Just like my last cover, huge thanks to Kevin Heiderich for recording the guitars for this cover! Please show him some love & support by following his YT & Insta, then continue on reading for some additional information!
www.youtube.com/@kevinheiderich
kevinheiderich
& if it weren't obvious from the title, the song is "BACKBONE" by #GOJIRA ! From the album 'From Mars To Sirius' (2005) - one of my personal favorite Gojira albums. I'd always wanted to do a Gojira cover, too - glad I was finally able to do one.
Anyway! Ok, so: Kevin recorded the guitars, but before he did so I tried out one of those AI 'album stem separators' (I'm pretty sure those things actually just recreate/emulate individual instruments from scratch, via analyzing the original recording. Not so much actually / literally "separating" the original file into true, individual instrument stems. I could be totally wrong about that, though - that's just what it sounds like to me). At ANY rate: I decided to try one of those out (Moises, specifically), & while there're aspects of it that were helpful, it still wasn't quite there.
Don't get me wrong - it's a really great tool, & I'm sure it'll only continue to improve. But there're still a LOT of imperfections & weird artifacts in the instruments - guitars & drums especially. That said, it was helpful for isolating the drums a bit more, which helped me transcribe it that much easier. And I even used the guitar/bass "stems" to practice with (since Kevin hadn't recorded real guitars yet). So again, it's a great tool. But for using in an actual mix... it's a long way off IMO. One thing that *isn't* super off about it is the vocal emulation - the technology there is already way ahead (not to mention, just easier to recreate - there're a lot less variables with a human voice, I guess. At least, when compared to multiple drums / cymbals ringing out & interfering with one another, or loud distorted guitars). So the Moises vocal "stem" / recreation was actually quite good! I still ended up editing it a bit, & copying/pasting a part or two that sounded a little funny (& replaced it with a part from somewhere else that it repeated, where it *didn't* sound as funny), but overall - quite believable! & since the vocals in this song are fairly minimal (not to mention, SICK!), I decided to leave them in!
So, in a way, this cover is like... a human-AI hybrid. LOL! Real / human drums, guitars, & bass, & AI vocals.
OH, & - the other thing that AI seems to really struggle with is making a click track / detecting tempo. Specifically, for songs / albums that *were not* recorded to a click (which this was not). So I made my own click/tempo map, & mapped it out to the original album file. Honestly, it made this a fairly difficult cover - *so* many tempo fluctuations, both large & small. Basically trying to emulate Mario's original feel. Which was kinda sick, but also quite a challenge!
Anyway... on to KIT SPECS !
#TAMA STAR Maple
10x6.5
12x7
14x11
16x13
20x16 (x2)
14x7 Cusworth Drums 3mm Cast Bronze w/ matching Bronze Hoops
#MEINL Cymbals (from L to R if sitting behind the kit)
18" Classics Custom Dual Crash
15" Byzance Traditional Medium Hi-Hats
19" Classics Custom Dual Crash
18" Classics Custom Heavy Dark China
22" Byzance Heavy Hammered Ride
#EVANS Drumheads
Toms - Clear G2s (batter), Clear G1s (reso)
Snare - Coated UV2 (batter), Snare Side 300 (reso)
Kick - Clear EQ4s (batter), Onyx w/ Port (reso)
My podcast (new episodes weekly!):
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As always, thanks for watching & stay tuned for more!