LIVE cover of "Rockville" by REM (des0free w/ live rig 4.0...)

[des0free]

In a previous thread I described a setup using a vocal pedal and acoustic guitar pedal and PA speaker to play with backing tracks (stripped of rhythm guitar and vocals), and I recorded the sound using a mic. Now I got the "TC Helicon Play Acoustic" pedal that has both vocal effects and acoustic guitar effects and think I prefer it. I also made a setup where my Zoom R24 records the guitar and vocal directly and separately and then outputs to the PA speaker (or headphones). 

The guitar is Epiphone DR-500M fitted with an "Amumu SP60" magnetic humbucker pick up that mountain, the sound hole ($60 from Amazon)- unlike the Taylor single coil pick up there is no hum!

The pedal also has vocal harmony and doubling effects which I want to try. For acoustic guitar, it has a "Body Rez" effect that gives a similar effect to the IR response effect that the Cube Baby AC has (makes the guitar pickup sound more like it was the guitar recorded with a mic).

Recording separate vocals and guitar allowed me to tweak their levels afterwards, but I didn't apply any extra effects to the individual tracks. I applied eq, compressor, and limiter to master the overall mix.  No video this time as I was using my phone to play the backing track.  But with the R24 I could pre-load the backing track, so in principle I could use my phone to record video!

[StephenM]

I love this old REM song and I heard it 500 times and still love it...

very good cover Doug, really holds the details and the spirit of the song for sure.  I especially enjoy hearing your backing vocals as well.  That lead guitar sounded great in there on those riffs... in some ways I think this rocks more than REMs version.

I enjoyed reading about your process as well and your gear!

[des0free]

Thanks, I'm proud that I managed to play it all the way through without screwing up (too much). I have now also tested removing the backing vocals from the backing track and using the "doubler" and "microMod" vocal effects in the TC Play Acoustic pedal - this is described and the track posted here:

https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?topic=34040.0

[StephenM]

The guitar sounds amazing!  More comments to come

[TPB]

Nice sounds like you are getting a handle on the new toys
Tim

[StephenM]

this still sounds amazing!  great cover...

[Jean Pierre]

It sounds really good! the mix is excellent...I like the dubbing of the voice with the electronic TC: I can't wait to hear choir voices with it!

Could you describe your process more precisely: do you play the acoustic guitar and vocals live and how do you go about playing the other instruments, bass drums, electric guitar... do you make a recorded backtrack which you then play live?

[des0free]

It sounds really good! the mix is excellent...I like the dubbing of the voice with the electronic TC: I can't wait to hear choir voices with it!

Could you describe your process more precisely: do you play the acoustic guitar and vocals live and how do you go about playing the other instruments, bass drums, electric guitar... do you make a recorded backtrack which you then play live?

Hi JP - I made the backing track based on a midi transcription of the song found online, and programmed it to play via virtual instruments using Sampletank 3 & 4. I remove the rhythm guitar (and melody) and kept bass, drums, piano, and lead guitar parts that the midi had. I mixed this and output it to wav file, which I loaded on the Zoom R24.  Then I play the acoustic guitar and sing live, recorded on two R24 tracks, while the backing track plays. The acoustic was recorded using a Amumu SP60 magnetic sound hole pickup (from Amazon.com) and that, and the microphone, first go into the TC Helicon "Play Acoustic" pedal, which provides vocal and guitar Fx, before going into the R24.  The R24 outputs go to PA speakers so I can hear everything while recording (or I could use headphones instead). The main purpose of this setup is not to generate the best recorded version but mainly have fun by playing along "live" to the backing track. For me it requires a lot of practice to play a whole song without making too many bad mistakes. But I think this type of practice is making me a better player/singer.

 

[Farrell Jackson]

I'm not sure how I missed this one Doug? It is a great cover of Rockville. I like REM but have never really focused on their music. The harmony guitars sound cool as do you vocals. The rhythm guitar is as solid as can be. Well done!

[thetworegs]

Sounds great I can't say I know the original but this great