Looking for feedback on cover of Cheap Trick "Surrender"

R

rsilverst

New member
Hi there!

I registered for this forum a few years ago, but am just getting back into the home recording again, starting up with Logic Pro X (previously was a ProTools user). I would love to have feedback on this mix that I did.

https://soundcloud.com/bob-silverstein/surrender

A few notes just for your reference:

* All tracks performed by me
* Drums were programmed (probably obvious)
* Post-mix, I did a little bit of "mastering" in Logic using Linear Phase EQ, Spread, Compressor (not multiband), Adaptive Limiter

I'm open to any and all suggestions.

Thanks very much!
Bob
 
Great playing. There's some kind of edit stutter at the beginning. The mix is dark. I like the beefy sound of the rhythm guitars and bass, but they are too loud. They are drowning out the details of your drum kit--I'm not hearing your hi hats--as well as your lead guitar and keyboard parts.
 
Yep. No high end in the mix and drums are not prominent. Performance is really good. Just not coming through as a mix yet.

:)
 
everything Robus said. great cover! isn't there more energy on "mommy's alright" in the original? Is there a cymbal there, or something on the first beat adding to the section change? great job though

edit: add those harmonies in the chorus endings. i hear some, vaguely, in the third verse. kind of buried though
 
Robus said:
Great playing. There's some kind of edit stutter at the beginning. The mix is dark. I like the beefy sound of the rhythm guitars and bass, but they are too loud. They are drowning out the details of your drum kit--I'm not hearing your hi hats--as well as your lead guitar and keyboard parts.
Click to expand...

Thanks all for the feedback. I will give it another pass. To me, I was concerned the mix was too *bright* rather than too dark, so I was being sheepish about treble. My main mixing tools are Yamaha HS80M and Sennheiser HD535 headphones.

Regarding the drum kit -- there's no hi hat in the song at all, best as I could tell from listening to the original. I really think he's doing ride cymbal during verses and crashing through the chorus (though, I am not a drummer by trade, so I might not be hearing the hi hat if it is there).

Thanks again, and I will post an updated version after tweaking it a bit. I might need to give myself a day or two break since I have probably listened to this track 200 times in the past week ;)
 
Is THIS the original?

Still HH there...

Oh shit, this song will now be stuck in my head for days....

Thanks man! lol
 
jimmys69 said:
Is THIS the original?

Still HH there...
Click to expand...

Now I hear (and see) it! Watching the video. Since I am not a drummer, I didn't know that you could get so much sound out of a HH with foot pedal only. Since I knew he was doing one hand on ride cymbal I (incorrectly) assumed there couldn't be HH at same time.

I'm going to get in there and fix that :)
 
Good cover. I like the way that piano sneaks in there at 235.
Everything is coming thru my E100 pretty well.
I do hear a ride cymbal or maybe a HH in there.
The timing is so close to the guitar it's hard to tell which I am hearing.
Dude, did you arrange those harms at 355 or is that the original?
Either way man it sounds awesome.
glad you came back.
 
[UPDATED MIX] Looking for (more) feedback on Cheap Trick "Surrender" Cover

Robus said:
Great playing. There's some kind of edit stutter at the beginning. The mix is dark. I like the beefy sound of the rhythm guitars and bass, but they are too loud. They are drowning out the details of your drum kit--I'm not hearing your hi hats--as well as your lead guitar and keyboard parts.
Click to expand...

OK! Thanks to everyone for the feedback. Here's another mix, again located at https://soundcloud.com/bob-silverstein/surrender (file replaced).

Things I changed:

Reprogrammed Drums (added hi hat and seriously modified drum tones and balance, and cymbal patterns)
Increased volume of drums
Increased volume of vocals (including backups)
Increased synth keys slightly

The biggest change was the drum reprogramming, which hopefully made it less dark and drums less buried. I had a bit of headroom, so rather than decrease the bass and guitars, I brought other things up around them.

Interested to know if it's an improvement (or, yikes, worse?!) and any other suggestions. I didn't bother doing fine tweaking of EQ yet until I know whether I am at least heading in the right direction.

Thanks again!
 
The big thing I'm noticing is that the snare roles sound super-programmed. Do you have a humanizer on the drums?

You also sound like you're putting some weird strain on your voice? Like you're forcing yourself to sing through the back of your nose or something?
 
VomitHatSteve said:
The big thing I'm noticing is that the snare roles sound super-programmed. Do you have a humanizer on the drums?

You also sound like you're putting some weird strain on your voice? Like you're forcing yourself to sing through the back of your nose or something?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the comments! -- I haven't tried humanizer yet. Just Googled it after you mentioned it. I will try that out, since looks like Logic has it. Else, I'll manually humanize the rolls. Regarding my voice... :) doing the best I can! Parts of it, especially last verse that was up a half step, was pushing the limits of my vocal range (and I'm out of practice too).
 
Manslick said:
Good cover. I like the way that piano sneaks in there at 235.
Everything is coming thru my E100 pretty well.
I do hear a ride cymbal or maybe a HH in there.
The timing is so close to the guitar it's hard to tell which I am hearing.
Dude, did you arrange those harms at 355 or is that the original?
Either way man it sounds awesome.
glad you came back.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the comments, Manslick. I've tweaked the drums quite a bit now, perhaps gone too far with their presence, and may end up taking the Overhead mic bus down a bit. Regarding the vocal harmonies, I'm trying to do what was in the original, but it probably ended up a little different, especially in light of my voice sounding a lot different than theirs.

I listened to the "Working Girl" track you posted. Really liked it. Very crisp recording, and the vocals sounded great.
 
VomitHatSteve said:
The big thing I'm noticing is that the snare roles sound super-programmed. Do you have a humanizer on the drums?

You also sound like you're putting some weird strain on your voice? Like you're forcing yourself to sing through the back of your nose or something?
Click to expand...

I'm going to +1 this but... Hard to judge others as each voice is different and it hard to give an opinion as it would just be a 'personal' opinion. I personally hate my own voice. I do hear the strain you mentioned in Bob's voice.
 
VomitHatSteve said:
The big thing I'm noticing is that the snare roles sound super-programmed. Do you have a humanizer on the drums?

You also sound like you're putting some weird strain on your voice? Like you're forcing yourself to sing through the back of your nose or something?
Click to expand...

OK -- Updated the track again based on everyone's input... The big changes I made were:

1. Humanize the drums!! (very cool - thanks for suggesting)
2. Tweak echo on vocals to make it less boxy
3. Reduce level of overhead mics (cymbal levels)
4. Reduce bass a hair
5. Reduce keys a hair
6. Reduce lead vox a hair so they sit better in mix
7. Tweak relative levels of harmonies during outro.

Still open to more feedback if you're not all tapped out yet :) I don't know how much longer I can listen to this song before it goes from being one of my favorites to "I can never listen to this song again!"



Thanks again for the feedback!!!
 
Cool cover. I love Cheap Trick. Nice performances on the guitars (tight doubling) and bass.

I thought the guitars were just a bit muffled. Not quite enough bite.

The bass was just a bit sterile. Not enough low midrange (like the 400hz - 800hz range).

Synth sound very much like the original to me.

Vocal performance, I think, needs more energy. It needs to be belted out. The performance is a bit tame.
 
Niceeee... love the sheen on the mix. everyone hears different things so don't take all the replays too serious. personally i wouldn't change a thing.good ears very good mix
 
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