bitflipper
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Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
John Lennon cited this as his most-hated Beatles song. I've always liked the chord progression, though. This was really just an excuse to try out the OTS Rickenbacker 12-string library. Other notes: - the sax is not sampled (it's Zebra!) - the choir is being treated with Noveltech's Vocal Enhancer for a breathy effect (thank you PA for the $19 XMas deal!) - third verse is run through Meldaproduction's MVintageRotary effect - organ, as usual, is VB3, but using MVintageRotary rather than its built-in Leslie sim and lightly treated by Valhalla UberMod - vocals were not tracked in the booth with a condenser; instead I used an SM-58, and I sang it leaning back in my office chair with my feet up on the desk. It was meant to be a scratch track! - yes, I am aware there are a couple weird artifacts, some clicks in the last few measures that I haven't tracked down yet...curiously, it's only in the MP3 version, not in the FLAC or WAV exports https://www.soundclick.com/html5/v3/player.cfm?type=single&songid=13670207&q=hi
 All else is in doubt, so this is the truth I cling to. My Stuff
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pentimentosound
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2017/12/27 17:13:10
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Sounds great Dave! The Ricky is cool, but your vocals take the cake. The organ is mighty fine. The arrangement is really nice.... really!
Always loved that one in particular off the White album.
I picked up Noveltech's Vocal Enhancer a few deals back, too.
Michael
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Serious_Noize!
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2017/12/27 19:18:50
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I like this Dave, I think it sounds great! I'm not familiar with this Beatles song, so it is all new to me hearing your vocals, you have a great sounding voice BTW, I wish I could sing that well.
Enjoyed hearing this one!
Bobby
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pentimentosound
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2017/12/27 19:49:05
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Jesse Screed
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2017/12/27 22:49:44
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Very Nice Bit!
You are good.
Not sure why John Lennon didn't like it, but he said a lot of things just to be contrary, in my opinion...ask him on another day and he might have liked it.
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pentimentosound
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2017/12/27 23:04:06
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Yeah, I thought he went off the rails often with his ranting about his former mates and the music they did.
I still love hearing it. It was my college education, learning all their songs.
Michael
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mississippi
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2017/12/28 01:01:37
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Sounds as brittle as broken glass, especially the vocals. I have a feeling the tracks were probably recorded pretty well, but the mix is all high end and a little bit of bass.
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thepogue
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2017/12/28 12:49:07
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Long time no see bit!...hope things are well on your end of the world....love the tune and the quality is as always....
very much enjoyed!!
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gswitz
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2017/12/28 12:51:17
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StudioCat > I use Windows 10 and Sonar Platinum. I have a touch screen. I make some videos. This one shows how to do a physical loopback on the RME UCX to get many more equalizer nodes.
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pentimentosound
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2017/12/28 14:27:07
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Dave
I'd love to know what is on those tracks! Care to give us all a description?
Michael
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michaelhanson
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2017/12/28 15:48:37
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Very nice! As a huge Beatles fan, I think its awesome.
I have always thought this song was great and loved the chord progression. I too often thought that John would take jabs, just to take a jab. He seemed to flip flop on song opinions greatly, maybe dependent on his mood at the moment.
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bjornpdx
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2017/12/29 04:26:18
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Dave
Well I thought you came close to sounding like Lennon on this song. I like the vocal effects. Just a professional production throughout.
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bapu
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2017/12/29 15:39:36
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mississippi
Sounds as brittle as broken glass, especially the vocals. I have a feeling the tracks were probably recorded pretty well, but the mix is all high end and a little bit of bass.
bjornpdx
Dave
Well I thought you came close to sounding like Lennon on this song. I like the vocal effects. Just a professional production throughout.
Talk about both ends of the spectrum for the very same mix. 
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bitflipper
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2017/12/29 16:26:02
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mississippi
Sounds as brittle as broken glass, especially the vocals. I have a feeling the tracks were probably recorded pretty well, but the mix is all high end and a little bit of bass.
I kicked back with a joint and listened to this mix on headphones in the dark, and while "broken glass" is a bit harsh, I have to say I agree with you. I was going for a 60's kind of midrange tone and I think I pushed the exciter a bit too hard on the vocals. I'll remix this after the new year with an ear toward softening the treble for those who have better high-frequency perception than me. The bass level, however, is pretty much where I intended it to be - I was trying to channel McCartney with high, round melodic bass lines. Once you take out the low bass there's nothing left down there except the kick drum, and I didn't want a prominent kick, in keeping with the 60's AM radio feel. pentimentosound
Dave
I'd love to know what is on those tracks! Care to give us all a description?
