Surrender - Greg's cheap cover of a Cheap Trick song
- Thread starter Greg_L
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heatmiser
mr. green christmas
No kidding. You are all about guitars these days...fixing/modding amps, dialing in tones...shit, you're more into guitars than most guitarists!
Why was that? I thought you hated that shit? Did you think it mirrored the sound on the original more, or were you just messing around trying stuff out?
paddedcell
Doggy Claws
I've been a died-in-the-wool Trick fan for decades, and your arrangement is a tin bitch! Crunchy! I love it!
The backing vocal harmonies are really good; I'd probably bring them up a little, but really, there's nothing wrong with this as-is to my ears.
The backing vocal harmonies are really good; I'd probably bring them up a little, but really, there's nothing wrong with this as-is to my ears.
Cool man, thank you.
Ugh, I know! I did start out on guitar though. That was my first foray into playing music. All of my grimy high school punk bands had me on guitar. In here and out there, most people think of me as a drummer first nowadays, and that's cool. I love playing the drums. I taught myself on my sister's kit way way back in the day because I thought it'd be fun. Turns out, everyone needs a drummer and that's what I became. After high school/early college, I've only been a drummer or bassist. Guitar took a back seat for a long long time and I guess I'm just playing catch up.
I do hate that shit. I was just messing around. I like moongels, but the rings are way too aggressive in their muffling. They kill everything. I found these rings under my couch and threw one on the snare just because it's been forever since I used one. Cover songs are my guinea pigs for trying different things.
Cool, thanks dude.I've been a died-in-the-wool Trick fan for decades, and your arrangement is a tin bitch! Crunchy! I love it!
The backing vocal harmonies are really good; I'd probably bring them up a little, but really, there's nothing wrong with this as-is to my ears.
dainbramage
New member
Sounds absolutely fucking awesome. I have nothing else to add.
dainbramage
New member
The sound is really professional, even more so on this one than the others you have uploaded. How do you do that? It's a mystery to me because you don't seem to use a lot of processing (EQ, compression etc). Do you have tons of acoustic treatment? Is it all mic placement and mixing technique? Where exactly do you place your 57's on the speakers? Close-mic? And how the fuck are you able to crank those Marshalls without disturbing the whole neighborhood? I can barely even play at TV-volumes without disturbing anyone. I've got a drumset too, but there's no way I could play it due to neighboors. Do you live in a bunkers?
jonny deep
Disappointing Member
Check out The New Tone Thread in the guitars section of this forum, it's pretty much all in there.
Lol. Thanks a lot man. Are those rhetorical questions? I'll try to answer anyway while my coffee kicks in because I got nothing else to do right now....
I do not live in a bunker. I live in a brick house in a nice quiet (besides me) suburban Houston neighborhood. I can be pretty damn loud and not disturb anyone. Or maybe I do, but in ten years of living here no one's complained. I'm not loud at odd hours though. I'm only loud during daylight hours. My room is treated pretty well. I'm just like most home recorders in that I track and mix in the same room. The mixing aspect is more important to me, so while my room isn't ideal for tracking live, it's not totally terrible, and it's quite good for mixing. I track very dry. I'm not a fan of room mics and stuff, and it works out because my room is super dry anyway. I do have a large, very high ceiling entryway in my house, and it's right outside of my little man-cave "studio", so when I do want that big room sound, I just roll my shit out there for a little bit.
But that's only part of it because I spend a great deal of time, and I can't stress this enough, I spend a great deal of time and effort and money on really good gear and having it sound bad ass before the sound even hits a microphone. Tracking and mixing is pretty damn easy when you're dealing with good sounds to begin with. I know it's cliche and vague, but that's really all there is to it. Most home recordings would be vastly improved if the creator used better sounds to begin with. There was one dude in here pretty recently, I can't remember who, and he had a bad ass guitar sound. Pretty overdriven, but a really nice and clean capture. It sounded pretty awesome to me. And if I remember correctly, it was just one guitar track. His band recorded live, one guitar, one bass, and drums. Vocals overdubbed later. Sounded awesome. So I asked him, "Hey what's your guitar setup?" He answered, and not at all to my surprise, it was if I recall correctly a P-90 Les Paul into a Marshall DSL into a 1960 cab with a single 57 out front. Bam. Simple. Duh! No tricks, no gimmicks, no stupid complicated tracking or mixing techniques. Just a good sound hitting a microphone.
So yeah, for me, I try for good sounds. My mic placements are simple. I use one mic on one speaker (close mic, dustcap/cone junction or just outside the dustcap is my go-to spot). One mic on each drum. Spaced pair overheads. I'm not reinventing the wheel. My process is relatively caveman. I don't have a mixing technique. I just mix. Maybe that sounds smug and douchey? I don't know how else to describe it. There is no technique. I just move faders and panners until I like it. If I feel it needs some EQ or compression or reverb or whatever, I do it. I don't follow any rules, but I don't do things to the mix just because I can either. I feel that too many home recorders way overcook their mixes.
