Duke Nukem 3D - Plasma [Cover By DAR] | E2L8 - Dark Side

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Shoutout to long-time viewer, Constantinus Maximus, for nominating this particular Duke track! Also, many thanks to all of you whom voted for good 'ol Duke back during the COVER BATTLEGROUNDS!

I've gotta say, it was tough picking which particular Duke song I was going to cover. I was very tempted to redo my Grabbag cover, but I had decided to save that for another day. I then thought about maybe doing "Gotham", but in the end I just really loved the atmosphere and mood of "Plasma". Its such a soothing, yet melancholic track...

Right from the start, I decided that I wanted to go with a retro-sounding kind of tone for this. I wanted the synths and guitars to really give off 80's vibes... which basically translates into me loading up sounds from one of my favorite synths (SQ8L), and slapping on a chorus effect and even MORE delay & reverb on to my lead guitar tone!

I also really had to exercise a lot of restraint with this cover. I thought several times about having some heavy rhythm guitars and more prominent drums in this cover. However, I felt that both would make this sound too aggressive and kind of lose that sorrowful/melancholic mood of the original. Instead, I decided to save my "heavy" tendencies for the other upcoming Duke cover!

My usual drums are kept limited to only light hi-hats, crash cymbals, and rides. I let the gongs and kettle-drums/timpani do the heavier and more dramatic hits. The rhythm guitar is played (mostly) clean, and is just doing something simple in the background to help move things along.

I think where things really shine (hah, look a pun!), is the lead guitar. I started with learning how to play the melody that the harp had played originally. I changed things up a bit and let some notes ring out with some vibrato, and I also intentionally slid noisily on the strings for that cool sliding sound.

Now, to add a bit more to the song, I created brand new leads (1:36-2:19). I've gotta say, this slower and bendy way of playing still manages to be my favorite style of leads to play. This is also the first time in a very, VERY long time where I only recorded and mixed one lead guitar track (usually I have two tracks, split between left & right channels).

Now for a fun fact! I'm very sure I had a dream about this specific melody back in late June. I had some ideas for slower songs for my "On Impulse" album, and in a dream, I swear I heard this new melody, like note for note.

Feels weird, but hey, I'm very happy about taking a melody heard from a dream and bringing it to reality!

Anyways, I really enjoyed taking on this wonderfully soothing track! Hope you all enjoy, and also look forward to another Duke cover very soon! ~DAR


OPUS DOWNLOAD: https://www.mediafire.com/file/fixgcu...[Cover+By+DAR].opus/file

Next Duke Cover: "Duke Nukem Forever - 2003 Trailer":    • Duke Nukem Forever - 2003 Trailer [Co...  

Previous Duke Cover: "Duke Nukem II - Nukemania":    • Duke Nukem II - Nukemania [Cover By D...  


Originally Composed By: Lee Jackson


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