Galactic Ha Di Ka remix entry

When Galactic plays live around here the bass bins are straining to keep up with all the low and low-mid freq energy the dancers seem to crave and come out for.

This mix seems much more cerebral than the carnal experience I am accustomed too.


Nice and clean!


best regards,
mike

Thanks guys. I think the mix is a bit cleaner now than the original in some ways. But the new hand drum parts help there. Spent lots of time in front of the little mono speaker down low to get everything in balance and in context. I just love using that thing. It really helps setting vocal levels.

There was so much bottom end in that mix. I have carved out masses of it in the first mastering EQ stage and yet it still sounds pretty deep in spots. Mike I am after a balance across the spectrum and not drive the bottom end too much. The bass line around the synth solo is the original one and I turned it up. I think it is a bit loud and I will pull it down there.

Yet another mix. The rest of the bass line is me playing a Kurzweil K2000 bass sound which is gut rumbling in power at times. I have not even converted that track to audio yet. The Kurz is playing live (from a midi track) direct into the final mix. (I use a digital mixer to bring everything together at the last minute. Handy for dropping synths into a mix at any time) But I might print it to audio and use a steep HPF and just take some of the boom off it. The kick from the drum stem should be the driving force I think around the solo or all the way through. The car tells me where the bass is most excessive. 

Mike the PSP Xenon is getting a bit of a workout too and notice how clean it can still sound. I am aiming for about -8 dB rms on average rather than push it harder up to - 7dB FS.

It was a large session too, many tracks. The vocals were a bit distorted sounding on the original stem. I would have liked a clean version of them. There is quite a bit of distortion in the guitars as well.

The hand drum 1/16 th groove is about 20 tracks of jembe and congas and floor toms all played very lightly by hand. I played the shaker as well to liven things up a little. The groove is live totally over 16 bars as well and not looped anywhere. There is a definite phrased accent inside the 16th note groove too.

Not sure what format the audio is streaming off Indaba but the wave file sounds pretty good. That is what I uploaded anyway.

Thanks to all for the kind words. Much appreciated. I have remixed it as well for slightly less bottom end and I think it sounds better now. The link is not the same though due to the fact I have pulled down the original mix and put up another one:

http://www.indabamusic.co...est/submissions/146994

Hi Janet. Sorry the first link was wrong because I remixed it again and uploaded it again and hence it has a new link. I would be keen on your opinion too.

http://www.indabamusic.co...est/submissions/146994

Thanks a lot Janet. Aboriginal well yes there are similarities. Some of the vocal chanting could sound a bit similar and also the synth pad conjures up the didgeridoo concept as well.

I have produced production library music for EMI combining Aboriginal vocal chants, didges (didgeridoo) and clapsticks with modern contemporary grooves etc. I had to study it back then. The vocal styles are a bit different with our native indigenous culture. There are many areas of Australia where the didges are not present so it is all about clapstick and vocal things going on. That music is just so unique it is incredible. You can pick it in a second. 
 
I think with Ha Di Ka it is American Indian the inspiration there perhaps. I like the call and response thing. They have amazing chants and group chants too. One could just sample or record all the native chants from every country in the world and create a set of Kontakt presets say! 

I have a long term distant dream to one day go out and stay in an aboriginal reserve up in the very north of our country. But take a solar/battery/inverter setup and a full DAW and everything and power it up day and night. Record all the native music in the area but also work with the younger ones and produce some music based around their native cultural performances. Show them how to use a DAW. One could do a series of concerts out there too. You would come back with some serious resources.

I really enjoyed your piece 'Indecision' as well. You have created the melody and chords there so the tune is strong, but the drums and percussion part is very important in your piece for sure. I heard some middle eastern percussion grooves in my head in a few places in your piece. Or is that about as strange as aboriginal sounds maybe. 

I might need some help here!

The remix competition is now closed and voting has started. Out of 174 entries I think I am 95th or so!!! Now this is not good after all my entry is pretty good I think. Most of the others are terrible and have no idea! But also they may be after something I have not done as well. I understand that.

Here is the current link to my entry:

http://www.indabamusic.co...est/submissions/146994

I think you have too vote through Facebook and if you don't want to do that that is perfectly fine as I understand Facebook is a bit of a pain really.

I cannot tell exactly how the voting works but I think it is still the band that decides the winner. This people voting might be to decide the runner up or other things not sure. If the people voting does determine which top entries the band will actually listen to then I think that is a shame because the people are the worst judges themselves as in most cases they know the least about the music itself. If this is the case then really the whole Indaba competition thing is really a scam.

But I don't care as I had a great time doing it and I have ended up with a pretty great sounding track that can be used for other promotional reasons.

I did remix it BTW and altered the groove in a few places. Also removed a lot of unnecessary analog processing in the mix and mastering stages making the whole mix more robust and punchy. Just goes to show although some people may say use console emulators (and gads of analog processing emulations)  everywhere it can also be argued take them all off and hear how great your mix really sounds. Practice creating great sounding mixes with NO processing whatsoever. You will be better off for it.