Well, I’m back! It’s been a bit of a nutty Holidang season as I opened another season of Holidays in Hollywood for Disney. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been working on these covers for ya’ll. So here’s a new one!
Time / Home Reprise by Pink Floyd. I chose this song for a number of reasons. As I get older, I start to relate more and more to the lyrics that Roger Waters created for the Dark Side of the Moon album. This song covers that moment when you realize that time is slipping away. I don’t want or need to go too dark in this post, but lines like “And you run and run to catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking” hit hard as hell at this moment in my life when I am trying too hard to find more. Of course, we can’t forget “Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way,” those of you who know me know this is how I tend to live life.
Initially, I was going to stop the song there. End it on the unresolved ending but it just didn’t feel right. I love the surprise that happens in this recording. The second half of this song is my take of Dark Side, adding the band, but it’s still MY version. We don’t have sweeping female backing singers, but we have strings. I don’t throw in guitar solos or anything crazy like that. I just love the energy that comes in when it happens.
When I was on tour and would come home, like clockwork I would post on Facebook “Home, Home again. I like to be here when I can.” When you spend 11 months of your year on the road, that line hits in all the right ways.
I could wax poetic about every single line that Roger Waters created here. How every line can hit me hard at any given moment of the day. I wanted to make this version so that the lyric was the forefront.
Technical Notes
DAW – Cubase 12
Interface – Universal Audio Apollo Twin
Electric Piano – Analog Lab “Moneee” preset. I mean, duh. Someone took the time to create a great Richard Wright EP in the Arturia Software. It’s going to get used.
Sound Effects – For this, I found a sweeping “Ocean” sound in Analog Lab. It’s a little nod to “Cluster One” off of the Division Bell record (which we all know is a banging record! More on that hopefully later.)
There is also a ticking clock sound effect, again, it’s generated by a Synth, not a sample. It is also from Analog Lab. Just a slight nod to the original recording for that.
Strings – All of the strings are the Spitfire Audio “BBC Symphony Orchestra.” I love this library. It is so emotive and just nailed exactly what I wanted here. I record all my strings as separate instrument sections. So Violin 1, 2, Viola, Cello, Bass. It gives me great control to write one part at a time.
Drums – The drums are on this one are Superior Drummer. This is the “Indiependent” SDX pack. Huge fan of how “dry and dull” the drums sound on this one. The idea here was ripping more from Roger Waters’ re-release of Dark Side that came out and not trying to copy exactly what Nick Mason did on the record. I processed the hell out of these drums (Dirt Plugin) to squash them and then sent them to a thick reverb (UAD Pure Plate).
Guitars – All real guitars on this one. That’s my wonderful strat, running through my Axe FX III. Not sure of the preset I used, just something nice and clean and shimmery.
Bass – Real bass on this one as well. 5-string Sting Ray running through my Ampeg SCR-DI. I’ve had this pedal sitting around for years not in use and finally wired it up to my system to get a better bass tone. The AXE FX is great, but I spent days trying to build this pedal sound into the AXE FX, why not just plug the damn thing in?
B3 – You can’t have Richard Wright without some damn B3. This is B-3 V2 from Arturia, the “More Black Bug” preset I tweaked to my liking.
Iron Bell – Somewhere buried in my brain is a version of this song, clearly from David Gilmour solo touring, where someone hits the “Division Bell” bell on “the tolling of the iron bell.” I cannot remember which tour he did that on (I have a feeling it’s from the On An Island tour). So I threw this little nod in there, because….Division Bell…that’s why.
Vocals – Same vocal chain as I used on The Middle. This time it is sent to some light reverb (UAD Realverb Pro).
Mastering – I’m trying out more Mastering plug-ins. After talking with my buddy Matt Brown, who is a genius engineer and musician, I tried out the IK Multimedia Mastering One Knob. This is the “Push A Little More” preset and I just tweaked the Bass Punch a little down as I felt it gave a little too much low end that started to fight with my vocal a little.
Many thanks to Roger Waters for writing some amazing lyrics, for David Gilmour, Richard Wright, Nick Mason, and of course Alan Parsons for creating one of the most influential records in music history.
I am not claiming to own any rights to this music. This is just a cover to show my production skills and to show ya’ll how I’m feeling. If anyone feels the need to ask me to take this down, please email me, and I will be happy to do so. I am not monetizing this in any way, and will never plan to monetize the work.