Motorway (English Cover Version of Autobahn by Kraftwerk)
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- Опубліковано 30 гру 2023
- ** Note: Original German language version of my cover version available at • Autobahn (Cover Versio... **
A bit of a Christmas 2023 labour of love, this one. Having created a cover version of Kometenmelodie 2 from the Kraftwerk album Autobahn, I decided to see whether I could challenge myself to recreate the whole eponymous title track of the album - all 22+ minutes of it!
Again, I've re-imagined the arrangement to one including acoustic drums, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, and bass guitar,and of course, plenty of synthesiser, but have stayed faithful to the original in key places.
I've also created English lyrics based around the original German lyrics, though there's poetic licence involved to make them scan and rhyme. They convey essentially the same sentiments as the original German.
A couple of points to note otherwise…
I wanted ideally to modernise the type of vehicles and as an EV advocate, I was keen to have the sound of EVs included, rather than just the internal combustion engine sounds of the original. In the event, I've used recordings of both electric motorcycles I've owned passing by, so that explains the high-pitched motor noise - it's not a passing jet.
For those familiar on a musically intimate level with the original by Kraftwerk, there's a mistake (a "bum note") on the original. I won't spoil it for anyone else, but I've retained it in my version, because to me it's become part of the piece's charm.
Technical Details
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Software:
Steinberg Cubase Artist 11
Native Instruments Kontakt 6 Full Version
VSTi Virtual Instruments:
Drums: Toontrack Superior Drummer 3
Keyboards: Cherry Audio Memorymode, Cherry Audio Polymode, GForce M-Tron Pro, Steinberg Halion Sonic SE
Guitars: Native Instruments Session Guitarist Electric Sunburst Deluxe, Native Instruments Session Guitarist Picked Acoustic
Bass Guitar: Scarbee Rickenbacker Bass
Bass Pedals Synth: Smartelectronix Taurus
Vocoder: TAL-Vocoder 2
Hardware:
PC running Windows 10
Alesis Crimson 2 electric drum kit
MIDI Keyboard: Korg microKEY 37
Microphone: Shure SM58
Very impressed, I forgot I wasn't listening to a professional band.
Thanks, Mark! It's incredible how well virtual instruments have come along over the last few years. I think of it as "drummers' revenge", given how readily we tub-thumpers were easily replaced with drum machines back in the 1980s. 😁
Now, so long as you have a musical ear and reasonable understanding of music theory, it's possible to put these kind of thing together if you can play some keyboard. Ironically, I think you can't beat playing a live drum set (electric or acoustic) though for the best results.
Hello John Chivers are you doing a version of kraftwerk autobahn from the album called the mix from 1991
hello John Chives can I please use your remix version of motorway by kraftwerk on a video that I am working on right now?
It's not a remix. I recorded it from scratch. None of the audio is from Kraftwerk's 1974 original version of Autobahn, their 1991 re-recording on The Mix/Das Mix or anyone else's version.
I've turned off use of this in remixes, so if you want to use the piece, you should use one of the versions by Kraftwerk and give proper credit to the original creators, who similarly are the ones who (quite rightly) benefit from any monetisation of my cover version.
hello @@jtchivers
hello please can I use your song for a new lore song by zenith and me Finn Mikazuki
It's not my song. It's by Kraftwerk.