My cover version of the title track to my favorite album of all time...Elton John's Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy from 1975.
 
This project got pretty expansive and crashed Platinum quite a bit until Tech support helped me tweak a few settings...My main regret is not being able to find a decent Mandolin patch in my vast collection of sound libraries. I ended up using some old Sampletank patches....enjoy!
 
 
https://soundcloud.com/mark-casta/captain-fantastic

Mark,
 
Nice cover.   This was one of my favorite Elton John songs growing up.   Wore this album out:)   Your rendition is very faithful to the original and well played/sung.   Well done.
 
Regards

Thanks Markno999...I left a few things out...like the cymbal swells...when you get a chance, listen to the original with good headphones and you will discover some very hidden little instruments holding up some sections of the song....I only included one. It is very hard to make out the notes because theyare so buried in the mix. But those parts were there for a reason. Very cool learning experience. Now I want to tackle Meal Ticket....

Very clean mix, nice and open sounding. As Mark (the other Mark) said, very faithful cover. You do really incredible cover work...
 
One thing though...who's hand is that getting ready to grab you in your avatar?
 
Regards,
Dan
 
 

Nice job Mark - the vocal is very good.
The bass is really nice.
 
The production and recording quality in those earlier EJ albums was amazing - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was also a brilliant album 

Dan!
 
That little hand is the grandson of one of my best friends! He made me promise to leave it there. He's grown quite a bit since then so I do what he tells me!
 
I was listening to A Girl and a Gun again yesterday...you gotta get that out to the masses. It is a work of sonic art! 

Darryl1968
 
If you haven't already, you must check out Classic Albums, The Making of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. I bought it on DVD years ago.
 
The late Gus Dudgeon, who produced so many of those albums, really shines a light on their entire recording process. I especially loved how they recorded their harmonies. It's like Elton John's band was also choir. He used very cool tricks to create movement in those harmonies.
 
For me Blue Moves was the end of the era and the incredible roll EJ was on at the time.
 
I finally got to see him live about 18 months ago I Vegas. Nigel Olson was on drums along with Davey Johnstone (the epitome of rock star BTW) and Ray Cooper! They were phenomenal and worth the wait!
 
Back in 1977 I snuck into the front row of a Hall and Oates concert. They were backed by a mixture of Elton's older and later players...Roger Pope (drums) and Caleb Quaye (guitar) from the early albums...and Kenny Passarelli on bass from the Rock of the Westies era. They were phenomenal!
 
The only one I missed seeing was the late Dee Murray. He was the secret weapon and a genius on bass that flew under the radar. Luckily Gus Dudgeon spends some time shedding some light on his unique brilliance in that documentary! 
 
 

Mark,
  Yeah man, I had the 8 track of this album and I especially dug this tune....I'm right there with you thinking this is a great tune.  My take on covers is that you are already behind the 8 ball because many folks want to hear it like it was done originally and that can be tough to achieve assuming that is the goal of the creator.  Anyway, all that said, I am just blown away by your cover.  It was..well fantastic.  I liked everything about it and I wonder, what did you play, what did you program, etc?  The mix sounded great on my speakers and all the instruments sounded so good. I have absolutely no crits.  Your voice and performance were great and I think this song could be tough to sing.  Great job all around, I am super impressed as well as envious.  Nice stuff!

I don't think I've ever heart this. This is really good. The mix is very nice!
 
Awesome!!!

Creating Noise
All the music was done via midi with various sound libraries...
 
The acoustic guitars were 4 separate instances of Music Lab's Real Guitar and one Indigenous Acoustic.
 
I used scarbee Bass and Scarbee Mark I for the keyboard.
 
The Mandolins were from the Sampletank 2 library but played through ST3. 
 
The Distorted Guitar was MusicLab Real Les Paul (RLP) going through S-Gear by Scuffham
 
Drums are the Nashville kit through Toontracks Superior Drummer 2.0
 
All the tambourines and shakers are from an old Smart Loops collection, so the only audio files used were the vocals and the extra percussion.
 
I love Midi because I can change tempo, make minor changes and alter the arrangements anytime I like.
 
I used one instance of Valhalla Room and BT Oilcan Delay for the vocals only. 
 
Melodyne is also great for tightening up the timing on vocal harmonies as well as fixing a bum note in a great take!