She's a Mystery to Me -- Roy Orbison cover

  • Hi! It's me. You may remember me from these cover videos I did.


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    Anyway I haven't had a lot of time lately but I wanted to share something I'm working on. One of my all-time favourite records turned 30 this year, I think I've known and loved it for about as long, and I've wanted to record this song -- written and co-recorded by Bono and The Edge -- forever.


    It's still a little rough around the edges (hah, no pun intended), I may redo some of the parts, but I thought I'd let it rest for a while. That guitar sound was quite a challenge to emulate. For the drums, I've cut up the the original intro and rearranged those samples for the rest of the song. And of course, it's never going to be in my vocal range, but I wanted to give it a shot anyway. :) If Mr. ckemper made a profiler for voices, I'd be all over it.


    I've filmed some studio footage of the process as well so I'll try to make a video too, if I ever find the time.


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  • Thanks man, very useful feedback, that's exactly the kind of thing you can lose sight of during production. Too much compression, I suppose you're right.


    The production of the original is a bit of, well, a mystery to me. :) Very few elements -- one guitar, bass, piano, a very simple strings line on a cheesy sounding synth -- yet it sounds very full and wide. Turns out that's very hard to reproduce...

  • Well done, Brother Robrecht.


    My pet peeve for a while now has been that so much of what we hear online (YouTube, I'm looking at you!) is sibilant. My theory is that it has to do with digital recording's offering more high-end energy than what we were accustomed to in the older days, and also that "crisp", "proud" highs give many folks the impression that the material, be it music or voice (YouTubers are particularly at fault here), is of higher quality.


    For we home recordists, the danger manifests partly due to the high-fi nature of plugins, particularly in this case vocal-processing EQ. Thankfully there's a tonne of decent de-essers out there. My hope is that folks start using them with the aim of mimicking the sort of sibilance levels we experience in everyday life, IOW, way lower.


    Hopefully there's something in that for you, brother. Personally my yardstick is that real-life level I referred to. After all, how often does one feel one isn't hearing enough sibilance when conversing face-to-fce with someone? Not often. The trend has been to over-emphasise it to the point of annoyance, or at the very least, distraction... IMHO. YMMV, of course. :/

  • Too much compression, I suppose you're right.

    I totally agree with Monkey_Man and DamianGreda here on the voice part. Quite sharp.


    But the rest is very nice. I like those arrangements and recordings where it is really down to a few elements. And you did that quite well!


    My theory is that it has to do with digital recording's

    Good food for thought here Monkey_Man. Things and personal tastes are changing over time. That's a natural thing. In terms of the highs (which might be enabled by digital recordings indeed to sound as they sound nowadays) I think it's also interesting to see how compressed formats like MP3 changed what people (can) hear and thus what they perceive to be a good sound.

  • Oh, I totally argee about the sibilance. It's not even a taste thing, it's not like I prefer it that way or something, just the way you can lose sight of things when working too closely on them. :)


    I already had a de-esser in there (the built-in Ableton Live device) but I've tweaked it more precisely now, and moved its position in the effects chain. There was also a reverb that I think picked up and amplified those highs too much. Finally, I've eased up on the compression a little.


    Thanks for the feedback, guys. I've replaced the track in the first post with an updated version. Next up: cleaning up and partially re-recording the vocals.

  • There was also a reverb that I think picked up and amplified those highs too much.

    Indeed it did, Robrecht; it helped take the perceived sibilance over-the-top.


    It's still a little-bit high on my ZeroBass CrapMac™ speaker, but it's tricky to judge high end on this thing. Either way, you're more in the ballpark now for sure, mate. Well done.

    Thanks for the feedback, guys.

    On behalf of the guys, it's our pleasure and honour, I'm sure Robrecht!


    I love it when feedback via text results in revisitation and improvement of mixes. It's kinda-magical to me that this can happen. Most of all, I love it when the artist is keen to learn and doesn't let his ego get in the way. Kudos to you, brother. 8):thumbup: