I've written a review of Indiginus' new Renaxxance nylon guitar library for the next issue of SoundBytes that'll be out in about a week. I'll give away the punchline now: it's a really fun library to play in real time. This Bob Marley cover came out of a jam while fiddling with Renaxxance, and I liked the rough improvisation enough to go ahead and flesh it out into a song. 
 
This features two other Indiginus libraries as well: Delta Blues Slide Guitar and Acoustic Guitar Collection. 
 
Something new I did for this project was to sing into a cheap Sennheiser stage dynamic while playing the nylon guitar part on the keyboard, recording both simultaneously. Despite the lack of acoustic treatment around the mike, it worked out OK because I was singing very close (I had to later filter out a lot of lows from the proximity effect, though; MDynamicEQ to the rescue!). Another thing that made the vocals work was Audio Damage's free RoughRider compressor on the lead. It's an old effect that I've recently re-discovered and will no doubt be using more. 
 
Drums are from the TTS-1 (!). Like I said, this started out as an improvised jam. But rather than substituting a proper drum library I decided to see what I could do with the TTS-1. I used MTransient to soften the transients on the snare, and Saturn on the kick to beef up the bottom, delays on tambourine and shaker, and compression on the overheads. It was still a little thin, so I gave in and layered some additional percussion: my favorite epic percussion library Epic Battle, a Kontakt instrument made from water bottles. There's also a smattering of marching-band snare ensembles in there, from SampleLogic's Rumble library. When you think Bob Marley you just automatically think marching band, right?
 
This was also the first time I've used SampleTank3 (bass). I figured I paid a lot of money for it, I might as well use it for something. After auditioning a bunch of ST3's bass patches, I settled on "P Bass Pick Flat-Wound", with no additional processing or editing. I think it sounds pretty OK, although if I was to do it over again I'd probably use my usual favorite, the Orange Tree Rickenbacker as it'd be punchier.
 
This was an unusual project all around, lots of experimentation. A great way to fritter away a Saturday!
 

You obviously had some fun making this Dave, it sound well here. Thanks for sharing.

This has always been one of my favorite Marley songs.  I like your arrangement, and I don't think the equipment held you back.  I would like the hear the lead vocal a bit louder, but that's just personal preference.  Kudos!

Just beautiful Dave, ol pal.  And great work with Renaxxance .  I'm gonna have to take some time to really learn that one.

It's a very nice tune and a great version of it. I really like the harmonies you have in there (Great job!). The bass and guitars sound very natural to me...I'm always impressed with how good of a job some of you guys do with the outstanding libraries available today.

It's beautiful. I just commented on two other songs on the forum about being a bit bass shy (I seem to hear that a lot) and sometimes a little brittleness on the upper mids. You don't have that here. You got the frequencies so nailed in.
It sounds really smooth and is very easy to turn it up and get into the arrangement. Your voice sounds perfect for this song. Love the hook. 
Nice to hear you Dave. Super job.
 
Jimmy
 

Very nice... I think I have some of those indiginus samples too. I recall picking up the acoustic guitar some time back.
 
 
Your experiment sounded good.    nice play by play on the explanation of what you were doing with the software..... nice sounding slide lead.  
 
TTS is a very capable synth in the right hands.  I think it gets a bad rap simply because it's bundled free with Cake products and people assume..... free=less than good.... after all, it's free.  I've heard some really amazing things produced totally on TTS on these forums through the years by folks who take the time to tweek the sounds.
 
Nice work.

I actually have never listened to much Marley, so this was new for me.  Very well done Bit and thank you for your detailed description's  on your processes.....very helpful.  I have a new compressor to try out.  

I'm a big B. Marley fan as I did grow up listening to a lot of "island" music and this version was a real treat. It translated really well on my H-phones.....especially the BV (Melodyne?)......EVERYTHING was done very well. Thanks Dave for sharing!!
(giving it a second listen). 

Melodyne only touched this once, on the phrase "ooh little sister" where I struggled to reach the highest note and it came out flat. Everything else is as it was sung.
 
However, I did use a favorite technique of mine, which is to layer a choir library over the "ooh". If you sing as many of the ooh harmonies as you can yourself, and just augment and blend them with samples, the result still sounds human.