New Old Song; "Game Over" - alternative rock/indie.

Bubba po

Bubba po

Tiny Stonehenge Moment
So, back in 1992 in Wakefield, England, some mates had a band called "Cable" and they wrote this song. They promptly split up and the song never got properly recorded or released.

I've never been able to get it out of my head from that day to this - I think it's a lost classic - so I decided to re-record it. The original singer will be re-doing the vocal so in the meantime you have me. :)

As usual, I play the guitars and Frank plays the drums.

I feel an extra guitar part is needed over the middle eight to keep up the energy, but here's the story so far.

I give you "Game Over" - by Andy Micklethwaite and Cable.

Original demo 1991



2016 Recreation:



New Mix:



Version with guitar solo at 4:55:

View attachment Game Over with solo.mp3
 
Last edited:
Definitely a catchy chorus, I see why it's stuck in your head this long. Cool tune.

No mix comments. Sounds good to me, like everything on these phones. :)

:guitar:
 
I take it you were in the band? Instruments all sound fine, good playing. Drums sound very good. The mix is a little muddy. I think it's the bass and one of the guitars that are causing most of your mud. The tones are fine individually, but the combination of them plus whatever FX you have on them is playing havoc with your lower midrange. I'd like to hear the vocal cut through more clearly. Your singing is fine, though in the lower notes of your range your voice loses its power and become indistinct. Maybe dial back the guitars during those parts? My sense was that the guitars were a little oblivious to what the vocal was doing. During the parts where they needed to step back and let the vocal be heard, they kept right on doing their thing or even got louder. A good example of that is the very beginning of the vocal, where a new guitar comes in exactly as you begin to sing. Overall, good work.
 
andrushkiwt said:
Definitely a catchy chorus, I see why it's stuck in your head this long. Cool tune.

No mix comments. Sounds good to me, like everything on these phones. :)

:guitar:
Click to expand...

Robus said:
I take it you were in the band? Instruments all sound fine, good playing. Drums sound very good. The mix is a little muddy. I think it's the bass and one of the guitars that are causing most of your mud. The tones are fine individually, but the combination of them plus whatever FX you have on them is playing havoc with your lower midrange. I'd like to hear the vocal cut through more clearly. Your singing is fine, though in the lower notes of your range your voice loses its power and become indistinct. Maybe dial back the guitars during those parts? My sense was that the guitars were a little oblivious to what the vocal was doing. During the parts where they needed to step back and let the vocal be heard, they kept right on doing their thing or even got louder. A good example of that is the very beginning of the vocal, where a new guitar comes in exactly as you begin to sing. Overall, good work.
Click to expand...

Thanks guys :) Robus, I'll check out those nits on the monitors tomorrow, everything sounds good on the 'phones. :) I wasn't in that band but I became good friends with the singer. They played a couple of times at a venue I used to help to run.
 
Saw Robus' comment about the muddiness and I didn't agree until the chorus comes in. Now I agree. I think the rest is very close if not perfect. There is always a fine line between mud and weight. I am guilty of cutting too much a lot of the time personally.

Toms up.

Drums sound great.

Playing, feel, timing and groove is great all around, as is expected.

Can't help but feel like the musical break section could use something else. I am wanting a heavier guitar there, or a lead, or a new instrument introduced into the song or something. Not sure what, but 'something'.

Cool tune, and I think this is an absolutely brilliant idea. I am thinking back to some of the bands I hung with in the 90's and many of them had one or two absolutely killer tracks that for sure could classify as 'lost classics'. A couple bands 'made it' to the national level but didn't garner a whole lot of attention, but most just broke up, got 'real' jobs, became baby-daddies and stuff. You know... life happened.
 
kindafishy said:
Saw Robus' comment about the muddiness and I didn't agree until the chorus comes in. Now I agree. I think the rest is very close if not perfect. There is always a fine line between mud and weight. I am guilty of cutting too much a lot of the time personally.

Toms up.

Drums sound great.

Playing, feel, timing and groove is great all around, as is expected.

Can't help but feel like the musical break section could use something else. I am wanting a heavier guitar there, or a lead, or a new instrument introduced into the song or something. Not sure what, but 'something'.

Cool tune, and I think this is an absolutely brilliant idea. I am thinking back to some of the bands I hung with in the 90's and many of them had one or two absolutely killer tracks that for sure could classify as 'lost classics'. A couple bands 'made it' to the national level but didn't garner a whole lot of attention, but most just broke up, got 'real' jobs, became baby-daddies and stuff. You know... life happened.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much Kindafishy. :D

I totally agree that the break section needs something, I mentioned it in my opening post. I'm thinking at least one "heavy" guitar. I'll probably drag the JVM out and crank it for that. :D Regarding the mud, cutting the bass frequencies buggers up the richness of the intro so I will probably have to automate the eq - something I've never attempted before - although I did automate the FX send for the snare reverb for the first hit of the choruses this time and that worked really well.
 
