Poopot's Cover Challenge #22 - the letter I

Habanero

horse said:

  I'm planning on doing a slow paced piano ballad cover of the main chosen track, with an experimental vocal. If I get time.

I decided on the tune in advance, but keep changing my mind about how much to change it from the original.

idiotwind

I've sent in a track.  I finished the backing track weeks ago but have been fighting with the vocals since then.  Decided it isn't going to get any better.  I'll write a bit more about it when it's up in the playlist

flying_pie

@idiotwind in the playlist

idiotwind

Thanks. Ok, so I've gone for, surprisingly, Idiot Wind by Bob Dylan. Just the first half though as a) it's a long song and b) that's as far as I got transcribing the drums.

Drums are EZ Drummer with a transcription of the drum track.  I used that Moises site to split the song up and worked through it. Worked quite well, though if anyone has a better way of transcribing drums than Musescore then I'd be interested.

For the organ and piano I used my Christmas present to myself, a Minilab 3 (little 25 key midi keyboard) and banged out single takes for each.  I'm not much of a keys player.

Simple acoustic guitar part, bass on my DIY fretless and then the vocals... well, I tried.  I bought a real microphone, a cheapo SM57 copy, so at least the sound quality is better this time.

mrkb

Jon,

I use Guitar Pro for notating drums and its superb as it allows:-
- Importing MP3 and syncing tempo of MP3 to notation to allow easy checks and replays vs audio
- Has proper drum notation (hihiat articulation, ghost notes, different crash cymbals)
- Has onboard drum sounds to check how notation sounds
- Lots of full songs are available in Guitar pro format (with drums notated) to download from Ultimate Guitar site - this saves lots of time.
- There loads of youtube tutorials (Levi Clay cover alot of the basics)
- Can also be used for guitar, bass, notation etc
- Can export the drum track to Midi to chuck in EZ Drummer.
- Really good formatting options - I can usually get rock songs onto two pages which is much easier for putting on music stands.
- I also print to jpg and use in word to add lyrics to drum scores (this can be done in the app as well, but I find word easier as I can micro tweak the line spacing and text font.)

Heres one Ive done recently to notate a drum part from scratch and check against MP3.

Habanero

Sent one in...

flying_pie

@Habanero in the playlist

Habanero

Cheers @flying_pie . I wanted to do Ironic as I really like the words. However not being an acoustic player made me make it heavier, and it ended up with some Pearl Jam influences.

stratman3142

Getting somewhere with mine. Should be able to get something in fairly soon.

Bezzer

Same here, I think I’ve got all the instrumental parts done … now I just have to do the ridiculous difficult vocal …

flying_pie

Shall we extend the deadline in the hope it will allow more entries?

I'm assuming everyone's really busy because this is a letter where were spoiled for choice

IMC1980

flying_pie said:

Shall we extend the deadline in the hope it will allow more entries?

I'm assuming everyone's really busy because this is a letter where were spoiled for choice

I should be OK, just need to record some bass and guitar overlays, knowing I only have two weeks helps with motivation. Happy if others need more time though! 

stratman3142

It's just final tweaks and mixing for me, so mine will be in by the current deadline.

stratman3142

Creating a picture is the tricky bit. Mine's pretty cheesy and corny, so I've been trying to find something that might fit that. So far, those text based AI art generation websites are producing some pretty odd results

Habanero

The picture for my entry could be a picture puzzle.

stratman3142

Sent mine in.

flying_pie

@stratman3142 in the playlist 

Bezzer

Well it's finished, I think I've burst my spleen, prolapsed several sphincters and my eye is bleeding. But it's all recorded and mixed ... just need to have a listen tomorrow and clean up breaths and wotnot and we'll be in.

And remind me next time NOT to pick a song that needs a C5 in the harmony ... please.

Bezzer

OK sent mine in. Hopefully it's not too painful! Was an interesting one, things I've learnt

1) You CAN change the key from the original, don't be a bellend
2) You cannot really get rid of nasal vocals by quadruple tracking

Hey ho

flying_pie

@Bezzer in the playlist