Dire Straits - Brothers in arms- v1.5

When I started the lead guitar lessons this was the first song my teacher and I worked on, right after we spent quite some time on the G major, pentatonic and blues scales.

It wasn't an easy song to start with given that the lead guitar is driving all of it. Yet it's an amazingly beautiful song. So I practiced it a lot and, after a few months, when I got to a passable proficiency, I built the song around it.

Lead guitar

It drives the whole song. I'm not aware of any other popular song where the guitar plays a more important role.

The volume pedal also plays an important role in getting those weeping notes that just fade in. I bought a pedal (Line 6) and practiced a new way of working with the guitar: roll the volume completely down with the pedal, strum the note harder than usual, slightly before it's supposed to start and then fade in the volume. Then magic follows :-) Of course, I didn't get all the fades from the original recording but I felt that I got to a good start.

Vocals

A good range overlap made things easier but I had to work on the many other parts: timbre, cadence, accent etc. For the first time I got to read and properly understand the lyrics. I don't normally pay too much attention to the lyrics of a song, just the melodic progression of the vocals and some of its highlights (chorus plus others here and there). My focus is usually on the other instruments.

This version is a rerecord of the first vocals where I tried more closely matching Knopfler's timbre.

Bass

Found a convincing bass line then simplified it. After reducing the mistakes to an acceptable level I called it a job done.

Drums

An easy drum line with the bass drum and the snare rim making up most of it. Subtle and effective, it was a pleasure recording it.

Keyboard - Organ

Went back to the Vintage Organs pack that I previously used for Time. A used a new one this time: Classic Rock / Basic Rock 2.

Keyboard - Accordion

In the first verse there are too few instruments around (no bass, no drums) and you can't just go with the lead guitar and vocals. Similarly to the original, I made use of an accordion. Mine was a sample (Sonokinetik Accordion) that I found talked about in the Native Instruments forums.