Our interpretation of the famous Dutch song "Laat me" by Ramses Shaffy. The song is about a guy who pursues his own path, regardless of what others say.
Ramses Shaffy was a deeply-respected and extremely genuine singer and personality here in the Netherlands.
"I know the bars and cathedrals, all the way from Amsterdam to Maastricht. I want to be around for a long, long time. But let me remain just who I am"
We based the arrangement on one of the BIAB acoustic guitar Realtracks. Then we added the String Quartet RT and the Eddy Dunlap Pedal Steel RT for the solo.
You may not understand one single word of the Dutch lyrics... Still, we hope you will catch the emotion.
Comments encouraged!
Rob & Anne-Marie
We are Rob Meulman and Anne-Marie Bovenkamp from The Netherlands.
Excellent cover song! This is one of those demo songs that if you had not mentioned BIAB I would have never noticed the backing track where computer generated. That is a complement to not only your production of the song but how far BIAB has come in terms of generating realistic tracks.
Thanks for sharing.
Studio One (latest version), Win 11 23H2 , i9 -10940X 3.3 GHz, 32GB Mem, a 4K 40" monitor, PreSonus Studio Live III Console as interface/controller. secondarily test on Reaper, Cakewalk, and S1 on Surface Pro 3 Win 10 (latest versions).
A perfect mix, quality delivery throughout, with a sensational choice of supporting musicians.
As usual, an outstanding vocal performance.
Very well done.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
The emotion absolutely came through clearly! I definitely felt moved by listening to it, and I'm excited to hear what you guys come up with next. I always love seeing how people put their own spins on existing work. Thanks for sharing!
No-one in the forum does video work any better than you! This audio equals the video in professionalism! Your mix sounds perfectly placed to my ears! The vocal work is astoundingly good! I enjoyed it!
Thank you jpettit, Trevor, Ember, Torrey, and Josie for your positive comments. We really appreciate it!
Covering a famous song (well here in the Netherlands anyway) introduces a dilemma... On one hand, you want to make it sound "as good" as the original. On the other, you want to give it a little extra, make it sound "different". I have to admit that Anne-Marie set me on the "add something extra" track the last couple of years ;-).
In this case, I was lucky the key of the song was a little above my mid-vocal range (which is just what I need to keep the tension in it). If it were any lower I would sing it comfortably but then it wouldn't sound "urgent". If it were any higher, my voice would probably sound too thin...Although that would probably be camouflaged by Anne-Marie's voice oohs.
Whenever I hear someone doing a cover and I don't know the original, I want to hear that as well! So here you go. This is Ramses's original version from 1978 (yes, a long, long time ago):
Originally Posted By: Ember - PG Music
..and I'm excited to hear what you guys come up with next. I always love seeing how people put their own spins on existing work.
Ha ha, since you're asking, and since we're talking Dutch songs here. I have been thinking of covering one of the songs by another big name in Dutch Pop history: The Cats. Here they are (another 70s recording!). Singer Piet Veerman has always totally captivated me with the timbre and sheer emotion in his voice. I still get a real kick listening to (particularly the choruses) of this song:
If I can pull it off to get anywhere near this, I will post it ;-)
Rob
We are Rob Meulman and Anne-Marie Bovenkamp from The Netherlands.
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