10,000 Lovers - TNT Tribute

[Rexx]

This has drums, bass and guitars (approx 32 tracks of guitars)

First I programmed the click track to a direct copy of the song then matched the drums and bass,
once those instruments were duplicated I set a standard tempo, did some quantized editting,
saved the midi file then months later I bounced the midi sounds to audio
and overdubbed guitars.

I used a GR-1 to initially input the bass notes and a Kurzweil K2500xs for the drums.

Ronnie Le Tekro is a very under rated guitarist!

10,000!

[Rythameen]

Excellent, just excellent, productions values, playing, everything. You should be proud.

[Rexx]

Thanks Rythameen! Very kind words!

[Sling Shot]

Yes first thing that hit me was the mix! The whole thing is just tremenous!

[Rexx]

Thanks Sling Shot,
I mixed it using poor speakers that I've since replaced, what I did was remaster thousands of mp3's and get an idea of emulating pro mixes and improving mixes. And this wasn't my first re-recording a cover, the recordings tend to improve the more you do it.

Just recently I upgraded my home studio, I purchased Behringer Truth monitors and a 400w Velodyne sub then I bought a Pioneer VSX-1014TX 7:1 surround receiver/amp and JBL's!! I can play along with my videos or pump my synths, vocals, guitars... thru both systems...

And ya know I'd trade it all for just a little more.

[Rocker35]

Excellent job Rexx. Your right - Ronnie Le Tekro is very underrated. This is a great track from a brilliant album and you did it justice. I was particularly impressed with the reverse guitar section in the solo. Great stuff

[Rexx]

Thanks Rocker35,

I had to re-listen to it..
That's actually just overdubs and a volume pedal. You can somewhat simulate backwards stuff with volume pedals.

My guitar tone isn't the greatest but I find that if I play the same thing overdubbed several times and panned Left & Right the tone improves.

[ksdb]

Originally Posted by Rexx

I find that if I play the same thing overdubbed several times and panned Left & Right the tone improves.

That's the big secret to getting the "big" guitar sound on records. It's part of the reason why playing by yourself never quite sounds the same.

This was a cool song, I didn't recognize it without the vocals. Your production and performance are stellar. Had to go back and do some more research on the band and try to figure out why they didn't getter a bigger following.

[Naifuzan]

Great production here! Very good playing also. Really looking forward to hearing more from you in the future!

[guitarwizard2003]

kickass Rexx.. TNT was one of my favorite bands and this song is a blast to play..the openin riff is great..you nailed the tone, would love to hear your version of seven seas from them

[wahwah]

Yeah, GREAT sound. I know TNT were around about the same time is Loudness (Akira Takashi?) in the mid-80's but I was never familiar with their stuff. This has made me wanna check it out. Great stuff and well played and recorded.

[Mondy]

Great cover, Rexx. I too am unfamiliar with the band, but the playing and production on this one are fantastic ! I hope that I am not too disappointed when I hear the original stuff in comparison. It has a hard act to follow, cuz this was great !



Edit : Bloody hell man ! You nailed the tone and the solos. Just great work !!!

[Rexx]

Thanks everyone,
I'm overwhelmed by all the kind words.

This tribute has a lil' history to it.
When I first did this tribute I was a participating member of the TNT forums,
I realised thru using frightfully clever editting that I could possibly improve on the original. (Of course nothing beats real drums which I didn't have)

When TNT's singer Tony Harnell caught wind of my lil' tribute to TNT he became indignant making comments like "tributes are for bands that are finished"
I started taking heat from some seriously twisted trolls and insults on my tributes.
Many guys told me they would try to put vocals to it but none did.

Here's the kicker...
I was sensing a slapdown from a group of TNT forum members that simply wanted me gone. (I think it made them uncomfortable having someone around who could accurately reproduce their hero's songs?)
I started working on another TNT song called "End Of The Line"
A fitting song because I knew I soon wouldn't be able to take much more personal attacks.
The song turned out better than 10,000 Lovers and it was all some needed to decide I was a threat someway somehow.
I stopped posting and after 6 months their Admin announced any non participating members will be removed.

What a bad joke eh? I was one of the first 5 ppl to join the websight and it was ppl that arrived 2 years+ later that worked their craft at acquiring the highest post count and while perched high up made and deligated decisions as to who's gonna be welcomed and who's not. All while being good as gold in the eyes of their heros.

Thank God not all websights are operated by such negligence

Ok, enough of that.
I know that's not the atmosphere here at Guitars101

[Rexx]

I think I got the whole idea of laying down several guitars in unison from reading about Randy Rhodes and how he recorded no less than 6 tracks of guitars to pull off one part. He used a MXR+ as his main distortion and made that sound good.

I have a simular fuzz box called a GT-5 which I wish sounded better.

Going to ultimate tone forums I read about expensive amps and micing techniques. Problem for me is I've never had an amp that I could plug in and get the tones I wanted.

Even stock guitars don't work for me.
I'll explain, 98% of guitars are wired with humbuckers in series.
I always found the distortion to be good but the clean was clipped.
I began experimenting and found that humbuckers wired in parallel was better for clean and for emulating guitarists like Vito Bratta or Nuno the parallel wiring was the way to go.
Squealies pop out more easily with series wired humbuckers so I wire my axes to have a push pull 500k pot or mini toggle.

My Fender Strat has Humbucking and two stacked single coil, each humbucker has a mini toggle that I can select series/single/parallel.
By far the most flexible wiring scheme for me as I can get many tones out of that guitar.

[Akira]

Originally Posted by Rexx

This has drums, bass and guitars (approx 32 tracks of guitars)

First I programmed the click track to a direct copy of the song then matched the drums and bass,
once those instruments were duplicated I set a standard tempo, did some quantized editting,
saved the midi file then months later I bounced the midi sounds to audio
and overdubbed guitars.

I used a GR-1 to initially input the bass notes and a Kurzweil K2500xs for the drums.

Ronnie Le Tekro is a very under rated guitarist!

10,000!

This sounds funny, but I can't actually find the link to the clip