Back to Black - Amy Winehouse Cover

[JD01]

Been fucking about with this since finishing work.

Don't know if Amy Winehouse was big in the US. She was massive in the UK doing modern soul singing. She has this boyfriend that was a right cunt and she ended up drinking and smacking herself to death about 10 years ago.

If you're not familiar with the original, have a listen to this first:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJAfLE39ZZ8

And, here's mine:

[Greg_L]

Lol. Yes we know who the fuck Amy Winehouse is in the USA.

I'll listen later.

[JD01]

Lol. Yes we know who the fuck Amy Winehouse is in the USA.

I'll listen later.

haha, well you never know! Some people I think are really popular and they just never made it over there.

[rayc]

I doubt that Amy would be unhappy with your version.
I think the hard panned guitars are a little loud.
The guitar on the Left sounded a little fizzy in the chorus.
Other than that - I think it's a cool cover.

[paulman]

I'm gonna be honest, it's been a long day at work and I'm not getting off the fucking couch to plug in to my monitors. I'll do that later or tomorrow and get a better listen. But just on my laptop, it sounds like the vocals need to be louder. Good sound overall, though. And yeah, Amy was huge here too. :-)

[JD01]

Cheers guys... My iPad is telling me that I read these comments last night.. But I have no memory of it at all

[ido1957]

Yep - vocals need to come up a bit. The leads used to accent a couple of parts could be a tiny bit louder just so they poke out a bit. I think I hear them but it's kinda mushed in with the rhythm. Rhythms are great, drums suit the track, bass good overall a nice even level and arrangement. Very little needed to finish this one

[Greg_L]

I agree with Ido. I think it's pretty close to being pretty good. The vocals are the real problem on this one. They're low, unintelligible, drowning in a wash of too many guitars that sound too similar. If you're gonna have guitars dancing all over the place, I suggest you put more work into getting different tones out of your rig. Too much of the same sound is a problem. Since guitars and vocals sort of occupy the same space, getting better separation from the guitars can help the vocals.

[JD01]

I agree with Ido. I think it's pretty close to being pretty good. The vocals are the real problem on this one. They're low, unintelligible, drowning in a wash of too many guitars that sound too similar. If you're gonna have guitars dancing all over the place, I suggest you put more work into getting different tones out of your rig. Too much of the same sound is a problem. Since guitars and vocals sort of occupy the same space, getting better separation from the guitars can help the vocals.

Yep - vocals need to come up a bit. The leads used to accent a couple of parts could be a tiny bit louder just so they poke out a bit. I think I hear them but it's kinda mushed in with the rhythm. Rhythms are great, drums suit the track, bass good overall a nice even level and arrangement. Very little needed to finish this one

Cheers guys, I totally get what you're saying about the guitars all sounding similar - this one really didn't take long - I just dialed in a tone, and played all of the parts straight off. The leads are probably all adlibbed.

Yeah, I really need to work on how to get vocals to sit properly in a mix - I was gonna work on it today but I've been away surfing so I'll install that thing rami suggested and try a few different ways to get vocals to sit better, both in this one and my other songs.

[JD01]

Cock - just opened up my computer, reaper has crashed and I hadn't saved this project. I've still got all the music, but none of the vocals are there. I do have them on a memory stick but I'll have to re-import them and remix the whole thing. (I record vocals upstairs in my wifes office on a laptop)

[miroslav]

I agree with Ido. I think it's pretty close to being pretty good. The vocals are the real problem on this one.

I agree with both of them.
It COULD sound really good...but you need to put some more work into it.
Unclutter it and get your tones and levels better balanced.

Maybe you should also adjust the vocals and sing it from the guy's perspective.
You know..."kept MY dick wet" instead of "kept HIS dick wet"...
...just saying.

[JD01]

I agree with Ido. I think it's pretty close to being pretty good. The vocals are the real problem on this one.

I agree with both of them.
It COULD sound really good...but you need to put some more work into it.
Unclutter it and get your tones and levels better balanced.

Maybe you should also adjust the vocals and sing it from the guy's perspective.
You know..."kept MY dick wet" instead of "kept HIS dick wet"...
...just saying.

Yeah, I think I need to work on the guitar sound a bit... which shouldn't be too difficult as it has a very thrown together on one guitar with one sound feel at the moment. I've remixed the vocal tracks now after my file saving fuckup and I think they sound better than before.

