American Idiot Cover Contest - Vote for the top 10

[Fuzz]

We had a total of 38 entries in the American Idiot cover contest.  Download all of the entries. Take a listen to all of them, there are some really good covers in there. After you listen go here and vote for your favorite

https://polldaddy.com/poll/9372152/

 

The entries with the top 10 votes will go on to the next round of voting on GDA.

[lizziebix]

That was tough.  But finally found one that was my overall favorite (sorry to the other 8 I also liked a lot).

 

[Fuzz]

10 minutes ago, lizziebix said:

That was tough.  But finally found one that was my overall favorite (sorry to the other 8 I also liked a lot).

 

There are several that I'm very happy with. One stood out the most and I voted for that one. Really curious to see which ones advance.

[lizziebix]

Just now, Fuzz said:

There are several that I'm very happy with. One stood out the most and I voted for that one. Really curious to see which ones advance.

Agreed.  Decided to keep my list to see how they all faired.  This is exciting. 

[Grinch]

I totally would have participated have I not been on a huge trip at the time but time to check out these covers!

[PursuitOfEpicness]

Bailey R i love you 

[inthehallwaynow]

wow they were all fantastic! 

[21guns&novacaine]

My email listed me as 'tombraider' when I submitted.  I'm not complaining hahaha it's my favorite game ever... But my eleven year old self really should have thought that email through more hahaha. There's a lot of amazing covers in here! Had to re-listen through them a few times before making a decision, good luck everyone! 

[Anipnk]

I really like "Give Me Novacaine" by Liz M, which is really simple, but such a beautiful sound, but she has a great voice! Also, "Whatsername" by Howi S was really good too!! I was surprise with "Wake Me Up When September Ends" by The Last Minute Men. I'm surprise that no one tried Homecoming... 

[pezcore]

Mine isn't there, what happened? 

[sara_gd]

8 hours ago, XPursuitOfEpicnessX said:

Bailey R i love you 

I started listening that one with really high hopes  

My favourite were St Jimmy by Santino and Holiday by Matteo. I think that cover of St Jimmy puts you really well into the story of St Jimmy of that part of the album, and Holiday by Matteo is kind of a nostalgic take on everything that Holiday declares is wrong in an angry way (I can imagine an old person looking at all of this from his window or something like that). I also liked Whatsername by ScottF, Wake me up by Last Minute Men, Give me Novacaine by Luke James and by LizM, Letterbomb by Turtlemay and Extraordinary Girl by YoannA. And I listened to Whatsername too many times for my mental health

[localinsomniac]

5 hours ago, pezcore said:

Mine isn't there, what happened? 

What song did you do?

[Steven Seagull]

Well fuck I thought this would be anonymous.

[pezcore]

19 minutes ago, localinsomniac said:

What song did you do?

favourite son

[localinsomniac]

Just now, pezcore said:

favourite son

That's a shame, I would have loved to check it out!

[Second favourite son]

When does voting close? I'm not at my computer at the moment but don't want to miss my chance.

[matteo263]

5 hours ago, sara_gd said:

I started listening that one with really high hopes  

My favourite were St Jimmy by Santino and Holiday by Matteo. I think that cover of St Jimmy puts you really well into the story of St Jimmy of that part of the album, and Holiday by Matteo is kind of a nostalgic take on everything that Holiday declares is wrong in an angry way (I can imagine an old person looking at all of this from his window or something like that).

Thank you so much sara  that's an interesting interpretation of it  

 

Id love it if I could get people's reactions to our cover of Holiday:) feel free to give us any criticism:)

[HighHorse]

Good morning, I'm High Horse, I'm a high horse.

Couldn't help but notice you had a contest here with a whopping 38 semi-finalists.  That's a lot of Green Day to listen to.

So here's what I do:  I smoke weed, I listen to all your songs three times, I review them all and say what's rad and not rad in my eyes.  Keep in mind that these are my opinions, if they conflict with yours and you have valid reason to disagree with me, go right ahead, you're thinking for yourself and that's great.  If you can use evidence and convince me that your opinion/idea is better than mine, then that's also great.

I am honest and upfront about what I think when it comes to music, I do not sugarcoat if something is bad.

