Cover of A Forest, The Cure

Snap

One of my favourite tracks, so I attempted a quick guitar only cover of it, all feedback appreciated!

The bass is the rather lovely Stingray that Bridgehouse sold me, and I love it, its a real beast. DI'd straight in, with a almost nothing on it apart from EQ rolling the lower end off a bit.

Bezzer

Disclaimer : I fucking love the Cure and nothing is ever going to come close.

That out of the way ... I think you've done a really nice job on this. It was never going to be easy, but I think you've got everything balanced really well and the space is filled nicely.  Possibly too well if I'm honest as it's missing a little of the air the original has ... if that makes sense.

Imitating Robert Smith, that's never going to really be possible ... even for him nowadays ... but I think you managed a fine job of hitting the more usual melodic notes he employs without veering into parody impression.

Yeah, enjoyed it!

Bridgehouse

Yeah - it's a good Stingray, that one - was always good at that sound straight in. 

Great track as well... nicely done

Snap

Cheers fellas!

@Bezzer - yes, I know what you mean about "air". I tried to get a bit more by tweaking the mics on the drums, but probably could have done something with the overall mix to get that.

Mimicing  HRH R Smith - you know, I wasn't aiming to do it, but there is a bit of that in there, the mimic. I just did a one take vocal tbh, then did some backing and hoped for the best. But listening to the original, I have copied quite a bit of his vocal, though I started off not intending to. Guess its down to having listened to that track so many times over the years, one of my faves. Sorely tested my breathing on the last of the vocals, the "again & again & again" bit!! Nearly fell over by the end of that! Went dizzy, ha!

@Bridgehouse - I love the Stingray mate. Its just the sound I always wanted, for years. So much attack and beef. So much so, I find that I have to roll the bottom off as it can be so big. Its still a bit too loud in the mix I think. Its great the way, to me, its just right, straight in, no faff.

anyway, thanks for the feedback. J

robinbowes

Firstly - nice sounding mix, great vocal sound.

Question: did you deliberately play it much slower than the original? The Cure is about 160bpm, you're only 125.

R.

Snap

@robinbowes cheers, yes I did purposefully slow it down. Started off slower actually, but settled at 125.

Sporky

That was excellent. A hint of same-era Killing Joke. 

UnclePsychosis

I like it. Its one of my favourite songs and thats a very good go at it. 

I think at that tempo, it might benefit from a slightly more expansive drum part. I'm thinking maybe a lot more toms, to give it a bit more oomph. 

Snap

thanks again. I'll have a think about toms. I'm always a bit wary of overdoing drums, well overdoing everything really tbh. On this track, I tried hard to rein it in in terms of tracks. So, there's only two guitar lines - the main electric, and the acoustic, oh, and a third line early on, doing the tremolo rhythm part. Most of it was one take too, though I think I did the bass line twice.

Vocals - used the Cakewalk Vocal Strip plugin, which comes with Sonar.

Killing Joke - I'll take that cheers Andi!

Gassage

Surely if it's a cover of A Forest it should be called 'Leaves'?

Sporky

Snap said:

Killing Joke - I'll take that cheers Andi!

Certainly meant as a compliment. Something about the vocals - not sound-a-like but a similar feel to them.

robinbowes

Sporky said:

Snap said:

Killing Joke - I'll take that cheers Andi!

Certainly meant as a compliment. Something about the vocals - not sound-a-like but a similar feel to them.

I got Floyd from the vocals.

Snap

robinbowes said:

Sporky said:

Snap said:

Killing Joke - I'll take that cheers Andi!

Certainly meant as a compliment. Something about the vocals - not sound-a-like but a similar feel to them.

I got Floyd from the vocals.

Keith Floyd?

robinbowes

Snap said:

robinbowes said:

Sporky said:

Snap said:

Killing Joke - I'll take that cheers Andi!

Certainly meant as a compliment. Something about the vocals - not sound-a-like but a similar feel to them.

I got Floyd from the vocals.

Keith Floyd?