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klaasvakie

I'll follow your lead on publishing my method for creating the track as posted above.

I use Ardour as a DAW, which means I can't use mp3 or WAV when importing. So I had to go with the AAC format (first time actually doing a project on it).

Every instrument + vocals was recorded with my phone (I had to turn my amp down for the mic not distort ? ).
Vocals was tricky as well because the mic couldn't really handle the noise - Hence the compression + reverb to soften the blow, so to speak. Uploaded the recorded tracks to a cloud storage and pasted it in the DAW. Aligned it with the bpm grid - and Bob was my uncle.

The acoustic solos was a last minute addition, could've done more with it, but ended up throwing it in there. The last part of the song included 2 different solos stacked, and it was a complete accident that they kinda worked together. There might be a note or two clashing, but I like to think of myself as a aspiring Jazz Muso xD.

Lastly, at just after 2 min you can hear a "jys vieslik" coming through the mix. A certain someone in my household didn't appreciate my singing style and decided to express it whilst I was recording - Also the reason why I didn't redo the vocals.

I've learnt quite a bit doing this exercise.
@Yeti Nice challenge, it got quite the response.

    To jump on the band wagon, here’s the process I followed for this track:

    I recorded my track in Garage Band on a MacBook.
    I started with the vocal tracks that I had recorded previously (I had performed it on stage as part of a show, hence it’s quite dramatic) and had the original backing track in as a reference.

    My initial thought was to work through the various parts of the original and swap them out with something new one by one. I started with the synths that run through the song and recorded my equivalent on guitar and bass. In the original the main movement is the top note, I switched that around so that was in the bass and played palm muted power chords on my tele. I also laid down a second bass track beneath everything else to give some depth.

    I then selected a drummer from the built-in garage band library and tweaked the generated track until I was happy with the progression.

    This more or less established a new ‘backing track’ and I turned to the lead guitar, for which I used the JB on my Brian Moore.
    I stared by noodling over the solo verse in the middle and developed something I was happy with over a few takes. I went back to the intro and recorded a simplified version, then went to the outro and recorded an embellished version. I did end up modifying this original seed quite extensively, which was hard because I liked it, but it was good for the track.
    I then recorded a version of the original’s lead guitar (excluding solos) over the original backing track and added it with a softer spread chorus and delay effect. I wanted it to be present but not dominant. I also tweaked the bridges slightly.

    Finally, I went through a few rounds of balancing and tweaking to get everything sitting together nicely (vocals gave me some trouble) and gave it a sprinkling of master faery dust with compressors, brighteners, etc.
    All guitar sounds, etc. are native to garage band with relatively little change.

    The result is a little more produced than I really would prefer but this is a natural effect of not having the time (or chops) to learn all the parts properly and having to rely on quantization, etc. to pull it all together.

    I have two main criticisms of my own work.
    1) Overall the sound lacks a bit of high end punch, which (I think) comes down to the melody instruments and vocals being mids heavy… I suspect this is why most rock and metal guitar solos venture up the neck. It may also be influenced by the fact that the track is down a tone and a half on the original (I’m not Freddy) but I haven’t changed the arrangement that much.
    2) The overall sound is pretty homogenous and there isn’t as much movement as I’d like from start to finish. In retrospect, I could have bled the main rhythm sound in more slowly at the beginning and modified it in the last verse or so, but this didn’t really occur to me because I wanted to follow the synth in the original… or maybe I should have just added a rap verse.

    If anyone has any feedback (workflow, production or performance), I'd love to hear it ?

    Heh... that ended up being a bit of a wall of text. ?

    RCVN Nice challenge, it got quite the response.
    Cheers. ? It does seems to have raised some interest.

