Saturday, September 4, 2010
Lyrics:
Taio Cruz, Fraser T. Smith
Music:
F. S. Merriwether
Recording Process:
So, it’s been a while since I sat down to record one of these. I planned to do this one way back in May, but then I got all wrapped up with work and never really got around to it. Recently, I decided I need to get back to recording these, since I actually enjoy doing them, so here we are.
Anyway, this one’s another goofy folk pop kind of song. Rough drum track, followed by guitar, banjo, and bass. In my mind, the little post-chorus guitar part was going to sound like the riff from “Linda Linda,” but it turned into something completely different once I started playing it. I was pretty pleased with it, and promoted it from being not only the post-chorus, but also the opening. I kind of wish I’d figured out a way to work it back into the song at at the end.
After that, vocals. I was going to do a backup vocal part after the “break, break your heart” bit, since, initially, I kind of envisioned this as a Ramones song. It didn’t really sound right, so I busted out the Casio SA-20 and did that part with that. Finally, re-recorded the drums. I have a working hi-hat now, so I might have gotten a little overenthusiastic about its use, but not too bad. I worry the recording’s a little muddy-sounding, but I’m not going to worry about it too much.
My Version:
Actual Version:
Summary:
To me, the actual song sounds a whole lot like “Sexy Chick.” I guess that’s what goes over big in the clubs these days. Mine’s certainly not going to be a club hit, but it’s not too bad. I’m cutting myself a fair bit of slack for being massively out of practice.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
As I mentioned on the sidebar, I’m going to be busy writing a screenplay during the month of April, so I figured now’s as good a time as any to go ahead and put together a collection of the first baker’s dozen of covers. So, if you feel like you downloading a zip file of all the covers to date, go ahead and knock yourself out. I also went ahead and uploaded the collection to last.fm and CLLCT, just in case anyone there feels like listening to these on either of those sites.
If I really get motivated, perhaps I’ll burn some CD’s and send them out to some of the odder radio stations who might appreciate them. Seems kind of unlikely, but maybe I’ll feel inspired.
Lyrics:
Amund Bjorklund, Espen Lind, Pat Monahan
Music:
F. S. Merriwether
Recording Process:
My friend Meghan challenged me to do this one a while back. I resisted a bit, since I dimly remembered what Train sounded like about ten or so years ago, but she insisted this was totally different, so I gave it a shot. I pretty quickly came up with a melody that, in my head, sounded like a Wilco song. Once I started recording it, it got significantly noisier. I didn’t really intend to have the electric guitar be anything more than the solo, but it sounded good on the chorus and pre-chorus, so I kept it. Drums came out pretty nicely this time, I think, though I feel like the hi-hat is a little overpowering. I’m getting a little concerned that all my pre-choruses are exactly the same, but I’m not sure how to fix that.
My Version:
Actual Version:
Summary:
Oh, man, that actual song is awful. As usual, I was working off some slightly bad lyrics, but I don’t think it really mattered that much. My song might sound a little too much like previous things I’ve done, but it’s still better than the original. I do find it somewhat amusing that the first song I get that actually features a ukulele is one of the handful I’ve recorded that doesn’t.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Lyrics:
Giorgio Tuinfort, Aliaune Thiam, David Guetta, Jean-Claude Sindres
Music:
F. S. Merriwether
Recording Process:
So, usually when I write a song, I’ll do a quick and dirty recording that’s just vocals and either guitar or banjo, just so I can remember how the song goes (in addition to the tablature I write up for myself). Usually, the actual version differs greatly from the rough version, but this time, I really liked the super-mellow guitar and vocals I had for the rough track. Heck, I even liked all the mic hiss. I considered dousing it with synth strings and harpsichords and such (I even messed around with trying to play the French horn I have lying around), but, in the end, I just decided to stick with my original rough recording. I added a uke to make the guitar sound a little fuller, and I tossed in a single harmony track on the chorus. A super simple bass part and organ backup on the chorus and lead-in, and I think it’s done.
My Version:
Actual Version:
Summary:
You know, when I first played the song to my wife, we both had a good laugh about the “without being disrespectful” line that leads into “Damn, girl, you’re a sexy chick,” and I commented that, if nothing else, at least it wasn’t “you’re a sexy bitch,” but I have since learned that’s exactly what the line is, in the non-radio friendly version. My version’s pretty minimal, but I’m kind of fond of it. It’s kind of nice to record a song without layering on a dozen extraneous track. Although maybe it could have used more Godzilla noises….
