Safe and Sound [Capital Cities cover]

Jessamyn asked me to cover this song a long time ago, and I set about it at a snails pace. It's finally done! (Sorry it took so long, darlin.) It started out in my mind as, "What if New Order or the Cure covered it?", and it turned out sounding like me covering it. I worked more over the past month to make sure it sounded the way I wanted it to, and I learned a lot about Garageband along the way. I'm kinda proud of it. And I'm glad it's over.

I listened to the song maybe three times before I started out, and then not again until I finished it less than an hour ago. I had no idea it was such a popular song. (I don't listen to music on the radio that much, except for dorky college no commercial potential kinda stuff.) It's a pretty fun video; you should watch it if you haven't seen it already.

• play
• pause
• min volume
• max volume

posted by not_on_display (10 comments total)

[whoops; I'd accidentally re-posted what I'd typed in the [more inside] here; please ignore. I need to go to bed.]
posted by not_on_display at 12:24 AM on September 24, 2014

I've never heard the original but this is good stuff, Mr. on_display! I'd dance right here in my cubicle if my soul hadn't been crushed years ago.
posted by bondcliff at 7:31 AM on September 24, 2014

Hopefully your soul wasn't crushed by the SOOOOOUL TRAAAAAAIN! Now stand up in your chair and dance! Carefully, especially if the chair's on casters. You may want to hold on to something. No! Not the computer! Something like the edges of the cubicle! Now, steady... steady... now, kinda wiggle back and forth like you're doing the twist. Keep holding the edge of the cubicle! Now tell Ed in the next cubicle over that you like his shoes.

(You can call me "not" -- I'll call you "bond" -- James Bond.)
posted by not_on_display at 10:18 AM on September 24, 2014

<3
posted by jessamyn at 10:40 AM on September 24, 2014 [1 favorite]

Wow, when I listen to it through computer speakers, the slide guitar sounds way WAY too loud. Lesson learned: preview the song on many different types of speakers.

So: TURN UP THE BASS!
posted by not_on_display at 3:07 PM on September 24, 2014

The slide is a bit loud on iPad earbuds as well, and the vocals could be turned up a notch. Nice job, though.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:04 PM on September 24, 2014

Love it! And maybe this will make you feel a little puffed-up-- I found my way here via Hype Machine rather than actual Mefi browsing.
posted by threeants at 7:04 PM on September 30, 2014

I am puffed up like a a subterranean fire-breathing lizard that met dig-dug!
posted by not_on_display at 9:47 PM on September 30, 2014

Sounds great not_on_display, on my (good) headphones anyway.
iDevices and computers are notorious for emphasizing high-endy stuff you thought was ok in the mix.
I mix on dead speakers that nothing sounds good on...so you know you're ok if it pretty much doesn't suck.
For future mixes it might be worth checking your mix on a shitty pair of iPod earbuds before you're done, but I've found that that just depresses me about the state of acceptable sonic experiences so I usually don't bother.
posted by chococat at 7:47 PM on October 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

Thanks chococat! I tried playing it through my car speakers, which have a little more basss than my computer/laptop speakers, and it sounded a couple notches better, which jibes with what you're saying. So thnks for that tip: shitty laptop speakers to mix down!

I know next-to-nothing about mixing, but have heard that some engineers try playing everything on as many types of speakers as possible. I also heard (via a Mark Maron podcast) that when John Fogarty was mixing stuff, he always envisioned it coming out of (old, tinny) car speakers -- whatever he wanted up front, he made the loudest. Singer singing? That's the loudest. Guitar Solo? That become the loudest. (Maron also pointed out that it was probably hard to keep a voice like Fogarty's down-in-the-mix.
posted by not_on_display at 1:22 PM on October 12, 2014