I judge based on the following criteria:

- Musicianship (instrument mastery).

- Production quality (how well the piece is recorded and mixed).

- Composition (MIDI note details, layout of the song, essentially production decisions but more on the creative side of things rather than the technical aspects).

- Tribute value (how well it works in relation to the original song, I don't look for precisely the same as the original, because that would defeat the purpose of the cover for the most part though it's not wrong to cover exact either, it's more to have a starting point to judge the original aspects of the covers as to whether a part works or not).

I rate out of 10, though the above criteria don't exactly have set values in how they relate to getting a perfect 10, since every song is different and produced differently, each song will be rated on its own merits and in relation to the original work where necessary.

If I'm harsh on your cover, I'm sorry, I'm not trying to discourage you, I'm telling you to try again.  Becoming a great/proficient musician means making a bazillion mistakes in order to get things right.  It is helpful to know where you are falling short so that you can try again next time knowing what to do/not to do.

With that out of the way, let's get going:

Jesus of Suburbia - Jeff Strong
- Solid cover, pretty much exactly the same as the original, even mix wise.  Vocals are on point as fuck.

But hold up.  These are the actual drums from the song.  Like, these are exactly the drums.  You took the stems from Rock Band and used them here.  Not just the
drum stems, but also the additional instrument stem.  How do I know?  I have them too and I matched them up to the song.

Bruh.  Nah.  Listen right?  Anybody can just rip the fucking instrument tracks and paste themselves over it.  I can tell the guitars and bass are yours, so before anyone calls me out on saying he stole the whole song, -he didn't-.

Like sorry look, I don't mean to shit on your cover, cuz your voice is really good, and the guitar parts are performed very well, but the people in this contest put in a lot of work to have their own instruments and fully make the renditions theirs.  To use the original tracks like this is kinda a dick move.  I dunno, just doesn't rub me
right, but whatever.  7/10, cuz the cover is indeed good, but drums bruh.

EDIT:  I incorrectly judged this song and it was brought to my attention that the the drums and additional instruments were indeed not the original Green Day recordings, even though they were incredibly close to the original in terms of sample choices and mapping.  10/10, this one is a practically perfect recreation of Jesus of Suburbia.

Holiday - American Idiots
- Everything sounds live and fairly tight, however the guitar tones are terrible and the guitarist needs to get a little better at playing.  He's just playing the chords
straight and not adding the intricacies that are in the original, it just stands out because this version sounds too plain, there's no flavour to it.  I do like the
chant part though, you guys nailed that.  5.5/10.

Holiday - d k
- Lotta layering guitars, nice.  The singer sounds super stuffed up and really trying to make this super scratchy low-voiced Billie Joe.  I'm sure people will like it but to me it's just not in my preference, he does a good job of singing the song though.  I like the use of tension in this cover, unsettling in some parts but works great, very well done.  7.5/10.
- This would mix really well with Matteo's cover, like in a video type setting if you had one version go into the other and in
and out like that.  The moods of the songs are opposites.

Holiday - Your Enemies
- Drums sound great, guitars sound big, but still not nearly smooth enough, same issues in playing as American Idiots, no intricacies.  Vocals are good, I like this singer.  They left out the vocalizing in the choruses, not that it matters that much, but it does add power if those vocal parts are present.  They did include an egg shaker or something of that sort in the song to compliment the drums though, that adds a nice touch.  Bridge is solid, vox are produced well, and are mixed much more upfront than the original which I find takes away from the overall song, but that's my opinion.  Decent cover though.  7/10.

Holiday - Matteo
- It's an acoustic ballad with a chick and dude singing.  This is like the polar opposite of dk's cover.  This is pretty and soothing while dk's is unsettling and
builds in a similarly unsettling fashion.  The song's got this weird Michael Buble vibe.  I like the vocals in this bridge, the wall of vocals, it's super cool,
reminds me of the Broadway show (Last Night On Earth specifically).  The ending is really nice with the percussive hits.  9.5/10.
- I said this already but: This would mix really well with dk's cover, like in a video type setting if you had one version go into the other and in and out like that.

Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Shannon
- I like her voice a lot right off the bat, but it needs to be mixed more upfront.  The guitar is interesting and cool, I like the tone a lot.  She took the melody and really made it her own in a way that if you sang the original with it, it works nicely as a harmony, i.e. how you -should- do vocals if you try to stray from the original melody.  The vocals are the main focus of this song for sure, but the guitar keeps you interested, which is very good, and works for the song's themes and vibe really well as the only other instrument, walking a lonely road and all that jazz.  10/10.

BoBD - Victoria
- I'm sorry but it's not up to par with what should be here.  The person doesn't know the guitar part.  The singing is all over the place.  Try again next time.  1/10.

BoBD - Amanda
- Okay uhh...  There's like a sax doing the melody and it's pretty sloppy, same goes for guitar.  Sorry guys, try again next time.  1/10.

Are We The Waiting - Brian Staub
- Piano and strings to open, sounds nice and majestic.  The guy sings like the dude who did it in the Broadway play, Stark Sanders or something?  Can't remember his name.  Piano ends a little abruptly in that early bit, needed some velocity editing on that piano too.  When the drums and everything come in that sounds good
though.  This would be perfect once mixed.  The MIDI drums work for this oddly enough.  I like the change up to the "rage and love" and "Jesus of Suburbia" bits,
building tension like that, that's very well done.  I like the piano solo, that's a nice touch.  I like how this rendition takes just this part of St. Jimmy (cuz that's what this song is, the prelude to St. Jimmy) and makes the song stand on its own as a nice easy listening ballady tune much moreso than Green Day's version where
it constantly builds up to the climax of St. Jimmy.  8.5/10.

St. Jimmy - BaileyR
- GET ON WITH IT.  YES, GET ON WITH IT.  (montypythonholygrail.mov)

...

This cover is super funny, that ukelele is getting the fucking ass beaten out of it lol, holy fuck.  Vocals are pretty funny too.  Oh God lol the fucking breakdown, yes okay this is supposed to be funny.  Okay, on that merit, it works very nicely.  5/7 well done.

St. Jimmy - Santino/Donnie Grimm
- HOLY FUCK TRE'S JOINT SONG.  This is very hype.  I love this intro.  It's mad and random and perfectly fits St. Jimmy.  It's anxious and creepy and cool.
- Vocals are cool, I like the person's voice, those MIDI drums are really shit though, this is another rendition that would really benefit from some mixing and
good MIDI drums.  Good cover, no fault to the musicians, it's just cuz of limitations of the gear these guys had that the cover falls short in my eyes.  7/10.

St. Jimmy - Salvatore
- Umm... This is just guitar?  Like, an amp, with a phone in front of it, and someone playing St. Jimmy after they looked at a tab for thirty seconds.  It's not even in time and there's mistakes every few seconds.  This should not be here.

I understand not everyone can sing and do guitar and not everyone has access to music software and whatnot, and this is probably some teenager who wanted to try their hand at the contest, and that's fine, however, I don't think he should have reached this stage simply because in a sea of covers with multiple instruments and vocals and such, this one has no chance in hell of winning unless by miracles all of you go vote for him.  Do it just to spite me, cuz it'd be hilarious to be honest, and probably give the kid a lot of unnecessary swagger in their guitar skills.  1/10 try again.

Give Me Novacaine - AshleyS
- I like the vocals, on both the guy's and girl's parts.  This song would benefit from mixing and a more optimal recording environment and setup, but, y'know, the
cover's good so, yeah.  7/10.

Give Me Novacaine - DJMeth
- Your name got my hopes up, I was hoping for a house rendition or some shit.  Singing is pitchy but not terrible, the ukelele is a little off and occasionally really loud and piercing, but overall the cover is aight.  5.5/10

Give Me Novacaine - Fredrik
- Mix is sorta bad, guitars sound bad.  The piano is nice though, the drums although I can tell they're MIDI are pretty good too.  Vocals...  I mean they're on point for the most part, but I find the singer tries to noodle a little too much where he shouldn't though, not cuz it doesn't work, it's just cuz it's not delivered as good as it could be pitch-wise.  The solo is cool though, but I'm sure this guy can play it better.  5.5/10.

