Surrender - Greg's cheap cover of a Cheap Trick song

Greg_L

Banned
Just did a lot of work on one of my amps, wanted to record some loud ass tracks with it, so I knocked this bitch out just for fun. :guitar:

Lemme know what you think. :listeningmusic:

Thanks,
Greg

Surrender
 
My favorite Cheap Trick song, that is just one fun song. I prefer the vocals up a bit. Other than that, not bad for knocking one out.
 
Sounds great ! The mix is very good, the guitars really work nicely, the mix has a fresh sound to it. It sounds good up-tempo, the way you did it is more like a live tempo than the studio version.

We used to cover this tune in high school, its a lot of fun to play, especially those bar chords that open up the verses.

What is the guitar chain you used ?
 
Haha awesome dude. Sounds great to me. I think the harmony vox on the chorus and the lead guitar could come up a bit though!
 
Sounds absolutely awesome. Great mix. I love this tune, great choice for a cover. I like some of the arrangement choices you made, like the guitars and drums punching together at certain points that they don't do in the original. There's really not a thing wrong with this. Diggin' the wah, too.
 
If you just knocked this out, you should knock yourself out knocking out some more. This just sounds really really good. The guitar solo's actually exciting.
 
Epic!
At 1:50 are you just doing simple arpeggios in the right and a single note climb with wah in the left??
I double/triple taked 'cos the combination made it sound like you were doing some really quick lead there! Still can't decide...

Vocals are tip top. Real professional sound, Greg!
 
My favorite Cheap Trick song, that is just one fun song. I prefer the vocals up a bit. Other than that, not bad for knocking one out.
Thanks a lot dude. :)
Sounds great ! The mix is very good, the guitars really work nicely, the mix has a fresh sound to it. It sounds good up-tempo, the way you did it is more like a live tempo than the studio version.

We used to cover this tune in high school, its a lot of fun to play, especially those bar chords that open up the verses.

What is the guitar chain you used ?
Thanks man. I always did think the song was too slow! :D
But who am I to question Cheap Trick? I'm nobody. It's their song. I just did it the way I want it.

All of the guitar tracks (4 in total) are a Les Paul Traditional into a 1979 Marshall JMP 2204 into two Marshall 1960 4x12 cabs. Full stack, monster volume. My dream scenario. Each cab is X-patterned with different speakers. The A cab has Greenbacks and G12-65s. The B cab has G12T-75s and Vintage 30s. Um, let's see....I'll have to check my notes for specifics, but this is what I remember...
Left rhythm is amp volume fully cranked, gain low, Audix i5 on a Greenback speaker.
Right rhythm is same with a little more gain dialed in and a 57 on a Greenback.
The wah lead track is, I believe, the same as the left rhythm track, but with a Dunlop Crybaby 535Q in front, which has a booster button built in and engaged for this one.
And the little accent guitar part is the same as the right rhythm track, but with a 57 on a G12T-75 speaker.
All of the tracks are one mic on one speaker in one take.

I used the same amp tone settings for each track, and no EQ or processing was done in the DAW on the guitar tracks. This is exactly as the sound hit the mic. That was my main goal for this. All I did was mic different speakers with a couple of different mics and juggle the gain and volume on the amp. A little bit of reverb was added to the lead and accent tracks.


Haha awesome dude. Sounds great to me. I think the harmony vox on the chorus and the lead guitar could come up a bit though!
Ok thanks dude. I agree on the harmonies and maybe on the lead guitar. I don't know if I'm gonna remix it or not, but I do agree with you there. :)

Sounds absolutely awesome. Great mix. I love this tune, great choice for a cover. I like some of the arrangement choices you made, like the guitars and drums punching together at certain points that they don't do in the original. There's really not a thing wrong with this. Diggin' the wah, too.
Ha, thanks dude. Besides the wah stuff, I didn't really set out to do a different arrangement. I was just going off memory. I thought that's how it was. I didn't study the original before taking this thing on. I have to say I like my way better. :D
 
If you just knocked this out, you should knock yourself out knocking out some more. This just sounds really really good. The guitar solo's actually exciting.
Cool thanks. :guitar:

Epic!
At 1:50 are you just doing simple arpeggios in the right and a single note climb with wah in the left??
I double/triple taked 'cos the combination made it sound like you were doing some really quick lead there! Still can't decide...

Vocals are tip top. Real professional sound, Greg!

Thanks a lot man. I don't know what the fuck an arpeggio is. Let me see if I can answer you....on that one section you mentioned, at 1:50, the rhythm guitars just bang the chords and they ring out. So that's them out of the way. Along with that, a little off to the right is a little repetitive accent thing that's supposed to mimic what I believe a keyboard is doing in the original. And then on top of all that I did this hammer-on-pull-off ala Angus Young thing up the G-string ending with the bend while riding the wah to the tempo. I don't know what it is, some scale I guess. The hammered notes go up the neck and the pull offs are the open G. It just sounded good to me with the wah warbling underneath it so I did it. :wtf:
 
Thanks a lot man. I don't know what the fuck an arpeggio is. Let me see if I can answer you....on that one section you mentioned, at 1:50, the rhythm guitars just bang the chords and they ring out. So that's them out of the way. Along with that, a little off to the right is a little repetitive accent thing that's supposed to mimic what I believe a keyboard is doing in the original. And then on top of all that I did this hammer-on-pull-off ala Angus Young thing up the G-string ending with the bend while riding the wah to the tempo. I don't know what it is, some scale I guess. The hammered notes go up the neck and the pull offs are the open G. It just sounded good to me with the wah warbling underneath it so I did it. :wtf:

Ah, cool. Thanks for that.
I thought it might have been simpler than it sounded, but I wasn't sure. :facepalm:

Kick ass tune + recording man.
 
