Neil Young Alert: After The Gold Rush - Cover

  • Thread starter Thread starter Qwerty
  • Start date Start date
Well...this song has always pushed me around...makes me stop and listen no matter what I'm doing. You're version certainly does it justice and I think Neil would approve...however aloof he may be.

I dig the overall direction you're heading alot!..especially the harmonies at the end. Very nice! This tune is a veritable playground for mixing possibilities (dynamic panning, verbs, etc... it could all be thrown in and still 'work') I've only heard it now on small PC speakers, and I am looking forward to piping it into the home studio for another gander...(maybe even lay a viola down for fun...if you don't mind :-)

I'm only listening now for content - not so much for mixing technicalities - and your content is rich.

Keep it going!

GC
 
had to listen, as i'm a neil freak.......very nice......the version of this on 'live rust' always amazes me.............

you even have the horns similar to the original.....cool....
 
Very cool cover man... I always liked this song....

You did a great job....

Recording is clean and clear, and the vocals are excellent....

:)
 
Guitar sound is excellent. Bright with a touch of jangle, still has some bottom to make it rounded.

You might want to roll the top of the guitar off a tiny, tiny touch and give us a touch more mids, but just a touch, because I've learned that can quickly accumlate as mud.

Just a bit too much verb on your voice, it's getting muddy and contrasts to much with the crispness of the guitar.

You have a very, very nice voice, good control and expression.

Let us hear your voice, please don't hide if from us for a split second with 'too much' effects.

Roll the bottom of your voice off. The amount of verb booms your baritone a bit, especially as the lows accumulate in your doublings.

I understand you need to use some effects, but JUSTIFY their use and their overuse.

I do commend you for mixing your vocal on top of the mix, by removing some of the verb, I think you can let the volume of the vocal down just 1db or so, and it will 'fall into the mix' as well as retain most of it's position on top.

Your chorus vocals and doubled vocal are wonderfully precise, and you do have the lead headroom to place those bg vocal in their own space. IHMO, select a lead track, and mix to support the lead vocal.

At 02:16, the horns are a bit too loud, as they are samples, you might want to hide them a bit by reducing their level. I think they might be a bit more haunting, and you may be trying to create that in your voice, when perhaps it is the horns in fact that need to haunt, IMHO. The excess verb makes your voice very haunting. Let the guitar carry this section, let us relax, smooth into all that you will invite us into there. Almost like a return to the intro, with a more subtle horn to entertain us there.

At 03:07 ... that's 'sibilance' and is caused by the cumulative peaks of frequencies in your voice that our human ears are also ... most sensitive to.

At 03:10, the peak of your vocal is your upper mid, when you doulbe that track, that peak slams the needle, in other words, your upper tenor peak is apparently much louder than the rest of the vocal track, and that peak quickly accumulates as you double the vocal.

Not only are we sensitive to those tenor frequencies, but there is an overabundance of the there, due to accumlation.

I am exploring techniques to combat that. Such as cloning the vocal, EQ'ing the top and upper mids of one, smoothing it, and then letting it lead, then mixing the dry track with the hard tenor peaks at 9db to 12db below that track, and letting the natural peaks kick up into the smoothed track.

I'd like to hear you try that.

Overall, I think there is a bit too much verb on the lead vocal. The guitar jangle needs to be subdued just a touch, The mids in the guitar need a tiny boost.

I'm nitpicking, it's a wonderful and sincere cover, you perform with understanding of the song here and it's relationship to today. I can feel you performing here.

WELCOME ! Thanks for sharing, thanks for entertaining us.

Now ... I'm going to jam with this, long, rich, splendid viola counter melodies ! and sweet fiddle fills.
 
Ya

What studioV said:D
Good cover, maybe too much like the original but very faithful thats for sure.
And well recorded and mixed as well.
 
wow

Georgous, guitar and vocal, outstanding!

Harmony is outstanding also.

You have a great voice mate, just wanted to say I enjoyed this alot.

How do you record. I am learning what to do with a Condensor. Any tips for recording acoustic guitar and vocal?

Erland

www.erlandcooper.com
 
Thanks for your time, everyone!

Hi Guys,

Thanks so much for your invaluable feedback. I really appreciate the time you have all taken to provide me with the benefit of your experience.

There is a lot of great information here that will help me mix better.

Gascap - Thank you. You have given me some good ideas for producing this mix to a higher level.

powderfinger - Thanks for the listen. I haven't heard Live Rust, but I will have to check it out.

Kelly5150 - Thanks for your kind words and the listen.

Studioviols - I really wish there was some sort of HR.com or internet collaboration award. The amount of time you spend on this site and others is testament to your commitment and dedication to music and you desire to help the community grow. Wow. You have some awesome information in here that I am still digesting. I will incorporate all of this into a remix shortly. Thanks so much for the benefit of your ears - you have articulated succinctly the half truths my ears have been reporting.

HevyD47Ca - Thanks for the listen! Next time I will do something a little more creative with the cover. Kazoo? Piano accordion? LOL ;)

Erland - Thanks for your praise -- it means a lot coming from the maker of some of the most delightful music on this board. This was all recorded in my little dogbox upstairs. Sonar 3.0 PE and an Aardvark 2496 4in-4out card @ 24bit, 44.1KHz.

I used a Washburn cutaway semi-acoustic and took a direct line from the guitar, with it's EQ set to Bass @ 5, Mids @ 6 and Treble @ 9. I then recorded a seperate track with a cheap and nasty ADK A-5s condensor. Both tracks went into my equally cheap and nasty Behringer Ultragain Pro microphone pre-amp and then into my compressor and finally to the sound card. Ratios of about 4:1 were using while recording. I pushed the levels fairly hard so that I was limiting the attack of the finger-picked note, yet bringing the body of the note up to a relatively high level.

The only other thing that I did with the guitar was to roll off 150Hz and below by about 6db on the DI guitar track. I rolled off everything below 45Hz on the mic'd guitar track. I then added, (too much), reverb as a bus insert.

The vocal tracks I did as - main vocal - extremely compressed at a low threshold and a 8:1 ratio. I did this to try and bring a sense of intimacy to the vocal track. All other BG vocals were recorded
with a compression ratio back at about 5:1 and a more relaxed threshold. I then EQ'd these BG vocals to make them "thinner". What I have not done on this mix - as picked by Studioviols - is tame the level of the main vocal double track. When it comes in it is spiking up my vocal level quite a bit..... Oh well, live and learn.

Thanks again guys!

:D Q.
 
Hey Qwerty.

I admit, not being much of a Neil Young fan, I've never heard this before. Whatever the original sounds like I'm sure you've brought it justice, the mix is absolutely great on this song. Vocal and guitar sounds are fantastic, great job.
 
Very nice job! I burned it to cd and am enjoying it very much.
 
Hi Lynx, BobOC -- thanks for your kind words! I appreciate it greatly.....

I didn't realise that there were issues involved with posting covers up on NW Radio. I don't want to cause anybody any legal grief, so I am pulling the track.

Thanks for everyone's help and assistance.

:) Q.
 
Qwerty said:
I didn't realise that there were issues involved with posting covers up on NW Radio. I don't want to cause anybody any legal grief, so I am pulling the track.

:) Q.
Click to expand...
I guess I should have read down to the bottom first. I couldn't figure out where the track was. :) You gonna post it somewhere else?
 
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