Give Me Novacaine - Luke James
- Buddy chill with the reverb on the vocals, turn down the mix of that shit a bit, like, that's literally the only thing wrong with them, they're on point pitch-wise and your voice is super good, but they're not upfront enough, I get what you were going for but it's way too much reverb.  I like this arrangement a lot though, it's still very chill while adding an interesting sense of urgency to the song.  7.5/10.

Give Me Novacaine - Noah Blackmore
- This rendition felt British to me from the second the bass started, I'm not sure why, I didn't even really take into account the name, not that any of this is relevant to the cover, just thinking out loud, but anyway:  Cool cover, I like it, it's sorta indescript outside of the word "minimalistic", I really like the synthy/guitar touches in it, also I'm a sucker for basses having a big role in songs.  6.5/10.

Give Me Novacaine - LizM
- Vocals are a little pitchy, but are still very good.  I like the quiet guitars, they sound very full and well played.  I really like the lead guitar part during the solo/breakdown, it's really bright and nice sounding.  I super like the vocals though, really nice voice. 8.5/10.

Extraordinary Girl - YoannA
- ???/10, I actually don't know how to rate this song, it's good for what it is, but in terms of it being tribute to Green Day...  I honestly don't know and it's in such a way that I really can't relate it to the original work because this rendition is so original already, so it's up to the listener.
- "Some days he feels like, dYINg." lol, the delivery was funny to me for some reason. Anyway, moving along.

Extraordinary Girl - Sofia
- This rendition takes the lo-fi nature of the song and runs with it really well.  The song is broken up just enough that it becomes something you'd hear in a dingy
bar late at night during an empty open mic or as soundtrack in a movie.  I like it a lot, I'm putting this on my phone, shit's rad.  9.5/10.

Letterbomb - All of My Friends
- I really like this immediately.  This rendition feels like looking back on a fight that you regret.  Like Green Day's rendition of this song was the break-up of
Whatsername and Jimmy as it was happening and tension and anger was high.  Now this rendition is like Jimmy a few days later, lamenting and regretting the argument before Wake Me Up When September Ends starts.  10/10.  My favourite thus far.

Letterbomb - Duck Feet
- Super tight playing on this one, but I wish their recording was clearer, it sounds like this was a phone-in-the-practice-space recording, which still works, though obviously good recording conditions would do wonders for this.  The cover is very tight, good stuff.  Aww no scream =(  7/10.

Letterbomb - KyleM
- Those acoustics are crispy sounding as fuck, I love them, holy shit.  Vocals are also very good, harmonies are very nice.  9/10.

Letterbomb - Turtlemay
- This rendition sounds like it should be in a Sonic game.  Like seriously, compress and crank the lead, speed up the song a bit, put it in a Sonic game.  Shit would fit damn near perfect.  7.5/10.

 

Just a complaint I have that means nothing really:

WHY DID NONE OF YOU LETTERBOMB PEOPLE DO THE SCREAM?! lol

Wake Me Up When September Ends - FortunaF
- This file didn't work for me?  I redownloaded the files and everything, dunno if other people have this problem.

WMUWSE - Matt
- I like how the guitar keeps everything full and slightly upbeat, but still the melancholy nature of the song isn't fully gone.  One note to the guitar player (Matt
I assume), watch your strumming, I hear you hitting strings with chords you shouldn't be hitting and it makes things messy.  Very good cover though, it doesn't
outstay its welcome and feels consistent and takes liberties where it can.  7.5/10

WMUWSE - PhoebeP
- Vocals are consistently flat, guitar is super in tune though and played well.  I just note the guitar's tuning because it gives away the flatness of the vocals really quickly.  5/10.

WMUWSE - The Last Minute Men
- I really like everything about this rendition; not the vocals in the start though, the low vocal doesn't get me wet at all personally, once that shit stops everything's good though.  The cover is super cool cuz it feels like one of those summer-y folky "rock" songs that you hear from Train or that one band that did Little Lion Man.  9/10, good jab kiddos.

WMUWSE - Tombraider
- Jesus Christ did you put your phone inside the piano?  Fuck mate.  Stop.  I want to say you're playing the piano well but it just sounds super washy and I actually don't know if it's good or not.  4/10.

