Covering Songs

Help, Support & Bugs Beginners Questions - Renoise
1

Hey guys!

So basically I’m really into people covering songs and turning them into 8-bit. I find it so cool that they can do that, and was just wondering (if anyone knew) how I would go about doing that?!

Would I need tabs and then just put them into Renoise? What can I do to get started on this?!

Here’s a link to show what I mean: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gOQ3O3UoQw

Thanks so much in advance guys,

  • Michael :D!
2

well, a couple of months ago the famed Dead Dog Renoise Competition had a round with cover songs. they were cover songs of boybands and i see only 2 submissions, but i participated so i have some ‘experience’.

i played the youtube movie 10.000 times or more listening to the song and the chords and whatever. looked up guitar tabs (piano tabs are harder to find) online and put the notes into Renoise (check out this Renoise Guitar Reference for help with that). i also tried downloading a midi-version of the song and importing that into Renoise but had no luck in that particular situation. this might be work for you though.

after all the notes were in Renoise, it was time to make it alive. you have the bare bones, the skeleton, and now you’ve got to make it into a song. also, lots of sounds effects etc are not tabbed out because you wouldn’t play them on guitar, and of course you should think about what you want to do for lyrics if your original song has any.
this is where i do not have many tips as it depends on the song you are covering and it is the moment i think where you make the song your own. this includes determining the tempo in which you want it to be, the ‘groove’, the time, the accents, etc etc etc.

well i hope that helps you some, but i think the most important tip is: just try it. see what you come up with, and learn through your mistakes.

good luck!

3

@rhowaldt… how the hell! !!! Thank you SO MUCH for posting this resource… UGH someone should REALLY compile a full on forum post of all known resources in one spot… This is CRAZY COOL! I really dont know how to play guitar but I do know a bit about notes and such… thanks again!

Also @ michaeldaleo. Look for midi’s of the tracks too. For example, I had a renoise compo (never really went anywhere, thanks guys =( ) but I thought that I wanted to have Commander Keen remixes… did a little searching around and found the midi’s of the track… stuff like that. So search for acca’s and instrumentals… open Renoise and your loved media player side by side and take it step by step in recreating it. =) Hope this helps.

-Kyle.

Edit

As im REALLY active in the Canadian 8bit thing, i know a couple people ;), I would recomend you talk to someone here on these forums named ‘Starpilot’. His real name is Duane and is a really fucking aweosme person. The reason why I think he would be of importance to you here is because what he does is takes songs that he has already created on guitar and adds them to LSDJ and makes tracks… Lately he has really taken a HUGE liking to Renoise and I’m SURE could be of value to help explain how he does it… He’s also an Ontario-ian too Michael… =)

4

which is exactly what i’m trying to do with my cheatsheet: http://www.roaldblijleven.net/renoise/cheatsheet/
check out the dedicated forum thread here if you are interested, you can keep an eye on the progress and suggest stuff which you think should be added (which does not mean it gets added but means i’ll consider it :) )

5

Wow guys! Thank you so much for the help! I’m going to take in this advice and try to do some covers songs! If I get anywhere with them, you may see me post some!

Once again, you really helped me a lot (like always), and I can’t thank you enough for that :D!

Thanks so much again guys, very much appreciated!

  • Michael.
6

I think the most important part is to find the correct tempo. I do that by “beat boxing” a simplyfied rythm from the song and match it up with the Renoise metronome by adjusting the BPM while it plays.
When the tempo is right it suddenly get’s a lot easier to find the melodies and rythms.

7

i can just imagine you doing that, sitting at your computer going ‘pff, tschk, pff pff tschk’ while nodding your head and tweaking the BPM slider :)

8

You do it too, just admit it. :lol:

9

you kidding me? i’m doing it right now!

10

Me too, i just got the idea i should make a Twisted Sister chip cover. :P
“You gonna burn in hell!” :yeah:

Why wasn’t i born with Snider’s awesome vocal skills?

11

This seems like it’s going to be way harder than I thought… But I just have to keep practicing. There’s so much to it.