born under punches - talking heads cover

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heatmiser

heatmiser

mr. green christmas
Hey,

Here I have a cover of a talking heads tune - born under punches. It is from their coked-up, brian eno, post-CBGBs, pre-burnin' down the house era (my favorite of theirs). A pretty faithful cover by my standards anyway...

The instrumentation is pretty tight I think, and I found it fun to play around with david byrne's spastic silly vocals...but on one section, I just couldn't get it right (the "all I want is to breathe..." and "found a little space..." parts) :(. Doesn't sound all that hard, but I couldn't hit the notes in a tenor sort of range and kept slipping into either baritone or falsetto mode - with disappointing results. My multi-FX unit was absconded last night, so I am awaiting new gear in the mail as we speak, at which point I plan to punch in and re-do those sections.

Otherwise, I am pretty happy with this so far...your thoughts?

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=660667&songID=7258977
 
I think it sounds great man! really very well done. everything seems very well put together and i feel like i'm listening to the original through most of it. great job on the mixing as well as the playing of all the instruments. are you playing all of the parts yourself? I'm guessing you are. If i could talk you into doing some bass tracks for me i'd probably be willing to have your first born :P

excellent job, thx for sharing! :)
 
Sounds really good! Nice and funky and very accurate to the original from what I can remember. My only nits are the drums need to come up a bit and the vox seem awfully dry.
 
stringtheory said:
I think it sounds great man! really very well done. everything seems very well put together and i feel like i'm listening to the original through most of it. great job on the mixing as well as the playing of all the instruments. are you playing all of the parts yourself? I'm guessing you are. If i could talk you into doing some bass tracks for me i'd probably be willing to have your first born :P

excellent job, thx for sharing! :)
Click to expand...

Ha! Aren't you supposed to provide me with your first born? Isn't that how it works? I forget..:) Thanks much for listening and I am glad you liked it. Yes, I played all parts myself although much of the percussion is a drum machine (but at least I programmed it :o)I just bought my first ever bass a week or 2 ago and am still learning the ropes but I love having one so far. Go get one somewhere (even a cheap one if necessary - mine was $100)...I heard your track - you could certainly put together a good bass line...go for it - you won't regret it!

Greg_L said:
Sounds really good! Nice and funky and very accurate to the original from what I can remember. My only nits are the drums need to come up a bit and the vox seem awfully dry.
Click to expand...

Thank you Greg. I like both of your suggestions. I would like the percussion to come up a bit although the drums are linked to the bass 'cause I had to bounce and do a sub mix of the rhythm section when I ran out of tracks...so, the bass will come up along with the drums...

The vocals have some room verb and a short delay on them and sound wet compared to the instruments (which are almost completely dry), but overall, it is not enough. I'm thinking if you of all people think they're too dry...it probably means something :). Listening to the original, the vox are just a wash of verb. I want to go for something in between. Still waiting for the FX unit...
 
Yeah sounds very close to the original. That was always my favourite T Heads album, though I haven't listened to it in years. Nice guitars. I agree the drums should probably come forward some, but the vocals sounded about right to me, although I'm not big on reverb anyway. Good job on this
 
Thanks Bulls! I think I got kind of guitar-happy on this one and they wound up front and center...which is ok, but maybe a little too much. I definitely want to mess around with bringing the percussion forward and see what that sounds like. Just got my replacement fx unit today so hope to fix some vocals and remix tomorrow night or this weekend. Thanks again. :)
 
New mix at the top and right here as well:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=660667&songID=7258977

I brought up the rhythm section (you can actually hear the bongos a little now) and added a bunch of verb to the BGVs and a little to the lead vocals. I think this is an improvement...seems to have more oomph to it. Please give it a listen and let me know if you agree or perhaps I still have work to do...

Thanks,
Pete
 
Excellent job Heatmiser - funky, nice tones, excellent effects. Mix is fine by me balanced nicely... :D That's a $100 bass - sweet....:cool:
 
ido1957 said:
Excellent job Heatmiser - funky, nice tones, excellent effects. Mix is fine by me balanced nicely... :D That's a $100 bass - sweet....:cool:
Click to expand...

Thanks ido! This may be the most complete sounding mix I've managed so far. Yes, after years of longing for a bass guitar I dropped all of 100 big ones on one :p. Still, that was the used price...I'm sure new it goes for at least 150...
 
Damn, really sweet cover, man I am digging this. Talking Heads would be proud. I didn't get a chance to listen to your first mix, but the drums are definitely sitting well in this mix.

Good job, heatmiser!!! :D
 
Rokket said:
Damn, really sweet cover, man I am digging this. Talking Heads would be proud. I didn't get a chance to listen to your first mix, but the drums are definitely sitting well in this mix.

Good job, heatmiser!!! :D
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot Rokket!

Somehow I bet david bryne would be disgusted...but the rest of the heads might dig it. By all accounts mr. byrne is kind of a wiener :p.
 
Yeah-it sounds very cool and has a great beat & rhythm happening. I'm not familiar with this tune but it sure has the Talking Heads sound going on. Good job!
 
Thanks man :). It is not a big hit by them by any means. With only 8 tracks to work with, I spent a fair amount of time programming dr. rhythm, adding bongos and getting the bass down, then bounced a sub mix of that down to 2 tracks which freed up the remaining 6 tracks for vocals and guitars. Seemed to work this time, but I prefer not to bounce tracks unless necessary as I am locked in with that sub mix. Thanks again!
 
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