Michael
Sure thing, Michael. I like to hear about the technical details too, and wish posters would give them more often. But sorry, no trade secrets here. Just my usual go-to stuff... Drums: Superior Drummer 2 (D16 Devastor + Pro-L on kick, FF Saturn on snare, BusDriver on toms) Percussion: Black Swamp Tambourine Shimmer 'n Shake (shakers) Flying Hand Percussion (cowbell) Bass: Trillian (modified "Rock P-Bass Pick - Full Range" preset) Organ: VB3 (MVintageRotary, Ubermod, Toraverb) "Sax": Zebra (tkDelay) Guitars: Indiginus AGC Indiginus SM4 OTS Rickenbacker 12 Choir: Omnisphere (treated with Vocal Enhancer) Reverb: ValhallaPlate Vox compression: CA-2A (+Pro-C for de-essing) Vox EQ: MDynamicEQ Track EQ: Pro-Q Bus comp: Pro-C Limiter: Ozone 7 The only deviations from my standard toolkit was CA-2A on every vocal track (instead of Pro-C) and the addition of Vocal Enhancer, which I'd just acquired an hour before posting the mix. Still figuring out what to do with that one, but hey, it was 19 bucks! And of course MVintageRotary on the third verse. That required MDynamicEQ after, to tame some ear-piercing resonances coming out of it. It's open to discussion whether that plugin is the greatest Leslie emulation ever, but if dirt 'n nastiness is what you want, it definitely delivers.
All else is in doubt, so this is the truth I cling to. My Stuff
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bapu
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2017/12/29 17:04:06
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Dave, All that to arrive at "Sounds as brittle as broken glass, especially the vocals."? 
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RexRed
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2017/12/29 17:52:39
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WOW, this song is a rabbit hole into the past, great rendition, love the vocal effects, very well done! All around great listen! :)
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HARDDRlVER
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2017/12/30 02:57:52
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Being a Beatles fan since I saw them on Ed Sullivan when i was 11 1/2, I sensed a perfection in their nusic, somehow. Even when I heard an incorrect note here and there, I still felt it was as they laid it down, so 'those' imperfections were part of their perction...if you can follow that. I've always felt that proper cover versions should be 'as close to the letter as possible'...with one condionary holdout: If one can actually cover a song 'close'...it's ok then to put 'your own twist' on the song. And you can tell if someone has the ability to do a decent 'proper' cover by the way they twist their own version. I hear that in your song. And I enjoyed the twist you put on it. It was very well done. IMO it's actually more difficult to pull so far away from the original (as you have done) than it is to attempt to replicate it. I've listened to too many personal versions that I end up at my first inclination...and that is, just do the original (and play it safe). Your version has exceeded my expectations. Very well done. Joni P.S. I'd always read that Run for Your Life was the tune which John most detested. But as earlier mentioned, it probably depended on when he was asked. I'm sure each of us could post conflicting quotes, each claiming Mr. Lennon's preferences. Just my two synths
post edited by HARDDRlVER - 2017/12/30 05:18:01
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Wookiee
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2017/12/30 16:07:26
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Interesting cover Dave, yes the vocal is a little thin in places but.., I enjoyed it.
Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain.
Karma has a way of finding its own way home.
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The Rebel
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2018/01/01 13:40:46
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Sounds great! Love it! Definitely has the Beatles vibe! I really enjoyed it!
I think a good way to start the new year will be revisiting my Beatles catalogue!
Happy New Year!