Thanks man. I always did think the song was too slow! :D
But who am I to question Cheap Trick? I'm nobody. It's their song. I just did it the way I want it.

All of the guitar tracks (4 in total) are a Les Paul Traditional into a 1979 Marshall JMP 2204 into two Marshall 1960 4x12 cabs. Full stack, monster volume. My dream scenario. Each cab is X-patterned with different speakers. The A cab has Greenbacks and G12-65s. The B cab has G12T-75s and Vintage 30s. Um, let's see....I'll have to check my notes for specifics, but this is what I remember...
Left rhythm is amp volume fully cranked, gain low, Audix i5 on a Greenback speaker.
Right rhythm is same with a little more gain dialed in and a 57 on a Greenback.
The wah lead track is, I believe, the same as the left rhythm track, but with a Dunlop Crybaby 535Q in front, which has a booster button built in and engaged for this one.
And the little accent guitar part is the same as the right rhythm track, but with a 57 on a G12T-75 speaker.
All of the tracks are one mic on one speaker in one take.

I used the same amp tone settings for each track, and no EQ or processing was done in the DAW on the guitar tracks. This is exactly as the sound hit the mic. That was my main goal for this. All I did was mic different speakers with a couple of different mics and juggle the gain and volume on the amp. A little bit of reverb was added to the lead and accent tracks.

Interesting, the only time I ever got an electric guitar sound on tape I liked, was at Unique Recording Studio in Manhattan, the engineer mic'ed up a 50 watt plexi 4x12 cab and let me play really loud. I always choose sims over small amps, and yet theres a lot of guys (and famous records) that are done with small amps.

Do you have a theory on why you like to track loud?
 
Interesting, the only time I ever got an electric guitar sound on tape I liked, was at Unique Recording Studio in Manhattan, the engineer mic'ed up a 50 watt plexi 4x12 cab and let me play really loud. I always choose sims over small amps, and yet theres a lot of guys (and famous records) that are done with small amps.

Do you have a theory on why you like to track loud?

Yeah I do have a theory - because it's fucking awesome. :D

For me and my amps, we like it loud. My amps like to be loud. I like to play them loud. That's where they sound like they're supposed to sound. I know it's possible and quite common to get good tracks with sims and small amps, or big amps at low volume, but I don't want to do that. I'm a weirdo for doing things the purist way. I'm not really a purist, but I want to make good tracks by using sound fundamentals and being 100% legit and honest and transparent. There are practical legitimate reasons for me to be loud. For one, amps like mine like to be loud. They have power sections that contribute to the sound. Especially old amps like the one I used for this song. Most of the classic "Marshall sound" comes from loudness and getting the power sections involved. There is a huge sonic difference between a lot of gain and low volume, and a little gain and big volume. Big volume is better. Not a lot of gain, just a lot of loud. Think of any famous rock guitar player known for great tone. Every one of them did it loudly. Hendrix, EVH, Angus, anyone. Loud as hell. Secondly, I think speakers need to pump some air to sound their best. Speakers at low volumes sound stiff to me. I've heard guitar tracks here in the clinic in which I've told the poster "dude your tracks sound low volume". And they respond with "yeah it was TV volume". Turn that shit up. I don't have golden ears or anything, but I can usually tell. A speaker breaking up has this warm, flattened, smoother kind of sound to it. It doesn't sound like vibrating paper anymore. It sounds musical. And when speakers are kicking out some soundwaves and moving air around, it all slams into a mic, and that translates into the mix. Loud guitar tracks seem to have more punch and depth to me. And really, like I said, it's just fun as hell. I don't care what anyone says - I'll go to my grave KNOWING that plugging a Les Paul into a real Marshall stack is cooler and more fun than plugging into an interface and pulling up Amplitube.
 
Sounds real good....and even though it's not a pure nockoff, your take on the songs works very well. :cool:

Yeah....I agree....loud guitars/amps do something that sims and small wattage amps don't....they MOVE the speaker, and move the air, and that moves the sound more around the room and then it all moves into mic with a different energy than a 5W amp going fizzzzzzz or whatever.

I messed around with attenuators and very low wattage amps for awhile, and yeah, you can get nice tones with them....but they never sound quite like an amp played LOUD!
These days I tend to record most guitar tracks at louder levels. I like it that way much better, and I can get away with it at my place, and I've got headphones on so it's not killing my ears....I mean, just 'cuz you track loud doesn't mean you have to listen to it at that level. :)

Anyway....nice job on the tune. I always liked that Cheap Trick song. :thumbs up:
 
Here's the family. This is my mid life crisis. :facepalm:

There you go boasting about your midlife crisis. But sometimes this site is worth it:

"Do you have a theory on why you like to track loud?

"Yeah I do have a theory - because it's fucking awesome.
 
Just COOOL.
I used to play this in a Power Pop band in the early 80's.
It's a terrific song.
We didn't sound this good because we didn't play LOUDly.
I really enjoyed the wah additions.
Good stuff.
 
Not sure if I'm repeating this correctly but Pete Townsend said that when guitars and bass are played at extremely loud levels they produce more harmonics, more layers of notes are floating around the original note you play, therefore there is more music/notes coming out (in fact)

The Who asked him to go on tour like around 1989. He said sure as long as we don't go over 100db. They all said sure no problem. He said you guys don't get it, at that level, half the sound will be missing. So he brought in horns, backup singers, etc etc. to fill in for the lack of volume and Harmonics. Interesting perspective if its true.
 
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Nice job, Greg. I think you've upped your game a little here. I'd prefer the rhythms spread more evenly, but that's no biggie. Love the backing vocals at the end, but they seemed to drown the lead vocal a little when they came in double time. I've never heard the original, so can't compare. Awesome stuff!
 
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