Uploaded May 2018 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
I did a cover of this song years ago, and another one years before that, but I've never been satisfied with any of them...
Until now, that is!
THE MAKING OF:
This was one of the most difficult covers I've ever recorded, and it took me 3 days to get right! Anyway, for those who are interested, here's how I did it all.
DRUMS:
The drums are a complete reconstruction of the original track which took me 2 hours to finish. The extended version of the original song starts with a few bars of isolated drums before the "Hey, hey, hey!" part. I looped the main bars right from that extended version, and also sampled the kick and snare so I could play some parts manually on the keyboard. The snare solo at the end of the song was done by hand using said samples! Other samples were actually lined up the old fashioned way in Audacity; it was rather laborious at times, but I kept going.
BASS GUITAR:
I recorded the bass with my Studiologic Sledge 2.0 synthesizer, of which, I programmed some really authentic sounding bass guitar patches. It's a bit of a tough bass line to play given the fact that it's entirely in triplets..... and you really have to practice to be able to do that for almost 5 minutes ON A KEYBOARD. The way I play stuff like that is with my thumb and index finger for the one key. I suppose you could play the triplets using just one finger, but I find that adding your thumb makes for more dynamic playing control!
ELECTRIC GUITAR:
Since I've been recording my own songs, I have always needed electric guitar! The problem? I can't play guitar AT ALL. So, using my Memorymoon ME80, (Yamaha CS-80 vst)I programmed a ton of basic, guitar-ish sounding patches, before running the ME80 through various amplifier simulations to drive and distort the sound! Yup. The real ball-buster is that muted rhythm guitar during the verses, because they too are played in fucking triplets! This was more than my thumb and index could handle, so I cheated! How? Simply put a delay effect over the sound and program the delay time to echo in 16ths! You play the sound in 8ths, but set the delay volume to be 50/50 dry/wet, this way you're PLAYING 8ths, but HEARING 16ths.
PIANO:
Simple Minds, like so many touring bands in the 80s, used a Yamaha CP-80 Electric Grand piano for its ease of transportation, reliability, and sound. I love the CP-80 sound, because it's so much brighter and clear than an acoustic piano; that, and you can run it through all manner of effects pedals with ease! Thus, I played the Addictive Keys 2 plug-in with the CP-80 pack smeared in a rich chorus effect!
OTHER:
The choir during the bridges were made using a freeware Mellotron vst, run through (you guessed it!) thick, ensemble-style chorus!
As for the rest of the track, I used the Sledge exclusively for all the synth parts. The original synthesizer used by Simple Minds for this song was an Oberheim OB-Xa, as seen in the music video as well as live performances. There might have been some Roland Jupiter-8 in there too, because I know that Mick MacNeil used both synths pretty heavily in those days! Anyway, I did it all on the Sledge!
VOCALS:
We're not going to talk about that. I like singing, but recording and mixing my voice is fucking nightmarish!
I did a cover of this song years ago, and another one years before that, but I've never been satisfied with any of them...
Until now, that is!
THE MAKING OF:
This was one of the most difficult covers I've ever recorded, and it took me 3 days to get right! Anyway, for those who are interested, here's how I did it all.
DRUMS:
The drums are a complete reconstruction of the original track which took me 2 hours to finish. The extended version of the original song starts with a few bars of isolated drums before the "Hey, hey, hey!" part. I looped the main bars right from that extended version, and also sampled the kick and snare so I could play some parts manually on the keyboard. The snare solo at the end of the song was done by hand using said samples! Other samples were actually lined up the old fashioned way in Audacity; it was rather laborious at times, but I kept going.
BASS GUITAR:
I recorded the bass with my Studiologic Sledge 2.0 synthesizer, of which, I programmed some really authentic sounding bass guitar patches. It's a bit of a tough bass line to play given the fact that it's entirely in triplets..... and you really have to practice to be able to do that for almost 5 minutes ON A KEYBOARD. The way I play stuff like that is with my thumb and index finger for the one key. I suppose you could play the triplets using just one finger, but I find that adding your thumb makes for more dynamic playing control!
ELECTRIC GUITAR:
Since I've been recording my own songs, I have always needed electric guitar! The problem? I can't play guitar AT ALL. So, using my Memorymoon ME80, (Yamaha CS-80 vst)I programmed a ton of basic, guitar-ish sounding patches, before running the ME80 through various amplifier simulations to drive and distort the sound! Yup. The real ball-buster is that muted rhythm guitar during the verses, because they too are played in fucking triplets! This was more than my thumb and index could handle, so I cheated! How? Simply put a delay effect over the sound and program the delay time to echo in 16ths! You play the sound in 8ths, but set the delay volume to be 50/50 dry/wet, this way you're PLAYING 8ths, but HEARING 16ths.
PIANO:
Simple Minds, like so many touring bands in the 80s, used a Yamaha CP-80 Electric Grand piano for its ease of transportation, reliability, and sound. I love the CP-80 sound, because it's so much brighter and clear than an acoustic piano; that, and you can run it through all manner of effects pedals with ease! Thus, I played the Addictive Keys 2 plug-in with the CP-80 pack smeared in a rich chorus effect!
OTHER:
The choir during the bridges were made using a freeware Mellotron vst, run through (you guessed it!) thick, ensemble-style chorus!
As for the rest of the track, I used the Sledge exclusively for all the synth parts. The original synthesizer used by Simple Minds for this song was an Oberheim OB-Xa, as seen in the music video as well as live performances. There might have been some Roland Jupiter-8 in there too, because I know that Mick MacNeil used both synths pretty heavily in those days! Anyway, I did it all on the Sledge!
VOCALS:
We're not going to talk about that. I like singing, but recording and mixing my voice is fucking nightmarish!
