Hello all,
I’m a long time lurker on this excellent community, though this past couple of years I’ve been concentrating on new aspects of my musical journey and I’ve been learning piano and drums so have not been hanging out much. The latter in particular is still early stage, but it has given me the opportunity to achieve what I’ve aimed for, which is to record a cover version of a song completely, all parts, and also to video the result. The latter is something I’ve steered clear of up to now, so quite pleased to be able to finally work on that. The song is by a band who are particular favourites of mine, The Coral, and they seem to be able to conjure up classic sounding, hook laden songs so effortlessly. Anyway, Happy Easter to all and here’s my video:
Hi David, good to hear from you and I’m pleased to see you’re part of the furniture here on the JG community. I find inspiration in the song and as I spend hours listening to it to work out all of the parts I have to love it!
Thanks Rogier, very kind of you.
Thanks Rene, appreciate the comment re vocals as I’ve struggled with mixing the vocals previously.
Hey Neil! Nice to see you back on here! I loved your performance. You have been busy! Like CateB, now I want to hear you on keyboard too. Your video was incredible! Loved it all. Hope to see another soon!
Wow Neil, the long wait for another musical blast from Fourfourtwo has truly been worth it.
Great to see you back and wow, just wow, that is a stellar production and some achievement. Big vibes and kudos.
WOW This was just great Each and every instrument and the singing (and the harmonisations) are rock solid Very impressive Needs a lot of determination. Lots of « grit ». Flabbergasted May I ask you what DAW and what video editing software you are using Love the flexibility of your vidéo organisation with the multi-windows. I can’t do that with the one I use. Thank you in advance Neil and bravo again
Thanks Cate, appreciate the comments. The white piano was actually on the recording in the form of a distorted organ sound, but difficult to make out unless you’re looking for it. I decided not to video that part, but perhaps I should have…
Thanks J, I have to like the song a lot because I play it constantly for weeks while I work out the various parts!
Thanks Notter, perhaps we’ll see one of your Coral covers soon?
Hi there Pam, hope you’re keeping well and your musical journey is progressing. I look forward to catching up with some of your songs. Thanks for your kind words.
Hi Richard, it’s good to see the community is as generous as ever with it’s response, I hope that all is good with you, many thanks for your kind words.
Thanks Lieven, I’ve been trying to be a good student for a change and learn things in a more structured way. This exercise has been great for my overall learning and especially on the mixing and production side. Appreciate your comments, the moderators here do a fantastic job.
Hi Luc, I decided to answer your message separately because it needs a longer response. To take the audio recording first, I recorded all of it via an interface into a MacBook Pro using Garage Band (GB). I’m a big fan of GB as I find the interface very user friendly and you don’t need to be a pro to be able to use it. What I didn’t realize was quite how much functionality it really has and how to use some of the functions to polish the sound. Luckily, around the time I was getting ready to mix the song, I stumbled upon a Youtube channel of a gentleman that calls himself “The Band Guy” who has a series of excellent videos on recording various instruments which completely changed my approach, and I’d like to thank him publicly here as his channel is a first class teaching tool, even for non-GB users. His videos on “EQing” alone are worth a lot for anyone getting into multi-track recording - it’s the EQing that allows each instrument to stand out in the mix. I hadn’t even used a “plug-in” before this so it was a steep learning curve. but the results in the recording are noticeable to me and my voice actually sounds like I can carry a tune! He also goes through inexpensive or free plug-ins that are available to make up for any shortfalls in GB functionality.
The video editing is completely new to me and was a definite aspiration when I embarked on this song. I started using IMovie, but it’s too basic to deal with “picture-in-picture” recording properly, which is the thing that allows the pop up parts of the video. After a search I ended up using a product called Wondershare Filmora that could do everything I wanted and is very easy to use and intuitive. It did set me back $80 though, so there are cheaper options available, depending on what you want to do. I took the plunge as I intend to work on future full production song covers and I figured I’d use it regularly.
I hope that helps and if you have any other questions feel free to ask. One of the benefits of producing and sharing videos like this is that it’s a visual demonstration to someone fairly new to music how songs are constructed, and hopefully it takes some of the mystery and impenetrability out of it.
Cheers
Neil
From your blurb, one might think you were new to this mixing lark, but this punter remembers being in awe of your earlier efforts when I arrived half a decade ago, and indeed having the pleasure of joining you. I’ve learned a lot since then, but am happy to see you pushing your boundaries in all directions as well. Kudos and old-fashioned vibes to you.
Happy to know you’re still lurking.
And how can’t I love the song you chose, with the band being from the neighbouring village?
…the playing and the vocals 
This was just great 
May I ask you what DAW and what video editing software you are using 
Love the flexibility of your vidéo organisation with the multi-windows. I can’t do that with the one I use. Thank you in advance Neil and bravo again 
