That was great! I had never heard the Idles version of that song…such a huge contrast of vocals and guitar (aggressive) compared to the original. I didn’t know there was a “covers” anniversary Epic album, so that will give me something to listen to this week in the car. The lighting in the video gave it a cool effect. Nice job!
Thanks Ed!
This sounds awesome!
Thank you, @JerryP!!
Thanks, @faydout! It’s always a challenge getting the mix right. What sounds good on my “studio” headphones, sound completely different on my earbuds, different again when played on the phone speakers and yet different again on the computer. Interestingly, you are right though, I didn’t double track this one!
This is a fight that I’ve been fighting lately too. I double track everything (wet and dry going into a mixer) and what sounds good on my Marshall speaker sounds puny in my studio headphones. Mix it with headphones and it sounds like the bass is blasting on the Marshall. Find a nice in between on both where I think it sounds lovely, package it up to send to iMovie and get it into the video and upload it to Youtube, where it sounds like ass. I was so embarrassed when I heard the Nine Inch Nails song I just did last week. The MP3 sounded fantastic. The Youtube audio was something completely different. Not even fit for FM radio.
The Marshall is ok for a bit of reference testing like you do here (but not mixing)…concentrate on using the headphones to mix (they should be pretty flat) but reference your mix levels to the original as you mix on your headphones (+there are lots of plugins to help with this) i.e. the levels on the original sounded good on multiple stereos so if you match them pretty close, then so should yours…if you think the original wasn’t a great mix you might make some changes but mixing from a reference is helpful to get your mix in the right area
As far as mixing for youtube goes that is a whole different area (home mastering basically), but send a super hot peaking mix to youtube and it can sound weird after their processing…so if you mix (or normalize) your master to 0db [peak] try mixing to -1db or lower and see if that helps (and use a true peak limiter on your stereo bus if you don’t already)
Yeah that’s good advice and I would agree to recommend a mastering limiter in the master bus. This is basically table stakes - You absolutely want to be doing your own compression there and not leave it to YouTube.
I would actually target lower on each mix track - like -8dB or so - and bring the master up to no higher than -1, with the limiter set there.
What you are actually trying to do is get aggregate master LUFS in the right range but that’s a huge topic on its own.
Thank you both, you are wizards. Here’s a test with the built in limiter plug in, in Garageband. So much better. The Youtube audio is a work in progress still but I didn’t spend an hour fighting with with the mix in Garageband.
Love this song, crazy how Slowdive came back from a 22 year hiatus with this album. I saw them the year this came out.
Used the BB-300 that I should have sold this weekend to make room for my new 5er coming in this week. Like all P basses, it just sounds good. Looks like I’ve got 6 basses now. Nothing really special going on with effects here. Just some compression. A few mistakes but I’d have liked another day or two to work on it, this was a test with the Limiter as much as anything.
Slowdive - No Longer Making Time
Sounds good my guy, very naturally in the mix!
All Star -Smashmouth
Had a lot of fun with this, although it took me longer than planned!
Great job on all the covers everyone, as you’ve probably noticed, my replies have all been on YouTube as I haven’t been on the forum much these last couple of weeks. So, forgive me if I don’t individually comment on the last 20 videos today!
Ditto…. So much easier to simply reply on YT anyway…
I’ve been trying to get this one up on my YouTube for a couple of days but I can’t seem to play it through without making silly mistakes…so it’s audio only today as I’m getting really sick of listening to it!
IMO this is the best song on this album, which actually has some really fun bass lines.
The Killers - All These Things That I’ve Done
https://audio.jukehost.co.uk/BsAhrTKSMhuzCTpcqV6UPv8Jad947AVp
Super mellow, @JohnF, love it!!
That’s funky, @JustinAndSheba, love it!!
Never heard this before, @faydout, great playing!!
Another one I’ve never heard before. Great playing, @faydout!
Not a great fan of All Star’s Smashmouth, @AndreaJayne, but great planning. And singing at the same time!!
That sounded good, @Ant. I would have liked the bass a little higher in the mix, but as I say, great playing!!
Thank you. Slowdive are oldies like us. Might be worth checking to see if you went to uni with any of them too. I don’t remember where they’re from in England though tbh.
Thanks buddy! I always go back and forth on my mixes…as you know all too well it’ll sound great on my headphones, OK on my Bluetooth, horrible on my phone, and pretty good in the car
Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop
Punk, innit?!
Argued by many to be the first punk single, Blitzkrieg Bop was released in February 1976; The Damned’s ‘New Rose’, was released 8 months later, in October ‘76, the first British punk song.
Bass track doubled, hell no, tripled!!
Hohner Professional B Bass into the Ampero, then on into GarageBand.
Play it LOUD!!
Edit: Oh, one other thing. I lengthened the bass strap for video - for a punk song you really can’t have the bass up high Wow, it makes it harder to play!! Video done, the strap was readjusted back to its more usual position, turns out that I’m not that punk after all
Oi oi oi!!!
Great job! That looks like it’s a blast to play. I go back and forth a little on strap height. I think I should play lower than I do but it bugs me when I drop it.
“I’m Broken” by Pantera
Not gonna lie I struggled pretty hard getting the tone on this one and I’m still not entirely pleased with it, but figured something’s better than nothing and maybe by sharing here could get some advice to refine it. I think my issue can basically be boiled down to overthinking + insistence on using SOMETHING where NOTHING would be suitable- IE, trying to find the right flavor of distortion when I could simply use gain from the amp sim. Either way, I wound up using the built in compression on Logic at 6:1 with a fast attack and medium release, into the Darkglass Ultra B7K (free trial of course) with drive at about 20%, into a Logic Bass Amp with the gain hammered at 10. This of course after playing with the numerous options offered by Guitar Rig 7 and probably listening to the song 7645 times and recording 36 takes before arriving at the “finished” product.
I did also mess with the timing of my recorded track against the backing track, so there’s a couple of spots where I feel like I’m half-a-beat ahead, buuut… oh well.
Definitely open to input on this one if anyone has any ideas for nailing the tone with a bit more accuracy.
My cover of Jason Mraz’s cover of Bob Dylan’s Man Gave Names To All The Animals
I like the Jason Mraz version, because it sounds realy funky.
It’s not played perfectly since it was quite challenging for my playing level. But I’m ready to share it, and hope you like it!
I haven’t heard this song in years. Great job on the cover!