Beatles cover-"This Boy"

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rod L.
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Rod L.

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I would apprciate any comments on mixing, levels, performance, etc. on my cover of the Beatles This Boy.

Thanks,

Rod L.
 
Rod,

Nice job! The vocals are especially nice. Great tone, great pitch. I'm so jealous! My only suggestion is it'd be great if the lead vocalist could get a little rough edge in every now and then (ala John).

The playing is nice, but I found the guitars - esp. the chug-chug-a-lug-lug in the right channel - just a bit too percussive. In fact, on my moniters at least, it drowned out the actual percussion track.

But those are quibbles. Overall a great job to my ears!

Fab
 
it was SO EXTREMELY distorted, that you couldn't tell too much...infact it sounded like the record was dubbed and heavily clipped for your sound file.

so...how do you get away with posting copy songs at MP3.com?


I did an old gospel song once, (pubic domain for sure) and they yanked it, froze my account and basically ended my relationship with them. Funny thing was, I did a search and about two or three other groups had their rendition up of the same tune.
 
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Jeez, this is dirty.

A shame, because the performance is pretty good. The only thing that sounds clean (and a tad too loud) is the bass.

Can you explain why it sounds so dirty?
 
Fab4ever,
Thanks for listening and commenting. Yeah, I have a hard time doing that Lennon 'gravel' as in 'Twist and Shout' for example. This is an older recording-actually the mp3 file is from a cassette-lots of noise!. Thanks for the comments.

Rod L.
 
mixmkr-
Could you even tell what song it was?:D I've lurked this board a little and I like how a lot of people are brutally honest with their posted opinions. I've gotten somewhat better with my recording but nowhere near where I want to be. Got a long way to go but having fun on the way.

As far as posting that song on mp3.com, I had to pay a licensing fee to Northern songs-I believe it was $42.

Thanks for the comments,

Rod L.
 
"Jeez, this is dirty...."


Pedullist
I can blame some of that on the fact that it's an from a cassette recording but more of the blame probably goes to my recording/engineering/mixing inabilities. Anyway, I'll keep working on it.

Thanks,

Rod L.
 
Rod L. said:
mixmkr-
Could you even tell what song it was?:D I've lurked this board a little and I like how a lot of people are brutally honest with their posted opinions. I've gotten somewhat better with my recording but nowhere near where I want to be. Got a long way to go but having fun on the way.

I'm serious...when I streamed it hi-fi off mp3.com, the levels were extremely hot (not a lot more than average really), but the clipping was like 30% distortion. I kid you not. It was basically unlistanable because of the distortion... like a car radio maxed out, but the volume levels were close to under control..

I'll try again...

yep...not quite as much distortion as I remembered before, but an amazing amount. WAAAAAY more than a casette transfer, etc is going to cause.

I'm kinda wondering what Fav4 and Ped were hearing. Surely if they heard the distortion like I was, they'd make mention of it.:confused:
 
I heard distortion, Mix. Nothing wrong with your ears.

I also heard dropouts and fluttering....nothing wrong with my ears either. It's coming from tape! (you remember tape?)
 
mixmkr-

I wasn't being snide with my reply to you. Being a novice, as far as recording goes, I do appreciate your honest assessment given here. I am going back listening with these comments in mind. Anyway, I won't be quitting my day job anytime soon.:)

Rod L.
 
Rod L. said:
mixmkr-

I wasn't being snide with my reply to you.

I completely understand you there, and definately no worries in that department.. With some of the "bluntness" that goes around... the amount of distortion IS kinda shocking, however.

However, from what briefly I listened to, the cover seemed nailed "right on". It DID sound like the record was getting blasted thru a car radio, cept I was sitting in the car, the next lane over;)
 
Pedullist said:
I heard distortion, Mix. Nothing wrong with your ears.

I also heard dropouts and fluttering....nothing wrong with my ears either. It's coming from tape! (you remember tape?)

I felt the distortion was bad enough to even cover those artifacts up.

and tape...yeah... I'm homereccor snot to admit that I won't go back.

