Big River - Johnny Cash cover.

[Chili]

Earlier today, I was pickin on the guitar and my son liked the little riff I was doing. Thought about it for a second and realized I heard it before. Hunted down which tune it was and decided to give it a shot. I RARELY ever do covers and I have NEVER posted one before (except for collabs with a couple of people).

So, give this a spin and tell me what you think. (yes it's at the bottom of my vocal range.)

View attachment Big River.mp3

After a small tweaks

View attachment Big RiverV2.mp3

 

[ido1957]

Love the reverb - I am a true reverb junkie and yours is super rich. What are you using for this one?
That's got to be a tele through a ??? Nice pickin'.
Microphone sounds great what is your vocal chain if you don't mind my asking?

Great tune and great performance. Vocals are right where they need to be for this style of song.

 

[ido1957]

Mike says you have that Brian Setzer/Stray Cats vibe - I agree

 

[Robus]

That's a mean Tele sound--hope it's a Tele anyway. Good guitar playing! Yeah, a full step up would give you more power on the vocal, not that I'm one to talk.

The mix lacks clarity. I'm hearing that Tele, an acoustic guitar, and something else getting tangled up with each other. Like they're playing in the same register, or panned too close together, or sharing a reverb bus. Anyway, it causes the mix to sound congested. Could use a bit more space, especially around the vocal. You could lose one of those guitars. The electric guitar doing the riffing that drives the song sounds like it's hiding behind the others. I'd move it off to the edge or clear some space so that it cuts through better. I'm a big fan of hard panning key guitar parts, but maybe that's just my hobby horse.

There is some boominess happening in the instrumental break at about 0:50, and here and there throughout. In general, I'm hearing more boom than thump on the bass. That boom is happening intermittently, so it may be an issue with certain notes. If you could sort it out, the bass could come up for me. Drums are at a good level.

I'd like to hear more of your music.

 

[Chili]

Love the reverb - I am a true reverb junkie and yours is super rich. What are you using for this one?
That's got to be a tele through a ??? Nice pickin'.
Microphone sounds great what is your vocal chain if you don't mind my asking?

Great tune and great performance. Vocals are right where they need to be for this style of song.

I don't mind you asking. On this tune, I used a Studio Projects C1 going into my UAD Apollo. In the Apollo, I used a NEVE 88RS plug. This plug can actually control the hardware section of the mic pre to set gain and impedance, then it emulates the Neve channel strip after that. Very cool. In the DAW, I used an 1176 plug as a vocal limiter and a send to the EMT-140 reverb plug. Very little eq tweaks. That's it.

The tele is a guitar fetish Chinese copy. It's a great guitar once it was set up properly. The only issue I have with it is static build-up on the pickguard. But I've heard this happens to Fenders too, so I guess they got the part right!! I DI through my digitech amp modeler that I had for years, except I didn't use the amp section. This time, I only used the stomp box portions of the sims and I went into the Apollo and used their new Softube amp sim for the fender twin. I sent that through the EMT-140 plug as well. I used the middle pickup position for most of the song and the bridge pickup for the solo part.

Hey, I like the Stray Cats. Not too long ago, I watched their Montreax show from 82(?).

That's a mean Tele sound--hope it's a Tele anyway. Good guitar playing! Yeah, a full step up would give you more power on the vocal, not that I'm one to talk.

The mix lacks clarity. I'm hearing that Tele, an acoustic guitar, and something else getting tangled up with each other. Like they're playing in the same register, or panned too close together, or sharing a reverb bus. Anyway, it causes the mix to sound congested. Could use a bit more space, especially around the vocal. You could lose one of those guitars. The electric guitar doing the riffing that drives the song sounds like it's hiding behind the others. I'd move it off to the edge or clear some space so that it cuts through better. I'm a big fan of hard panning key guitar parts, but maybe that's just my hobby horse.

There is some boominess happening in the instrumental break at about 0:50, and here and there throughout. In general, I'm hearing more boom than thump on the bass. That boom is happening intermittently, so it may be an issue with certain notes. If you could sort it out, the bass could come up for me. Drums are at a good level.

I'd like to hear more of your music.

I hear ya about the mix clarity thing. I was back and forth on it. There are three guitar parts, the acoustic, the tele and a semi-hollow on the right side doing a few things. I might drop that one or pull it back down. I think you're right, it's messing up the tele part.

I think the boominess is the bass kicking in once in a while. After relistening, it's lower in the mix than I want and I'll tweak to give it a boost.

I have some more songs in the links in my sig.

Thanks for the quick listen, guys.

 

[ido1957]

Damn - my CD's were mixed with UA EMT reverbs. They are excellent. I bought the Lexicon stuff having used it live (PCM42) but...I saw a post about a cheap Waves EMT plug. It's not ILOC I hope I may have to pick that up for a really early Christmas present.

 

[Chili]

Made some tweaks. Small ones.

View attachment Big RiverV2.mp3

 

[ido1957]

Took me a bit to determine the difference
At the end that rhythm pops out nicely now and adds to the arrangement smoothly now.

 

[Robus]

Hearing the tele and bass better, less boomy. It's an improvement.

 

[Atkron205]

dude I like it, I have always loved Johnny Cash. it has that live honky tonk sound.

 

[Chili]

but...I saw a post about a cheap Waves EMT plug. It's not ILOC I hope I may have to pick that up for a really early Christmas present.

Do it. the EMT-140 is a great reverb. If Waves did it justice, you will enjoy it.

 

[Chili]

Took me a bit to determine the difference
At the end that rhythm pops out nicely now and adds to the arrangement smoothly now.

Hearing the tele and bass better, less boomy. It's an improvement.

dude I like it, I have always loved Johnny Cash. it has that live honky tonk sound.

Thanks for listening and commenting. Glad you can hear an improvement.

 

[andrushkiwt]

i got nothing. this was great.

what's your vocal mic?

 

[FoulPhil]

That's pretty cool lol. Stuff like this is always fun to work on. I bet you had a blast

 

[DM60]

Hard to do Cash vocal. Only nit I have is should have went after this with more of your vocal. I think if you had been more comfortable, more natural to you, you would have nailed it.

Everything else sounded really great. Just to be clear, I think your vocal will work with this, but needs to be more relaxed.

 

[Chili]

i got nothing. this was great.

what's your vocal mic?

Thanks. I used the Studio Projects C1. My vocal chain is listed in a post above.

That's pretty cool lol. Stuff like this is always fun to work on. I bet you had a blast

It was!!. I kept singing it long after I put it to bed. lol.

Hard to do Cash vocal. Only nit I have is should have went after this with more of your vocal. I think if you had been more comfortable, more natural to you, you would have nailed it.

Everything else sounded really great. Just to be clear, I think your vocal will work with this, but needs to be more relaxed.

Yeah, I hear ya. I wasn't really trying to sound like Cash, but I wanted to play it in the same key. Nothing like the E chord ringing out. You're not the first, or second, person to say I need to be more relaxed. I think it's just the way I sing. Thanks for the comments.

 

[Steenamaroo]

Hey man. Really enjoyed this.
I'm a fan although I know the Highwaymen recording more than Johnny's.

Funny thing - The first few words struck me as sounding like Merle Haggard! lol
He's still missing ol' Johnny Cash!