Poopot's Cover Challenge #28 - the letter O

flying_pie · July 9

Welcome to the 28th Poopot's Cover Challenge

The winner of our last challenge was @stickyfiddle who has chosen a song beginning with O

which is...

...

Oh, Pretty Woman by Van Halen

(or Roy Orbison if you prefer )

If don't want to cover the chosen track then you can choose any song starting with O or O preceded by "the" and there are loads of great ones out there

But… if you cover the chosen track you will automatically receive a bonus 5pts as a head start

* RULES:

Entries to be sent in mp3 format to the following Email address:

covers@thefretboard.co.uk

Please comment in the thread when you've sent an entry. And feel free to submit more than one entry if you want.

You may wish to submit artwork to go with your entry. It brightens up the playlist and might subliminally get you more votes but it's not mandatory.

Entries close at 11.30pm on Friday 30th August 2024... so get onto it!!!!

A playlist of all the entries will be posted below:

Listen to Poopot's Cover Challenge #28 - O, a playlist by theFretBoard.co.uk on #SoundCloud

https://on.soundcloud.com/hyie1

fnpt · July 10

I already started on Roy Orbison's version

But I'm not sure that's what I'll submit, it will very much depend on the finished product.

idiotwind · July 11

I may as well kick it off, I've sent in an entry

TTony · July 11

fnpt said:

I already started on Roy Orbison's version

I've started on TT's version; Roy Orbison's vocals are a definite no-no!!

monquixote · July 11

TTony said:

fnpt said:

I already started on Roy Orbison's version

I've started on TT's version; Roy Orbison's vocals are a definite no-no!!

What's the issue with them?

TTony · July 11

monquixote said:

TTony said:

fnpt said:

I already started on Roy Orbison's version

I've started on TT's version; Roy Orbison's vocals are a definite no-no!!

What's the issue with them?

You mean apart from range?

monquixote · July 11

TTony said:

monquixote said:

TTony said:

fnpt said:

I already started on Roy Orbison's version

I've started on TT's version; Roy Orbison's vocals are a definite no-no!!

What's the issue with them?

You mean apart from range?

Can you drop the key?

flying_pie · July 11

@idiotwind in the playlist

flying_pie · July 11

monquixote said:

TTony said:

monquixote said:

TTony said:

I've started on TT's version; Roy Orbison's vocals are a definite no-no!!

What's the issue with them?

You mean apart from range?

Can you drop the key?

Internet says it's E3 to F#4 so should be easy to go lower if you need to... But it might be worth persisting with the original key as most male voices should manage an F#4 okay, even if it's not in the tessitura. With practice most people can sing higher than they think they can

thecolourbox · July 11

Would be hard to play on guitar though I think, if you transposed down a few notes? Given the first bit of the opening riff is on open E string?

It's a good song (though I really can't stand Orbison's voice), but much too happy and upbeat for a colourbox cover lol

Habanero · July 12

flying_pie said:

@idiotwind in the playlist

I’m not seeing the playlist?

flying_pie · July 12

Habanero said:

flying_pie said:

@idiotwind in the playlist

I’m not seeing the playlist?

D'oh! Forgot to add the link. Hopefully working now but if not I'll sort it out tonight

idiotwind · July 12

Thanks. So, a note for note of the best song ever written about octopuses .

One thing I did do though was to include all of the extra little licks that George played which were cut out in the mix. You can hear them bleeding through on the isolated drum track and I found some good videos where people had worked them out. Some of them you can tell were cut because they get in the way of the backing vocals a bit, but there's some nice descending lines that really deserved to stay.

I had some fun with the solo section, using some Moog patches to do the wave and bubble sound effects, plus another two to do the warbly backing vocals for that section. I figured that it fitted as they had access to a Moog at the time.

I'd learnt the intro a while back but hadn't properly learnt the solo, but that was good fun, as is the bass line. Had to go for the fretted Jazz bass for that rather than my usual fretless though. Tele for the lead, Gretsch hollowbody in lieu of a Casino for the fingerpicked rhythm part.

thecolourbox · July 23

Those hoping for a colourbox free cover challenge are set to be disappointed (I was previously unsure if I like an O song enough to see it through). I've just sent one through to the usual email address. Related to my current fund raising efforts for a mental health foundation, which gave me the impetus to get something done, albeit with a duplication of the band I've covered from the last challenge!

flying_pie · July 24

@thecolourbox in the playlist

thecolourbox · July 25

Great thank you.