Whatsername - Steven Seagull
- Mine? MineMiMineMiMineMineMinMineMine?
- Vocal pitch is great, guitar has some timing issues but sounds pretty good.  Not a bad cover.  6.5/10.

Whatsername - RyanV
- I like the change up for the bit before the guitar solo.  Though the solo itself could be a little better, just fix the delay and perform it a little better, I like what he was going for though.  The lead after the "seems like forever ago" is majorly out of time with the other guitar.  5.5/10.

Whatsername - DatsNoMoon
- I like the change up with the bass, that's pretty rad.  I like the vocals, though they sound a little held back in places though they're good nonetheless, also I think they need to be a little louder overall.  I like how on the left another guitar creeps in from the second "I made a point to burn all of thephotographs", that's a nice touch.  The chorus is on point mix-wise.  These drums are also very good, I can tell they're MIDI, but they're more believable.  Some of the chord changes aren't quite as smooth as they could be, though the tone and heaviness are great.  9/10.

Whatsername - localinsomniac
- I'm not sure if you're just really bad at using Melodyne/Autotune or you recorded the vocals in a weird room/on a bad mic.  Like they sound robotic.  Need better MIDI drums.  Cover isn't bad overall though.

6/10, if you're gonna tune your vocals, get the recording as close to the note as you can and then tune as little as possible, there's tuners that give you smoothing options for how drastic the tuning works.

If you didn't tune and I'm full of shit on that point, then I give you a 7.5/10, but until then I call it a 6/10.

Whatsername - Losers of The Year
- Guy needs to turn down the mids on the guitars, shit's too loud, though they are nicely big sounding when things get heavy, still the tone could use a little work.  Vocals are pretty good, harmonies are on point for the most part, even though I can hear him straining in the harmonies, I can tell he toughed it out and didn't go for tuning, wanted to perform it right, good man.  Also I like the subtle strings in there, that's a nice touch.  7/10

Whatsername - Marvin
- Better drum samples plz.  I like how the guitars are muted here, they're being held down hard, there's no give at all in that strumming hand, it adds an interesting
texture.  Low end and bass in general need to be brought up majorly from the solo onward.  Vocals are cool, guy's got an interesting voice.  6.5/10.

Whatsername - Scott Fallon
- That piano part is really cool.  I like the vocals here, they're arranged nicely, but you guys need to record to a click, there's no click and shit's weirdly phasey and not quite in time with other instruments, namely the two stereo guitars, they don't hit at the same time, and for such minimal strumming, you really need them both on point.  The vocals also have some issues cuz of it.  I like the breakdown and those lead guitar parts, they sound really nice.  7.5/10.

Whatsername - Burno Lisboa
- Quality's not very good, vocals are pitchy, guitar needs work, but it wasn't unlistenable.  5.5/10.

Whatsername - Howi Spangler
- Guitars sound really good, I like this guy's voice.  9/10.

So the top ones in my eyes:

Jesus of Suburbia - Jeff Strong

Holiday - d k
Holiday - Matteo
BoBD - Shannon
Are We The Waiting - Brian Staub
Give Me Novacaine - LizM
Extraordinary Girl - Sofia
Letterbomb - All of My Friends
Letterbomb - KyleM
Wake Me Up - The Last Minute Men
Whatsername - DatsNoMoon
Whatsername - Howi Spangler

Honourable Mentions:
St. Jimmy - BaileyR
St. Jimmy - Santino/Donnie Grimm
Extraordinary Girl - YoannA
WMUWSE- Matt

Thank you for reading!
- High Horse.

[Maddie86]

TL;DR

[matteo263]

1 hour ago, HighHorse said:

Holiday - Matteo
- It's an acoustic ballad with a chick and dude singing.  This is like the polar opposite of dk's cover.  This is pretty and soothing while dk's is unsettling and
builds in a similarly unsettling fashion.  The song's got this weird Michael Buble vibe.  I like the vocals in this bridge, the wall of vocals, it's super cool,
reminds me of the Broadway show (Last Night On Earth specifically).  The ending is really nice with the percussive hits.  9.5/10.

I salute you HighHorse! Thank you for your very kind comments! Is there anything in particular that you would have wanted improved ?

