No Way Back
May 31, 2025
My first ever full cover of a song! All instruments recorded by me, not just drums in which I did in the past.
What is it that I am doing?
I am recording all the parts within a certain song and re-making the song but in my way! The way I have done this is just simply learning all the different members parts, on a website such as songster. Then I record them all the way through and them mash them together to make the full song!
However sadly I quickly learnt that it is not actually that simple to just make a hit song just by playing the same thing that they play on the same instrument. Songs that come out of the studio have SO many different hidden things that many people won't know are there but they make the song what it is!
What are some of these things?
Percussion: The amount of *random* percussion instruments that are mixed into songs is unbelievable. Whether it is shakers or tambourines they will most likely be in the chorus of your favourite songs to add to the rhythm and just general texture to the song. They are hard to pick out but once you learn to separate the instruments when listening to a certain piece of music you can really hear them. They make appearances in songs even like "Animals" by Nickelback. Having a very fast shaker during the chorus to drive the speed on the strong. its really interesting!
Mixing: The mixing of these large songs by big bands will most likely be recorded, mixed and mastered by different people who have spent decades in their respective fields. So the probability of me being able to reproduce that within my DAW Nis incredibly unlikely, if not impossible. This is the reason why it will be impossible to recreate a song and make it sound the exact same to the original.
Recording: Most of these songs will have been recorded in professional studio's with real equipment with sound proofed rooms. This means that most drum tracks made by me will need to go through a lot of extra processing to sound even close to something recorded in a studio. However this isn't always bad, as you do want some personality in a mix and drums is one of those things that you don't need an exact environment for them to sound good! Guitars are a little different. Usually these songs I am replicating will have their guitars recorded from real amps and microphones. However sadly I don't have a Marshal stack or a Mesa Boogie… However what I do have access to is amp simulators which can imitate these sounds. Not perfectly but they are really quite good!
Musicians themselves: Usually big bands are big bands for a reason, and that is just pure talent. Take the Foo Fighters for example. All of them have been mastering their instruments for decades, and have made these songs from scratch so they will be able to play them with no problem with their eyes closed. Me however, someone who has only reached a decade on one instrument, the quality of certain parts is bound to be a lot lower. But that dosen't matter as that is something that can be changed just through practice!