Dan
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bitflipper
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2018/01/01 21:54:54
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☄ Helpfulby pentimentosound 2018/01/05 22:53:30
Thanks, guys. I have re-exported and re-posted the song, softening the harmonic exciter on vocals to perhaps satisfy mississippi's reasonable criticism. Technical note/warning: on my first export there were some noise bursts that I'd assumed were some kind of MP3 artifact because they weren't in the WAV or FLAC exports. However, when I revisited the project today I heard those bursts during playback from within SONAR. Long story short, I tracked the problem down to the Vocal Enhancer plugin, which I'd thrown onto the percussion aux bus at the last minute (having just bought the plugin and wanting to experiment). The intermittent noise is definitely being generated within the plugin itself. (And no, it's not in demo mode.) Because the noise occurred in a "silent" part of the track, I put in a slip-edit so that there was literally nothing going into the plugin, and the noise bursts stopped. This leads me to suspect it's a denormalization artifact. This can happen when the signal is near, but not quite, zero and confuses the math. Developers use tricks to avoid the phenomenon, such as setting an internal gate and setting a threshold below which no processing occurs, or adding artificial noise to keep the signal above the threshold - something Vocal Enhancer's coder apparently forgot to consider. I'll be very cautious of this effect going forward. But hey, it was only $19. [UPDATE] Confirmed that it's a denormal problem: the problem went away after inserting digitalfishphones' Normalizer in front of Vocal Enhancer. (If you're unfamiliar with Normalizer it's basically just a noise generator that injects a very low (-200 to -300 dB) level noise to keep the signal high enough to prevent the CPU from entering denormal mode.) Note that whether or not you'll ever see this problem will depend on the audio source. I would expect it to be worse for virtual instruments and synthesizers than on vocal tracks (Vocal Enhancer's presumed purpose) because the latter is usually much noisier. Having some noise on the track prevents denormalization.
post edited by bitflipper - 2018/01/02 00:04:31
All else is in doubt, so this is the truth I cling to. My Stuff
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stevec
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2018/01/09 21:25:14
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Just had a listen... sounds great, Dave! It does have that late 60's sparkly/jangly thing happening, but I think it works for this song. Everything sits nicely together giving it a good "live" feel even though it's not. Loved the reverb on the synth lead, and that organ is phat...
SteveC https://soundcloud.com/steve-cocchi http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=39163 SONAR Platinum x64, Intel Q9300 (2.5Ghz), Asus P5N-D, Win7 x64 SP1, 8GB RAM, 1TB internal + ESATA + USB Backup HDDs, ATI Radeon HD5450 1GB RAM + dual ViewSonic VA2431wm Monitors; Focusrite 18i6 (ASIO); Komplete 9, Melodyne Studio 4, Ozone 7 Advanced, Rapture Pro, GPO5, Valhalla Plate, MJUC comp, MDynamic EQ, lots of other freebie VST plugins, synths and Kontakt libraries
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Makke
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2018/01/10 15:44:36
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Cool! Excellent version.
Well done cover. Good vocs and backing.
My english is not very good. So please, forgive me for my short posts. BullHill Sounds Sonar / Roland Quad-Capture interface
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Elepha3
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2018/01/11 01:16:15
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Always loved this song! Love your version! Well done
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Amicus717
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2018/01/11 03:03:48
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I like this a lot, great cover version, and the mix worked for me, too. Very nice.
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jamesg1213
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2018/01/12 13:32:01
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Don't know the song, but this sounds fine to me.
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jimfogle
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2018/01/13 01:22:43
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bitflipper
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2018/01/13 16:38:05
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I guess John wasn't the only one who didn't want that song out in the world. I couldn't find any YouTube videos of the original recording. I did find this Phish cover, though...
BTW, thanks for all the nice comments, guys.
All else is in doubt, so this is the truth I cling to. My Stuff
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markno999
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2018/01/15 17:51:00
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Bit,
Don't recall ever hearing the original Beatles' song but your cover is really good. Vocals are terrific.
Regards
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dubdisciple
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2018/01/15 17:56:45
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Walt Collins
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Re: Beatles cover: Cry Baby Cry
2018/01/16 21:48:30
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Excellent performances, mix, and arrangement. I still love the (very sparse) original from the White Album, but your new arrangement really takes the song in a new direction, and I love it!
I've been using a lot of the NI Scarbee Rickenbacker (or sometimes the Scarbee MM-Bass) bass for Kontakt here, but Trillian sounds really solid. I may have to look into that some more when I have a few bucks to spend.
Your performances on bass and sax were really fluid and fearlessly played. May I ask what sort of input device you use? I see you have a Yamaha MO8 (I have a Yamaha Motif ES8, which I believe is quite similar). But I'm guessing the piano-weighted keys would make it quite difficult to perform those parts. Do you have some other midi keyboard you use for synths and such?
Great stuff.
Walt Collins - Downtempo & AmbientBandcamp: https://waltcollins.bandcamp.com (FREE downloads), SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/arcanor blog: "Seeking Enlightenment Through Electronic Music" - http://waltcollins.com/musicI use Ableton, NI, AAS, Arturia, Spectrasonics, Cakewalk, Akai, Yamaha, Fender, Sony, WavesWindows 10, Tannoy, KRK, dbx DriveRack
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