[localinsomniac]

10 hours ago, HighHorse said:

 

Whatsername - localinsomniac
- I'm not sure if you're just really bad at using Melodyne/Autotune or you recorded the vocals in a weird room/on a bad mic.  Like they sound robotic.  Need better MIDI drums.  Cover isn't bad overall though.

6/10, if you're gonna tune your vocals, get the recording as close to the note as you can and then tune as little as possible, there's tuners that give you smoothing options for how drastic the tuning works.

If you didn't tune and I'm full of shit on that point, then I give you a 7.5/10, but until then I call it a 6/10.

A little harsh, but pretty spot-on and well-taken.

I hate admitting this but in regards to the vocals it's all of the above: I'm still learning how to properly use pitch correction, it was a bad room AND a shit mic. Just working with what was at my disposal. My vocals are always the Achilles heel in my recordings.

Not sure what could have been done about the drums though. How do you define "better" in his case? I'll admit to struggling for a really good tom sound/mix.

I appreciate the feedback though, thank you. I honestly didn't realize how obvious the Flex Pitch was on the vox. I'm also interested in hearing more about those smoothing options you mentioned.

[HighHorse]

11 hours ago, matteo263 said:

I salute you HighHorse! Thank you for your very kind comments! Is there anything in particular that you would have wanted improved ?

Personally I would've added some very minimal percussion and/or changed the guitar part slightly to keep things more interesting during the second verse.  I know the vocals are the focal point of the track but the guitar gets a little boring for the second verse and chorus in my eyes.  Otherwise everything was great, no qualms outside of that.

2 hours ago, localinsomniac said:

A little harsh, but pretty spot-on and well-taken.

I hate admitting this but in regards to the vocals it's all of the above: I'm still learning how to properly use pitch correction, it was a bad room AND a shit mic. Just working with what was at my disposal. My vocals are always the Achilles heel in my recordings.

Not sure what could have been done about the drums though. How do you define "better" in his case? I'll admit to struggling for a really good tom sound/mix.

I appreciate the feedback though, thank you. I honestly didn't realize how obvious the Flex Pitch was on the vox. I'm also interested in hearing more about those smoothing options you mentioned.

Ahh yes, see why the tuning was so obvious was because your mic picked up so much of the room you recorded in, so you essentially ended up tuning your room's tone along with the vocals, which made it pretty clear that things were tuned.  I'd recommend a Rodes NT-1A for a quality mic, I have one, there's practically no self noise, and so long as you set your pre-amp well, it'll only pick up the stuff you want.  A thing to keep in mind for tuning vocals as well is that "Humans are not machines", when tuning keep this in mind because if every singer was naturally 100% on every note they ever sang, it would be really weird and sort of unsettling.  The reason why is simply because humans are imperfect and our voices are all different, you want to highlight the voice while simply nudging the tuning.  Also for a better idea of how to tune vocals, and also just a good software recommendation:

Now in terms of your drums, your snare and kick samples could be better, but that's not the main issue.  There's not a lot of variation in the hits and it gives away the MIDI aspect of them.  Sure it sounds like drums playing the pattern, but it doesn't sound like a drummer playing pattern on the drums.  Essentially when programming MIDI drums, ideally you would want samples that give you options for hit types, in Reason the drum controllers have some samples that have multiple hit types you can cycle between and make more convincing drum sounds, however it's infinitely better to use a drum emulator like EZ Drums or Superior Drummer. Even the drum emulator in Logic is very good.  It's the small intricacies of human playing you have to take into account.  If you have a drum-playing friend, hang out with them more and listen to how they drum, hell even record it, I'm sure you'll hear the difference between MIDI and human.  I know Green Day's a big band and they have a lot of money in their productions and that's why they sound so perfect, but there's a reason they spend months and months recording, and that's because they get things as perfect as they can before it goes to editing in post.

To give an alternative to the drum-playing friend, drum out the song on your desk, whether you're good at drums or not, you should be able to pick out what aspects of the drums need to be focused on and how hard each hit should be.  Don't get overly anal with it though, that's a downfall I have is thinking too hard about "what if I was drumming this?" because I'm terrible at drums and I think like "oh this snare hit would probably be shit cuz I'd fuck it up" and then I put a shitty velocity value for that note.  It's insane but that's called anxiety lol.

