I think Paul needs to step over here and take a bow.
Ok, I'll bite
But all I've done is arrange a very 'hot' song. (with lines like 'what you want to do to me might come true' and 'hold me down', what else could it be?).
I just wanted to provide a bit more space so that the lyrics could come out a bit, so the Massive Attack / Bomb The Bass bass-heavy trip hop style seemed ideal for this song. I started the remix at 5am Sunday morning (insomniac) and it was more or less finished by noon as I had to be at a boozy birthday bash by 1pm. The following morning before work I tracked the guitar (through a Boss GX700) and then sent Ona the first mix for approval. It was that quick because I already knew what I wanted to do, so I spent less time experimenting with stuff and just went straight for the jugular.
For those interested in how it was done, here's a short run-down
First I walloped in a new rhythm section with Stylus RMX, the main drum track coming from the Backbeat expansion pack, which Ed might recognise. Additional percussion is also RMX, chopping breakdown mixes from the Liquid Grooves and Metamorphosis expansion packs. I added some two bar 'breaks' to make the choruses stand out a bit more too.
Ona's main vocal track was put through PSP Nitro on Gentle Chorus preset, but with a very thin mix so that it was only subtle, and then into Vintage Warmer. The backing vocals had a touch of Cakewalk chorus on them. I chopped a big lump (-6dB) of 2-4K out of Ona's original tracks as these frequencies were biting on me. The EQ dip had the effect of giving her more 'air' and making the vocal more spacious. By feeding all the vox into a bus with Voxengo's Pristine space using the 'Vocal Magic' impulse, we were able then to get a very strong, clear 'R&B' style shimmering sound that cut through the bass lines and other instrumentation.
By taking out the piano I removed almost all the frequencies that were clashing with Ona, so that meant she didn't have to be very loud to stand out.
I actually played the bass (well there's a novelty
), through a Bass Pod Pro, with three FX on it in this order, Sonitus Compressor, Gate, Sonitus Multiband Compressor, Waves RBass. That's how we get that big reggae bass sound. It's lost a bit of definition on the bass runs in the chorus (Charley's ears are spot on as usual), but that's ok for this kind of genre. I also cut the bass into loops so that I could easily small errors in timing. This meant I was able to lay down the bass within three run-throughs of the song, two for rehearsal and one for recording.
The pads are a layer of three patches from Sampletank (can't remember which ones), with Ntonyx Style Enhancer on the main midi track to give them a bit of expression. They're also fed through the Voxengo Vocal Magic impulse.
The echoes are the most complex parts of the piece. Most of them are the free VST 'Bionic Delay', which is a great little tape echo simulator that is highly automatable. I had two of these running on seperate buses, with extensive automation envelopes to control the feedback and mix of each one. This kind of technique has been around since Lee Perry changed the sound of Jamaican reggae in the 70's, and still very popular with fans of this kind of music, myself included. Soon we'll be giving away our Club Remix album of Pop Friction on Sonarama, so look out for a lot of it on that particular piece.
The 2nd Bionic Delay bus was also fed through the PSP84 (Transmitter preset) to add a bit more mystery, and then the Project 5 modfilter to get those weird tempo based sweeps on the echoes. I spent more time playing with these echoes and their automation that any other instrument in the mix.
The whole track was exported from SONAR in 24bit 44.1KH and then mastered in Soundforge using the Waves C4 compressor, Timeworks EQ to give a bit more presence at the top end from 5K upwards and Waves L2 to dither and pump up the volume to around -12dB RMS.
Glad to hear everyone likes it. It's a great song and big thanks to Ona for letting me play with one of her babies.
Lee's idea of a collaborative album sounds like a good one. Could probably have it finished by Friday
post edited by Paul Russell - 2005/02/23 05:17:53