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Lyrics:
Christopher “Tricky” Stewart, Terius “The-Dream” Nash, James Bunton, Corron Cole, Thabiso Nkhereanye
Music:
F. S. Merriwether
Recording Process:
I actually wrote this one back around Thanksgiving (I believe the same day I wrote my version of “Down”), but I’ve been having trouble recording it and getting it to sound all right. From what I can tell from the lyrics I have, it’s a horribly structured song. It basically consists of a short verse, followed by a pre-prechorus, a prechorus, and a chorus, then another short verse, and the pre-prechorus, prechorus, and chorus again. It just ended up sounding boring, and the music I came up with for it was verging really close to being cloying. I messed around for it for quite a while, but it wasn’t until this weekend that I came up with something I was happy with.
Actually, it wasn’t until I’d added both the drums (which I think sound much better than my drums usually sound, especially the kick drum) and the Godzilla roar noise (which, if anyone’s curious, is the “Golf” sound on my PSS-380, after some tweaking in the on-keyboard synthesizer and fed through a chorus effect and the ‘57 Fender Tweed Deluxe amp emulator) that I was really happy with the song. Vocals were kind of a pain, but I did the same trick I did for “Battlefield” and doubled my singing vocals with a track of growly vocals, which I think makes my singing less twee than it might otherwise.
My Version:
Actual Version:
Summary:
What is that kid, like twelve? Wikipedia claims fifteen, but I’m not buying it. Anyway, I didn’t really think this song would be sung by a prepubescent pop star, but I guess with AutoTune, age, gender, and singing ability don’t really make a difference. Also, what’s up with the lyric “My fight is your fight”? Is that supposed to be romantic? Doesn’t it seem like a bad idea to inform this girl you’re trying to seduce that you apparently have some sort of ongoing feud of which she is now a part?
But I digress. The actual song is incredibly boring. There’s really no chorus to speak of, so this is certainly one of the cases where I like my version better. Though I realize after watching the video there’s a whole bridge I forgot to include. I probably should have scrolled down in my lyrics file, but I kind of feel like this song might have worn out its welcome if it went on for another minute.
Lyrics:
Gavin DeGraw
Music:
F. S. Merriwether
Recording Process:
This one was a request from my lovely wife, whose workout class apparently includes this song in the workout mix. The lyrics were pretty odd. The vaguely religious symbolism made me think this guy was some sort of Prince wannabe, so I did my best to make this sound like a Prince song (or at least as close as I’m ever going to get to writing and recording a Prince song). Of course, my version also features banjo heavily, so perhaps things went a little off-track. Anyway, usual instrumentation – acoustic and electric guitars, banjo, drums, bass, organ. For some reason, the song’s in A#, which isn’t really a great key for me to sing it, but I think the fact that I was pushing way up past my upper register made it a little more Prince-y.
Oh, this is also my first song recorded entirely using Reaper. I’m very fond of it now. The built-in plug-ins are pretty awesome, and it’s kind of nice using an editing software that sort of feels like it was built for something other than Windows 3.0.
My Version:
Actual Version:
Summary:
That opening piano part and my opening guitar part aren’t that far off, really. That’s kind of odd. From that point, though, the songs diverge pretty dramatically. He’s significantly whiter than I expected, and the song is a lot less interesting than I figured a song with such crazy lyrics would be. I mean “you favorite fruit is chocolate covered cherries/and seedless watermelon ooooh” deserves to be in a crazy song, not a dull piano AAA number. I am pretty pleased with my version, even if the vocals aren’t quite as good as they should be.
