A shot at production...

[Ernzoa]

I spent the last day or so playing around with the equipment in my room to try and see how well I'd be able to replicate the sound of another song ("Just" by Radiohead). I'm a major newbie when it comes to recording/mixing and this is definitely the most ambitious project I've attempted. I did it sort of as an exercise to better familiarize myself with the equipment and how to record/mix, so if anybody has any recommendations/tips for me then please share.

I played all the instruments EXCEPT for the drums (A MIDI that I "borrowed" from someone else)
For all the instruments, I used a Line 6 Tone Port UX2. I used a basic Shure vocal mic for the acoustic guitar (which I double tracked, panned hard left/ right, one time recording by the 12th fret and the other towards the rear), and for the vocals (double tracked the chorus, slight reverb on the background vocals).

A few problems I encountered were:
-Couldn't get a nice-sounding pitch shift within Sony Acid Music Studio 7.0 (needed to reach +two octaves for a guitar riff towards the end, but gave up on it)
-Couldn't quite get the acoustic guitar to sound as "full" as I would have liked
-Couldn't figure out how to get nice sounding vocals... I have a cold and I'm no Thom Yorke but I think the real issue has to do with compression (which I still don't fully understand). -Double tracking vocals didn't quite add the depth I was hoping for
-Couldn't get bass to sound as powerful as I think it should be. (might be because of the bass itself, but maybe there is something else I can do in post-production to help?)
-With 17 tracks, I can't help but feel that some audio levels weren't tweaked properly.

I've uploaded two versions of the song (one without vocals) so that analyzing the instruments will be a little easier.

INSTRUMENTAL
http://soundcloud.com/ernzoa/radioheadjustinstruments

WITH VOCALS
http://soundcloud.com/ernzoa/radioheadjust

and... the original recording (by Radiohead)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKFkLNjPXns

Thanks for the help!!

 

[The Cancers]

Well, it's definitely recognizable, so you got that there.

I got no specific recommendations because I'm listening on laptop speakers and haven't heard the original enough to really have any specific ideas about how they got their sounds.

I would recommend, if you can stand to, starting over at the tracking stage (or pick a different song if you're tired of this one), and focus, instrument by instrument, track by track, on getting as close as you can to the original sounds during tracking. Don't let yourself think "I'll fix it in the mix," or "it's gonna need a bunch of compression and reverb to sound like the original." It probably ultimately will, but 90% of getting the cover to sound like the original is getting each instrument to sound as close to the original as possible on the way in.
This will take more time, and be frustrating, because you're recording yourself and it's really tough to isolate your ears from the sound in the room. You need to be able to hear only what the mic is picking up, and compare it to the original track. It's gonna take a lot of recording twenty seconds of something, listening to it and A/B comparing it with the original. A lot of running back and forth, moving mics by tiny increments, adjusting all sorts of tone knobs and effects and whatnot.

It is totally worth doing, though. This is a great way to learn your equipment and the recording process. You are absolutely not going to get it to sound exactly like the original, but I think you know that already. But as you get closer, I think you'll start to gain an appreciation for how important engineering is to the whole process of creating a finished song. If you can get your sounds right going in, you'll be shocked at how (comparatively) little actual mixing you need to do.

quick ps: sing it up in the original octave. You ain't gonna hurt yourself (well you might, but nothing a couple cigarettes and shots of whiskey can't fix), and you'd be surprised how much more comfortable your voice can sound if you just let yourself belt the fucker out.

Other quick ps: If you end up redoing it, or doing a different song, you'll probably find that you get more and better focused responses by posting this sort of question in the MP3 mixing clinic here:
https://homerecording.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?f=15

Good luck, and have fun!

 

[Capi]

I tried exactly the same thing with 'Colourflow in Mind' by Porcupine Tree, and really learned a lot. I was going to say the same thing as The Cancers said above, just less eloquently .

The whole process is extremely labour-intensive but it teaches you a lot, especially if there's some unique synth in the song. Reproducing synth exactly takes a lot of patience, but gives you a hell of a lot of options for your own work! Just doing that gave me an idea for a song, and the sound to execute it with.

Acoustic guitar
Sounds pretty good. Agreed with Cancers, best to get your mic placement perfect, but you could probably EQ this and get it sounding more present. Definitely boost the mids, and the also high end just enough to give it the brightness in the original recording.

Vocals
You'd be surprised how far a couple of amateur vocal tips go when applied correctly. Agreed that belting is the way to go, but using good technique really helps. It might sound like Thom is talking sometimes but I'm pretty sure he's using his gut in the right way. Breathe in not with your chest, but what's below it (your diaphragm). When you do this correctly your belly should come out a bit and become fairly firm. This becomes your support, the foundation for 'belting out'. Takes some people years to use this correctly to sing, but it can give you slightly better results immediately..

 

[Ernzoa]

thanks very much for the advice! I think I'll try again this weekend, while being more meticulous with each instrument setting before recording a final take. (maybe it's best to stick with this song since I can play all the parts now...)

I very much appreciate the vocal tips... I'm actually hoping to get some lessons in the near future. But for the time being, I was wondering if there are any tricks I can do in post-production to improve the quality... I got the impression that using a compressor/equalizer is very important for the vocal mix but I'm still not really sure how to best use them, and how to properly mix double tracked vocals/ background vocals. Are there any good tips/sites/books that anyone might recommend?

 

[Capi]

This site helped me out a crapload with compressor tips, and it's got a hell of lot else besides (including a very good, very practical EQ tutorial).

How to EQ vox: A good starting point is reducing all instruments by no more than a few dB in the 1kHz-5kHz range, and boosting the vocals by the same amount in that range. Should give you more presence immediately. This isn't the only consideration as you'll find out -- vocals recorded very close to a mic typically have way too much bass, and could probably use a tiny bit of high-end brightening. There's geeks out there who'll tell you way more, depending on your mic type/mic placement.

How to compress vox: matter of personal taste (as a starting point you could try 4-1 ratio, fast attack, fast release, with a threshold low enough that the peak volume of the thing you're compressing goes down by about 4dB). You should do it enough so that the vocal dynamics doesn't look like a rollercoaster ride. Ehh, can't find a good example of what I mean online, but I'm sure you get it.. What I mean is the volume shouldn't be going up and down needlessly. It is notoriously difficult for amateur vocalists like you and I to sound consistent, even through the course of singing one word. Pro's need compression less. On the other extreme, don't overdo it; it takes a highly trained ear to be able to spot how much compression is too much. Often it'll come out in the mix; you'll go to sleep and next day listen to the track and be like 'woah, why is that so fucking loud' or 'why does it sound so pumpy'. FYI, the 'pumping' effect is a by-product of too much compression -- overcompress something and you'll see what I'm talking about. Anyway this is all me just wanking off to myself, read the tips for a more thorough breakdown..