My traditional liner notes - One More Light by Linkin Park

I've signed up to play a charity event where a band of 1000 musicians plays a couple of Linkin Park songs at the NIA in Birmingham to raise money & sponsorship for a mental health charity which focusses on young people who identify with the rock/alternative music scene. It's called 1000 Lights - inspired by Linkin Park's last tour/album "One More Light" before the singer sadly took his own life. His last show was at the NIA hence why they've chosen this band in particular. It's really inspired me to get back into their music, with this and after I did one of their songs in the last round, along with a few weddings I'm playing this summer where the emo music quota is unusually high, reliving my teenage years a bit haha.

Anyway, the recording itself - it's based around a 4 chord loop and the original is quite ambient sounding, so I kind of again threw myself back to the teenage me and took the GCSE Music approach of doing it as a "minimalism" style arrangement. Basically I built up what I wanted the 4 bar loop to sound like at it's fullest with a bit of counterpoint and counter rhythms, couple of basic chord tracks, then used the basic copy+paste technique to start with only a couple of the parts and then gradually add the others so the backing builds up to the full backing loop for each chorus. I'm quite pleased with my messing around with bar lengths - there's the same 16 crochet/quarter note beats in each loop that you'd get with 4 bars of 4, but bar 1 is a bit longer, 2 is shorter, 3 i think is normal then 4 is longer again. I'll find out the exact make up of beats per bar if anybody cares.

Not a single real instrument was played for it, I typed it all in for that authentic early 00s GCSE music experience of using Cubasis on the single music department computer. In your face Beato, nerrr. Vocals were done as usual with my Marantz Condenser microphone through a couple of UAD plugins, auto double tracked for the choruses with slight delay and one of the doubles pitched up an octave for a fuller sound. Tried to add a bit of vocal variety, verses were really hard as I kept running out of breath to sing really quietly and close to the mic but I think it sounds ok.

stickyfiddle · July 25

I haven’t started yet. Works has been mad.

I still have a list of about 60 options.

Bah!

Habanero · July 25

I need to do the vocal bit for mine, but it's on hold as my missus had a major operation on Monday. Am travelling to London each day to visit. Now I think I've picked up a slight sniffle from travelling on the train and tube.

thecolourbox · July 25

Habanero said:

I need to do the vocal bit for mine, but it's on hold as my missus had a major operation on Monday. Am travelling to London each day to visit. Now I think I've picked up a slight sniffle from travelling on the train and tube.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery for Mrs Hab, and hope your sniffle goes away. Not had a proper sniffle or cold since I started working at home rather than having to get the train every day with the great unwashed of Birmingham, and for that I'm grateful. Hope things clear up for you both - plenty of time yet to get that vocal done so no need to rush!

stickyfiddle said:

I still have a list of about 60 options.

Bah!

I have the opposite problem, I only have a list of 4 that I like enough...

stickyfiddle · July 25

thecolourbox said:

Habanero said:

I need to do the vocal bit for mine, but it's on hold as my missus had a major operation on Monday. Am travelling to London each day to visit. Now I think I've picked up a slight sniffle from travelling on the train and tube.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery for Mrs Hab, and hope your sniffle goes away. Not had a proper sniffle or cold since I started working at home rather than having to get the train every day with the great unwashed of Birmingham, and for that I'm grateful. Hope things clear up for you both - plenty of time yet to get that vocal done so no need to rush!

stickyfiddle said:

I still have a list of about 60 options.

Bah!

I have the opposite problem, I only have a list of 4 that I like enough...

I should probably be clear that it would be literally impossible for me to sing at least 2/3s of my list without significant changes, that I have zero time or energy to work out...!

I need to see if I can get one of the girls to come and sing something, then I have a nailed-on top preference. We'll see

flying_pie · July 25

stickyfiddle said:

I haven’t started yet. Works has been mad.

I still have a list of about 60 options.

Bah!

60? I wish I had that problem.

I only have one idea and I've decided to commit but am having pre-recording doubts about my ability to do it justice. I have a rough idea of structure and some riffs already and just need to commit to starting recording.

I'm kind of regretting deciding to cover Britney Spears in the style of Opeth as syncopated metal riffs in time signatures I'm not accustomed to paying in has turned out to be a challenge. And then there's the matter of coming up with some drums.... Yeah...

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Poopot's Cover Challenge #28 - the letter O

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