I only recently "discovered" the band "Bread" and their front man David Gates, even though they achieved fame in the 70s and I probably heard some of their songs on the radio without knowing who they were. This song he wrote in memory of his father.
I started to learn the Bass part but then realized there is some pro-level fast bass playing on it, so instead I found a midi file and then used it for Bass (MODO Bass plugin), Drums (MODO drums plug), Piano (Sample Tank 3 Grand), and strings (Sample Tank 3) tracks.
I played the acoustic guitar (Taylor GS mini via AT4040 mic, doubled, panned) and electric guitar (Fender Mustang P90 -> Amplitube 5 Fender Super Reverb Plugin) during the chorus. Recorded, mixed, and mastered with Reaper.
The song has some nice chords in it, e.g. maj7, sus2, sus4, m6. Gates sings high, so I transposed it down one step and it was still pushing the limits of my range, but eventually I managed it ok I think (Vox recorded via AT4040 mic and Mackie Onyx Blackjack USB interface).
Nice cover! Well done. Sounds great! The song sounds somewhat familiar, but i'm still not sure if i've heard it before. For some reason i was expecting to hear Breadfan :D
I'm drooling at the gear list... Taylor Mini, AT4040 (pricey mic!), Fender Mustang (!) with P90's. P90's are glorious. Fender Mustang is cool... I have one with Yosemite pickups and i'm slowly getting used to it.
Doug... I was 11 in 1970 so this band was as much a staple on the radio as bread was on the table! I heard every song they had on the radio and there were a ton...you have done a wonderful job on this song. I always thought this was about a girl who left him...ha..what a tribute to his dad...
that is beautiful.
one of my favorites of Bread was "Down On My Knees"...it's quite fast and very Beatleesq... I also was a sap for the tragic story of "Diary"...
good work Doug! excellent!
Pretty darn terrific. Man that a tough one to cover. Bread was the band to woo the chics with. Lol. Very nice job.
Way to cover one tough vocal always like Breads music just could not pull off the vocal I really love what you have done with this bravo
Tim
Very nice cover, lots of emotion in your performance.
Rock on!
It's a great song and I love your version of it.
Not an easy song to cover but you've done a great job with this. Really good to hear it again.
The Gobi Desert Canoe Club
I think you did a great job with this. I bought a best of CD of Bread maybe five or six years back. they have some great songs. You don't really hear modern bands playing or writing songs like this anymore. Shame as this is great music and you did a great job on everything... love the vocal.
Mike
I gotta say again how much I love your cover of this great song.... your voice almost makes me cry... it's so great...just the way you sing it...
special stuff... I bet I've heard this 10 times now... and not just the vocals either...the guitar and the rest sounds wonderful! I am giving you a standing ovation.
Quote from: StephenM on December 30, 2021, 04:26:19 PMI gotta say again how much I love your cover of this great song.... your voice almost makes me cry... it's so great...just the way you sing it...
special stuff... I bet I've heard this 10 times now... and not just the vocals either...the guitar and the rest sounds wonderful! I am giving you a standing ovation.
Hey, thanks so much for your encouragement, it really means a lot. I started playing guitar in 2008 and joined this site in 2009 when I was almost 40 years old and only very slowly improved. Mainly I just strum chords, and it took me a long time to get ok at it. I realized fairly early on that the rock & pop songs I liked became boring if you just strummed chords. So although I never sung anything before at all I just started trying to sing and record myself. I would say that the first ~10 years I basically sucked, but I kept at it and slowly improved. And people on this site always gave me amazing encouragement even when I knew I wasn't very good. I think my ability to hear whether something sounded good was also bad at first and that only slowly improved as well. Lately my method has been to pick one song and dig in deep and really try to work on it, playing it first to myself for many days or weeks with just acoustic guitar before even trying to record. And typically it is some song that for one reason or another has "gotten under my skin", so I could become obsessed and not easily tired of it. Then finally start to record it and redo parts, especially the vocal many, many times. And also I have to decide whether this is a song "suited to my voice" or not, and if not maybe just give up.
After recording I listen carefully and usually redoing again. And lately I actually record each PHRASE of the song over and over until I'm happy, then listen to the whole again, then go back and redo some phrases again. Right now since I bought a bunch of "instrument" plugins I'm having fun using those -- I'm mainly a guitar player and not very good at bass, keys, etc. so it made sense for now to look for a midi file that has all the other parts so I can focus mainly on improving rhythm guitar and vocals.
Doug
really nice work, I love the voice
Thank you for sharing your work technique with us...very interesting
I like to know the details of the technical part, I think it's one of the best reason of this site
..I will add a technical note for "the blackest crow" that we recorded with C and G
I believe you Doug. I am glad that you are continuing on. I am guessing that pretty much all folks who get really good at this are enormously talented and work very hard at it. The cool thing is, it's fun! Can't wait to hear what you cook up next.
Brilliant cover. I like the hits of Bread, David Gates seemed to have real knack for that emotional soft 70s rock songwriting this one being no exception. Your vocals fit so well and the arrangements and production are stellar. I appreciate the info you put into your posts as well!
I happen to do a lot of redoing when I record my vocals as well and even more lately, sometimes just down individual lines if I can't get it sound good enough. I wish I could pull off some "one take wonders" but I've learned singing consistently is harder than it sounds!
Really great cover.....your vocals are so sweet....really brings the emotion of the song to life....well done...there is something very appealing about your vocals.....open, honest.......a little bit of wonder.....it reminds me of Daniel Johnston quite a lot.....and I really love That guy....
Bread were a great band.
Nice cover,love the music production on this.
Took me right back in time.
Im going to listen to some more bread stuff now.
Youve put me in the mood
I missed out on Bread, slightly too young at the time, but I have heard this song and covers of it often. This is a really good version, well arranged and sung !
Pete