Refuse/Resist - Sepultura Cover

[JD01]

Something way, way out of my usual style. It came on in the car the other morning and I hadn't listened to it for years - immediately decided I wanted to do a cover of it!

Any comments would be helpful - I don't have monitors at the moment, so this was all done on headphones. In fact, when it came on I was on my way to drop my monitors off with a tech to see if I can get them fixed.

Refuse Resist Mix 1.mp3

I'm not trying to emulate the tone of the original - that's way too scooped.

EDIT - here's another mix, I've just changed the vocal slightly.

Refuse Resist Mix 1.1.mp3

[rayc]

I don't know the original...I know the band but not well.
Should the snare have a weird boing to it or something? It sounds like a band that would have such.
I think you did a decent job of it...palm muted, hi gain, fast 73 string guitar stuff.

[JD01]

The drumming on the original is pretty amazing.

Cheers Ray

[Greg_L]

Damn I'm glad that song's only three minutes long because it's fucking awful.

I don't know the original but I'm assuming you did a good job of it. There are some timing issues between the guitar and the vocals and drums near the beginning, but it settled in pretty well. The vocals need to be cleared up some I think. They sort of have a blanket over them. They don't have the "air" and clarity of the rest of the track.

[JD01]

Damn I'm glad that song's only three minutes long because it's fucking awful.

I don't know the original but I'm assuming you did a good job of it. There are some timing issues between the guitar and the vocals and drums near the beginning, but it settled in pretty well. The vocals need to be cleared up some I think. They sort of have a blanket over them. They don't have the "air" and clarity of the rest of the track.

Hmmm, I'll have to have a look into that. I've never managed to get vocals to sit well in a mix... also i sound like Darth Vader this afternoon.

I think this is the first time I've put a tempo change in a mix.

[Greg_L]

Hmmm, I'll have to have a look into that. I've never managed to get vocals to sit well in a mix... also i sound like Darth Vader this afternoon.

I think this is the first time I've put a tempo change in a mix.

It's not that the vocals don't "sit"...they do sit. They're not too loud or too quiet. They just have a different something that doesn't jive with the rest of the mix. They don't match the tonal quality and clarity of everything else. I suspect it's the doubling and whatever else you plop on there because you don't actually like your own vocals. It's probably very similar with what Ray has been going through. I mean, does anyone really like their own vocals? Probably not many home recorders really like their own vocals. I sure don't really like mine. Mine are mostly crap, I know it. To me I always sound like I have a cold, but fuck it. I just let them be what they are and make sure whatever crap comes out of my mouth actually sounds appropriate with the mix.

[vomitHatSteve]

The big thing that I'm noticing throughout is that the drums sound very canned on this one. It does not sound like a live drummer, which in the context of a 90s thrash song is really distracting.

The snare trill around 0:33 is especially egregious.

The guitars and vocals sound fine for the genre tho.

I mean, does anyone really like their own vocals?

Me! My voice kicks ass!

[Bubba]

Well, that wasn't easy for me.
I'm not a connoisseur but I thought this sounded good. The vocals (I listened to mix 2) must have been improved because they fitted well enough.
One thing that wasn't good was the snare. It was too tight, too ringy, too lacking in balls. It was like a Jazz fusion snare. Try downtuning it in the DAW or something?

[JD01]

Cheers Bob.. I'd have no idea how to downtune a snare. I get this totally isn't your style though.

VHS, you're right. Need to do a fair bit of work on this

Greg, there's a fair bit of delay on the vocal. But then there's a fuck load of delay on the vocal on the original. Maybe I'll just remove it. You're right though, I hate my voice, although when I listened to the initial vocal takes on this dry (just compressed) and soloed I didn't mind them actually. Particularly the last chorus.

In the original there's a delay so it goes "Resist! (ist) (ist) (ist)". You can just hear my delay clearly at the tempo shift.

[Bubba]

Cheers Bob.. I'd have no idea how to downtune a snare.

Reapitch.

[JD01]

Cheers Bob.. I'd have no idea how to downtune a snare.

Reapitch.

Cheers. I'll take a look later.

[WhiskeyJack]

I'm going to guess this is the first "metal" song we've had on here and i am thankful it is Sepultura. JD hit a home run with the guitar tones those. Much better then the bands actual studio offering. Midscooped fizzy mess that was. But also proof that a good song can be good even if the tones might suck. The drums are what made those records so good though.

I think all your strings are good. Leave those. Vocals are better than i thought they'd be though i do think there a few parts of it where you might be too up on the mic? Or possibly you have some kind of distortion effect on your shit that might be getting a bit hot and crispy in some spots. see 1:09 to 1:12 par example.

I heard what Greg was talking about as well RE: the timing. There is something on the delivery of the first verse that is just off a wee bit but get's way better as you work your way through it. I can actually hear you get more comfortable with yourself and the track vocally as it moves on. Really cool actually. The vocals do seem to be tucked into a quilt a bit. A little muffly. Needs some sparkle.

Those drums though. Your programming and all the pieces are there nothing at all wrong with that another home run IMHO. Some experimentation should be applied with different samples and sounds just for fun. Notably the snare. As much as i hate to say it you may want ot think about eq'ing and compressing EZD's room mic and introudce that. not tons. just nudges. rules are meant to be broken.

Bob mentioned detuning the snare a bit. I believe this is a thing EZD can do. I think. Id have to hop on my other computer to look and see though. But if in the kit assembly pane and you click on the snare drum to change the actual drum, there may be a dial or dials in that fly out screen where you can adjust the volume and pitch of the midi sample. I can report back shortly though to confirm you haven't already by then.

[JD01]

Cheers WJ. No, there's no dist effect on the vocal... just me giving it the full beans.

I'm not happy with verse 1 either, but I've not changed any settings on my interface so I could have another crack at that in the morning if I can still talk.

[Armistice]

Assuming you haven't managed to learn to drum to this level in the last little while and that they're canned drums, you downtune a snare by going into the software and downtuning it... should be a parameter in there somewhere - there's one for every other damned thing you never knew you needed to adjust.

Totally not my sort of music, and someday you're going to have to explain to JD02 why daddy was possessed by a devil... but good execution. [mention]Greg_L[/mention] is right on the vocals - I just listened to the original - I think it'd be better without the doubling. If you're just shouting, then what it sounds like sort of isn't really that much of an issue - the original is just monotone rough shouting single tracked, and very dry ... I'd do the same - pick your best take and turn it up a bit.

See what you mean about the drums on the original...

But no matter what you do to it, I'm not going to listen again.

[Bubba]

But no matter what you do to it, I'm not going to listen again.

[Greg_L]

[JD01]

haha,

Listened to this again this morning. Does sound better with just a single tracked vocal, also makes the timing issue in verse 1 more obvious which I'll re-track later this morning if I get time.

[Bubba]

haha,

Listened to this again this morning. Does sound better with just a single tracked vocal, also makes the timing issue in verse 1 more obvious which I'll re-track later this morning if I get time.

What's wrong with just cutting it and nudging it a bit?

[JD01]

Well, I didn't get chance to re-sing it. So I might.

[vomitHatSteve]

I'm going to guess this is the first "metal" song we've had on here and i am thankful it is Sepultura.

The AAA challenge was a metal song. Tho that was industrial/extreme rather than thrash.
Some of the Lipstick stuff probably counts as at least hair metal-adjacent.
A lot of JD's other stuff is pretty heavy.
Crows' contribution to Challenge #6 was compared to Sabbath.

We actually have a decent spread of heavy music happening!