Is This Love (Whitesnake Cover - Warmoth H-S-H)

[wolbai]

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

 

[SustainerPlayer]

Really good work on those harmonies!  :icon_thumright:

 

[fdesalvo]

Yah, nice work on the performance and mix!  I'm using Ozone 5 for mastering and am just getting into sidechaining with EQ.  Great separation there and use of verb and delay to create that immersive feel.  That's what I go for, as well, and it's part of why this era of music is my fav.

 

[wolbai]

@SustainerPlayer:

Thank you for the feedback on the harmonies :icon_thumright:

Recording harmonies is always the moment oft truth for me, when it comes to good intonation.

Initially I have played triple note vibrato on the ending phrases and I wondered why it doesn't sounded right, until I realized to change to 1/8 notes. Tiny thing, major effect ...

wolbai

 

[wolbai]

@fdesalvo:

Thank you for your well meaning feedback :icon_thumright:

I have just started to use these izopte-tools in the free version.

Just that very restricted freeware Ozon-Plugin (With two parameters: "Width" and "stereo spread") contributed substantial to the overall mix. It very likely that I will buy one of the latest Ozon 8 versions. I am just thinking, whether I should go for the "Element version" or the "standard version" as an entry point.
Any recommendations on that?

"Sidechaining" is a huge and powerfull mixing-technique.
The good thing about it: normally no need for additional software, because many DAWs contains already everthing to use it.
The challenging thing about it: it takes a while to understand and to use it properly. Especially how to set set the compressor parameters on the different intruments needs time to explore it.

wolbai

 

[fdesalvo]

@fdesalvo:

Thank you for your well meaning feedback :icon_thumright:

I have just started to use these izopte-tools in the free version.

Just that very restricted freeware Ozon-Plugin (With two parameters: "Width" and "stereo spread") contributed substantial to the overall mix. It very likely that I will buy one of the latest Ozon 8 versions. I am just thinking, whether I should go for the "Element version" or the "standard version" as an entry point.
Any recommendations on that?

"Sidechaining" is a huge and powerfull mixing-technique.
The good thing about it: normally no need for additional software, because many DAWs contains already everthing to use it.
The challenging thing about it: it takes a while to understand and to use it properly. Especially how to set set the compressor parameters on the different intruments needs time to explore it.

wolbai

I’d definitely go for whichever version gives you the mastering suite.  If you like, send me an unmastered wav file of one of your tracks and I’ll run it through and see what we can squeeze out of it.  I’d just need it bounced at around -6db. A gain plug in on your master strip can do that.

 

[rgand]

:icon_thumright: :icon_thumright:

 

[wolbai]

@fdesalvo:

Thank you for your suggestion sending an unmastered wav file :icon_thumright:

But the more I have read about Ozon 8 in the last days, I think I am already answering my question by myself: I will very likely buy the "Advanced" version of Ozon 8, because of the included Plug-in "Tonal Balance Control". That Plug-in sounds promising to me. Also the capability to check the tonal balance of a song based on an individual (customized) tonal set of songs.

I guess, I am not too over optimistic what a professional mastering software can do for a song: most of the audio work of a good song can/should be done during the mixing process.

And I am currently already doing some Mastering (with an EQ, Compressor, Maximizer and Exciter) in the Master Stereo Out of my DAW. But this currently happens simultaneously during the mixing process. Not clear, if I will just replace those Plug-Ins with the Ozon 8, or if I split the Mastering process from the Mixing process by generating a separate audio-Mix to work on with the final Mastering.

I guess, I will try that Ozon 8 Advanced during a free of charge test phase by remixing/mastering an old song.
If that works well (by seeing the benefits), I will go for it.


wolbai :icon_thumright:

 

[fdesalvo]

There will be a big jump in quality once you bounce your project down to a WAV (no plugins, but gain set at -6db) and master it as a separate project.  You might be surprised.  I have to look into what's changed since 5.0.  I'm sure a ton!