Sounds good to me. I could hear what Robus is hearing though - perhaps you could differentiate instruments a little more for the loud sections.

The end has a very nice balance IMO.
 
It's cool. I really like it. The sotto voc parts remind me of those bits often done by Deaf School though they did them tongue in cheek. Sonically and vocally it reminds me of an Oz band from the same time frame - Died Pretty.
I don't hear mud I hear depth and density but I often get told my mixes are muddy - my ears aren't much chop I assume.
The snare could come up a bit in the late build part but then a solo'd fill that space.
 
ibleedburgundy said:
Sounds good to me. I could hear what Robus is hearing though - perhaps you could differentiate instruments a little more for the loud sections.

The end has a very nice balance IMO.
Click to expand...

rayc said:
It's cool. I really like it. The sotto voc parts remind me of those bits often done by Deaf School though they did them tongue in cheek. Sonically and vocally it reminds me of an Oz band from the same time frame - Died Pretty.
I don't hear mud I hear depth and density but I often get told my mixes are muddy - my ears aren't much chop I assume.
The snare could come up a bit in the late build part but then a solo'd fill that space.
Click to expand...


Thanks, chaps. :) IBB, I'll continue to try to tweak more clarity into the mix.

Ray, not heard of that band but I might seek them out!
 
This is a cool tune Bubba and nice to bring it back from the dead. If you hadn't mentioned the original singer coming in to do the vocals, I'd have suggested bringing them up in the mix - your take sounds good other than being a little low. Can definitely hear a guitar solo in that section you mention.

The only thing that caught me as off was the muddy frequency from the lower end of the phasey effects pedal in the guitar in the intro - like there's something between around 100-150Hz ish that's kind of booming? Good playing throughout though :)
 
I like it. It needs some work, but I like it. Anything you can do to bring up the "build" till it finally comes to an end would be good. like bad sex, in the bridge section it 'almost' hits climax, then peters out. No one came. Get that orgasm, then bring it back down. :D You were almost there.

Mix wise, this is a song that is screaming for automation or fader rides. The vocal can be too up front, then too in the rear.

Anyway I realize this is a work in progress, so carry on. Good so far.
 
I think that it sounds good. I like your voice, you sound like the dude from the Clash. Cool song, it's kind of like The Clash meets The Wrens.

I dunno about the sparkling clean guitars that are panned out wide, they need a little something. Not like distortion or crunch or anything, but maybe a little tape saturation or something subtle like that? Just to de-sterilize them a bit? Actually, when the right-hand guitar starts digging in during the chorus, it doesn't sound so clean. Maybe its the chorus effect on the clean guitars that gives me the impression of that sterile squeaky clean kind of thing. But it was written in '92 so I might give a pass to the chorus effect even though I genuinely detest that effect :D
 
Definitely that right-side guitar needs to be side-chained during the spoken verse vocal parts. I'm not a fan of the reverb that's on the vocal in the choruses, it makes the voice sound in a different place. If its the same reverb during hte spoken part, it works for that I agree that the spoken vocal is a little indistinct/muddy - I think just a little EQ would help it.
A good distorted guitar playing just a single note line the same as the other guitars during the first part of the middle 8, followed by a short lead when the vocal stops in that middle 8 would be good.
Good song!
 
I've been holding off from doing any more than was originally present on the song, as I feel that I ought not to interfere with the original, but it's becoming apparent that some extra guitar and a building solo is needed. I'm going to have a go at that in the next couple of days. Thanks everyone for all your useful comments. Check out the original singer's voice on the 1991 demo version in the op for comparison. :)
 
very nice song!

In my opinion the panning of the guitars threw me a bit off while wearing headphones. I it were me I would bring them a bit more to the center. not totally centered but let bleed a bit of each guitar to the other side to give more balance.

what i didn't like is the bass tone. I think many said it sounded muddy and I think this is the reason. Perhaps a tone that can give more definition or tightness to the bass would add clarity to the mix. As it is the bass almost sounds blurry to me.

anyway this are just details, good work all around.
 
Very loving reproduction of a cool song.. enjoyed both listens. There are some places where it gets full during the chorus, and I'd like to hear maybe a grittier guitar to drive it more, but I understand you wanting to be faithful to the original. Overall pretty tough to critique, at least in my current listening environment.
 
Thanks Fedepatane and Fat Fleet. :D

I'm still working on a solo for the build-up part, but I've added a second crunch guitar and remixed with a view to clearing out the mud and leaving more space for the vocal. Also waiting for until early August for the proper singer. :D

I'm off on my holidays to Portugal in the morning, so I won't be doing any recording for at least a week! I'm taking the computer with me, though -so I can respond to comments. :)

New mix:

 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top