This is one of my favourite Fleetwood Mac songs, taken from the "Tusk" album. It was a bit of a departure for me, as I usually record rockier/proggy tracks with densely layered multitracking. So to record a piece with just guitars, bass, drums and piano was quite fun. There's a slightly ethereal quality to some of the guitar and vocal parts, largely due to the reverb used. I realised how low Stevie Nicks' voice is, as I had no trouble at all singing the vocals. Guitars recorded using Vintage electro/acoustic, piano parts using Miroslav Philharmonik, bass on the Korg M3 and drums using Toontrack EZ Drummer. Mixed and mastered in Cubase 4.

Fleetwood Mac - Sara (cover)

Another Marillion cover, this time, probably their biggest hit taken from the "Misplaced Childhood" album. I managed to get it sounding pretty close to the original. This is the radio edit version of the song rather than the full album version. All recorded using the usual equipment (Korg M3, Ibanez guitar, Amplitube, Toontrack etc).

Marillion - Kayleigh (cover)

This is my work so far on my cover of Ozzy Osbourne's track from the 'No More Tears' album, The vocals are double-tracked, hence why they sound a bit weird. I think that's what he did on the original. The rest is acoustic guitars, electrics playing the lead sound, some percussion and synth choir. I may record the rest of it at a later date.

Ozzy Osbourne - Mama I'm Coming Home (cover, work in progress)

This is my cover of Peter Gabriel's track from his 1982 album "Security". This is my favourite track from that album. It's a slow burner, but the final few minutes are worth the wait. 

I stayed fairly true to the original, although some of the sounds are tweaked, and I changed the chord sequence for the ending, which I always felt was a bit of a weak ending.

As per usual, guitars recorded using my Ibanez and Amplitube 3, vocals recorded using the SM57, some keyboard parts using the free VST plugins with Cubase 4 and some parts using the Korg M3 sounds. Drums programmed using Toontrack and M3 sounds.

Peter Gabriel - San Jacinto (cover)

This is my cover of Queen's 1984 track "Radio Ga Ga" from the album "The Works". Taken from their more synth-rock era, this is one of my favourite of their tunes. It's quite anthemic as was shown by their performance at Live Aid. The vocals were very challenging - I can't sing anything like Freddie Mercury, and I don't think anyone can or ever will. Rather than try to sound like him I just tried to sing it as best I could. The keyboards were recorded using the Korg M3, guitars on my Ibanez with Amplitube 3. I used a chrome slide for the solo as shown on some live videos. Drums were programmed in Toontrack. Bass played on the M3 and vocals recorded using Shure SM57. I used the Vocoder effect in Cubase too. 

Music and lyrics by Roger Taylor.

Queen - Radio Ga Ga (cover)

This is my medley cover of selections from the tracks "Eve of the War" "Forever Autumn" and "Thunderchild" from Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds.

Jeff Wayne - The War of the Worlds - Medley

This is my recording of a stadium rock version of the theme tune for the 1980's kid's TV show 'Button Moon'. It works surprisingly well...

Button Moon (stadium rock version)

I've been tinkering with a cover of Alexander O'Neal's 1987 hit. I had to pitch shift my voice for the female vocals in the chorus but it doesn't sound to bad, and I managed to get a nice 80s snare sound. I might finish the rest of the track at some point!

Alexander O'Neal - Criticize (cover sample)

This is my cover of the 1979 Christopher Cross track "Sailing". The guitar parts are played in open D tuning, which was a little unusual. I had fun working out the string parts, which I recorded on Miroslav Philharmonik samples.

Christopher Cross - Sailing (cover)

This is my cover of The Smiths' biggest hit, "This Charming Man". The lead guitar parts are quite intricate so it was a challenge to learn, but there's a lot of repetition so it wasn't too difficult in the end. Johnny Marr originally tuned his guitar up to F#, but I recorded the guitars in standard tuning and then did a pitch shift on them. I also detuned the whole piece to match the original recording.

The Smiths - This Charming Man (cover)

This is my cover of the classic Prince track "Purple Rain". Like a lot of people, since Prince died I've been listening to a lot of his music and decided to do a cover of this particular track. I've managed to get most of the music sounding pretty accurate. I can't sing anything like Prince, mainly because he was a Grammy award-winning, multi-talented and influential professional musician, whereas I'm a bloke who records covers in his spare time. However, I don't think they sound too bad. I was particularly pleased with how the guitar tone came out. I took out the stuff at the end of the track as the original goes on a bit too much for my liking.

Prince - Purple Rain (cover)

This is my cover of Metallica's title track to their 1986 classic album "Master of Puppets". This cover took me ages to do, partly due to the precision required to emulate Hetfield's rhythm parts, partly due to the time it took me to learn the solo and largely due to the vocals. I can't really sing like Hetfield but after a while of practising, I managed to add a slightly grittier sound to my voice. I added some strings in the mid-section, played an acoustic during the mellow section and added some extra drum fills but apart from that it's pretty faithful to the original. As usual, guitars were recorded using Amplitube 3, drums in Toontrack, bass using the Korg M3 and recorded and mixed in Cubase.

Music and Lyrics by James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Cliff Burton and Kirk Hammett.

Covers

Metallica - Master of Puppets (cover)

This is my cover of the opening theme tune for the sci-fi comedy series "Red Dwarf". The music was originally written by the composer Howard Goodall, who has also written a few other TV themes, including Blackadder, QI, Mr Bean and The Vicar of Dibley. I had a lot of fun recording this cover. The production uses a 'wall of sound' approach, with a lot of multitracking including several pianos, synth pads, brass/reed, slap bass, rhythm guitar and also a vocoder section towards the end. I even used a tambourine! The lead guitar parts weren't too difficult, the original had a slightly unusual melody towards the end so it was just a case of replicating the same melody. 

