The Linear Canvas
This journal is about the wrongs and rights of the world, as I see them.

The Linear Canvas

My Recorded Cover Songs: A Thousand Years

June 5th, 2016 . by Alexander Fisher

 

shoes

I first heard ‘A Thousand Years’ by Christina Perri while sitting at Rooster’s eating wings. I looked it up on the phone app Shazam that time and also the next couple of times I heard it. I just couldn’t  get it out of my head. I searched for it on the Internet and got the basic chords and started playing it on piano. I knew I didn’t quite have it right so I bought the sheet music. I started recording it about that time. Here is the finished product. (?) I hope I can get it out of my head now. Recording it usually works.

I have never seen Twilight.

I used: Korg Krome for Piano; 1988 Fender Stratocaster AS guitar; 1972 Rickenbacker 4001 bass; Ludwig Drums w/Zildjian and Paiste Cymbals; Bar Chimes

My Recorded Cover Songs – Ready for Love (remix)

May 24th, 2013 . by Alexander Fisher

As long as I remember, Ready for Love has been one of my favorite songs. Guitarist Mick Ralphs wrote the song back in the early 1970’s when he was with the band Mott the Hoople. It appeared on their All the Young Dudes LP. It was titled Ready for Love / After Lights on the album sleeve mainly because of the ending, I think. After Mick left Mott, he formed the band Bad Company and the song appeared on their first album as well. I consider my version to be a little closer to the Mott the Hoople version as I perform my own version of the After Lights ending. I think it rocks harder than either of the other versions though.

I played my Fender Stratocaster guitar, Rickenbacker 4001 Bass, and my Ludwig drums on this track. I sang all the vocals. I used my Fostex VF-16 multi-track recorder to record the original tracks. I used Cakewalk Sonar X1 Producer Expanded and Sony Sound Forge to remix and edit the song.

My Recorded Cover Songs – She Talks To Angels

May 20th, 2013 . by Alexander Fisher

I have been playing She Talks To Angels almost since it was released by the original artist, the Black Crows. I recorded it once before with my niece singing the lead vocal. She was dissatisfied with the resulting recording and I never posted it. It was in a key that just didn’t suit her voice very well. I had a pretty hot guitar solo in it so I was a little disappointed.

I recently recorded it all over again and did the lead vocals and most of the background vocals. I had my wife Jill fill in some of the background vocals for me as well. I played all the instruments.

I used my Takamine acoustic guitar, and Rickenbacker bass, in addition to a Roland Octapad and Roland slave keyboard. I recorded it using Cakewalk Sonar X1 and edited the file properties with Sony Sound Forge v9.

My Recorded Cover Songs – Snowblind (remix)

May 11th, 2012 . by Alexander Fisher

 

Sep21_0002I was listening to this Black Sabbath cover I recorded recently and I just thought it could use a little more work. I just remixed it and I think it has a little more punch now. Especially in the higher frequencies. Here’s your warning. This song is really loud and pretty long. 

Snowblind
[audio:http://www.linearcanvas.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Snowblind BS 20120511_2134mcd.mp3]

I played my Stratocaster through my Line 6 POD 2.0 on this. The bass is my Rickenbacker. The keyboard strings are Dimension Pro played on my Roland slave keyboard. The drums are a MIDI file played through Session Drummer 3.

My Recorded Cover Songs – Ready For Love (remix)

May 4th, 2012 . by Alexander Fisher

Alex FisherI recorded Ready For Love in about 1999. I have mixed it several times. Hopefully I got it right this time. Last time I mixed it, it came out sounding kind of thin. It made me wonder if I had the dbx noise reduction switched off when I dubbed it from tape. By the time I realized there was something wrong with the recording, I had forgotten it was on tape and looked through every bit of digital storage I had for the tracks. When I finally found it on tape, I could hardly believe that I had done it on tape. It had to have been one of my last analog projects. I had the tape thing perfected by then I guess.

Ready for Love

[audio:http://www.linearcanvas.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Ready for Love 20120505_1821mcd.mp3]

Ready For Love was written by Mick Ralphs and was originally recorded by his band Mott the Hoople. Later after Mick left Mott, he formed the band Bad Company and they recorded it as well. Mott did an extended ending called After Lights. I tend to believe my version more resembles the Mott the Hoople version and I included the ending in spirit, if not form. I sang, and played all of the instruments. The guitars are my Fender Stratocaster electric. The bass was my Rickenbacker 4001. The drums are my Ludwig’s. There are no keyboards on this recording, although I think it sounds like I played one on it. I originally recorded the song on my analog Yamaha MT-1000 4 track recorder. I processed it with Cakewalk Sonar 8.5 Producer and Sony Sound Forge 9.

My Recorded Cover Songs – 867-5309 (Jenny Jenny)

April 26th, 2012 . by Alexander Fisher

867-5309I got to thinking about the band Tommy Tutone the other day. I recorded their song 867-5309/Jenny back in the 1990’s. I had acquired their LP from a used record store in Lima, Ohio. Sometime after that I recorded this song. I had a mix of it that I had made back then. I think I reprocessed this song once before, but I couldn’t find my converted files. I transferred the tapes to digital again and did my magic on the unsynchronized tracks spread over two different sessions. The tracks actually were very easy to sync. I added some bass drum in the fills, the main weakness of my analog recording days. I did a little work editing the vocals, but everything is as it was back then mostly. I think it came out better this time, than last.

