A-Ha - I've been losing you (Cover by me)

It's time for another cover!
I really like some of the songs on A-Ha's first albums, and I chose to cover "I've been losing you."

Now, part of the purpose of doing this was of course to make a cover just because I really like the song, but another purpose was also to practice and experiment a bit with singing and mixing.
I'm not quite happy with my vocal performance as I feel it's too tense and shaky, though the original has some of that tension, Morten still manages to keep relaxed and singing in tune while I am struggling with it.
One thing I noticed is that it's really hard to keep an even volume as I tend to sing louder during some parts, in particular when I have to take high notes. I guess this is something experienced singers have learned to compensate for by moving away and towards the microphone. Now however I had to try and compensate in the recording instead, which I'm a bit lazy to go over and to properly everywhere, just in a few bad spots.

Regarding the mixing I did about 5 versions of it. The first one used a lot of stuff on the master bus (Saturation and multi-band compressor) but in the end I thought it sounded better the more I removed. Even if I didn't quite get that full punchy sound with all the mastering stuff added, it still was more pleasant to listen to without it. It really is an art to do proper mixing as well as mastering, and this was an experiment in both.

Here is the final version that I decided to go with:


The gearlist, if anybody is interested:
Roland Juno-60, Roland JX-8P, U-He Diva, U-He Zebra, NI FM-8, NI Pro-53, Yamaha CS-40M, Fabfilter Twin 2, NI Battery 3.

International Karate (C64 music remake)

A Commodore 64 game music remake

I decided to do a quick remake of a C64 game song, just for fun.
Though I own plenty of VST synthesizers, the goal was to only use analog synthesizers and no overdub, i.e. only one instrument per sound. So you only hear the Juno-60 playing a single sound for instance.
I didn't know which song to pick, but after a short while chose the main song for the game International Karate, composed by Rob Hubbard.

Actually, I'm not too pleased with the result.
Some sounds (like the first one, heh) have an annoying ringing that I didn't bother removing. I guess I'm using too much resonance...
This was just a quick experiment so I don't care if it doesn't sound all that good.

Anyway, I thought I'd share it, so here it is:
(Update: I replaced that first sound with something better, so it's not piercing your eardrums any longer :) )

Depeche Mode - Tora! Tora! Tora! (Cover by me)

I just thought I'd make a link to a youtube upload I made a couple of weeks ago.
It's a cover of the Depeche Mode song "Tora! Tora! Tora!" which I recorded about a year ago.

I'm not too happy with the kick (sounds weak) and the spooky theremin-like sound in the chorus could've been a bit louder.
Other than that I guess it's alright :)

Here it is:


Again there is a soundcloud alternative if you prefer:

http://soundcloud.com/peter-morck/tora-tora-tora-depeche-mode

It doesn't matter two (Cover)

It's this time of year again!

Or maybe it's just time for my second Depeche Mode cover.
I wanted to make a simple electronic sounding cover of "It doesn't matter two" from the Black Celebration album. I am quite pleased with the results. As always, my singing is what bothers me the most. Had to do a lot of takes for this to become good enough.

This is an all VST arrangement using only Cubase Studio 4, Zebra, Pro-53, FM8, Reaktor and Alchemy, and of course some plugins for dynamics and reverb, etc...

Anyway, here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqQPdMOHnhs


There is also a link to the song on soundcloud if you can't stand the video or don't want to use youtube:
http://soundcloud.com/peter-morck/it-doesnt-matter-two-dm

Boys say go! (A simple cover)

I was bored this morning (night almost, woke up early) and was thinking of the Depeche Mode song "Boys say go" version performed at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1982. It's better than the album version (Speak and Spell).
Without giving it too much serious effort I decided to do a "remake" more than a cover of the song. I mean I wasn't trying to change it a lot. I wanted to modernize it slightly but still keep most of the sounds fairly similar to the original.