Ellie Goulding - Burn [Instrumental Cover]

Check out my latest cover! 

For this cover, I made an all-electronic recording. This means that I did not use any live instruments or sound effects. For the drums, I took samples both online and from Jam Packs and combined them into a single beat. For the synthesizer parts, I used my USB MIDI M-Audio Keystation 49. This is, BY FAR, the most complex recording I have ever done. I used 24 tracks for the keyboard/synth/piano parts alone. Yeah, imagine the lag my computer gets when I try to open the file...

I did release a sneak preview into this project and named it Project 514 (because it was posted in May and it's 2014). That recording only consists of (at most) 5 keyboard tracks. The complicated stuff came when I compared my instrumental with that of the original by Ellie Goulding. I started adding in sounds that fills in the atmosphere of the song. Vibraphone, Grand Piano, Filtered Synth, Bass Synth, Music Box, etc. This process took over a month before I settled for what I have. I can't tell you how many times I've played that song... Ask my brother how tired he is of listening to that song because I was putting it on repeat.

I noticed that Ellie Goulding's original recording uses a mixture of live drums and electronic effects. Even though I do like the punchy rhythm in the original (and the beatboxing too!), I preferred to keep the live drums more dominant than the drum effects.

Overall, it was a fun project to work on. I really love this song. Ellie Goulding's unique voice makes it all the more lovable. I first heard this song in a restaurant one Sunday afternoon. Thank you Nathan Webb for telling me who sang it. Hope you all enjoy my cover!

Hillsong - I Could Sing of Your Love Forever [Cover]

Here's an acoustic cover I did of Hillsong's "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever".

In this recording, I used an Epiphone AJ200S-NA. I 'inherited' this guitar from a friend of mine who moved back to Indonesia. He left his stuff here with his girlfriend and she told us to take the guitars home. So here I am with his acoustic and Floyd Rose electric...

I had the guitar tuned to C#G#C#F#G#C#. You might be familiar with the DADGAD tuning. This is a half step down from that.

My microphone is Apogee One's built-in condenser. Vocals and acoustics go well through Apogee! If only I had known that a long time ago...

My recording software is the trusty Garageband. Seriously, if you know your way around Garageband, recording music should be fun. The result would also be amazing... For this song, I only had three tracks: Guitars+Vocals, Backing Vocals, Fill-in Vocals. I did the song in one take, so the guitar-playing and melodic vocals are simultaneously recorded. The backing vocals appear in the second verse and onwards. The Fill-in was just one segment in 1:09-1:15. All three tracks contain boosted reverb and a bit of delay. Auto-tune? Pffft! ...yes, but it didn't go above 40%...

I hope you enjoyed listening to it as much as I did recording :) Feedbacks and comments are greatly appreciated!



God bless!
Justin

Gear Review: Big Baby Taylor

Remember Baby Taylor? Well here's the BIG Baby Taylor :)

Additional samples:
Sound Check Big Baby
Zedd Clarity Acoustic

Cornerstone Cover [feat. Rhett Dela Cruz]

Click here to hear the cover: Hillsong United - Cornerstone [A Cover by Justin Tjoandi & Rhett Dela Cruz]


Background story:
I met Rhett for the very first time in the Every Nation Church at downtown Toronto. Pastor Jay informed me of this "other musician who leads worship as well". We introduced ourselves and listened to each other's sample recordings. I knew we had to collaborate one day...

After the Harvest Institute in Montreal (that was around August of last year), we agreed on doing a cover together. But which song? I first suggested "Man of Sorrows" but we were both unfamiliar with it, so we decided on "Cornerstone".

Months went by and we can't seem to find the time to get together and record it. I started on making the background instrumentals first. Strings, drums, guitar - all completed within a month. Finally, reading week came... For those of you who do not know what this is, campuses take a mid-semester break to let the students "catch up" with their readings. Well, we took advantage of this break to finally record the vocal parts for the song.

I went to Rhett's place on Thursday expecting a lengthy recording session as I have with most of my recordings. It was quite the opposite, really. We finished recording within two hours. Professional singer right there, mates! After a few edits the next day, it was finally published... Our first collaboration and it was quite the project. Hope we can do more covers, Rhett!



EXCLUSIVE INFO FOR THOSE READING THIS BLOG ENTRY: I kinda cheated on the vocals during the second chorus. As you may notice, I was doing the harmony in the background. If you listen close enough, you'll be able to hear my voice being auto-tuned. How I love our modern technology! Shhhh! Don't tell!

"Clarity" by Zedd - An Acoustic Cover

So I heard this song in the radio alarm one morning last week. Shazam-ed the tune and found this song. I've been listening to it repeatedly throughout the week and decided to put it into a cover. So here it is, "Clarity" by Zedd.

https://soundcloud.com/justincredible-2/clarity-by-zedd-acoustic-cover

PSY Gangnam Style (MC HAMMER Mashup)

Had this song stuck in my head. DAT GROOVE!

Project 513: Another Day

https://soundcloud.com/justincredible-2/project-513-another-day

This song was inspired by listening to the synth parts of The Wanted's "Glad You Came". I initially thought of doing a cover of it but I got distracted. Oh wells... it happens.

In this song, I used a few drum and synth samples from both Garageband and online. My keyboard is an M-audio Keystation 49e played through the recording software (Garageband). I duplicated the tracks with the distorted synth to make the sequence precise. For the first bar of the intro, I tried finding something smooth. The "Planetarium" is the closest sound I can find (sort of like the intro to Katy Perry's "California Gurls").

Unlike my previous electronic composition, "Another Day" has a unique pattern. In "A Sight of Paradise", I used the pattern of intro->verse->Chorus->verse->Chorus->Bridge->Chorus/Outro. The new song goes: Intro->Verse->Chorus->Verse->Bridge (or Pre-Chorus)->Chorus->Verse/End. The unusual-ness of it gives a sort of trademark. Me and my wild ideas, right?