867-5309 (Jenny Jenny)

[audio:http://www.linearcanvas.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Jenny Jenny 20120427_1708mcd.mp3]

I sang, and played all of the instruments. The guitars are an Ibanez Les Paul and a Fender Stratocaster electric. The bass was a Rickenbacker 4001. The drums sounds are from a Boss Dr. Rhythm drum machine and were played on Yamaha MIDI drum pads. I originally recorded the song on my analog Yamaha MT-1000 4 track recorder. I processed it with Cakewalk Sonar 8.5 Producer and Sony Sound Forge 9.

My Recorded Cover Songs – My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)

April 22nd, 2012 . by Alexander Fisher

640_Elise_Testone_0030.rcI was watching American Idol last Wednesday and was watching the contestant Elise Testone. She has been my favorite contestant all along. They had her sing two songs and the second was supposed to be a soul song from the 60’s or 70’s. Elise picked Let’s Get It On originally by Marvin Gaye. I think she did OK, but I don’t think it was a good fit for her voice. My first thought was she’s too young to have a broad knowledge of the best music from that era. Then I thought she should have sang My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)  by former Temptations singer David Ruffin. My next thought was I don’t know her telephone number, so I should record it.

My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me) is my number one favorite song of all time, bar none. I bought the 45 RPM record in 1969 and just have always thought it was the my favorite song. Even after all these years. I have never recorded a Motown song before. I think the arrangement only hints at the Detroit sound. It’s more 1970’s folkie meets Auto-Tune.

I have never used Auto-Tune as a hard effect before. I have used it for pitch correction here and there. The common name for the settings are the “T-Pain Effect”. I used the “Drake” setting and then went a little past that in smoothness. I just thought the juxtaposition of a 60’s soul song, ‘70’s folk style and and Auto-Tune was too extreme to pass up.

My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me) was originally recorded by David Ruffin. It was written by Harvey Fuqua, Johnny Bristol, Pam Sawyer, and James Roach. I played acoustic guitar and piano on this track. I sang all the vocals.

My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)

 

My Recorded Cover Songs – Snowblind

February 25th, 2012 . by Alexander Fisher

 

P1010601_thumb1I posted Snowblind, originally by Black Sabbath, a few months ago. It was not completely finished back then but I decided to upload it anyway. I had another project going and I was afraid I wouldn’t get done with it. The song first appears on Black Sabbath’s “Vol 4”  album which in my opinion is their best record. I had said I was going to record Snowblind some time ago to someone, somewhere. I wasn’t sure if I’d manage to get it done, but I finally did.

Snowblind
[audio:http://www.linearcanvas.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Snowblind BS 20120225_1422mcd.mp3]

If there is one thing I regret in recording this song, is using the the same key that Black Sabbath played it in. My fingertips are intact and I think my vocals could have benefitted from a step or two higher in pitch. Also I used my Stratocaster. Tony Iommi used a Gibson SG guitar, which I think has a much fatter sound. My Strat has a humbucker pickup like an SG, but I still think the sound is slightly thinner. Some other things I notice I just decided to live with, making the American Idol excuse that I’m making it my own. I love that.

My Recorded Cover Songs – Sex and Candy (karaoke)

January 26th, 2012 . by Alexander Fisher

alex06I am not a big karaoke fan, although I certainly see the value in using it to have a little fun.

I decided to record me singing another favorite song of mine from a karaoke disc. I just recorded The Middle using a karaoke disc that I had, last night. There are many more songs on these discs, but I am not sure I am going to record anymore of them. I probably could’ve performed the music on this real fast and ended up with approximately the same song. But when I say “real fast”, I doubt if I could have done it in less than forty-eight hours. This I did in three. Only focusing on the vocals makes things go a lot faster and I still have a bunch of fun.

Sex and Candy has been a favorite song of mine for several years. I have the band Marcy Playground’s, album with Sex and Candy on it. I think I have another Marcy Playground CD too. I like their lyrics and the coolness of the over all sound. The rest of this particular CD has that same slow burn. I am not sure about the other CD. Sometimes I buy CD’s by bands I like, but never get around to listening to them.

Sex and Candy

[audio:http://www.linearcanvas.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Sex and Candy_m.mp3]

My Recorded Cover Songs – The Middle (karaoke)

January 25th, 2012 . by Alexander Fisher

axes1When I was organizing my CD’s, I found a karaoke disc that I bought several years ago. It was made by/for M-TV and has many  songs on it that I like. I guess that’s why I bought it. I hadn’t done anything with it until tonight.

As I was looking at the contents I noticed it had the song The Middle which was originally recorded by the band Jimmy Eats World. I have their CD that contains The Middle and it is one of my favorite songs. I decided to play around with it and ended up recording me singing it.

I didn’t play any instruments on this recording and there is also a back ground vocal in it that’s not me. Otherwise all the vocals are mine. I started on this really late (it’s 1:30 AM right now) and I didn’t warm up my voice at all. I also didn’t have enough water while I was singing. I hope I can talk tomorrow. As the song got near the end, I was losing my voice. Oh well, I think it came out pretty good anyway. Who needs to talk?

The Middle

[audio:http://www.linearcanvas.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/The Middle 20120125_1729m.mp3]

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