[quote="MyFoot"][quote="Tidusauron12"]I'm gonna have my entry done some time in April for sure. The music's almost done. But the video is just as important, really, if you're going for the Gold. [/quote]

I'm no cinematographer, and have little to know recording equipment, so my video is gonna be pretty bare bones, but I'm hoping my song choice/arrangement ranks it among the top!

I like your videos though Tidus, can't wait to see what you put out.[/quote]

Yeah. And you can still win. I remember that awesome acoustic Hybrid Rainbow made top five and that was just a webcam job.

Just finished all parts except for vocals and bass. Its sounding really great now that Im using the lexicon alpha. Thanks for the advice Juan!

I've got ideas for a video, but vocals/drums will be the biggest challenge (either finding someone to do it or doing it myself.)

[quote="Bebop56210"]I've got ideas for a video, but vocals/drums will be the biggest challenge (either finding someone to do it or doing it myself.)[/quote]

Bro you can figure it out. Watch some tutorial videos on youtube and start messing around with your application (i.e. garageband, FL studio) and you'll get the hang of it in no time. Just keep your ears focused when you do start tabbing it out and watch videos to help you figure out some of the more complicated parts.

[quote="Brye916"][quote="Bebop56210"]I've got ideas for a video, but vocals/drums will be the biggest challenge (either finding someone to do it or doing it myself.)[/quote]

Bro you can figure it out. Watch some tutorial videos on youtube and start messing around with your application (i.e. garageband, FL studio) and you'll get the hang of it in no time. Just keep your ears focused when you do start tabbing it out and watch videos to help you figure out some of the more complicated parts.[/quote]

Well it's more that I never sang before lol... Figuring out the guitar and bass won't be as hard as that, or programming drums.

[quote="Bebop56210"][quote="Brye916"][quote="Bebop56210"]I've got ideas for a video, but vocals/drums will be the biggest challenge (either finding someone to do it or doing it myself.)[/quote]

Bro you can figure it out. Watch some tutorial videos on youtube and start messing around with your application (i.e. garageband, FL studio) and you'll get the hang of it in no time. Just keep your ears focused when you do start tabbing it out and watch videos to help you figure out some of the more complicated parts.[/quote]

Well it's more that I never sang before lol... Figuring out the guitar and bass won't be as hard as that, or programming drums.[/quote]

I know singing for almost everyone is the biggest challenge. Remember you are not trying to "mimic" Sawao's singing. You should try and make the cover your own and use your natural voice the one you don't have to strain to get out. That will be the best place to start and I hope it all works out for you Bebop! What song were you thinking of covering?

[quote="Brye916"]
I know singing for almost everyone is the biggest challenge. Remember you are not trying to "mimic" Sawao's singing. You should try and make the cover your own and use your natural voice the one you don't have to strain to get out. That will be the best place to start and I hope it all works out for you Bebop! What song were you thinking of covering?[/quote]

I've got an idea for an intro - [url=http://youtu.be/Enr0UwYfcMk?t=7m23s]song[/url] - outro sorta thing.

[quote="Bebop56210"][quote="Brye916"]
I know singing for almost everyone is the biggest challenge. Remember you are not trying to "mimic" Sawao's singing. You should try and make the cover your own and use your natural voice the one you don't have to strain to get out. That will be the best place to start and I hope it all works out for you Bebop! What song were you thinking of covering?[/quote]

I've got an idea for an intro - [url=http://youtu.be/Enr0UwYfcMk?t=7m23s]song[/url] - outro sorta thing.[/quote]

Nice! After listening to Paper Moon I really want to listen to White Incarnation

Hey guys so I'm finished with a solid rough draft of my cover. I've posted it up on soundcloud so you guys can tell me what you think! Be honest and as brutal as possible, I'm still trying to figure out the vocals and the ending part. I've made an alternate ending instead of the traditional one but I'll do a traditional ending too.


https://soundcloud.com/brye-elyacy/whit ... en-bicycle

As I said on facebook, instruments sound pretty good. Drums sound a bit "cheap" and midi-fied. You can make it all sound better with a better balance between instrument. Like, the bass when it came in was definitely all over the place and lost in the mix, making everything sound muddy. Mess with some compression and volume levels to try to get a better balance.

The vocals need a lot more confidence and some work, especially towards the end there. But you already knew that. Was that an auto-tune plug-in at the end? Be careful, use those with care... too much can make the vocals sound whacky.

Overall, sounds like it's gonna come out quite awesome if you keep working at it!

Thanks man, yeah I get that the drums are still too "midi-form" I didn't think too much on working on the compression and such because I was focusing on the guitars. I don't have a bass guitar so I used my electric and tried my best to get a "bass" sound and the lowest it could possibly go. I did the vocals just to see how it all will fit in the end. I'll be sure to fire up my voice when the final cut is ready to go! Thanks again for the feedback bro!

I enjoyed it overall. Yeah I agreed with Tidus that the vocals don't sound confident. Also I think there's too much reverb on the vocals. I also recommend you to use a low-cut filter around almost everything "except the bass and the bass drum", so it doesn't sound too muddy. Low frequencies can easily get out of hand.

A compressor is usually there to fix things and not to make them sound better. Nowadays with being able to record as low as -32 dbfs there's no need for a compressor. If you are recording in 24 bit, you don't need a compressor to be recording at line level. I recommend you not to use a compressor at all if possible. If you want to use it however to make it sound good or have some type of characteristic, then it has to be hardware based compressors as they sound a lot more better than the plugin ones.

Also turn down the volume on every instrument except the vocals as they can easily get in the way of the vocals especially guitars. The vocals always come first then the other instruments last. So turn down everything as low as you can until the vocals sound intelligible. You can add volume later to the instruments if needed as long as it's not getting in the way of the vocals. Also you want to make sure any instruments have not been dropped in the mix when listening to it in mono. That's phase cancellation at it's work if you noticed not hearing the instrument that you recorded in your mix while listening it in mono.

As for the effects. little is always better than a lot. If you want to use reverb then use little of it as possible. As it can easily get out of hand once it gets louder. Also I recommend using a low-cut filter on reverb too as low frequencies can get out of hand there too. Try using a delay but as always keep the volume of it low like the reverb. I think I noticed a delay being used on the vocals somewhere in the original song.

If you want to make the vocals more Sawaoesque but not trying to sound like him, then I suggest double tracking your vocals and doing vocal harmonies. As I noticed a lot of it is used in this song.

Good luck on working on the cover.

[quote="CARNVAL372"]Great advice[/quote]

Thanks CARNVAL, I'll be sure to make all that shit work

Overall it was good Brye, my main things were already mentioned, lessen the reverb on the vocals, probably best to double track them, and just sing it with your heart, don't shy away!

One other thing I noticed was that I'd lessen the modulation on the guitar in the intro/main riff. Too much modulation can make something sound out of tune, and there were a few points in which it did sound a little off.

Can't wait to hear the final result!

The tones sound good, but your two guitar parts sound a little out of tune with each other, might need to redo that lead line (it sounds slightly flat to me right now).

I think your voice will sound great for this, just take it in little chunks if necessary to make sure you hit every note in tune. I really like the level of reverb and general tone you have going here vocally, it really has this warm feeling that captures the song well.