Roy Orbison Cover - In Dreams

I pulled up the most current project file I have for this and got some details off of it.

Started in 8.5, finished in X1b
21 Tracks
96kHz/24bit
Session Drummer 3 - Snare & Kick
Guitar Rig Pro 4 - Mutes
Dimension Pro - Piano
SI - Strings
Fender San Miguel Acoustic
Fender Squire Precision Bass
Fender Stratocaster
Peavey Celebrity Series Mic
No V-Vocal

I played the piano and strings on keyboard and tightened them up manually, but very little, in PRV. The strings are doubled with distortion on one layer and heavy compression on another. The drums are a combo of Step Sequencer and live playing using my Alesis SR-16 as a drum trigger. The vocals are a combo of takes 1 and 2. I used a ton of plug-in's, too many to list. EQ's, Comp's, Channel Tools ... etc etc.

I played everything on this, in other words, I didn't download a midi off an oldies site. :) I started it from scratch with an acoustic and I followed the metronome, then layered it from there.

I spent more time on this than probably all my other songs combined. There are 8 masters but this is the one I like best. Hope you all enjoy it and thanks again for all the great feedback so far.

Updated 9/5/2011

In Dreams - Roy Orbison cover by Bub.

 
Excellent cover Bub.
 
Mix is perfect, I can't even tell when the Pro-Channel turns itself off
 
Great job mate.

Great cover, you did the vocal fine.  Alot of people can't pull off a good Orbison
because he had a killer baritone vocal.
I think this is your best vocal that I have listen too, Kudos !

Roy was a great person to know, I went to school with his son Wesley. The man had a hard life
losing his wife and two of his children to bad accidents.    But he still had a big heart.
Sorry for going on.....but he was a great man.

Tim

I agree with Rik...great voice!  Can't really comment on the mix, but it sounds good to me. 

Great job on this, Bub.  I would not even attempt to cover most of Roy Orbison's tunes, but I think you nailed this one.

Actually you sound more like Elvis, even that is an achievenment.  Do you play everything, what's sequencing did you do, am listening to the song through my TV at the moment.  Mix and master sound fine, perhaps more reverb on the voice is needed.

Good work Bub, don't get too worked up Peace Brother

Ben

Great job Bub, really cool. My favorite from you is "I only have eyes..." sorry I missed that posting, just heard it the other day. Greatest ballad ever very nicely done. If you're taking request from that era, how about "Young Love" sometime?

Hey, Bub,

I wandered over to page 2 and found this very classy Roy Orbison remake that I missed, and I just wanted to say that you did a killer job on this great cover!

Nice work, the vocals were outstanding, Have a good one, buddy!
Bob

excellent cover, mix is very good, and your voice just fits this perfectly! not sure how i missed it a couple of weeks ago, but there ya go!

I was in an Orbison tribute show for about two years so I have got a handle on how these songs sound. And we did this one too. 10 out of 10 for getting the tempo right. A big mistake that many make with Orbison tunes is that they do them too fast especially live. Notice how no Orbison tunes are very fast usually.

The mix is OK but could be better. When you listen to this down low on a small mono speaker the vocals are too loud. Also Orbison used reverb on the vocals and you could use a little as well. The singing is OK but not in the Orbison class. He was an amazing singer and few can pull it off. 

(Some but many) Orbison tunes also usually have a significant dynamic range. This is one of them. They always start of soft and reach massive climaxes at the end. Yours does not do this, it is the same level all the way through. 

But despite my criticisms I do want to say that it is always a joy to hear any Roy Oribison songs and it just reminded me of all those great gigs I did with that tribute band. We were lucky in that we did have a very good singer who pulled it off most of the time and also the band was very classy too.

Outstanding... Roy would have liked that...

John Rainey Adkins, my late friend, and older brother of Dave Adkins (songwriting-partner/bandmate) was the lead guitarist/bandleader of "The Candymen", Roy's backup band in the '60's... I grew up playing his music and following them around... They even left their old ragged out equipment with Dave & me, during one of their European tours... 

I am very impressed with your excellent tribute to one of my Heroes... Well done Bub...

GREAT cover! Fantastic job on the vocal delivery/range.  KUDOS!

Kev

I applaud anyone who attempts to do Roy Orbison.  You made this your own song, and it was a wise decision not to go for an exact copy.  I'd like to hear more from you, Bub. 

Jeff Evans

I was in an Orbison tribute show for about two years so I have got a handle on how these songs sound. And we did this one too.

Cool!

10 out of 10 for getting the tempo right. A big mistake that many make with Orbison tunes is that they do them too fast especially live. Notice how no Orbison tunes are very fast usually.

I am horrible at tempo's. So what I do with every cover is, I load the original, and tap along with it in Sonar to set the tempo from the original. Thanks for noticing, but I have to admit, I cheated.

The mix is OK but could be better. When you listen to this down low on a small mono speaker the vocals are too loud.

+1. I have roughly 10 different mixes, and I think I'm up to 10 different masters of this. It was one of those behemoth projects where I settled on a finished product but never really finished it if you know what I mean. :)

Also Orbison used reverb on the vocals and you could use a little as well. The singing is OK but not in the Orbison class. He was an amazing singer and few can pull it off.

(Some but many) Orbison tunes also usually have a significant dynamic range. This is one of them. They always start of soft and reach massive climaxes at the end. Yours does not do this, it is the same level all the way through.

Thank you for your input, and I agree 100% with everything you've said.

The unfortunate thing about this song is, I used a very old mic, plugged directly in to my Fast Track Ultra, and it should have been run through a mic-pre so I could adjust the impedance. The actual 'sound' of the vocal recording was horrible and I bet you I've spent 50 + hours on it trying to clean it up. There's no fixing it now, it is what it is. If you heard the original track with no EQ, comp, and a ton of other things I probably shouldn't have done to it, you'd hear what I mean. It's almost like a tin cup effect.

On a side note about that 30 year old Peavey Celebrity Series Mic I used ... I recently bought a new Blue mic for $300. Not high end, but not low end, and I bought a mid line Mic Pre. Just for kicks and giggles, I plugged the old mic in and tweaked the impedance, and I was floored when it sounded every bit as good as the brand new mic. If I would have known that was going to happen, I would have sank the money in to a better pre. *sIgH*

As for the dynamic range, I really struggle with that and I don't know how to fix it. It's hard when everything now days is compressed to a perfect rectangle when you look at it in Sound Forge.

But despite my criticisms I do want to say that it is always a joy to hear any Roy Oribison songs and it just reminded me of all those great gigs I did with that tribute band. We were lucky in that we did have a very good singer who pulled it off most of the time and also the band was very classy too.

You were lucky to have someone who could sing a full night of his songs. The version I posted was of the first take on 99% of it. The more I kept singing, the worse my voice got. :)

Thanks for posting Jeff. I appreciate your input!

Sincerely,

Bub.