Wanted Dead or Alive - Bon Jovi cover

[John Bradley]

Wanted Dead or Alive

More '80s, though in a less synthy vein than normal. 

This one goes out to all my fellow Italian cowboys from New Jersey!

(Full discloser: I'm neither Italian, nor a cowboy, and I try to avoid the blighted hellscape that is New Jersey as much as possible. Also, I've never ridden a horse, steel or otherwise. But the point still stands.)

Drums: Session Drummer 3, as per usual.

Bass: IKM's MODO BASS "flame bass" model, for what little that matters. Doing the amp/fx thing within MODO.

Percussion: Several TX16Wx's playing various samples from my library (shaker, ride bell, a different bell, and a tambourine).

Strings: Two instances of SI String Section playing the low drone that goes on throughout the acoustic guitar hook. One Spitfire Epic Strings providing the string section that comes in on the first chorus and continues through the rest of the song.

Synths: Arturia's Moog doing the high 4-note line that opens the song (and recurs a few times). Arturia's DX7 doing a similar but warmer sound that leads into verse 2. Arturia Pigments for the Prophet'y 'sync' sound that leads into the guitar solo. Another Pigments doing the wind effect that opens and closes the song. Native Instruments FM8 doing the windchimes at the very beginning of the song. TruePianos Cakewalk for the 4 notes of piano that lead into the guitar solo.

Guitars: The acoustic riff is double tracked, panned hard left/right. The left is just the raw piezo, the right is going through a Taylor impulse I got from somewhere or other. There's a third acoustic, playing whatever would be playing on the low 3 strings of the guitar, but up an octave. The real version is played on a 12-string. I don't have a 12-string, nor a second acoustic that I could leave set up in Nashville tuning, so we do what we need to.

Two distorted electrics come in with the guitar solo, panned hard left/right, and a third guitar does the solo. All three were played on my '85 ***** Strat, recorded direct and processed through Blue Cat's Axiom.

Vocals: Single track lead vox running through Nectar 2 (gate, de-esser, eq, compressors, mod+delay (16th), saturation, and another delay (8th), as well as a CA-2A for limiting, Blue Cat's freebie Chorus, and Breverb.

There's a single track of backing vocals going though Nectar 2 (gate, de-esser, eq, harmonizer (2 unison voices panned out with some pitch/time variation), compressors, and mod + delay), another Blue Cat Chorus, and Breverb.

And Melodyne 4, because it's more convenient than having a singer living in my house.

Effects: GW MixCentric for extra 'yum' on the master, followed by an Ozone 8 doing something useful, one would imagine.

[noynekker]

Hey John Bradley . . . always liked this song, and you made an amazing version of it here. I can hear a lot of work went into this production, some great guitar wizardry. Nice that you've detailed about how it was recorded. Fooled me, I thought I heard a twelve string, must be in my head. Thanks for posting ! It REALLY  is a great listen.

[John Bradley]

2 hours ago, noynekker said:

Hey John Bradley . . . always liked this song, and you made an amazing version of it here.

Thanks, glad you liked it!

 

2 hours ago, noynekker said:

Nice that you've detailed about how it was recorded. Fooled me, I thought I heard a twelve string, must be in my head. 

What can I say, I always enjoyed reading the liner notes, back when music came with art, information, and packaging wrapped around it, instead of being pile of MP3 files. Always been interested in how things get built.

I don't need (or want!) a 12 string -- hard to play, hard to tune -- but I really should get a second cheap acoustic one of these days and set it up in Nashville tuning (low 3 strings up an octave, high 3 strings at normal pitch -- basically the 'other half' of a 12 string). Double that with a normal-tuned acoustic playing the exact same chords/positions and the result is huge.

 

2 hours ago, noynekker said:

Thanks for posting ! It REALLY  is a great listen.

You're too kind!

[DeeringAmps]

First off; well done!
I've used Cake for covers since 3.0 Pro; but most are basic backing tracks so a buddy and I could play out.

This is pretty much radio friendly I must say.

(and now the BUT, take it for what its worth; you know free medical and legal advice are worth exactly what you pay for it!)

This comes from my toughest critic; the vocal is way too bright.
I gotta say I agree with her.
Now this is just me, Nectar is useless; it always results in a grating vocal tone that, (again I quoting my toughest critic here)
"is like an ice pick in my ear".

Overall she loves the tune (generally this is a pretty high bar, so take that anyway ya like...)

Free advice, well again; ya know...

t

 

[John Bradley]

4 hours ago, DeeringAmps said:

I've used Cake for covers since 3.0 Pro; but most are basic backing tracks so a buddy and I could play out.

Me too, if for slightly less long (CW 5 was when I got on the bus). That's a part of the excuse for this track: mute the tracks we can do live in my 3pc band, and the rest serve as backing tracks. Though I also try to turn these into finished standalone tracks for my own amusement. That way, when one or more people in the band veto the song, at least I've still got something to show for the time.

Also, the fact that I haven't even seen my band since February has made that particular aspect more relevant.

 

4 hours ago, DeeringAmps said:

(and now the BUT, take it for what its worth; you know free medical and legal advice are worth exactly what you pay for it!)

This comes from my toughest critic; the vocal is way too bright.
I gotta say I agree with her.

Let me say that I appreciate your wife's BUT... and yours as well!

It could just be my pathetic thin voice, or perhaps my recording technique, as the wet version isn't much brighter than the track with all the FX disabled. Or the vox on any of my other tracks. Maybe it's just my taste; while some are famously All About That Bass, me, I love the high freq air.

Either way, point taken. If it's noticably extreme, I should sand off the pointy bits a bit. Something to look out for on future mixes. A little more a/b action with the reference tracks may be in order.

Thanks for that rarest of things on the internet: constructive criticism.