wolbai
Junior Member
- Messages
- 179
Another Cover song from my duo partner and me ...
The story of Whitesnake and David Coverdale is long and pretty multifaceted ... just as the list of prominent Rock guitarist plucking the strings over the more than 35 years of band history: Micky Moody, Bernie Marsden, John Sykes, Steve Vai, Doug Aldrich, Reb Beach ...
Among them, my alltime favourite is Doug Aldrich - also because he owe me a great set of humbucker pickups.
David Coverdales role as a bandleader and his human qualities have been discussed pretty controversial in the past.
This applies especially when he (and the record company) fired three band members shortly before the release of the 1987-album.
Among them was John Sykes who recorded all the guitar tracks on this probably most successful Whitesnake album and as a co-author of several songs. This album was also the entry card to the US-music business and the former British Hard Rock band was catapulted to a global music act.
No matter how to judge DCs (he is 69 years old) role: he is the incontestable driver of the brand name "Whitesnake". He has managed to make this band to a global music act, which still fills large crowed arenas all over the world since today.
"Is This Love" is one of the most popular Hair metal ballads of the 80s. The basis for our cover is not the original track on 1987, but a Live version from 2011 (Tokio). This is a very worth seeing and listening YouTube-video. The song grooves outstandingly and the band is acting just fantastic.
This live version is also played in the age-appropriated scale C#-Minor (1 1/2 notes lower than the original) which we thankfully adopted :icon_biggrin:
I have recorded all the instrument (bass, drums, guitars, keys) on this recording by myself.
The guitars are tuned in Eb-standard tuning.
I love all those guitar harmonies which were popular among rock bands in the 70s/80s. I recorded them separately, because this sounds just better than using a harmonizer effect.
The main solo goes over 24 bars (original = 16 bars). And my Warmoth H-S-H did the job remarkably good again.
I played it in the style of John Sykes/Doug Aldrich (wide Rock vibrato), but it is not a 1:1 copy and it contains some of my own flavour as well.
The rest of the guitar tracks are recorded with a Gibson Les Paul.
I had to play around a bit with the amp and effect settings to get that very long sustain over 2 bars. Surprisingly low amp gain, but more pushing from a tube screamer on the pre amp section.
I have include two new elements in the mixing / mastering process:
The first one are some pretty nice (free of charge) plugins from the company izotope. Especially the Ozone-plugin is very nice for a more stereo spreaded sound.
The second technique is "Sidechaining". I used this for kickdrum/Bass separation and on the delay and reverb effects.
That pays all lot into more overall clarity of the mix. The long quarter note delay on the verse-vocals couldn't be done without it.
It seems to me that this pushes me to another level for mixing/mastering. And I will fine tune this more in the near future ...
On the backgroud pictures of the video you also can see a bit of Whitesnake history. Especially at the beginning, you will see the different lineups over the years. Great rock musicians like Jon Lord will appear ...
All in all we have throw in a lot of time, passion, love and all the musical experience we have, to let this tune shine in our own way.
What do you think ?
Have fun while listening & watching
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QePXXe0c-Wc&feature=youtu.be
All the best - wolbai
The story of Whitesnake and David Coverdale is long and pretty multifaceted ... just as the list of prominent Rock guitarist plucking the strings over the more than 35 years of band history: Micky Moody, Bernie Marsden, John Sykes, Steve Vai, Doug Aldrich, Reb Beach ...
Among them, my alltime favourite is Doug Aldrich - also because he owe me a great set of humbucker pickups.
David Coverdales role as a bandleader and his human qualities have been discussed pretty controversial in the past.
This applies especially when he (and the record company) fired three band members shortly before the release of the 1987-album.
Among them was John Sykes who recorded all the guitar tracks on this probably most successful Whitesnake album and as a co-author of several songs. This album was also the entry card to the US-music business and the former British Hard Rock band was catapulted to a global music act.
No matter how to judge DCs (he is 69 years old) role: he is the incontestable driver of the brand name "Whitesnake". He has managed to make this band to a global music act, which still fills large crowed arenas all over the world since today.
"Is This Love" is one of the most popular Hair metal ballads of the 80s. The basis for our cover is not the original track on 1987, but a Live version from 2011 (Tokio). This is a very worth seeing and listening YouTube-video. The song grooves outstandingly and the band is acting just fantastic.
This live version is also played in the age-appropriated scale C#-Minor (1 1/2 notes lower than the original) which we thankfully adopted :icon_biggrin:
I have recorded all the instrument (bass, drums, guitars, keys) on this recording by myself.
The guitars are tuned in Eb-standard tuning.
I love all those guitar harmonies which were popular among rock bands in the 70s/80s. I recorded them separately, because this sounds just better than using a harmonizer effect.
The main solo goes over 24 bars (original = 16 bars). And my Warmoth H-S-H did the job remarkably good again.
I played it in the style of John Sykes/Doug Aldrich (wide Rock vibrato), but it is not a 1:1 copy and it contains some of my own flavour as well.
The rest of the guitar tracks are recorded with a Gibson Les Paul.
I had to play around a bit with the amp and effect settings to get that very long sustain over 2 bars. Surprisingly low amp gain, but more pushing from a tube screamer on the pre amp section.
I have include two new elements in the mixing / mastering process:
The first one are some pretty nice (free of charge) plugins from the company izotope. Especially the Ozone-plugin is very nice for a more stereo spreaded sound.
The second technique is "Sidechaining". I used this for kickdrum/Bass separation and on the delay and reverb effects.
That pays all lot into more overall clarity of the mix. The long quarter note delay on the verse-vocals couldn't be done without it.
It seems to me that this pushes me to another level for mixing/mastering. And I will fine tune this more in the near future ...
On the backgroud pictures of the video you also can see a bit of Whitesnake history. Especially at the beginning, you will see the different lineups over the years. Great rock musicians like Jon Lord will appear ...
All in all we have throw in a lot of time, passion, love and all the musical experience we have, to let this tune shine in our own way.
What do you think ?
Have fun while listening & watching
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QePXXe0c-Wc&feature=youtu.be
All the best - wolbai