Here's me and Matt's guitar and vocal cover of "Prayer" by Disturbed! I hope you like it!

Listen to this cover on streaming services here: https://ffm.to/xnqnvyx

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Twitter:   / kadekalka  
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~ * ~ credits ~ * ~

Originally written and performed by Disturbed.

Matt: Vocals (@MatthewGuerra)
Kade: Instrumental, Backing vocals

~ * ~ about the song and stuff ~ * ~

A couple weeks ago, we were chatting when I randomly decided to listen to Disturbed. I noticed there were some pretty fun guitars parts in a lot of their songs like "Indestructible" and "Stricken". Matt suggested we cover "Prayer" tho, and I'm glad he did. I think it's one of their best songs!

Huge shoutout to Matt for the suggestion and for nailing his parts! I'm really happy with how this turned out.

~ * ~ production stuff ~ * ~

So I guess I'll just talk about some production stuff. I stayed pretty close to the original for mostly everything. Although, when I got to the breakdown, I knew I wanted to do something more interesting.

I originally recorded it on my 8-string tuned to C#, but it wasn't defined enough and felt kinda underwhelming. Instead, I opted for playing my bass through my rhythm guitar chain, which worked perfectly in my opinion. I also decided to keep the "bass rhythm guitars" going throughout the chorus. It sounds heavy af.

GUITARS

Archetype Nolly: 3rd amp, 3rd cab.

I had the gain pretty low (2-3) and the master turned up to about 7. Did a slight bit of EQ and multiband compression, but that's about it. I wanted a really tight sound and it seemed like that worked.

BASS

Brainworx Ampeg SVTVR Classic: bright mode, cab 2.

I have most of the knobs cranked on this plugin and it sounds great. Also did a good bit of compression before and after the amp.

For those aforementioned "bass rhythm guitars", I used my Red Rhythm preset:
https://kadekalka.gumroad.com/l/rbcoos

I brought up the hi-mids a lot after the amp and did some multiband compression. I also sidechain-compressed them using signal from the kick.

DRUMS

GGD Modern and Massive + SSD 5.5 (snare layer)

• Kick: Yamaha
• Snare: Supraphonic
• Toms: Pearl for Tom 1 and 2, Q Drum for Tom 3
• Cymbals: idk, default probably.

SSD Snare: Snare Slate

The drum mixing I did was all pretty standard stuff. I did a good bit of multiband compression on the SSD snare make it thicken up everything.

VOCALS

Oh god my vocal chains are always such a mess lmao. The pretty much all follow this format, with a few small changes here and there:

• EQ (hi-pass, slight low-shelf and bell to cut some proximity effect)
• Multiband compressor (control proximity effect and keep hi-mids consistent)
• Compressor (5:1 FET with hard distortion)
• Compressor (3:1 VCA with soft distortion)
• DeEsser
• Multiband compressor (just keeping it all tonally consistent)
• Phat FX (soft sat, diode distortion. VCA comp. 18% mix)
• EQ (cutting some 2k)
• Compressor (2.5:1 FET. idk, sometimes you just need more comp lol)
• iZotope Vocal Doubler (62% sep, 60% var, 60% mix. settings are more drastic for harms and doubles)

I sent some of Matt's vocals to a delay (Replika), although I only ever turned up the send for a few throws. I didn't put any reverb on Matt's vocals. I was going for that classic, dry nu-metal sound the original has.

I also added a lot of my own backing vocals for the final chorus. I did four separate parts, which each tracked 3-4 times and panned. Added a little Raum reverb on the bus.

I'm aware I played the breakdown riff wrong. I just didn't realize it until after I had recorded everything, so I didn't fix it. Eh.

~ * ~ thanks for watching / listening ~ * ~

#Disturbed #Numetal #Djent