I thought about altering the lyrics slightly to make them more male.. but they're just not as good reversed. I tried I left no time - kept my dick wet - kept her cunt wet. But the original lyrics are better even if it sounds a bit strange with a bloke singing them.

[miroslav]

But the original lyrics are better even if it sounds a bit strange with a bloke singing them.

Hey...you're the one singing 'em.

[Bubba]

I don't know why you keep moaning that your voice is no good - it's fine on this! An odd choice for a cover, but I like what you did with it!

[JD01]

I don't know why you keep moaning that your voice is no good - it's fine on this! An odd choice for a cover, but I like what you did with it!

Cos it sounds like a sack of arseholes! Gonna see if I can quickly retrack one of the rhythms now.

[JD01]

Anyway, here's the version with the remixed vocals (after I lost the previous mix) one of the rhythms re-tracked based on the tones that we were discussing in the tone thread last weekend.

[miroslav]

Better...better.

I think there's still a guitar up the middle that fights the vocal...or at least it seems that way to my (I'm on a small computer speaker bar at the moment).

I also find that you have a lot of mid-high "hash" in the guitars, and that too is fighting with the vocal (not sure if it's the amount of distortion or the tone of the distortion, or both)....and because you're singing it in a pretty low register (is this the same key as the original?), your voice gets masked byt the guitars. I think if you push it up to a higher key, your voice would stand out and on top more...but that depends on what you are comfy with.

[JD01]

Better...better.

I think there's still a guitar up the middle that fights the vocal...or at least it seems that way to my (I'm on a small computer speaker bar at the moment).

I also find that you have a lot of mid-high "hash" in the guitars, and that too is fighting with the vocal (not sure if it's the amount of distortion or the tone of the distortion, or both)....and because you're singing it in a pretty low register (is this the same key as the original?), your voice gets masked byt the guitars. I think if you push it up to a higher key, your voice would stand out and on top more...but that depends on what you are comfy with.

Cheers, Miro - if there's frequencies clashing with eachother I'd never know what they'd be or how to sort it out. I haven't re-tracked the little lead licks throughout the verses - maybe I should.

It is in the same key as the original - I have a pretty limited range though - I sing the chorus is an octave higher (probably where Wineo sings the verse) and its close to the limit and I have to scream to get there. It would be shit if I screamed the whole thing.

[rammer24]

is this the same key as the original?)

Yes and no (He posted the original in the OP) . It's the same key, but he's singing it an octave lower, which makes it hard to sink your teeth into. She also does it with a shuffle timing, and JD is doing it in straight 4/4/ timing, with a Greg-type floor riding thing.

I like when someone makes a song their own, like this one. The vocal level is better, but I'd still bring them up. When you start playing some lead while you're still singing, it masks the vocals. Snare is a little carboard-y. Not sure what you can do to give it more snap. It's not bad, but it can be better. The snare, I mean.

To be honest, I know you have more talent than this song shows. It almost seems like you did what I've done often in the past. In my haste to finish a song, I have sometimes not given it the love it deserves. Sometimes it's good to just leave it alone, listen to it first thing in the morning the next day, and many things will pop out as being very obvious to you. Sometimes we're too far inside the painting to see the whole picture.

[JD01]

is this the same key as the original?)

Yes and no (He posted the original in the OP) . It's the same key, but he's singing it an octave lower, which makes it hard to sink your teeth into. She also does it with a shuffle timing, and JD is doing it in straight 4/4/ timing, with a Greg-type floor riding thing.

I like when someone makes a song their own, like this one. The vocal level is better, but I'd still bring them up. When you start playing some lead while you're still singing, it masks the vocals. Snare is a little carboard-y. Not sure what you can do to give it more snap. It's not bad, but it can be better. The snare, I mean. To be honest, I know you have more talent than this song shows. It almost seems like you did what I've done often in the past. In my haste to finish a song, I sometimes not given it the love it deserves. Sometimes it's good to just leave it alone, listen to it first thing in the morning the next day, and many things will pop out as being very obvious to you. Sometimes we're too far inside the painting to see the whole picture.

Yeah, I have no intention of ever doing a soul song!

I've only retracked one of the guitars and it's an improvement. I should probably retrack them all to just generally make a better job of it. I kinda like a dry cracking snare sound but i might make a couple of adjustments to the compression on the snare to open it up a little.