Not complaining but...

[DannyWeber]

Not complaining but I need to know for the production of my other songs, please. The screener said the recordings for all these cover songs is not broadcast quality. Do you agree? Feedback appreciated.

https://soundcloud.com/dannyweber/rosanna
https://soundcloud.com/dannyweber/you-g ... a-bad-name
https://soundcloud.com/dannyweber/rock- ... -hurricane

COVER VERSIONS of HIT SONGS of the 1980s are needed by an A-List Film/TV Music Licensing Company. They need great sounding, creative covers of almost any big song you can think of from the ‘80s! And your cover versions can be done in ANY STYLE/GENRE that’s Film/TV/Commercial friendly! Broadcast Quality is needed (great sounding home recordings are fine). Your COVERS can range from stripped-down acoustic versions to full blown, over the top productions, and everything in between. This Licensing Company’s happy to hear straight sound-a-like versions OR you can give them a brand new spin on any hit song from the era. Here are some song titles to help get your creative juices flowing: “I Love Rock N’ Roll” by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts “Every Breath You Take” by The Police “Time After Time” by Cindy Lauper “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” by Tears For Fears “Broken Wings” by Mr. Mister “You Give Love A Bad Name” by Bon Jovi “With Or Without You” by U2 “Every Rose Has A Thorn” by Poison … This list could go on forever! TAXI TIP: Stay focused on the original lyric and melody so your version is still instantly recognizable. This will greatly improve the marketability of your submission and make it much more appealing to the Library. Note: Do NOT send in any Beatles, Lennon/McCartney, Neil Young, or Van Morrison songs, as they are rarely licensed. Vocal and instrumental performances need to be really strong. Vocals that have a unique quality or texture will probably work best. This Company offers a Non-Exclusive, 50/50 deal on the Master Recording only. For example: if they license one of your cover song masters for $15,000 to an Ad Agency, you’ll get $7,500. The song’s publisher will do its own deal, and get all the income from that portion of the deal. All submissions will be screened on a Yes/No basis. No full critiques. Please submit 1-3 songs online or per CD no later than Thursday, November 7th, 2013 at 3:30pm (PDT).

[Russell Landwehr]

Hi Danny.

You did good work. The only observations I feel confident in mentioning to you is the lack of depth and separation of elements. This can be achieved in the mix using EQing, panning and reverb/delay FX. Out of those three, your mixes could have made better use of reverb and delay. Additionally, the mixes seemed to lack bottom end.

Russell

[DannyWeber]

Thanks Russell that makes sense.

[PeterD]

Definitely interesting versions, for sure, but I was detecting a bit of "stiffness" to them. Your events seemed to be very quantized, lacking that human feel needed to sound more convincing. Being mechanical has a time and place, but I think it hurt you with the songs you did. That said, I think I liked Rosanna the best.

It's all good!

Next time!!

[DannyWeber]

Thanks Peter!

[andygabrys]

hey danny,

yep I agree with the screener.

to your credit, that is a lot of work, and you picked three tunes that are performed by great bands, and had amazing mixes for the time as well.

here's my opinion:

#1) - drum sounds. You choose three songs which have live rock drums. The drum patterns you employed were not quite there (evidence the legendary almost Purdie Shuffle in rosanna - I didn't hear the driving high hat figure as much as I would have like, and the ghosting on the snare was pretty much absent). But more than that, its the actual sounds. Any drum plugin (Addictive, NI Studio drummer, Superior drummer, ezdrummer, BFD2/3 with appropriate kit) will get you closer - and the trick is to not over process them.

#2) - guitar sounds. I am not sure, but I am hearing something with the guitar sounds that makes me think "played on a keyboard". Very skillfully done if so, but not quite hearing the grit and the sweat I would expect to hear (I am principally a guitarist). The bass also makes me think of a NI Scarbee Music man sample instead of a live bass. I could be way off, the bass could be a modulus graphite kinda thing and the guitar might be live, but the tones sound a little bit "worked" for what I expected to hear (again, referencing the originals, cause you did do sound-alikes)

#3) mix quality - pretty good - but not quite all there either. Not so much of a balance issue, or a panning thing, but its fitting stuff together - gluing it. Most evident with how the vocals fit in with the track itself, and beyond that the guitar / bass / drum sounds are a little hard to knit together.

HTH - perhaps that will help you do other similar productions.

[DannyWeber]

Thanks Andy

[Kolstad]

Hey, the performance qualities of these songs are really great!
Really well executed.

The drums were a dead giveaway from first hit in all of them, imo.
They sound onedimensional and overprocessed.

If you get some great drum libraries, and go from there, you'll be a lot closer to nailing these genres.
The rest (gtrs and vocals) might work in context with better drums, or will be easier to mix with more real sounding drums).

The pro trick is to compress tracks with quite easy settings, but several times (on the way in, on individual tracks, on a buss, a mixbuss and maybe the master, yeah thats 5, and sometimes two compressors are used on individual tracks and busses), in order to pack a punch without making it sound fake.

Remember also to use the best monitors you can afford, that's where you can hear good enough to sculpt your sound.

That's where I'd start anyway, fwiw.

The music proves that you already have got the skillz, so best of luck.

[DannyWeber]

Thanks for the tips Magne!