Going back to the mixing environment thing, I think people just don't have good listening environments and they use a lot of DAW processes just because they can. That's just my opinion based off what I read and hear at this site alone. Look at how many mixes pop up in here squashed to hell, shitty low end, harsh high end, just sounding bad. Then you ask them wtf happened, and they describe a fucking process of side chaning and multi-band compressing and all sorts of other ridiculous DAW tricks that are totally unnecessary. They do it because they think they're supposed to, and more simply, because they can. Look at how many questions get asked like "why does my guitar sound bad?" Then you probe further, and they describe going line out from their modeling amp, into a DI, into the DAW, back out to a stompbox, back in to a plug-in, copy-paste-pan-shift "for thickness", and it sounds shitty. Duh. Just mic your fucking speaker, you fucking dumbass. Or one of my recent favorites "How do I record a bass guitar? I don't have a bass". Buy a fucking bass, you moron. Common sense has left humanity because technology has made everything too easy. Too many options has killed the basic fundamentals. I'm not an analog purist by any means. Fuck analog. There's nothing worse than an analog purist. I hope they all die in a toxic tape fire. Okay, not really, but yeah, really. But they do have a point when they complain about how DAWs have enabled any idiot to record his music. I make that same complaint regularly. There's very little intelligence in it anymore. I know very well that no one is born knowing how to record music. I get that, but a little common sense goes a long way. I started out with a 4-track cassette recorder, and back then I had one shot to do it right or do it all over. I carried that over to digital.
Wow, okay, end of rant. I'm going running.
Dr.SpringReverb
Dieser Hund
That's completely true. A faders-up "mix" should sound good-enough/close-to-desired-sound without any processing. But you do play very tight to begin with. That's a big part too
But i'm a analog purist for my own stuff
I envy you for having a house, though. I live in an apartment.. and i play drums in here :X but then again, it's no punk rock, i play relatively soft and only between 11am and 8pm
But i'm a analog purist for my own stuff
I envy you for having a house, though. I live in an apartment.. and i play drums in here :X but then again, it's no punk rock, i play relatively soft and only between 11am and 8pm
Mr Clean
AKA Teddy Wong
Yeah, I didn't even touch on playing. That's huge. One obviously has to play their part well. That's probably another big factor if I, or anyone, does something that ends up sounding good. I can play the shit out of what I play. But I am a one trick pony. I'm okay with that. I don't play blues or jazz or zydeco. I play basic rock and roll. I don't even really consider it "punk". I love punk music, and that's a fine label for convenience or simple discussion and compartmentalizing, but I just play rock and roll like my forefathers before me. I'm not interested in branching out or trying new things. I just want to dominate my one little slice of my musical landscape and I'm good with that. Playing your parts well goes a long way to sounding good.That's completely true. A faders-up "mix" should sound good-enough/close-to-desired-sound without any processing. But you do play very tight to begin with. That's a big part too
But i'm a analog purist for my own stuff
I envy you for having a house, though. I live in an apartment.. and i play drums in here :X but then again, it's no punk rock, i play relatively soft and only between 11am and 8pm
That was a good rant and some good questions from db. My first thought when I heard and still my first thought now when I hear this recording is the sound of a great guitar through a great amp, captured well. I said it in my first post and the guitars do sound sweet.
Good post Greg.
Cool man, thanks again.
robgreen
no face
Late to this, but haven't had much chance for listening to much recently. I don't know the original (or actually any Cheap Trick to be honest) so I've no reference point, but it sounds really good - polished and full of energy. nice one Greg
Not sure I totally agree with Drspring's point that a faders up mix should always be almost there, but for your style of music it would probably be hard to imagine anything else. Good job you got the chops for it
Not sure I totally agree with Drspring's point that a faders up mix should always be almost there, but for your style of music it would probably be hard to imagine anything else. Good job you got the chops for it
You did a really good job of taking a pop standard and making it your own, G. This would be a huge hit out in the clubs live.
Recording-wise, there are those here where I know that unless they truly fucked up, or something really stands out as being "missed" or "odd sounding", I can trust I'm going to hear a very polished presentation -- and that any "nits" are simply, "I might have done this or that differently." ... but all in all, nothing pokes out as "off".
That's this. Nice work, again, bud.
Recording-wise, there are those here where I know that unless they truly fucked up, or something really stands out as being "missed" or "odd sounding", I can trust I'm going to hear a very polished presentation -- and that any "nits" are simply, "I might have done this or that differently." ... but all in all, nothing pokes out as "off".
That's this. Nice work, again, bud.
Thanks a lot dude. Thanks for checking it out.Late to this, but haven't had much chance for listening to much recently. I don't know the original (or actually any Cheap Trick to be honest) so I've no reference point, but it sounds really good - polished and full of energy. nice one Greg
Not sure I totally agree with Drspring's point that a faders up mix should always be almost there, but for your style of music it would probably be hard to imagine anything else. Good job you got the chops for it
I hosted a mix contest recently using a song that wasn't too different from this one as far as the mix went. Many of the mixes were a total mess. So while I agree that a well tracked song should mix itself, people still have the inherent ability to fuck it all up.
Cool man, thanks for checking it out.
Ha, thanks dude. I'd tear up some gnat vaj.I dont know the OG but Im guessing theres no wah, love it...we have a saying "tighter than a gnats chuff", a gnat...is well a gnat, a chuff is a vagina....your stuff is that tight
Lol. Really? I used miroslav just for that one part. I thought he'd blend in better.
No really, that's weird if it sounds that way. I don't know. It's me, in all my bad singing badness.