The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet - Instrumental version

UPDATE: Got a singer to do the vocals. Check it out!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRakGGChKn0

Hi everyone. I hope nobody will take this cover too seriously. I was just having fun with a nifty song that combines so many elements from the early 80s. For those of you who haven’t seen it, the mystery of this song is that nobody can figure out who played it, dating back to 2007 when the question was first asked on the internet. It appears that it was originally recorded off German radio in the early 80s, but beyond that it’s still a mystery. There’s loads of stuff on the internet about this if you search for the song “title” (TMMSOTI), and an explanation no youtube here as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90JvgNQicp0

Anyway, my buddy told me about this song, and I thought it would be a fun challenge to participate in the mystery by doing an instrumental cover (I still can’t sing…).

Some notes on the equipment I used follow.

Guitar: It’s a Charvel San Dimas Custom, with Dimarzio pickups in the middle position (neck HS-3 and inside coil of the bridge Tone Zone). I really enjoyed how this dirtied up with hard picking.I played it into the computer clean (via Roland Rubix 22 audio interface) and then used Guitar Rig 5 for the sound (Lead 800 amp, AC Box amp, and, for that 80s feel, significant chorus effect.) Added a little bit of reverb and an equalizer boost in the 2khz-4khz rang. All the guitar parts are really recognizably common to the first few years of the 80s.

Bass: An Ibanez SR-600, also direct in, with all knobs set to the middle. I didn’t mess with this at all, since I liked the sound as recorded. A fun part to play, really well-coordinated with the drums in the original song. Hope I managed to capture some of that.

Keyboards: All played live on a Roland D-5 as a MIDI controller, although I am not a very good keyboard player by any stretch. The background chords throughout are based on Spectrasonic Omnisphere’s “Smoked Hammond Ballad” patch with a bit of modification, layered with “Eighties Synth Pop” from z3ta+. The prominent octaves in the chorus are based on Moog Modular Raw Saw in Omnisphere, with elements of that patch removed to make it even more raw.The high-pitched synth right at the end is based on Omnisaphere’s CS-80 String Pad Swell. The original was clearly (?) played on an analog synth, but, umm, I don’t have one.

Drums: I liked the idea of playing this with a slightly less 80s drum sound than the original, so I have simply used the “Studio” preset on the Roland TD-30, recorded via USB. I will admit, I played it in chunks and spliced them together, since, quite frankly, I didn’t want to put the time in to memorize all the different fills! I can’t imagine, also, how many times I would have had to play through to get it all clean, with the two really fast fills, at about 2:00 and again just near the end.

DAW: Cakewalk Sonar X3.

Video: One of the theories circulating about the song is that it was an East German garage band. I have no idea, but I thought it would make a fun video background theme, so I pored through hours of old footage, and found some stuff that fit my idea. Tried to synchronize the tempo of certain parts with the music with stretching and shrinking, just for fun. For the “me” parts, recorded with a Sony FDR X-3000, against a green screen (except for the drums). Then processed in Adobe After Effects, and pieced together in Sony Vegas.

Suggested titles for this song have included "Summer Blues", "Like the Wind" and "Check it in, Check it out".

Nicht ernst nehmen.

Видео The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet - Instrumental version канала CrummyMusician