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Who brought the noise?
This poll is closed.
Alternative Pants: The World is a Thorn 1 9.09%
The Mystery Date: Like a Stone 0 0%
SlippyHat: Space Lord 1 9.09%
Koivunen: Hallelujah 2 18.18%
CaptainViolence: Prayer 1 9.09%
Tayter Swift: When Gods Collide 1 9.09%
Radiapathy: Spirit Needs a Spirit Tool 2 18.18%
Hawklad: Heresy 3 27.27%
Total: 11 votes
[Edit Poll (moderators only)]

 
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Alternative pants
Nov 2, 2009

WILL AMOUNT TO NOTHING IN LIFE.



The fantastic folks in the Musician's Lounge have been at it again! This time around some of us felt that old time religion and others bought express tickets for the bullet train to hell.
Vote for your favorite and if you think you can do better then join us for the next one!

SlippyHat: Space Lord (Monster Magnet)

Koivunen: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)

CaptainViolence: Prayer (Disturbed)

Alternative Pants: The World is a Thorn (Demon Hunter)

The Mystery Date: Like a Stone (Audioslave)

Tayter Swift: When Gods Collide (Thor)

Radiapathy: Spirit Needs a Spirit Tool (His Name Is Alive)

Hawklad: Heresy (Nine Inch Nails)

The whole playlist is here.

Cpt. Spring Types posted:

The winner gets to choose the theme for the next round. These contests are always a great time, and we'd love to see it keep going. The more people who enter, the better. You don't need to have amazing skills or fancy equipment to join, so come on by Musician's Lounge and say "I'm in".

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syntaxfunction
Oct 27, 2010
Crazy good turn out this time. It was really hard to pick the "best" one 'cause man, I enjoyed all of them so much. Everyone should be super happy with what they put forward. Do more of this next Rockstar!

Hawklad
May 3, 2003


Who wants to live
forever?


DIVE!

College Slice
Most of these are really, really good.

Alternative pants
Nov 2, 2009

WILL AMOUNT TO NOTHING IN LIFE.


I'll be honest, the caliber of entries is making it really hard to vote. I'm definitely impressed.

e: Reviews

To myself: Learn how levels work and how to mix bass.

The Mystery Date: Like a Stone- I love the piano opening and how subtle the whole feel of the track is. Nothing is too prominent to detract from your vocals, which are fantastic. I actually like the repetitive nature of the drum track. If I had to nitpick, it would be the lack of dynamics and the chorus effect. You've got enough of a voice that you could pull off multi-tracking a chorus of yourself, go for it!

SlippyHat: Space Lord- drat. I've heard the original so many times on the radio that I was a little leery of giving this a listen. It's scary how good your voice matches the synths you're using. The only reason I didn't give this my vote was that it felt a bit confined in the mix. Just a hit of reverb in the mix could make this sound huge.

Koivunen: Hallelujah- I'll tell you the exact opposite of what I told SlippyHat. You could stand to dial back the reverb on your vocals just a bit. That said, I absolutely love this! It's such an over done song but I have to say you do it better than most. I always love your voice and piano anyway.

CaptainViolence: Prayer- You sonovabitch. This is my go to drunk karaoke song and now I'll never not hear ukulele. I gotta hand it to you for going after a song with a vocal range like this. I admit I'm not a fan of the chorus vocals and the bridge is a bit weird, but that's just me being nitpicky. If you did an entire album of covers in this style I'd throw money at it for the sheer novelty factor.

Tayter Swift: When Gods Collide- I'm not big on this style, I'll be honest. The vocals didn't really do anything for me. That said I have to hand it to you for how clean this sounds. I've tried to do electronic music before and it's never turned out well, so I have to give you credit for that.

Radiapathy: Spirit Needs a Spirit Tool- You always have some of the biggest sounds in these contests and this entry is no different. I dunno how you get such a nice full sound with so much happening without it sounding too busy, but I like it.

Hawklad: Heresy drat your fingers! I wish I could play guitar like that. I especially liked the mandolin(maybe?) flourishes.

Alternative pants fucked around with this message at 22:31 on May 11, 2015

magnificent7
Sep 22, 2005

THUNDERDOME LOSER
Really great stuff this round!

The Shep
Jan 10, 2007


If found, please return this poster to GIP. His mothers are very worried and miss him very much.
Looks like I have a Playlist for the ride home today! These better not suck.

SlippyHat
May 25, 2003

Delicious!
Alternative Pants: The World Is a Thorn - Holy smokes. I have no ability to do anything in this song. The drums really cut through the mix. Are you a drum player first and foremost?

SomeGuyBrian: Like a Stone - I mentioned this in the ML thread, but I really like what you did with this. It takes balls to try to cover Chris Cornell (at least, with my range/ability), and I like that you put a different spin on things. I think the strings really add a sense of continuity throughout. I agree with AP, though — there’s no real dynamics to the song. Have you thought about muting some bars as a quick fix? Like, you could mute the last 1/4 or 1/2 of the bar of the drums when you hit “alone” in the chorus. You’ll never believe this one simple trick!

SlippyHat: Space Lord - Ugh. Nice job building atmosphere during the verses and then going completely flaccid during the choruses. Also, maybe give it a rest for a couple days, then listen again with fresh ears before you submit — you might notice some things you could fix in the mix. And learn to sing.

