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## Cover Methods

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epic1sound
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### Cover Methods

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Post by epic1sound » Thu May 26, 2016 2:49 pm

(*moved from Covers forum)
Thought it might be cool to hear from the field on how everyone goes about making their covers of songs.
Now, I know that song length, sound chip, compositional complexity, etc. all come into play here but if you had to average all that out:
1. How long does it typically take you to finish a cover from start to end?
2. What methods do you use? e.g. by ear, section by section, slowing the song down, separating channels, etc.
3. How do you figure out what instruments to use? Do you just know it by ear when you hear it or do you use go to instruments and then tweak?
For me it's...
1. A few days, but that's really because I have a small window to work on music with a newborn, 2 boys and a full time job. Most nights I'll spend a few hours working on it.
2. Since I use a Mac, I use Logic X and listen to the song section by section. Sometimes if the bass is really complex I'll filter out the highs to just hear those frequencies. Also, if it's dire and I can't get it, I slow it down with Flex Time; this works only at a tempo that's about 1/3 to 1/2 speed of the original song, otherwise it's just too jumbled up to tell... and sometimes I use an 8-bit plugin to try and match the notes in MIDI to the song and to understand the note placement.
3. I've been working with the SFR set from Threxx and Deathro which has helped me a lot. Since I'm covering Kevvviiinnn songs right now I've been working with some instruments from other FT members covers (Warheart in particular) and I've been doing some tweaking and creating new instruments based off those existing ones or others that I've heard that do the same type of things i.e. Pulsate, Retriever etc.
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ShrubRustle
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### Re: Cover Methods

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Post by ShrubRustle » Mon Jun 06, 2016 10:16 pm

1) Anywhere from a few days to a couple weeks. School takes up a lot of my time and my energy, and motivation is kind of hard to come by for me. Sometimes when I'm working on a song, I'll have days where I don't even look at it. The one I'm working on right now is really long and complex, and so that one's probably going to take me a month or two.
2) I mostly do by ear, although if there's sheet music and it's especially complex, I might look for that. For faster pieces, I do slow them down as much as I can, either with YouTube or just using Audacity. After that I just wing it.
3) It's not that hard to get instruments to begin with, but the WORST thing is thinking you can use an instrument for several parts, but it's actually too quiet or too loud for one part, so you have to make a whole other instrument for that part.
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epic1sound
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### Re: Cover Methods

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Post by epic1sound » Mon Jun 06, 2016 11:18 pm

> ShrubRustle wrote:1) 3) It's not that hard to get instruments to begin with, but the WORST thing is thinking you can use an instrument for several parts, but it's actually too quiet or too loud for one part, so you have to make a whole other instrument for that part.

Agreed. But I think that FT is so manual and technical that's what makes it fun. I used to do this in Logic and it was really a lot harder than FT anyways.
Famitracker on a Mac... It's possible because I do it.
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Bjoern the Smexy
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### Re: Cover Methods

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Post by Bjoern the Smexy » Wed Jun 08, 2016 11:30 am

1. How long does it typically take you to finish a cover from start to end?
A cover can take anywhere from one day to several weeks or even months for me, depending on how much I get distracted or simply hitting some kind of road block or something. Most common road block is not being able to hear what's being played right now, which leads to question 2:
2. What methods do you use? e.g. by ear, section by section, slowing the song down, separating channels, etc.
I mostly do it by ear, which is why it takes so long for me. Sometimes I try to hunt down a MIDI or notes to make it easier for me. This is for general "MP3 music" so to speak.
For everything from NES to PS1 or so I track down the original sound format files (SPC, NSF, PSF etc.) and seperate the channels, then do it by ear. If that doesn't work (which isn't often) I go to vgmusic.com and hunt down a MIDI. If there is no MIDI I try to improvise as good as I can.
3. How do you figure out what instruments to use? Do you just know it by ear when you hear it or do you use go to instruments and then tweak?
I tweak. A lot. I tried to recreate a super grungy bass line from the current DOOM soundtrack with only 2A03 and VRC6. Of course you can't do it with just that and make it sound similar, but I have fun getting as close as possible to that oomph-y feel of it.
If that doesn't work I try to use DPCM samples, mostly in tandem with 2A03 and/or VRC6, maybe even VRC7 if possible.
I am too stupid to use N163 or FDS channels to recreate instruments, otherwise my music would sound amazing.
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