Very very cool, my friend! Your cover of “Heaven” makes my cover feel like hell
So, now it’s only @BozzerWolf and me on reluctant player list, right??!
Can you say a little more about your compressor/effect setup? I’m still struggling here…
PS Also, very good that you haven’t used an actual video of yourself playing. Not because I didn’t want to see, that but because that also takes away some pressure.
I had never thought about that, but it totally makes sense if you’re shy like me!
I can tell the bourlesque dancers I asked for stripping in the background during my cover to stay home now ^^
Thank you. For effects, I’m running a compressor at the begining and end of my chain, fast attack and release. Both running at 20:1. A noise suppressor, EQ set up looking like an inverted V, a touch of reverb (Hall) to give it some depth, and a very light amount of distortion (I have overdrive set at about 9 oclock pre EQ) running off of my battalion preamp to give my bass some growl.
I didn’t try getting video this time for exactly the reason you state. I had enough on my plate just getting over the nerves to record it at all. That and I have no idea how to put video to recorded audio and sync them in iMovie. That’s a battle I’ll fight next time. I’m seriously working on 2 other songs atm. This one took me 3 weeks to get to the point where I was comfortable recording it.
I just had a look at the song and it is really great for a first cover as it is slow and simple enough but at the same time has some complications (variations, going over all strings, some muting stuff, a wider fret range). It really is ideal, as I am hovering between songs that are much too easy and much too complicated.
I might nick this one from you!
In terms of effects, I will try to replicate that from you. Why did you choose 20:1 and not 4:1 like everybody tells me to? And why do you have a compressor at the beginning AND the end of the chain?
EDIT Noodling “Heaven” now, while actually I should do some household stuff, as my girlfriend and her parents will be here soon and they expect a clean and tidy house (after a few days “home alone”, things tend to get messy).
It might be the fourfold Espresso, but I’m quite motivated now (to play, not tidy up).
Songs don’t need to be complicated, or even have complications. None here is going to judge.
As you have seen, I’ve done really simple songs (e.g. the Gary Numan one I posted a week ago), and I’ve done things that are more challenging (for me). From my perspective, the relative complexity of the song is irrelevant; the main question is can I learn something from it? I’m practicing two Mel C songs at the moment. One is very simple - the same line just goes around and around. The ‘complexity’ here is keeping exactly the same note feel throughout - the notes that you let slightly sustain, the notes that you play staccato, keep it all the same, in the pocket … for 4 minutes. The other one, while again the structure is pretty simple, the song is about keeping the groove going, the 8ths, as you change notes, cross strings. I recorded another song earlier this week, same things, throw the bass line around, get it to moooove, all while playing 8th, non-stop for 5 minutes.
You then get into the creativity around the videos. Start simple, maybe using something AI generated (I must have a go at that), or video yourself sitting on the couch, then once you’re comfortable, get off the couch and try something different. To be honest, the videos are now my main preoccupation - I’ve actually got 4 or 5 songs recoded, ready to go … just need video inspiration!
No, I don’t mean One, the U2 song, I mean one of the Mel C songs I’ve learnt…
How so? I’ve not played that one as a cover, other than a really rough recording on my iPhone right at the beginning of the B2B course. If I were to do that now, what would I take from it? Playing the line perfectly, perfect note length, perfect tone, perfect rhythm… as I say, you can take something away from almost any bass line.
And as I said, @Whying_Dutchman, just jump in… you clearly want to!
Hey @faydout, for your next covers, may I ask you to please write clearly the artist and the name of the song in your post, like : “Artist - Name of the song” when you release a cover ? It helps me a lot because I’m keeping a listing of all covers year after year. thanks !
Really well done. The bass sounds great. Congrats on posting your first cover. I know it’s good when I can just sit back and enjoy the groove. Keep rockin’.
Ha ha ha. My fiancee loves U2 (not my cup of tea). I hate playing that song for her because I get bored too. It helped me starting out with keeping rhythm and count for chugging and feeling the chord progression but it’s soooooo not fun to play now. @sunDOG is spot on though. He said the same thing to me a while back. Jump in and have fun. I’m starting at the bottom and climbing up so simple and easy is a good starting point. For me, it’s a good way to practice and build technique and get better. For you more advanced players, maybe a higher level “easy” song would suffice. Enough to keep you engaged and not bored. I want to post a cover down the road too. For now, I’m still just polishing the turd that is my playing. However, my playing is getting less turd-y everyday and I find I’m moving on to higher difficulty songs to stay engaged. Good luck. I hope you post a cover.
Awesome job! As far as songs being simple, don’t even worry over that. No one is gonna judge you on that. If they do, ignore them. I’ve done simple ones myself. There is no shame in that! Any song you learn is going to teach you something. The fact is that you want to also have fun playing bass, so play what you want to!! When I look back on some covers I’ve done, they haven’t all been easy to record where I’m satisfied without putting in an hour and a half doing it over and over. The journey to being great is going to be frustrating at times, but everything you do is one step closer to that, mistakes and all, remember that!
Yes, tell me about it! I got up at 5am this morning to record a cover (I’m an early riser ) and spent 1.5 hours trying to get it right before I had to make sure my daughter was up and eating breakfast before school.
I prefer to get a clean take in one go, if I can. No over-dubs etc., so one fluffed note means back to the start! This can be especially frustrating if I’ve pretty much got to the end! . It can also be frustrating if I have decided to record the bass track multiple times (this morning, it was pan left, pan right and one straight down the middle). So they all need to be in synch…
Sometimes I get it wrong - the start of Lucretia My Reflection is one such example - I posted it anyway.
And wow, you learn things:
For Lucretia, I was experimenting with stereo effects. The learning? Layering multiple takes of the bass line recorded in stereo can it sound muddy. Don’t do that again!
The Gary Numan song, simple as it was, was all about trying to get a bass synth sound.
The Ash version of Does Your Mother Know was about me trying to get the other members of the fledgling band enthused about it! It hasn’t worked …. yet! (The drummer likes it )
I recorded a track last week, one with a heavily process bass line and a second time ‘clean’, the clean was better, despite me thinking Uber processes would be super-cool!
) and spent 1.5 hours trying to get it right before I had to make sure my daughter was up and eating breakfast before school.
. It can also be frustrating if I have decided to record the bass track multiple times (this morning, it was pan left, pan right and one straight down the middle). So they all need to be in synch…
)