Hi,
I have to fess up to being one of those weird people who has always bought and listened to a bands ‘live’ albums. To me a significant measure of a band’s talent was how convincingly they could perform their studio material in front of an audience. Now obviously live albums still exist but are certainly far less prevalent, In the current computer-assisted production age we also now have whole genres like EDM and related synth and sample-based music that don’t really benefit at all from live performance. I also enjoy these genres so my love of listening to live recordings is simply a personal preference and not intended as a put-down of any other particular music form.
Over the past 6 months or so Rated Blue has been trying out Harrison’s Mixbus 32C DAW and initially recorded ourselves rehearsing live on a few cover songs we were working on arranging for our trio. 32C has far exceeded our expectations and been a joy to work with so we decided to collect our sessions and release a Digital Album on Soundcloud. Some of these songs have arrangements radically different from their original form and some are fairly closely preserved, some have already been posted as works in progress but are presented here in their final mixes with the complete album.
You may well ask… Covers!? but why!?
As someone who is both a writer of original material and also with a long history of playing covers I’m often a bit amused by the smug derision that some people express against playing covers. Everything I’ve learned about playing my instrument and writing songs has come from covers, I have also felt fortunate to pay my respects to my influences by interpreting their work and keeping it alive by playing it to new listeners. Lastly covers have paid for most of my gear over the years and allowed me to enjoy many a special shared experience with audiences and customers who also love those particular songs. I love the freedom of performing original material but helping people celebrate the milestones of their lives by performing some of their best-loved tunes is also an experience we enjoy on a personal and band level.
Well anyway, here it is. Thanks very much for taking time to listen 🙂
Nice work! Mixed a bit hot for my taste, and maybe sometimes a little dry as well, but still good.
About covers: Jazzers do it all the time, so why not? And I’m kinda fond of one of my daughter’s compositions, maybe I’ll do something with that (hip-hop style, meaning that I’ll leave her playing it in the song, and simply add some things). Let’s see.
Good spirit, and good results.
I just listened to “Is This Love”, because it’s the only track I know, and because I played the bass guitar when I was in a reggae band.
I sing and play the guitar now, doing covers too, and that’s a real good school.
Keep on recording, my friends.
See you.
E-Gwen.
Thanks! Best of luck with your production and share it when it’s done.
Thanks for taking time to listen 🙂
I’m one of those who cringe at cover performances… Unless the arrangement is original enough, in which case I do support it. There’s little _creative_ merit to playing a song somebody else already have done in the same manner, but to effectively arrange it in an interesting manner does take a fair amount of cleverness and I not only find it amusing, but attempt it some times myself!
Now… I do have a completely unrelated question I hate asking here but I can’t find anywhere else to ask: this page, or rather, the FTP, used to have this totally kickass, 3-sample-round-robin capable guitar SFZ that seems to be gone now. What happened to it? These new ‘No Budget Band” guitars up right now, despite sounding great, are much more prone to machine-gunning. 🙁
Thanks for reading!
Going Down – is ruling! Go on, GMag! Super! When you begin to sing dirty and freely – it sounds cool (for my taste:)).
P.S. *Led Zeppelin also the best. )
I mean dirty sound of voice (not in musical meaning). If my dictionary is right – I could say “pert” or “cheeky’ instead of “dirty”. Hope my English can describe my thoughts clearly:)
Hi cooltehno!
No worries I understood 🙂 Thanks very much for listening!
I’ll second Wolfgang’s comment about jazz and “covers”. We call them “standards”, of course, and they’re a basis upon which to improvise. The song/tune is the same, but each performance differs from others. One of those, of course, is “Fly Me To The Moon”. What typically we don’t do is try to make a clone of the original. We do our own version here and now, with solos by some of whomever is in the band on the day.
I have not listened to these yet…I will. But I am very familiar with most of the material, Mixbus (Best darned sounding DAW anywhere for any man’s money I think), bands, music, sound and on, and align with many of your shared thoughts on covers!! People miss the true nature of it all IMHO; We are there to damn well entertain people!! Has zero to do with having studied under a monk on a hill for 20yrs or some personal subjective choice of whats “best”. Can you bring it?? Can you put looks of joy upon the faces of those you perform to??
All the tedious back and forth over the little specific stuff – this pedal, those cables, that guitfiddle or drum kit… what it was recorded on & where, etc… those things can be fun to tawk shop about for 5 seconds but they are hardly the point in the end game. When working a band, trios were often my favorite. For the picker (me also) it’s a hoot! All that open melodic sonic canvas for use without over playing!! :>
Been working on putting my audio rig back together and decide on config. I run an older Echo Layla and also an Echo Firewire12 depending on needs. Both a clean, non sterile in tone and mate up well with Mixbus. Might try your last release if I get a chance to download it. Have the prior one I think. It was always solid work on your part. I was always a KXStudio guy! Then of course you did a smart thing and connected with them to make use of all those killer tools FXTalk developed? We shall see.
Mostly wanted to identify a bit with you and congratulate you on an excellent body of work and effort with your AVLinux development, studio, recording and your bands efforts!
cheers,
Russell
Wow! Love your OS; first I have ever been able to hear it used properly. LOL. I have come out of a dark tunnel, musically, after years, just begining to seriously practice and write again, with another, who also uses pc-based tech now. I’m showing my age that I first listened to your ‘Since I’ve Been Lovin’ You’ cover by Led Zeppelin… I was immediately blown-away by this, and all I have heard so-far: ‘Superstition’, — another favorite of mine — and ‘Use Me’. Showing my age again here, (57+), but your sound reminds me of ‘Blind Faith’ too — who did one album years ago; I hope to hear more from Your band. And covers done well, are a revisit and upgrade as I see it, as well as I like to write and to hear new material. Great music, GMaq…
God Bless You;
Rob
Hi,
Thanks for the kind words, I LOVE Blind Faith so you’re right on the money there! Best of luck with your recording projects!