I just recorded a cover of the song, That Thing You Do, (written by Adam Schlesinger). And I recorded it from scratch on my computer-based home recording studio right here in a spare bedroom. The band consisted of me, me, me, me, me and me:-P. The reason I did it, besides just loving the song and always wanting to, was to demonstrate what kind of thing can be done in a very modest home recording studio.
Before I talk about how I did it and what equipment I used, take a listen to how it came out!
I intend to follow up with a more complete step-by-step how-to, along with a video tutorial later this week. But here are the basics.
Sound Sources
- Voices – All me (a twisted version of narcissism?). I double-tracked the lead vocal to get that Beatlesque sound. I also sang the two harmony parts and double-tracked each of them. So there are 6 voice tracks in all.
- Guitars – Carvin DC200, 1985 model. I used this same guitar for both guitar parts. If I had vintage Rickenbackers I would have used those, but you work with what you’ve got.
- Bass – A Samick LB-11 4-string bass guitar I bought used in 1995.
- Drums – All sampled drum sounds (meaning “I don’t have a drum kit”) from an acoustic kit in the virtual instrument software package called StormDrum, by EastWest.
How Was It Recorded?
I used Reaper software to record it all. I started with the drum track. I created a MIDI track and loaded StormDrum onto it as a virtual instrument. Then I listened very carefully to the original recording of the song from the movie soundtrack. That allowed me to build the drum part hit-by-hit using the MIDI editor in Reaper.
Next, I recorded the bass track by plugging my Samick into a Line 6 POD Studio GX, which is a little box you can plug electric guitars and basses into. The POD then attaches to your computer via USB, and you use the Line 6 software to choose amps and effects to get the right sound.
Then I recorded the electric guitar parts the same way as the bass. I recorded 2 parts/tracks, one panned to the left and played as the “rhythm guitar” part. The other guitar was panned to the right and played with the little riff happening during the verses.
And Finally…
Last but not least, I recorded the lead vocal. As I mentioned, I sang it once on one track, and then recorded it again (listening to the 1st in the headphones) on a second track to get that double-tracked sound. I did the same thing with the low harmony part and panned it to the left, and the high harmony part, panned to the right. All vocals were recorded with the Rode NT2-A microphone hooked up to the computer via a USB audio interface – the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 interface box.
You can get started with a bundle I created for B&H Audio called The Home Recording Musician’s Starter Kit. CLICK HERE for more details on that.
Then I mixed and panned everything to make sure the sounds could all be heard and rendered (mixed down) the result into one audio file, which is what you heard above.
Check back here in a few days and you should find a bit more detail and a video.
Now go forth and record your own pop or rock songs!
Cheers,
Ken
I get a very Englishy rock era feeling about this. If one bloke did it is brilliant and way better in content and quality than I and many others I have heard produced.
I can only say that I am somewhat relieved that the author does not live next door to me.
Why? you may ask.
Because I would find it hard not to want to spend time with him and gig and share and go knocking on his door from dawn ’til dusk. As a result, my own musical work and aspirations would likely never be realised.
Congratulations! I give it my thumbs up and 20/10…..but then those who know me would say that just what they expected to feel and think about it!
Thanks Poppa! I very much appreciate the feedback.
-Ken
Love it! This is a great song and you did a great rendition of it. I know you used Reaper to track it, are you running on a PC or Mac based machine? I have Reaper and both a PC and Mac. The Mac, unfortunately, is a PPC so I can’t do much in the way of doing softsynths to it. On the PC I have plenty of softsynths from when I had a license for Sonar. Looking to upgrade but not sure to which platform.
Thanks Brian! I’m running a PC (a rather feeble one at that:)). It’s an i3 (32-bit) running XP. I have less trouble with soft synths when using the Windows 7 install (on a separate drive of the same computer). I hope that helps.
Cheers,
Ken
I am blown away ! Great work Ken. I get you email updates (have been for a while now) and you always have something interesting for a newbie like me,, But this is fantastic! Thanks for posting and for all hard work that goes into explaining the techniques .. Please keep em coming!
All the Best,
George
You are very welcome George! Thanks for the awesome feedback:).
Cheers,
Ken
Thanks George!
Ken
Hi Key
I love this song & movie & I must say you hit it out of the park
it just amazes me of your talent to play all of the instruments & vocals & put this all together. & I really love how you were able to put each part into the video Great Work!
you are just totally amazing!!!
Sunny
Wow, Sunny, thanks! You are very kind.
Wow, Ken that is so cool! That’s just the kind of thing that I’d love to be able to do. I do like using my little Boss Br-800 recorder and then maybe mix/master with Reaper; I guess I would have sort of a hybrid home studio. But either way, that’s exactly what I’d really like to work on. I have the gear, I just need to keep watching your tutorials to learn how to better use what I have. Oh ya, I’m also missing one tiny detail that you seem to have… talent!
Anyway, thanks for the help and keep those vids comin’
Ross
Morro Bay, CA
Thanks Ross! Good luck with your efforts. And let me know if you have any particular questions about how I recorded that.
Cheers!
Ken
Great song and performance!
Love that movie!
IF you do another video like this you should change shirt for every instrument : )
Do you have any guitar amp plugins you recommend for reaper? I just started using it!
Thanx
Heh. Yeah, I thought about that after it was already too late. Oh well. I used Pod Farm in conjunction with a Line 6 pod interface for the guitar (I have a relatively old one similar to the Tone Port). Pod Farm has dozens of amp sims. But Reaper has some built-in capability that doesn’t require the Line 6 stuff. See my post/video about that here: https://www.homebrewaudio.com/reapers-virtual-amp-modeler-electric-guitar/. Hope that helps!