Tom Waits - Chocolate Jesus. Rearranged by me.

I've been trying to record some stuff with Reaper for 2 weeks or so, this is the first result that I actually find worth sharing with others. Comments will be highly appreciated, as I don't have proper monitoring at home, so I can't really tell whether it sounds right in a general... Anyway I DO like the sound of it played through my HiFi Equipment, Computer speakers and headphones. Would be nice if this forum helped me decide whether the reverb on the percussice guitar part sounds too unnatural, it's the only thing I have been doubting about while mixing the song. Thanks in advance, Pilger

Hi Pilger I heard this from the other thread you posted already. Couldn't comment there, so I just like to say thanks for making me give up recording myself - Joking of course, but this is very good. Very sparse, but very good. In your case less is more The guitar percussion is I think a little too loud, I'm not bothered either way about the reverb. Did you ever try a foot box to tap on? might be interesting..? I only wish I could sing like that. Don't hide your light, but do be critical of your own music. Complacency is not for artists of your calibre

Great cover. Sounds really good. I checked out some of your other videos on youtube. Sharp dressed man rules. You've got a great voice and a very smooth, clean playing style. Impressed...

Thanks a lot for Your kind words, I really appreciate others commenting on my work. I like to record stuff in a way that it sounds very similar to my live performance, so if people buy my music they don't get a different thing than they expect. I've been trying a stomp box, but as I like to record "drums" on stage using a BOSS RC20 XL Loop Station prior to starting the song itself, there's no need to carry such a piece of equipment to the gigs. Also, I like the resonance of the strings while using the guitar body as a bass drum. What really bothers me at the moment is EQing the music I record, because - as I said - I have no real "monitor" speakers to use. If You have decent monitoring, please let me know what You think about the overall sound of this, so I can maybe adjust the sound a bit due to a comment like maybe "the whole thing lacks of treble" or something like that... Again, I feel this forum is going to be very helpful, especially if there's people here that would perhaps record an istrument for me that I can't play - but that might be needed in some other songs that I plan to record. Thanks guys, Pilger

Really impressive. Superb performance. I'm no expert on the finer points of recording engineering, but it sounds great and I can't fault it. Pete

I love this song. good choice on the seagull S6. I have a '91 seagull and really like how this tune sounds on it. I run martin silk & steel strings on mine for a real mellow tone. what I miss most in your cover is the vocal accents that waits does. EG: it's 1GOT to be a 2CHOCOlate jes3US 4 1MAKES me feel so 2 good inSI3DE 4 numbers = beats I like it though. I'm just in love with mega dynamics in music. I miss them when they leave. also, I've been playing the drums for 11 years and have a recording setup for them. just fyi...

It sounds great! Strange at first to hear a more conventional delivery but I think it works terribly well.

Very nice, spooky, performance. Listening to the lead guitar in the break, I thought that I could hear the part being doubled a couple of octaves down. Unusual for acoustic guitar but works well here. Did you do the doubling with a Reaper plugin (assuming that I am not suffering from acoustic hallucinations)? T

The doubling is pretty obvious. I'm not listening on the best of systems at the moment but as best I can tell your EQ is fine. You would have to work pretty hard to screw up such a nice performance with EQ. Relax. You're getting the hard part right. T

Thanks a lot for the replies to this thread, I really appreciate Your words on the performance itself, because I really like this song. Anyone else notice the "crack" sound in the middle of chorus number 2? I get this from time to time while recording, strangely only on the vocal tracks. I have no idea where it comes from, but it happens during the recording itself. I read about others that seem to have similar issues, but noone has a solution that works for me. As I said, I'm a newbie and can't even seem to get my midi-keyboard to run in reaper, so at the moment I'm stuck with the cracks in the recordings. Sometimes they can be cut out, but I'd really appreciate a solution. Seems to be a driver issue with my MAudio Fasttrack pro, but I'm not even sure about that.