Anyway, I've been listening to your song the whole time I've been typing this on loop, and I can tell you put in a lot of effort, so you did very well despite the technical limitations, good job dude =)

[localinsomniac]

1 hour ago, HighHorse said:

Personally I would've added some very minimal percussion and/or changed the guitar part slightly to keep things more interesting during the second verse.  I know the vocals are the focal point of the track but the guitar gets a little boring for the second verse and chorus in my eyes.  Otherwise everything was great, no qualms outside of that.

Ahh yes, see why the tuning was so obvious was because your mic picked up so much of the room you recorded in, so you essentially ended up tuning your room's tone along with the vocals, which made it pretty clear that things were tuned.  I'd recommend a Rodes NT-1A for a quality mic, I have one, there's practically no self noise, and so long as you set your pre-amp well, it'll only pick up the stuff you want.  A thing to keep in mind for tuning vocals as well is that "Humans are not machines", when tuning keep this in mind because if every singer was naturally 100% on every note they ever sang, it would be really weird and sort of unsettling.  The reason why is simply because humans are imperfect and our voices are all different, you want to highlight the voice while simply nudging the tuning.  Also for a better idea of how to tune vocals, and also just a good software recommendation:

Now in terms of your drums, your snare and kick samples could be better, but that's not the main issue.  There's not a lot of variation in the hits and it gives away the MIDI aspect of them.  Sure it sounds like drums playing the pattern, but it doesn't sound like a drummer playing pattern on the drums.  Essentially when programming MIDI drums, ideally you would want samples that give you options for hit types, in Reason the drum controllers have some samples that have multiple hit types you can cycle between and make more convincing drum sounds, however it's infinitely better to use a drum emulator like EZ Drums or Superior Drummer. Even the drum emulator in Logic is very good.  It's the small intricacies of human playing you have to take into account.  If you have a drum-playing friend, hang out with them more and listen to how they drum, hell even record it, I'm sure you'll hear the difference between MIDI and human.  I know Green Day's a big band and they have a lot of money in their productions and that's why they sound so perfect, but there's a reason they spend months and months recording, and that's because they get things as perfect as they can before it goes to editing in post.

To give an alternative to the drum-playing friend, drum out the song on your desk, whether you're good at drums or not, you should be able to pick out what aspects of the drums need to be focused on and how hard each hit should be.  Don't get overly anal with it though, that's a downfall I have is thinking too hard about "what if I was drumming this?" because I'm terrible at drums and I think like "oh this snare hit would probably be shit cuz I'd fuck it up" and then I put a shitty velocity value for that note.  It's insane but that's called anxiety lol.

Anyway, I've been listening to your song the whole time I've been typing this on loop, and I can tell you put in a lot of effort, so you did very well despite the technical limitations, good job dude =)

Again, I appreciate the kind words. That's the most constructive, neutral criticism I've received on anything.

A little background on the recording, if I may: the vocals were recorded in the back of a hightop cargo van. A lot of natural reverb in a "room" such as that. I guess it makes sense that the mic would pick up all of those reflections. Unfortunately, it's also my only realistic option for vocals outside of paying for legit studio time. The mic I used was a piece of shit MXL 990. It did an OK job for a good 10 years, but that was literally the last recording I used it for; it ended up getting water damaged like two days later, so I've upgraded to a Behringer B-1. Not great, but all the reviews indicated it was the best vocal mic you could get for under 100 bucks. That's my sad budget. If money wasn't an object, I would have a U87. Also no preamp, and I'm sure that accounts for a lot of the unwanted outside noise.

The producer kits in Logic Pro have served me pretty well (they do have left and right hit types for kick, snare and toms), but I can totally see how not playing with the velocity values can make them sound robotic. I'll try out a different sample for the snare, but I really like the kick. That could just be a problem with EQ, because I like a punchy kick sound. Tried Superior Drummer a while back, but I remember the learning curve being a little steep with it. So everything I do now is within the Logic DAW. Obviously nothing compares to a live drummer, it's just simply not an option right now. I do have a drummer friend who works in production at a radio station; he's offered to do some mix and master work for me if/when the time comes. With our different schedules, it's just not really possible to get him into a room to do tracks for me.

