the instruments as possible. It seems any pause or "sunlight" in the wall of sound on that song is the downer that will make it sound poor live and more like hokey common prog rock instead of cutting edge electronica. you could slow it down ,use just the drummers bass drum and put more emotion into it, but you would still need the big wall of effects. Layer a bunch of samples up in your Triton or from a laptop and have them run throughout the song. I think you will always win with that song as long as you can keep it incredibly noisy and as messed up as possible,with no empty space or holes. Get rid of the space. Just use the hi hat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mike51 Posted January 14, 2005 Members Share Posted January 14, 2005 wheresgrant nice job man! Glad to see the LE is working for you. I would yank the guitar solo and just use the ride. Replace the guitar solo with some crazy synth noise. Nice job man, cool to hear your band. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wheresgrant3 Posted January 14, 2005 Author Members Share Posted January 14, 2005 Originally posted by Mike51 wheresgrant nice job man! Glad to see the LE is working for you.I would yank the guitar solo and just use the ride. Replace the guitar solo with some crazy synth noise.Nice job man, cool to hear your band. Well actually... the LE is temporarily out of commission. I powered it up after vacation and I don't have any power to it. I should pick up a new power supply tonite... hopefully that is the issue. Anyway, thanks for the input. I agree... I think our guitarist should lay back a little and add a little more to the rhythm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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