Lyrics:
K. Jhooti, D. Carter, J-Remy, Bobbybass, Jared Cotter, & J Perkins
Music:
F. S. Merriwether
Recording Process:
I spent a long time working on this one. I started recording it, and couldn’t quite get the tempo right, then spent a while trying to get comfortable using Reaper, as my usual recording software is now well over ten years old and not entirely functional. I couldn’t quite get my mind around Reaper, so I gave up and went back to Saw Plus. Once I got back into my comfort zone, the song came together pretty quickly. I started out with the banjo, then added a fairly percussive guitar track and some uke. Usual instrumentation followed, but then, once I got to the drums, I happened to play some drums while I had a mic on going through some goofy amp modeling. I thought it sounded pretty awesome, by which I mean it sounded like a crummy drum machine. So, even though it sounds like this song uses a drum machine, it’s actual drums. The trickiest part was definitely the vocal recording, though less so due to my usual dislike of my vocals and more due to the fact that I crammed in way too many words per line, so it’s not really physically possible to sing this song straight through without the aid of some studio trickery.
My Version:
Actual Version:
Summary:
Wow. I don’t think I really realized that really goofy Euro-disco was a viable pop genre in this country now. I mean, I guess that’s sort of the lesson I’ve learned over the past few songs (Lady Antebellum aside). Anyway, I like my song. It’s catchy, even though it’s yet another I-IV-V banjo-driven song. Plus, I kind of feel like I did a pretty decent job accidentally replicating the Lil’ Wayne verse. Minus the AutoTune, of course.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Update:
My sister is visiting for Thanksgiving, and, since she can actually sing, I have roped her into re-recording vocals for the last song I did. It’s pretty exciting to hear one of these songs with a vocal track that’s actually in tune. Anyway, thanks to my awesome sister, Grayson, for helping out!
New Version:
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Lyrics:
Dave Haywood, Josh Kear, Charles Kelley, Hillary Scott
Music:
F. S. Merriwether
Recording Process:
As usual, the basic melody came together quickly, but I went back and forth on the tempo a few times. It’s been a while since I did one of my usual upbeat folk pop numbers, but this one kind of wanted to be a power ballad, and, since I’ve never done a power ballad before, I figured, “Why not?” Started out with the three acoustic guitar parts, then put on the electric guitar for the choruses and second verse. The electric guitar solo took me forever to record to my satisfaction and led to a lot of cursing, but I’m fairly happy with it. Once I got it down, though, it only took me a couple takes to play roughly the same thing on the acoustic guitar for the intro bit. After that, drums, then the usual struggle with vocals. I ended up feeding one of my takes through Autotune, then doubling it with the original, so it gives a slightly greater sense of the intended melody without completely making me sound like a robot. I put these two tracks through compression and reverb, which really filled out the song, then recored a couple harmonies. Finally, I dropped in a little organ, and it was pretty ready to go.
My Version:
Actual Version:
Summary:
I’m still not satisfied with my vocals (surprise), but, otherwise, I’m pleased. I’m so unused to ever doing guitar solos, that they’re still kind of a pleasing oddity. The actual song here is pretty disappointing, really. It’s so slow. I mean, mine’s slow, but theirs is really slow.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Lyrics:
Kesha Sebert, Dr. Luke, Benny Blanco
Music:
F. S. Merriwether
Recording Process:
As usual, I managed to have a rough version of the song done after about ten minutes. I started with the chorus and did the sleazy C#m bit first, then built the rest of the chorus around that. The original version was much more normal in its chord progressions. I messed around with that a bit and ended up with a different set of chords that is much more unusual. I honestly have no idea what key this song is even in.
I started in recording the guitar parts (one main one, then an auto-wah’ed one and a flanged one to come in on the choruses), added bass, then worked on the drums. I had a hard time getting the bass drum to sound quite right. I don’t have a proper bass drum mic, so it’s often a problem. I really felt this song needed a big, dance-y bass drum sound, so I ended up just using a synth for the bass drum. I kind of like the mix of synth bass drum and actual snare and cymbals. Anyway, a fair number of organs after that, then a whole bunch of vocal tracks. I am not entirely satisfied with my vocals on the pre-chorus bits. I was trying to go for sort of a Lou Reed-y feel (probably because of the A-D transition (or, rather, C#-F#) and the lines about boys trying to touch my junk), but it didn’t even come close. I did, however, like the distorted vocal effect.
My Version:
Actual Version:
Summary:
Mine didn’t really come out the way I expected. In my brain, it was kind of a Franz Ferdinand number, but I don’t really know what this was. Anyway, the actual version is kind of weird. Between this and the Lady Gaga song the other day, I have to assume that pop music these days sounds like mid 80’s Madonna fed through Auto-Tune. Strange.