There's a lot of food for thought in your posts though, so thank you again. Hopefully I'll be able to apply some of that going forward!

edit: I glossed over the tutorial on Nectar. I'll check that out too, thanks!

[HighHorse]

2 minutes ago, localinsomniac said:

Again, I appreciate the kind words. That's the most constructive, neutral criticism I've received on anything.

A little background on the recording, if I may: the vocals were recorded in the back of a hightop cargo van. A lot of natural reverb in a "room" such as that. I guess it makes sense that the mic would pick up all of those reflections. Unfortunately, it's also my only realistic option for vocals outside of paying for legit studio time. The mic I used was a piece of shit MXL 990. It did an OK job for a good 10 years, but that was literally the last recording I used it for; it ended up getting water damaged like two days later, so I've upgraded to a Behringer B-1. Not great, but all the reviews indicated it was the best vocal mic you could get for under 100 bucks. That's my sad budget. If money wasn't an object, I would have a U87. Also no preamp, and I'm sure that accounts for a lot of the unwanted outside noise.

The producer kits in Logic Pro have served me pretty well (they do have left and right hit types for kick, snare and toms), but I can totally see how not playing with the velocity values can make them sound robotic. I'll try out a different sample for the snare, but I really like the kick. That could just be a problem with EQ, because I like a punchy kick sound. Tried Superior Drummer a while back, but I remember the learning curve being a little steep with it. So everything I do now is within the Logic DAW. Obviously nothing compares to a live drummer, it's just simply not an option right now. I do have a drummer friend who works in production at a radio station; he's offered to do some mix and master work for me if/when the time comes. With our different schedules, it's just not really possible to get him into a room to do tracks for me.

There's a lot of food for thought in your posts though, so thank you again. Hopefully I'll be able to apply some of that going forward!

Just to quickly advise, for recording vocals, get a fairly big cardboard box, big enough to fit your head and microphone pretty comfortably, stick foam/sponge/something that would dampen any reflections inside the box, and bam, you have a portable recording booth for vocals.  Or you could just get a really thick blanket/duvet and record under that though it will quickly get stuffy (but so will the box, so pick your poison).

And for your kick, it isn't bad honestly, but it can be improved vastly with a gate.  You should always use gates on each drum stem (except overheads) at the start of your signal chain if you aren't already doing so.  The problem is that the kick sounds "flappy" even though it is pretty punchy, just mess with settings until you have non-flappy kicks, reference DatsNoMoon's kick for what you should be going for, shit's punchy as fuck.

[Jeff Strong]

21 hours ago, HighHorse said:

Jesus of Suburbia - Jeff Strong
- Solid cover, pretty much exactly the same as the original, even mix wise.  Vocals are on point as fuck.

But hold up.  These are the actual drums from the song.  Like, these are exactly the drums.  You took the stems from Rock Band and used them here.  Not just the
drum stems, but also the additional instrument stem.  How do I know?  I have them too and I matched them up to the song.

Bruh.  Nah.  Listen right?  Anybody can just rip the fucking instrument tracks and paste themselves over it.  I can tell the guitars and bass are yours, so before anyone calls me out on saying he stole the whole song, -he didn't-.

Like sorry look, I don't mean to shit on your cover, cuz your voice is really good, and the guitar parts are performed very well, but the people in this contest put in a lot of work to have their own instruments and fully make the renditions theirs.  To use the original tracks like this is kinda a dick move.  I dunno, just doesn't rub me
right, but whatever.  7/10, cuz the cover is indeed good, but drums bruh.

 

Hey man,

Thanks so much for your feedback. Honestly. This track took forever to make! 

I will point out one thing, though.

The drums were NOT ripped from Rock Band. I can promise you that. I will send you the drums themselves and you can layer it and check it out all you want. I know that ripping from Rock Band is a deal-breaker, and I wouldn't do anything like that to compromise my chances. I found the RB MIDI map here and used that as a tempo marker. Then the drums were sequenced in SONAR. 

Edit: Also, the piano and glockenspiel were not ripped. I'll send you the tracks from those, too. I recorded those myself. I have a pretty extensive sample library for piano and orchestral instruments.