Ziggy Stardust cover by Greggy Buttcrust

fuzzsniffvoyage said:
Sounds incredible. Great rendition. You make me sic.
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Thanks man.

NotThatBright said:
Don't do that on my account... I'm sure it sounds great as it is, and I'm probably too tone-deaf to appreciate the changes you'd make :)

But yeah, I was a big fan of this album when I was young. To me, "Suffragette City" was far and away the best song on there, though I did like the whole album a lot.

That song confused me a bit as kid, because at the time I was wearing out the album, we had recently learned in school that suffragettes were women fighting for the right to vote. So the first mental images I used to get when listening to it were of David Bowie trying to pick up pissed-off women who looked like Susan B. Anthony. Eventually I got past that.
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Shit, I forgot about this. Let me round it up and I'll get it to you.
 
Very credible version. I saw Bowie when he was in his thin white duke stage at Bingley Hall. Of course I was much younger then and although I had a great time it was such a large venue that he was like a small dot in the far distance. But I've always liked his music, and your version is very close to the original,

Sky Lark
 
Wonderful! My fave album as a 16 year old. And you captured the sound beautifully.

The only difference that caught my ears was not the drumming itself, but the dynamics of the drumming. They used to mic kits differently back in the day.

Anyway, kudos to you man - I wouldn't/couldn't even attempt to cover that.

Dwarf
 
Are the drums midi and was the song quantized or played to a click? Seems kind of mechanical. But it's still a cool cover.
 
Sky Lark said:
Very credible version. I saw Bowie when he was in his thin white duke stage at Bingley Hall. Of course I was much younger then and although I had a great time it was such a large venue that he was like a small dot in the far distance. But I've always liked his music, and your version is very close to the original,

Sky Lark
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Cool, thanks for checking it out.

YellowDwarf said:
Wonderful! My fave album as a 16 year old. And you captured the sound beautifully.

The only difference that caught my ears was not the drumming itself, but the dynamics of the drumming. They used to mic kits differently back in the day.

Anyway, kudos to you man - I wouldn't/couldn't even attempt to cover that.

Dwarf
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Thanks a lot. Yeah, the last thing I want is 70s sounding drums.

WDI said:
Are the drums midi and was the song quantized or played to a click? Seems kind of mechanical. But it's still a cool cover.
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If "mechanical" means tight and precise and not loose and sloppy pretending to be "feel", then I'll take that as a win. It is played to a click. And the drums are very much 100% real and definitely not quantized. I don't even know how it would be possible to quantize real drums.

jonny deep said:
Greg is well known for his love of midi drums.
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This whole song is MIDI everything. Especially the vocals. That's why they're so bad.
 
Greg_L said:
If "mechanical" means tight and precise and not loose and sloppy pretending to be "feel", then I'll take that as a win. It is played to a click. And the drums are very much 100% real and definitely not quantized. I don't even know how it would be possible to quantize real drums.
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No, mechanical meaning it sounds very precise and not very natural. I really thought they may be midi. It's probably just because it's done to a click track. You have very precise timing.

But overall I really enjoyed the song. I'm probably being picky as I really like that era of Bowie.

Or maybe it's not a timing thing. But their is something in the drums that sounds weird to me. First thing I thought it midi and mechanical. But I don't know. For some reason they stick out to me.
 
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WDI said:
No, mechanical meaning it sounds very precise and not very natural. I really thought they may be midi. It's probably just because it's done to a click track. You have very precise timing.

But overall I really enjoyed the song. I'm probably being picky as I really like that era of Bowie.

Or maybe it's not a timing thing. But their is something in the drums that sounds weird to me. First thing I thought it midi and mechanical. But I don't know. For some reason they stick out to me.
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Never mind Greg. I listened again and the drums sound fine. Not sure what I was thinking.

I should have said good job and left it at that. Your actually a very good drummer.
 
WDI said:
Never mind Greg. I listened again and the drums sound fine. Not sure what I was thinking.

I should have said good job and left it at that. Your actually a very good drummer.
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I understand what you're saying, though. I never thought Greg's drums were MIDI, but I do remember once thinking that he must compress the hell out of his snare, which I later read that he doesn't actually. But his hits and rolls are often very precise to the point of all the hits being the same volume. It can sometimes give that "machine-gun" effect and sound just a tad un-natural until you get used to it. Now I'm just used to his style, and it's great. But on first listen, I can see how it might throw someone off a bit.
 