      I may as well add my bit
      1. I replaced by pickup in my Faith Venus (Shadow) with a LR Baggs Anthem. The shadow started buzzing and Bothners could not get it right. Supurb pickups
      2. Thanks to Ultimate Guitar I found a brilliant Guitar Pro tab. I downloaded this and opened it in guitar pro 7. Brilliant tool for learning tabs
      3. I recorded the Faith straight into a Focusrite 18i8 using Reaper
      4. The left track is Capoed on 5th, the right normal. I added Bass smack in the middle. I used Guitar pro and created the track and added the notes. You can export Guitar Pro to Midi, which is then opened in Reaper
      5. I used a simple drum track to give timing while recording, and I also slowed it down a bit to make help with the accuracy and clarity. The drum track was muted for the rendering
      6. To give the guitars a depth you duplicate the track, then adjust the one far left and the other far right. You then simply nudge the one track sound item forward in 5ms steps and suddenly at about 10 to 15 ms the track miraculously becomes stereo. It is awesome, give the guitars a wide sound. To keep the two guitars distinct I had one set far left and middle, and the other far right and middle. NOTE Make sure the recording is a single unit, i.e. glue it together first so you can move it in one piece
      7. I used a little compression and EQ the Guitars/Bass and voice to give them each their own space in the freq spectrum
      8. The voice is recorded using a Rode NT1A Condenser Mic. I built a sound booth using electrical plastic tubing covered in thick duvets/blankets as a sound proof booth. I call it Blanket Studios hehe
      9. Voice has slight reverb to give a more lively sound. I manually adjusted the volumes of the phrases to equalise the volume across the recording and to reduce pops,(p's and t's and essss sounds)
      10. Final mix has Multi Band compression and and slight reverb. and volumes are boosted up to standard levels using a limiter (cant recall the name at the moment but it is a free vst)

      morph That's a good plan, I'll try it next time. When recording vocals I've deadening my room by hanging camping mattresses off coat hangers. ?

        My process:
        I set up BIAB to generate a soloist track and piano in midi file, exported that to Cakewalk and fixed some notes on the piano roll. Took bloody ages and 600 listens...
        Once in Cakewalk, i created an instrument track with VST plugin and copied the midi track for the plug to follow the notes. (Then for fixing and effects) only then did I record the guitar track with a Fender acoustic. The intent was not to copy my idol Mr Clapton, but to do something recognisable but different. Once the recording was done I inserted pro channel effects. Doubled the guitar track and used delay and echo on each track respectively. Placed compression on all the tracks and mixed down to final.
        VST plugs used:
        Cakewalk SI bass
        Cakewalk SI piano
        Spitfire electric piano
        Band in a Box drums

        Really enjoyed this challenge in terms of using software and using the DAW instruments and effects. Looking forward to the next one...

        morph what a great idea! Thinking PVC cage and redundant army sleeping bags ?

            Too true, I can't keep my 7 y/o grandson out of it. The left and right sides are all glued together, the tubes over the top and down the dack interconnecting the two sides are not, so I can take it apart and store it against a wall or in the garage

            If you are going to build one, I recommend you use a thicker pvc tube, this is electrical conduit and it is not stable enough with heavy blankets. I would use 40/50mm drain tubing, you will need 8 right angles, 14 T-pieces, there are two bars across the top, two across the back and one across the floor at the back. Keeping it open at the bottom in the front means you can roll a chair in there I guess

            morph If you are going to build one

            Maybe do a DIY thread? ?

                Here is how i went about my recording..

                Created a drum track using powerdrums2 using some grooves i thought would work. Copied these into the midi track on cubase. I then adjusted beats per min.

                Next up was just a quick n dirty rhythm track just to orientate me on bass.
                I then tracked the bass. Deleted the rhythm guitar, and then setup a clean tone using a tele style. I then double tracked using a different clean tone and a strat style. Both has a touch of delay and reverb. Amp sims were a twin reverb and jc120.

                Then grabbed the lp on neck pup and randomly noodled over the track. I chose take 2.
                Then i done vocals track.. and to fill gaps, got the mrs and peanut to do some cameos.

                Then attempted mixing. initially panned the guitars but in the end left them centred.

                Listened to the play back and felt it was missing something. So grabbed a tambourine and tracked that. Blended it into the backgroumd to just add some noise.

                All guitars had compression.

                Drums had neutral attack.. bass got extra treble.
                The lead tone had an orange sim with gain low and vol high into a 2x12 brit cab sim. Got a natural breakup.

                Vocals got a 18db boost

                7 days later

                Thanks to all the entrants, voters and commentators! Rocking challenge this month!

                Well done @klaasvakie, though I think everyone take a bow this month, all entries were real good.

                The next challenge is up, check it out out here

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