As usual it was all recorded in Cubase, keyboards and bass recorded using the M3, guitars using Amplitube 3 and drums using Toontrack.

Red Dwarf Opening Titles (cover)

This is a short cover of the intro to Metallica's "Disposable Heroes" from the Master of Puppets album. I've recently upgraded my system and this track really shows off the 'Drumkit from Hell' from Toontrack as well as the guitar tones available in BIAS FX from Positive Grid. I used 3 guitar tracks, two left and right and one down the middle. The middle tone was a much raspier sound courtesy of Lambchopper via the Tone Cloud, with the left and right a fatter, more bass/mid-range sound. It sounds pretty close to the original, although my riffing isn't quite as tight as Hetfield's. All recorded in Cubase 8.5.

Metallica - Disposable Heroes Intro Cover (Toontrack 2 & BIAS FX demo)

This is 2017 re-recording of the second track I uploaded to SoundCloud, over 4 years ago. I thought it was worth re-recording with my new setup, and I'm quite pleased with how it sounds. This was originally written as a comment on the meaningless consumerism of the January sales, the lyrics being about the endless acquisition of stuff for the sake of it. All recorded and mixed in Cubase, drum samples from the Zenhiser 80s package, guitars processed using Positive Grid's BIAS FX.

The Stuff Song (2017)

Just a short electronic/synth loop I've been tinkering with this afternoon.

Electronic Loop

Just a rough first mix of a cover I've been working on of Wham's 1984 single "Freedom". All keyboards recorded using Korg M3 sounds, guitars using BIAS FX and Ibanez guitars. Drums recorded using Toontrack 2. The tambourine's real though!

Wham! - Freedom (cover sample, rough mix)

This is a short and strange piece inspired by a dream which my girlfriend had last year. In the dream I was playing a very weird song about an android prostitute. So, like anyone with a strange sense of humour and some free time, I decided to record it. It's also a clear statement about the abhorrent debasement of an individual inherent in any form of prostitution. Deep, eh?

Recorded in Cubase 9 with lots of cool sounds.

Android Prostitute (Of The Night)

This is a bit of a departure for me in terms of the genre, but I really enjoyed doing this cover. I was 10 years old when this album was released, and it was my first proper introduction to slightly 'rocky' music, other than listening to my parent's Queen and Fleetwood Mac records. Although I listen to more progressive and heavy music nowadays, I still really like this song, which is one of their heavier tunes.

I was pleased with the guitar tone, particularly on the lead parts, and I used Amplitube 3 for the sound plus plenty of delay and reverb on the lead. There's actually 7 guitar parts - 3 rhythm parts, 3 lead parts and an acoustic. This creates a big wall of sound and gives the song more power. Other than the guitars, I played the bass parts on my M3 and programmed the drums in Toontrack, but added a room' reverb and made the EQ as powerful as possible. There's also a tambourine later on if you listen carefully. The vocals were recorded using the SM57, and I'm fairly pleased with how they sound.

All music written by Oasis. Originally released on the album "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?"

Oasis - Morning Glory (Cover clip)

Another cover, this time the first two tracks from the 1982 Alan Parson Project album "Eye In The Sky". Alan Parsons is well-known for his career as a studio engineer in the 60s and 70s, when he worked as the engineer on albums such as "Abbey Road" and "Dark Side of The Moon". As far as I'm aware, these are probably the two best-known songs by APP (according to Wikipedia, Sirius was used by the Chicago Bulls as their entrance music during the 1990s). The biggest challenge was getting the vocal harmonies accurate, as the slightest inaccuracy is even more obvious when sung alongside other harmonies. I followed the final guitar solo from the album version for part of it, and then made up the rest (loosely based on the vocal melody).

As per usual, keyboard and bass parts were recorded on the M3, drums programmed in Toontrack, guitars recorded on the Ibanez and processed using Amplitube 3. The strings were recorded using Miroslav Philharmonik. Vocals recorded using SM57 and all produced in Cubase.

Alan Parsons Project - Sirius/Eye In The Sky (cover)

This is my cover of the track "Beyond Space" from the 1995 Megadrive game "Ristar". It's the music that was played after you completed a level. It has to be one of my favourite pieces of music from any computer game, and listening to it brings back very happy memories of playing Ristar when I was 10 years old, and looking forward to finishing the level so I could listen to this. Ridiculously chirpy, cheesy and optimistic, it's a lovely little piece of music. I recorded all of it using a combination of VST plugins and Korg M3 sounds, as well as putting a few sound effects from the game in there too. I got some help working out one of the more complicated parts from a random MIDI file I found. At 38 seconds long, I think it's probably my shortest cover! I made a few very minor changes, but it's pretty much the same as the original.

According to Wikipedia, the music was written by Tomoko Sasaki, Naofumi Hataya and Masafumi Ogata.

According to Wikipedia, the music was written by

Ristar - Beyond Space (cover)

This is my cover of the 1992 single "Motorcycle Emptiness" by the Manic Street Preachers, originally released on the album "Generation Terrorists".

I really enjoyed recording this track, and managed to match the tempo of the original by regularly comparing my cover with the original in Cubase. The lead guitar parts took me a while to sort out, largely because guitar isn't my main instrument. I used my acoustic, as well as piano, synth and string sounds. I've also started having singing lessons, so with the correct warmup and breathing techniques, the vocals weren't quite as difficult to sing as they might have been.

Miroslav Philarmonik was used for the string parts, Korg M3 for bass, piano and synth sounds. Drums programmed in Toontrack EZ Drummer. Vocals recorded using SM-58 and guitars recorded on Vintage Acoustic/Ibanez.

DavidT12

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