Just like my last cover, huge thanks to Kevin Heiderich for recording the guitars for this cover! Please show him some love & support by following his YT & Insta, then continue on reading for some additional information!

   / @kevinheiderich  
  / kevinheiderich  

& if it weren't obvious from the title, the song is "BACKBONE" by #GOJIRA ! From the album 'From Mars To Sirius' (2005) one of my personal favorite Gojira albums. I'd always wanted to do a Gojira cover, too glad I was finally able to do one.

Anyway! Ok, so: Kevin recorded the guitars, but before he did so I tried out one of those AI 'album stem separators' (I'm pretty sure those things actually just recreate/emulate individual instruments from scratch, via analyzing the original recording. Not so much actually / literally "separating" the original file into true, individual instrument stems. I could be totally wrong about that, though that's just what it sounds like to me). At ANY rate: I decided to try one of those out (Moises, specifically), & while there're aspects of it that were helpful, it still wasn't quite there.

Don't get me wrong it's a really great tool, & I'm sure it'll only continue to improve. But there're still a LOT of imperfections & weird artifacts in the instruments guitars & drums especially. That said, it was helpful for isolating the drums a bit more, which helped me transcribe it that much easier. And I even used the guitar/bass "stems" to practice with (since Kevin hadn't recorded real guitars yet). So again, it's a great tool. But for using in an actual mix... it's a long way off IMO. One thing that isn't super off about it is the vocal emulation the technology there is already way ahead (not to mention, just easier to recreate there're a lot less variables with a human voice, I guess. At least, when compared to multiple drums / cymbals ringing out & interfering with one another, or loud distorted guitars). So the Moises vocal "stem" / recreation was actually quite good! I still ended up editing it a bit, & copying/pasting a part or two that sounded a little funny (& replaced it with a part from somewhere else that it repeated, where it didn't sound as funny), but overall quite believable! & since the vocals in this song are fairly minimal (not to mention, SICK!), I decided to leave them in! 

So, in a way, this cover is like... a humanAI hybrid. LOL! Real / human drums, guitars, & bass, & AI vocals.

OH, & the other thing that AI seems to really struggle with is making a click track / detecting tempo. Specifically, for songs / albums that were not recorded to a click (which this was not). So I made my own click/tempo map, & mapped it out to the original album file. Honestly, it made this a fairly difficult cover so many tempo fluctuations, both large & small. Basically trying to emulate Mario's original feel. Which was kinda sick, but also quite a challenge!

Anyway... on to KIT SPECS !

#TAMA STAR Maple

10x6.5
12x7
14x11
16x13
20x16 (x2)
14x7 Cusworth Drums 3mm Cast Bronze w/ matching Bronze Hoops

#MEINL Cymbals (from L to R if sitting behind the kit)

18" Classics Custom Dual Crash
15" Byzance Traditional Medium HiHats
19" Classics Custom Dual Crash
18" Classics Custom Heavy Dark China
22" Byzance Heavy Hammered Ride

#EVANS Drumheads
Toms Clear G2s (batter), Clear G1s (reso)
Snare Coated UV2 (batter), Snare Side 300 (reso)
Kick Clear EQ4s (batter), Onyx w/ Port (reso)

My podcast (new episodes weekly!):

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3t5j9n1
Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/RantsAndRevelations

All other socials / links:

  / alexrudinger  
  / alexrudingerofficial  
  / rudirudinger  
  / alexrudinger  
https://www.gumroad.com/alexrudinger
https://www.threads.net/@alexrudinger
https://www.alexrudinger.com

As always, thanks for watching & stay tuned for more!