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fan cover recording experience

- Rob DiCaterino

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I love "Judas My Heart." It's one of my all-time favorite songs ever. Listening to that song supports my theory that Belly is the Beatles of the '90's. It's no doubt that Belly, one of my musical idols, is influenced by the Beatles, another one of my musical idols. The influence really shows during the ending when Tanya sings "She loves me, yeah yeah yeah..." So when I found out about the Belly/Tanya Donelly tribute projects, I thought to myself, "What would be more perfect than doing a Beatles-style version of 'Judas My Heart?!'" The final product is "Judas My Heart" done in an early Beatles style, set to a 4/4 beat.

I started the whole process by recording the drums. Keep in mind that I not only wanted to make this version have an early Beatles feel to it, but I also wanted it to have the same sound quality. That explains why the drums are in mono and only come out of one speaker. I recorded the drums using only one unidirectional microphone. I placed it over my left shoulder and pointed it towards the snare and bass drums. I didn't put it too close to the bass drum because I wanted to get a hollow, somewhat far away bass drum sound like all the early Beatles songs have. Also, I wanted it to pick up the splashy hi-hat, another trademark of the early Beatles. I put the mic through my mixer so I could add reverb to it and adjust the tone.

So I played the whole song through on the drums, keeping track of the lyrics in my head. Next, I recorded the acoustic guitar. I plugged my acoustic-electric into my mixer, again to add reverb and adjust the tone. After that, I recorded the electric guitar part. I put it through some slight chorus and reverb and adjusted the tone to make it sound twangy and sticky.

I then recorded the bass part. I don't own an electric bass and my friend who has a bass was away, so I used my electric guitar as a bass. This is a technique I learned from Gary Young. Gary Young, former drummer of the band Pavement, recorded Pavement's first single in his 16-track garage recording studio. They didn't have a bass, so they used an electric guitar and EQ'ed it to sound like a bass. I was skeptical at first, but I tried it and it works really well!

To get the electric guitar to sound like a bass, I switched to the pickup closest to the neck and lowered the tone on the guitar all the way. Then I put it into the mixer and lowered the treble all the way and turned up the bass almost all the way. I even added a touch of reverb to it to get Paul McCartney's hollow, Hofner bass sound. I also found that I got the most bass-like sound by playing with my thumb instead of using a pick and by using only the lowest two stings (low E and A), occasionally using the D string.

Now that all four tracks of the 4-track recorder were full, I mixed it through my stereo system's speakers and recoded the mix onto the computer. Then I recorded the song off the computer back onto the 4-track. Now, instead of taking up all four tracks, it only takes up two tracks! That left the other two tracks open for the vocals, putting each one through plenty of reverb. I did some clapping during the lead vocal part and played tambourine during the harmony vocal.

For the final mix, I panned the drums to a hair before the extreme left and the acoustic guitar and bass to a hair before the extreme right. I panned the electric guitar to the center for the intro and the solo and panned it to a hair before the extreme left for the rest of the song (I had to do this by hand while recording the final product onto the computer). Both vocals are panned to the center. As an added touch, I made the ending sound like "She Loves You" by the Beatles, except I replaced "you" with "me."

The next song I decided to record was "John Dark." Why? Well, no one really mentions it ever and it's another Belly song I really like! I also wanted "John Dark" to have a twist to it like "Judas My Heart." I figured that since "John Dark" is slow and spooky, it would be fun to do an upbeat, happy version of it.

This time I started by playing the acoustic guitar and singing at the same time. I set up a unidirectional mic right in front of the guitar's sound hole and an omnidirectional mic about a foot in front of me. I plugged both into the mixer, adjusted the EQ, added some reverb, and balanced the levels. While I played the guitar and sang in my best country-style voice, my friend Nicole played kazoo (most noticable on the intro) and jawharp (most noticable at the end during the drum fill) and my 4-year-old brother Adam clapped (his voice can be heard at the very end..."Now I get to play!"). So the omnidirectional mic not only picked up my voice, it also picked up the kazoo, jawharp, and clapping.

Next, I recorded the banjo. I used the same mic setup, but this time Nicole played tambourine and mouth siren and Adam clapped some more. After that, I recorded the bass (which was actually an electric guitar...see above) and another country-ish vocal at the same time. Finally, I recorded the drums using only one unidirectional mic. I placed the mic a few inches below the snare drum and pointed it towards the bass drum. Because the mic was right next to the snares on the bottom of the snare drum and also next to where the bass drum pedal hits the drum head, the drums have a really tight sound. That's it, only four tracks this time; no computer "reductions." I wanted this song to sound like a group of people having fun sitting around and singing. That's why I did two vocals and got people to clap and play funny instruments in the background.

I really enjoyed recording these two songs. Not only was I playing Belly songs, but I was adding my own personal touches to them. With my first two contributions ("Silverfish" and "Super-Connected"), I tried to make them as close to the original versions as possible, adding only a few personal touches. However, this time I was able to really do my own thing and not worry about getting each part exactly the way Belly played it. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to someday recording Belly songs with some of the other contributors. Thank you to Cris for extending the Belly/Tanya tribute project and allowing us to submit more Belly cover songs!

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Rob (josettej2@geocities.com)
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Backstage/3440

Listen to Rob's cover of "Judas My Heart" in mp3 or Real Audio
and "John Dark" in mp3 or Real Audio format

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