I have a 1/2 8 track that I haven't used [hardly at all] in the last 5 years at home, and basically have only kept it because I have a huge stack of tapes that on those weird and full moon nights, I get a nasty urge to listen to them for no good reason. It's basically living its life now as a "playback machine."

I also have some "pro" format tapes, but no machine for them....just from machines at studios I used to be involved with. I WOULD take a 2" machine IF I had the space, and the board, and the payrolled tech on hand, and some clientel...but actually, I prefer the home setup for now. I can record in my jammies now:p
 
I've been trying to dl this now for about 30 mins (off and on)... clicked the dl button about 8 times... nothing happens... :confused: will keep trying... (can't stream mp3 on this puter... it's just a dl machine)
 
Ahhh ... The Beatles :) Can't go wrong there. Okay, so we already know that the song is great.

Recording wise, I have to agree with the comments posted already regarding levels, but since it has already been mentioned I won't repeat.

When the song first started, the guitar seemed a bit out of tune to me (possibly just me though? :confused: )

Nice vocals overall. You seem to have the arrangement down, in fact, it is pretty spot on to the original.

Overall good work...just need to watch those levels.

:)

By the way, welcome to the board! :D
 
"Recording wise, I have to agree with the comments posted already regarding levels, but since it has already been mentioned I won't repeat.

When the song first started, the guitar seemed a bit out of tune to me (possibly just me though? )..."


Well, I think it's obvious I need to watch my levels a whole lot more. You're not the first person to mention out of tune guitars in respect to this song-and since I fancy myself a guitar player-boy am I embarrassed. Thanks to all the replies-I'll keep working on it:)


"...By the way, welcome to the board! "

Thanks boydrj-I appreciate it.

Rod L.
 
I don't want to register at MP3.com, I just want to listen. So I didn't hear it.
 
"...I don't want to register at MP3.com, I just want to listen. So I didn't hear it"


I know what you mean. mp3.com can be a bit intrusive at times. Thanks for trying anyway:)

Rod L.
 
Hey... finally got this downloaded...

I do hear the distortion... but it's not unlistenable (here anyway)...

There's more than tape flutter here, though... there's some clipping... but it's not just clipping peaks... seems like it's cutting off the whole mtn range at times! :eek: Yeah, there's some source-file problems.

Nice harmonies, anyway. Good bass playing...

The mix IS sort of harsh when it hits stride... sounds like the tape got munched, twisted, and folded over a few times... then straightened out. The distortion most likely comes from feeding too hot a signal from the tracking machine to the soundcard, or from the mixdown tape to the soundcard

From what I could hear, there was good musicianship here... things were done in time. A song based on major 7ths. Very nice.



Chad
 
participant-

Thanks, your diligence is appreciated.

The mix IS sort of harsh when it hits stride... sounds like the tape got munched, twisted, and folded over a few times... then straightened out. The distortion most likely comes from feeding too hot a signal from the tracking machine to the soundcard, or from the mixdown tape to the soundcard

This bb community definitely knows its *!@#! Yeah, coming off the bridge there is obvious tape munching, twisting and folding :) giong on. I'm really starting to think I mixed it down to cassette too hot and then things just got worse for me in the mp3 process.
I've got a long way to go before I can hang with you guys :)

Thanks again,

Rod L.
 
You never mentioned the original format,...

but those vocals are very thickly layered, aren't they? Wet with efx too, I bet.

Arrangement is traditional, which I like, and performance is good, & really authentic sounding.

I have a version of this song too, that's fairly comparable, but mine has a bit more of a homegrown sound, less layering, & no efx. My vocals are definitely not as good as yours. Maybe I'll post my version, someday, too, TBD.

The dubbing and transfer process obviously caused most of the offensive distortion that people are harping about, but I tried to listen beyond that, to the actual performance of tracks & arrangement.

Sure, there's distortion, & production quality issues, but the performance aspect is good. The Beatles rule!

Pls post again soon!
 
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