#1

Hi,

I hope this is OK to post here.

I’m a keyboard/piano player and after a couple of years of playing covers I’m at a point where I’d like to start making my own stuff.

I’d like to achieve the same kind of sound as this band has in this song (minus the vocals - the part I’m mainly interested in starts at ~0:35; I find that I can reproduce the sound of the intro quite easily ):

I can pin down the chords in each part of the song easily. There’s probably two distorted guitars (L-R) in there. I can hear the double kick and the sharp snare, the hi hats etc. The tempo is probably around 150-160.

Still, I throw it all into my DAW and the result sounds flat; while I think the song in the YouTube clips has amazing energy and just flows, in my reproduction, it just seems like all the elements are competing against one another.

To give you a better idea of what I’ve got so far, I posted sample on Soundcloud (the intro, the part I was referring to plus the first vocal part (minus the vocals, natch):

https://soundcloud.com/user-352146688/call-of-the-wild-dreamtale-cover-sample

Thanks for any and all help!

#2

so - first off: Practice is the main answer - no one can do get this stuff to be amazing right off the bat - you’ll need to play, experiment etc and learn it by ear. there isn’t a “just do this” answer

ok - listening to your clip and the song: You need to find out about EQ and compression - EQ carves out spaces for each part, Compression helps with making it sit together and also to add energy. I suspect as well your programming could do with a bit of work - for example all your hats are the same volume - think about how someone would play it - it’s about ‘feel’ as much as the right notes. this recent video by Christian Henson is actually quite a good way of seeing the kind of thing you can do https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRs3TN-xG38&t=0s

There are a ton of videos on youtube - you need to search, find people whose explanations click with you. It really is learn a bit, play a bit, slowly get better - don’t be discouraged - you will get there

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#3

Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply.

I definitely think you’re right in that EQ and compression are most likely part of the problem and I’m definitely going to keep reading up on the subject.

That said, I’ve played around with pitch, panning, reverb, delay, etc. etc. and I just feel as though as there’s something quite essential that I’m missing.

Oh well, back to the drawing board I guess.

#4

“I just feel as though as there’s something quite essential that I’m missing”

no - seriously - it’s just the little things - you’d be amazed what a difference they make. Did you watch that video?

be wary of throwing too many of the “obvious” effects on - you’d be astonished how far you can get with EQ, Compression and a touch of reverb

EDIT - BTW I’m serious about your high hats - I use my digitakt a lot and if I’m feeling lazy - just shoving a mild LFO on the volume of them makes a massive difference. Try something like every other one being a wee bit softer or something like that…

EDIT AGAIN - if you can afford it - izotopes Neutron suite makes all this a bit easier - lots of tools to look see what’s going on and you can get a long way with their presets/assistant thingy

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