Post your covers! (2019-2022)

russki98 · October 22, 2020, 11:48am

So nicely played @terb Laurent. It would have been so easy to over play that song but you nailed it. Really nice tone from the green stick too.

terb · October 22, 2020, 12:50pm

thank you all for your kind words

howard · October 25, 2020, 3:46am

edit: replaced with updated version

https://youtu.be/NihvjUurwLk

This is my cover of Gary Numan’s “Down In The Park”. Me on bass. Also me on everything else, I made it from scratch

Drums: Steven Slate Drums 5
Synths: Me playing through Kilohearts Phase Plant. The pad and outro bells are stock patches, I made the synth lead sound from scratch.
Voice: Synthesizer V, Eleanor Forte vocaloid, with a phaser on it. The song is from the perspective of a dystopian future machine-person, so I thought a vocaloid would work well, and the phaser gives a cool She-Threepio kind of effect.

Everything is tracked up and mixed down in Reaper.

Being self-critical, I have lots of comments about it, but I’ll wait to hear others before I make them

Gio · October 25, 2020, 4:18am

I’ll jump in first here with a disclaimer - I don’t know the original by Gary Numan. But this is so damn cooool!!!

I’m way down with this full synth robo-tron goodness.
Bravo, and do more, I say.

howard · October 25, 2020, 4:28am

Thanks!

The original is an electronic music classic, it was the B-side to “Are Friends Electric?”, his first single.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C86Q9FukYE

Mac · October 25, 2020, 4:36am

Okay I’m officially blown away ! @howard
The bass is just right in all aspects but to have then recorded everything else is just something else,next level .
If that was me I’d be shouting it from the rooftops.

sfadams · October 25, 2020, 4:38am

Fabulous! Love it. The keys in particular seem right on point to my ears. Well done.

TNKA36 · October 25, 2020, 6:01am

Great cover @howard,
I’m a big Gary Numan fan, so I know the song and I think Gary Numan would really dig this cover😎
One word “SENSATIONAL”
Cheers Brian

howard · October 25, 2020, 6:05am

Thanks for the kind words everyone. It means a lot coming from you folks.

I’ll still hold off a bit before I savage it with self-critique

TNKA36 · October 25, 2020, 9:51am

Hi @howard,
The only thing I can pick up is a little bit of the vocals not being in sync🤔
And I am being very picky, I’ve listened to it at least a half a dozen times, I love it👍
Cheers Brian

TNKA36 · October 25, 2020, 9:52am

I’d be interested in what you think you’re not happy with
Cheers Brian

howard · October 25, 2020, 9:59am

So that’s the first thing. Specifically the final verse, the last set of vocals is for some reason out of sync and it’s driving me crazy. I think there are some phonetic cases where the software struggles. I’m going to have to play with that a bit.

The second is the drum track. It’s a very vanilla nailing of the main riff but it needs a lot more work. Like fills. Or for that matter, any variation at all.

The third is I need to adjust my yamaha’s action a bit if I want to seriously play it with a pick like that. It’s ubergrowly, and not quite in a bad way, but almost. Luckily that’s a bit hidden in the mix.

I was also somewhat sloppy with some of the synth playing, specifically in the pad. It’s actually visible in the DAW even in the video’s zoom level. But it added humanity so I left it. I did have to quantize the crap out of the synth lead riff though, to the point that it’s more programmed than played, really. I’m out of keyboard practice and wasn’t up to that kind of stretch of 16th notes.

But overall I am pretty happy with it

And thanks again!

howard · October 25, 2020, 10:11am

Also, if anyone is interested, this song was super tricky to figure out. It changes keys in three positions verse to chorus and back. Not in the sense of a chord progression, but it changes actual key signatures. Plus has a little chomaticity, though I added some of that (the walk-up in the bassline, etc).

It sounds simple but it’s not a simple song at all.

TNKA36 · October 25, 2020, 11:05am

Hi @howard,
None of Gary Numan’s stuff is straight forward,
That’s what makes it different from the the stuff that is being put out there now, IMO nothing compares to his original stuff.
Cheers Brian

howard · October 25, 2020, 11:07am

Agree, so much of his stuff is great. It was massively ahead of its time. I remember at the time, everyone had heard “Cars”, but that was about it. I didn’t find out more about his stuff until the late '80s.

TNKA36 · October 25, 2020, 11:11am

Hi @howard,
I’m working on “Are friends electric” have been for some time, still not where I would think is worthwhile posting as a cover.
Getting close, can’t wait to finish it and share in Gary Numan’s great music for all

Cheers Brian

howard · October 25, 2020, 11:14am

Great song, I love what he does with the spoken part in the middle live now.

TNKA36 · October 25, 2020, 11:17am

I am waiting in anticipation for my DVD of his new dvd , “I am ruin”to turn up, it is awesome, with his daughter singing on it👍
Cheers Brian

russki98 · October 25, 2020, 12:00pm

F-ing nice @howard, but I think you know that already. Would work very well as a soundtrack for a futuristic dystopian cyborg drama flick (Just what Gary would have wanted way back when he did it). Great DAW work mate.

JerryP · October 25, 2020, 1:50pm

Excellent job @howard! I’m not familiar with the band or the song but I really admire all the work it must have been to put that all together.

素晴らしいおめでとうございます
Subarashī omedetōgozaimasu