Hey, Rob - really enjoyed this. Nice to hear a cut from the underrated Wire.
I think you've done the song justice and got all the instrument tones nicely. Your singing is a good fit for the band generally and you've done a great job with the harmonies. That alone tells me you've spent many, many years listening to and absorbing this track
I think the mix could do with a little attention on the matter of clarity. Firstly, although the drums are nice I think they need drying a little and bringing further forward. The kick is a perfect volume with the guitars and bass. I also think the vocal is a nice volume but could be a bit crisper in the high mids in order to maintain clarity when the harmonies start to build up.
When the slowed-down refrain begins in the latter part of the song, it's completely buried. I think it would be good to pan your doubled chorus vocals left and right a bit, lower their volumes slightly and allow the refrain to come through the centre. Turn it up quite a bit as well? Is the refrain doubled? If not it needs to be and the EQ sharpened/thinned out a little
Very enjoyable.
Great feedback, thanks a lot Bubba. Yeah, I've heard this song a
lot of times. The first would have been the late 90s and with CDs being so expensive at the time and the days before streaming, it was a long time before I heard anything else by Wire. Made them and this weird pop song with cryptic lyrics even more intriguing and mysterious for me at the time.
You've actually picked up on most of the areas I've been umming and aahing about. Firstly, I completely agree about the drums. The song needs a dry drum sound - I didn't add any reverb at all to the track, but I'm using EZ drummer with the stock kit on the tight setting. I tried to get it as dry as I could, but this was about as far as I seemed to be able to get it. I'd actually uploaded the song to soundcloud and was about to post when I got last minute jitters about the drums, turned them down and reuploaded. I wonder whether some kind of gating might overcome the 'natural' verb that's on them and dial in the sound better. Not something I've ever tried before, but I'll give it a go and see if it improves things on the update. Will look at the EQ on the vocals too.
The clarity in that last section was another area I was uncertain on. All the harmony vocals other than the layered chorus parts were first takes. I only meant for them to be placeholders while I worked out the arrangement, but they worked pretty well, and so I kept them. They were done in Ableton and I bounced them all over to a single stereo track on Reaper as a batch. Made me a bit lazy with the panning and EQing. Your feedback's a good cue to sort that out properly.
Overall volume - yeah, I'm still working out how to do that. I turned up the master fader and it started distorting even though it wasn't clipping so I backed off. Probably an internal setting on my machine, but just needs figuring out.
Thanks a lot mate, glad you enjoyed it too
I like this. Catchy song and good performances all around. I'm not familiar with the original, but I dig the purity of the mix. It reminds me of an AM radio pop mix from the 1960s, with vocal dry and very forward and with instrumentals in a supporting role. I agree with Bubba that the drums are a bit in the background, especially by comparison to the bass which is fairly prominent. Those are minor issues. My one complaint is that the energy level doesn't vary much. There are certain points in the song where it seems to me that you want to step up the intensity and energy, for example the pre-chorus that starts around 0:35 and what sounds like the chorus twenty seconds later, and further repetitions throughout the song. You come off sounding a little too restrained at those points in the song.
Cool, thanks a lot Robus. Wire were first wave UK punk I guess, though they broadened their style pretty quick. This is a bit poppier than a lot of their stuff and I like the contrast between the dry lead vocal and the verby harmonies.
I think it's a good point about the intensity issue for the chorus. I'm pretty happy with the verses and harmonies, but I struggled to hit the attitude of the original in the chorus. I might try and retrack and see if I can get it better - but I often struggle with pitch when I try and sing with more force.
Drums should be fixable as mentioned above. Thanks for listening Robus, I'll work on an update.
Rob, you sing exactly like Tobin Sprout (especially his solo records). It's amazing how similar.
I don't have any problems with the mix. I think the guys are right the drums are low, but somehow it fits okay here and a lot of this stuff is subjective.
If you called this done I wouldn't have any nits with it.
Nice job doing a Wire song. My favorite is "three girl rhumba" and I only know the album that one's on, so I don't even know this tune, but I dig it. It's been nice getting Wire, Pixies, etc in the clinic. You should cover a Tobin Sprout song!
Hey Nola. I had to google Tobin Sprout - haven't heard any of his solo stuff, but I do know the era of GBV when he was in the band and like a bunch of the songs that I read he wrote with them. I'll check out his solo works when I can listen and who knows. It might be the most obscure cover ever to grace the board
Outdoor Miner was on the second Wire album
Chairs Missing, though it's criminally short on there. They did a compilation of the early albums a few years later and fortunately included a longer version of it on there instead.
Pink Flag which you mention is an excellent record though. I dunno if you know Elastica at all, but they had two big hits and both of them completely rip off Wire songs. It's to the point of being ridiculous, especially as I don't think any royalties went their way. One of the songs being 'three girl rhumba' and the other being 'i am the fly'.
I'm glad the mix worked for you man - I'll give the drums a nudge when I find the sweet spot with them. Plenty of cool looking stuff in the clinic at the moment, I need to give a proper listen to. Thanks for the listen