Koivunen: Hallelujah - I hate this song so much. It’s so overplayed that it’s become maudlin, almost a cheap parody of a song — something that people sing to wither vegetables at farmers markets. But you did a really nice job of it. You honoured the original, and managed to wring some emotion out of the vocals. Also, I wish I had your voice. You’re really clear, and have impressive control. There’s something tinny in the mix that I can’t quite identify. What instrument do you have panned to the right channel?

CaptainViolence: Prayer - hahahaha. I really like this mix, and how it builds. It’s loud, clear, and confident. You’re panning nicely, and the levels seem good. The vocals could use maybe just a touch of reverb though, to help glue them to the ukes.

Tater Swift: When Dogs Collide - Ooh, neat. I dig the panning. The laser down the centre channel is maybe just a titch too loud for me — it kind of distracts from the vocals. You’ve got a Timbaland-esque kick beat… but like the man says, “your kick drum ain’t got enough bass.” Oh, there it is. Hmm. It took until about 3:20 in the song for the kick drum to hit, and now it’s gone. If this were me, I’d really beef up your drums. Get that kick pumping. I need the bass notes to pull me along. And once you’ve got that anchor, use the snare for punctuation (and some high-hats to pull the groove along from a different rhythmic and frequency band). I think this is pretty cool, and with some beef in the drums this would be amazing. But that’s just me. If this is doing what you want it to, and you’re happy with it, woo!

Radiapathy: Spirit Needs a Spirit Tool - wow. I got a G-Funk-era vibe from this right at the beginning. This is such a good mix! Everything just works here. I wasn’t sure about your vocals at first, but… they just fit so well. I voted for Hawklad, because I was familiar with the song. But I think this is the winner. This is just a phenomenal job. You jerk. :mad:

Hawklad: Heresy - oh man. This is magnificent. Other than the fact that you didn’t ask me to record Kentucky-style bass vocals for this, I think it’s just about perfect.

SlippyHat fucked around with this message at 15:11 on May 11, 2015

SlippyHat
May 25, 2003

Delicious!

Alternative pants posted:

SlippyHat: Space Lord- drat. I've heard the original so many times on the radio that I was a little leery of giving this a listen. It's scary how good your voice matches the synths you're using. The only reason I didn't give this my vote was that it felt a bit confined in the mix. Just a hit of reverb in the mix could make this sound huge.

Thanks! Now that I have some distance from the song, I'm definitely hearing things that I would change. Do you mean verb on the vox, or a touch of verb to everything? I suspect the former (and I agree with you). I've been trying to eliminate reverb from my mixing toolkit lately, because I relied really heavily on it in the past. I probably shouldn't remove it as much as I do, but it provides a different way of thinking about existing workflows. It's probably time to add it back in, but just not overdo it.

Radiapathy
Dec 3, 2011

Snooping as usual, I see.
Not a lot of entries this round, but the quality was very high. I tracked down all the original songs on YouTube before reviewing, since the only two that I had ever heard before were Hallelujah and Heresy. (I enjoyed the Audioslave and Disturbed songs.)

Alternative Pants - That was hella balls to the wall, man. Were those all live guitars and drums? Huge sound. I like the layered vocals near the end the best.

The Mystery Date - This is really pretty. I like how you kept the understated tone of the original song while completely changing the arrangement. I think this is some of the best singing I've heard you do, too.

SlippyHat - Super rad. I prefer your version to the original. Love the vocal sound and the tight, crisp percussion.

Koivunen - Even though it's Leonard Cohen's song, when I think of it, it's always the Jeff Buckley and k.d. lang versions that come to mind- and for that reason I see it as a really intimidating song to approach. There's only a small number of Musician's Lounge regulars with the vocal skills to do that song justice, and you are one of them. Lovely performance and nice, simple arrangement.

CaptainViolence - This was a delightful arrangement. Good use of panning to give the mix some width and life. Really enjoyed this... gave me the same kind of soothing feeling that the Monkey Island themes always did. (Despite this song's seeming darkness.)

Tayter Swift - Haha, long-time Rock'n'Roll Nightmare fan here. Loved your Kraftwerk-Does-Power-Metal approach. Great arrangement, thoughtful production. Good stuff.

Hawklad - Just like I consider Hallelujah a daunting song to cover because of some of the great renditions some have done, the original Heresy is such a perfect industrial rock production that it almost requires you to do something drastically different with the song when attempting a cover. Not only did you do that, but your interpretation was both ambitious and well-executed. Some sweet bass work in there.

As I write this I don't know where to put my vote. Everything was so good.

Alternative pants
Nov 2, 2009

WILL AMOUNT TO NOTHING IN LIFE.


I wish those were live drums! That's actually the stock drum editor in cubase 7 with the stock sounds. The guitars and bass were live though.

Alternative pants fucked around with this message at 19:27 on May 11, 2015

Alternative pants
Nov 2, 2009

WILL AMOUNT TO NOTHING IN LIFE.


The poll runs to Friday. Need more votes.

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SlippyHat
May 25, 2003

Delicious!
While I'm quite happy with the company I'm keeping in the 3rd-place tie, we need to break that sucker out. Bring on the (vote) Thunderdome!

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