The Ocean:

Inspector #20

Inspector #20

Ambassador of Tone
Fallen Star
Country flag
I was not a big Zeppelin fan when I was a kid, as i was into the harder metal, like Motörhead, so I haven't had a great deal of experience playing Zepp tunes. This song - The Ocean - I had never sat down and actually learned until just a few weeks ago. I had heard it many times, but never studied it. This song proved to be one of the most difficult yet to reproduce. It's very deceiving. It sounds like a very simple song, but it has some unique timing signatures and little fills that can be really tough to nail down correctly.

Again, the 2016 Gibson Les Paul was used (with 498T bridge pickup full-up) but gain rolled back to about 11 O' clock to get a more 'Page-esque' tone, without totally trying to emulate Jimmy.

Again, this was made intentionally for use as a demo without multi-tracking. All guitars and bass were laid down in a single take. All mistakes have been left in place to give the feel of a live performance. The outtro solo hasn't been added yet.

Enjoy!!!

The Ocean - Led Zeppelin Cover/Demo
 
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That's nice. But one suggested edit if you have it multitracked... drag the drums back a bit. At the moment they are leading the beat instead of following it. Makes the guitar sound rushed.
 
DonP said:
That's nice. But one suggested edit if you have it multitracked... drag the drums back a bit. At the moment they are leading the beat instead of following it. Makes the guitar sound rushed.
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I agree with Don. That song is kind of like you said, tricky. Kind of like chillin with space in the song parts.

JPJ really sets the pace with his walking bass lines.
 
DonP said:
That's nice. But one suggested edit if you have it multitracked... drag the drums back a bit. At the moment they are leading the beat instead of following it. Makes the guitar sound rushed.
Click to expand...

Good observation. This is still a work in progress. I also want to re-track the guitar because of a few timing issues. It will likely evolve quite a bit still...
 
Robert Herndon said:
We often retrack the guitars after vocals are laid down as they sometimes change the feel...
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I know what you mean. When you play the guitar in isolation at the start you tend to put a lot of "stuff" in to fill up the sound. Once you have the other instruments tracked you can re-record it much more sparsely, and it sounds a lot better.
 
DonP said:
I know what you mean. When you play the guitar in isolation at the start you tend to put a lot of "stuff" in to fill up the sound. Once you have the other instruments tracked you can re-record it much more sparsely, and it sounds a lot better.
Click to expand...

Exactly! Also...I been dissecting Page's work on The Ocean...I been working on that chugga-chugga-chugga part I want to add to our finished product...its a tough little part to get right.
 
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