Another cover attempt - David Bowies "Panic In Detroit"

[stratmonkee]

Another big song from my teen years...really love this period of Bowies career...tried to do this one a little closer to the original, although I did speed it up a bit (as opposed to my slowed down Elton John cover) .
Was a lot of fun to put together, may have gone a bit overboard on percussion? Always liked the drums and percussion in the original.

[rayc]

Percussion is cool. the vocal seems disembodied - otherwise cool version.

[stratmonkee]

Percussion is cool. the vocal seems disembodied - otherwise cool version.

Oh man, I suck so bad at everything vocals...when you say disembodied, I'm thinking it's the delay I have on them? Seemed like the right thing at the time will dry em up next mix. Thanks for listening!


** link at top now plays dried up vox now **

[Tadpui]

A personal favorite of mine as well. Good choice to drop the vocals down an octave...I've always struggled to sing it myself, it's out of my range. I'm not sure I've ever even heard Bowie do it live in the same register as the album version.

I think just about everything could use a little "drying up" as far as reverb and delay goes. As far as volume balance, I think that the bass guitar needs to come down, then the whole mix could come up without running out of headroom. At first I thought that the guitars needed to come up, then the drums, then the vocals. I think just lowering the bass would do the trick. The bass is lending a lot of low-end clutter to the overall mix, there's a lot of "boom" right around that 100-120 Hz area (just a guess, but around there somewhere) that could be notched out a bit.

I like the guitar tones, and the playing is solid overall on the guitars, bass and percussion. Love the noisy guitar parts in the outro!

[stratmonkee]

A personal favorite of mine as well. Good choice to drop the vocals down an octave...I've always struggled to sing it myself, it's out of my range. I'm not sure I've ever even heard Bowie do it live in the same register as the album version.

I think just about everything could use a little "drying up" as far as reverb and delay goes. As far as volume balance, I think that the bass guitar needs to come down, then the whole mix could come up without running out of headroom. At first I thought that the guitars needed to come up, then the drums, then the vocals. I think just lowering the bass would do the trick. The bass is lending a lot of low-end clutter to the overall mix, there's a lot of "boom" right around that 100-120 Hz area (just a guess, but around there somewhere) that could be notched out a bit.

I like the guitar tones, and the playing is solid overall on the guitars, bass and percussion. Love the noisy guitar parts in the outro!

Thanks for the feedback Tadpui...I think I have a serious issue with my monitor situation for mixing, I seem to be really overcompensating the low end /bass guitar in everything I do I will take your advice and try to salvage this . Really appreciate your advice !

[stratmonkee]

So, I followed Tadpui and Rayc's advice and tried to remix this, lowered bass level and carved out a bit @100hz. no reverb on anything except the vocals. Hoping it's at least listenable now... link at top, or here, plays new mix . Thanks!

[Alison]

This is great! Love the drums and percussion on this, reminds me of the drums in some of the Talking Heads music. The second mix definitely lets the vocals shine a bit. Well done!

[TripleM]

I think the second mix is definitely an improvement.

I still thing the vocal is getting covered in spots by the guitars.

The main crunch guitars sound decent. But they're a little muddy and/or cloudy to my ear. To me an EQ cut somewhere in the 300hz-600zh octave might improve them. They might not cover the vocal as much as well.

The bass still seems rumbly and indistinct to me.

I'm not familiar with the original. Were the drums that busy? They take up a lot of attention.

[stratmonkee]

I think the second mix is definitely an improvement.

I still thing the vocal is getting covered in spots by the guitars.

The main crunch guitars sound decent. But they're a little muddy and/or cloudy to my ear. To me an EQ cut somewhere in the 300hz-600zh octave might improve them. They might not cover the vocal as much as well.

The bass still seems rumbly and indistinct to me.

I'm not familiar with the original. Were the drums that busy? They take up a lot of attention.

Hi Triple -M, the guitars are untouched as far as EQ , just panned a bit after tracked, I will try your suggestion to clear some mud. Struggling with the Bass, may just dial in a new tone and re track , rather then trying to fix the un fixable.
The original studio version is a bit slower, but basically had that Bo - Diddley beat, with added percussion to give it a kind of tribal drum feel. Live versions from that era are a bit faster , and lots of percussion added . My version has the drums/percussion emphasized a bit more ...one of the things I always liked about the original song .