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RAMI said:
I understand what you're saying, though. I never thought Greg's drums were MIDI, but I do remember once thinking that he must compress the hell out of his snare, which I later read that he doesn't actually. But his hits and rolls are often very precise to the point of all the hits being the same volume. It can sometimes give that "machine-gun" effect and sound just a tad un-natural until you get used to it. Now I'm just used to his style, and it's great. But on first listen, I can see how it might throw someone off a bit.
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I used to compress the snot out of my snare. The compressor I was using was a little harsh and it sounded machine gunny sometimes. I started using a different compressor and less compression and I think it's less machine gunny. I actually like and prefer clean and crisp, consistent, tightly played drums. Machine like is good to me. The music I like and play is usually hard driving from beginning to end without much deviation in between. I don't want a bunch of loose shit slop jam band fills flailing all over the place. I don't believe in too much wandering around with meter. There's a very fine line between dynamic and sucking. I can show you a vid of my live drumming. I'm not very technical, but my hits are consistent and goddamn you could set a watch to my meter.

But this is really an indictment on where recorded music is these days. Someone plays something good or has it sound good and it's automatically assumed to be fake. I take it as a compliment, but in the bigger picture it's fucking lame.
 
Greg_L said:
I used to compress the snot out of my snare. The compressor I was using was a little harsh and it sounded machine gunny sometimes. I started using a different compressor and less compression and I think it's less machine gunny.
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For sure. I remember thinking that only back when I first heard your tunes (or at least, as far back as I can remember), but it's not something I've noticed in recent memory. Hehe...We both have a love/hate relationship with getting asked if we're using drum machines. :eek: :D
 
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I always liked liked this Bowie song, but it was annoying to me that the drums on the original were so far back in the mix. It's a kick ass tune, and they really needed to be more aggressive (at least, to my taste) and punchy.

You nailed it, Greg -- that's how it should have been done in the first place.

I wouldn't sweat the vocals too much. Very few of us can sing like Bowie, and besides, we're not Bowie; and what we might have to offer vocally (in my case, not too damn much) makes the tune a little more "ours". All the doubling happened where I expected it to, and the guitar work was killer.

Great job, and a good listen!
 
Great version, drums are more IN the mix and acoustic less so than the original, but it works as the electrics are spot on. I saw Ronson with Bowie on the Spiders tour and he didn't sound this good.
 
paddedcell said:
I always liked liked this Bowie song, but it was annoying to me that the drums on the original were so far back in the mix. It's a kick ass tune, and they really needed to be more aggressive (at least, to my taste) and punchy.

You nailed it, Greg -- that's how it should have been done in the first place.

I wouldn't sweat the vocals too much. Very few of us can sing like Bowie, and besides, we're not Bowie; and what we might have to offer vocally (in my case, not too damn much) makes the tune a little more "ours". All the doubling happened where I expected it to, and the guitar work was killer.

Great job, and a good listen!
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Awesome dude, thanks a lot. Yeah I never had any intention of singing it like Bowie. There's no way. I couldn't pull it off even if I really wanted to. I should do it better in my own voice though. I said earlier I was gonna retrack the vocals, and I still am, I just haven't gotten to it yet.

mjbphotos said:
Great version, drums are more IN the mix and acoustic less so than the original, but it works as the electrics are spot on. I saw Ronson with Bowie on the Spiders tour and he didn't sound this good.
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Wow, cool. I wasn't born yet when this was going on. :D

Thanks for the listen and comments. :)
 
When you retrack the vocals, throw some stage glam into them. The instrumentation and recording are incredible. Better than the original (really really great) ... but the vocal lacks Bowie's swagger. They're a little on the "aimed" side. Great job, nonetheless, G.
 
K-dub said:
When you retrack the vocals, throw some stage glam into them. The instrumentation and recording are incredible. Better than the original (really really great) ... but the vocal lacks Bowie's swagger. They're a little on the "aimed" side. Great job, nonetheless, G.
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Thanks man. I don't know, I'm not a glammy kind of guy. Lol. I think I need to focus on singing it my own way....just better.
 
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