Space Oddity cover (with dialog)
Mission Control / Space Oddity (on SoundCloud)I hate it when people simply post a link to some music that they have uploaded and say little more than "check this out". I prefer to know some details about what they were aiming for and what problems they encountered along the way. Ignore the remainder of this post if you don't feel the same way.
___________________________________________________________
This project was begun over 3 years ago and went down a few blind alleys before eventually taking shape.
Guide TracksI began by importing the original Bowie version and made a tempo map so that this could be used as a guide track. Also, Bowie's original stems from his 1969 8-track recording have been made available, so I loaded them up too, as additional guide tracks. It was fascinating to listen to to each one of these tracks separately (These are on YouTube somewhere - I'll post some links when I find them). I also imported 2 separate free midi versions of the song, again for guidance, but also with the intention of maybe making use of some of the parts. I ended up using only 2 instruments from these midi tracks, mellotron and stylophone, although I modified them radically and omitted them altogether from some sections of the song.
Early stagesThe first thing laid down was the lead vocals. Obviously this is a bit unorthodox, but having all those guide tracks available made it easily possible. Various acoustic guitar parts were added next, but most of them ended up being scrapped. Bowie's 12-string acoustic guitar appears to have been the "anchor" instrument for him, but I didn't feel that it was necessary for us. I ended up using guitars sparingly in a few key places where they seemed most effective. My anchor instrument was an electric piano (GSI MyRay22), with autopan sync'd to the tempo. I also made extensive use of the GSI VB3 hammond organ. These two instruments span the entire song, almost. Already this is a significant departure from the original, as Bowie didn't use a piano or organ anywhere in his version.
Further Departures from the OriginalI tried using one of the existing drum midi tracks but eventually changed my mind. Although these midi tracks for drums and bass were based on the original parts (played by Terry Cox was and Herby Flowers respectively), which were stunning, I wanted something that just flowed along with the rhythm of the song without being too busy and not drawing too much attention to itself during the important vocal sections. I kept the drums simple and mostly in the background except from some prominent fills. Despite having so many audio and midi guide tracks (over 30 in total), these didn't get referred to much once the project was underway.
Mission ControlAnother big departure. I wanted to add an intro representing mission control activity using dialog and sound effects. I didn't care whether it was real or authentic, I just hoped that it would sound vaguely identifiable to the listener as what it was meant to represent. We started to record people reading out scripted techno-goggledygook and we found plenty of willing participants. We were soon running short of ideas for the script when some thoughtful person handed me a printed transcript of the Apollo 11 mission, so we incorporated that too. All this was only intended as a fade-in intro, but ended up getting longer and longer, and some sections got discarded eventually, despite having spent a lot of time on them. More dialog was subsequently recorded for the two instrumental passages in place of guitar solos. We originally had a guitarist lined up to play the solos, but he was never available in our narrow timeslot. That doesn't matter now, because I prefer the dialog and I am reasonably happy with the resulting overall structure and the way that song sits nicely within the story drama.
Editing DialogI arranged the dialog phrases such that the emphasised syllables occur on the beat. I stretched or squashed some phrases to give a better rhythmic fit. Sometimes I would alter the pitch of some of the notes in a spoken phrase to get a better blend with the music. I was surprised to find that most syllables in a spoken phrase do actually have a definite pitch.
Effects - LaunchThe rising pitch representing the rocket's ascent was done with several instruments, real and midi, including cello, guitar and vocal samples. The various effects used for the rocket launch were free downloads, including an explosion.
More EffectsMost of the effects, e.g. telephones, were obtained as free downloads. One exception was the "typing", which was recorded in a very echoey kitchen. Also, one of the guys was experimenting with feedback from a guitar plugged into a cheap amp. It sounded like a bad radio not receiving a signal properly. Perfect for the fade-out ending.
CelloWhen my colleague brought along a cello one day, I thought it might be worth using it on this song. At first we tried it for the stylophone parts but we rejected most of it later. The thick ponderous sound seemed to work against the flow, but it sounded good on the early sections where there were no drums, so we kept it there.
Choir Voice SamplesAnother project that we had worked on earlier was 10CC's "I'm Not In Love", where I recorded samples of 3 vocalists singing long sustained notes of choir-like "aaaahhhhh". I've subsequenly made use of these samples in various other projects ever since, and I found several uses in Space Oddity too. One was the rising pitch rocket ascend. Another was as a pad in some of the dreamy passages. The unusual sound effect at the start was also made from these samples, heavily processed. This was meant to represent sounds echoing inside the astronaut's helmet. Maybe that didn't quite work as intended, but it's an interesting sound effect anyway.
Vocal HarmoniesAfter nailing the top harmony, the female vocalist surprised me by offering to sing the bottom harmony part too. The lead vocalist Luke had already laid down this part, but I decided to use both voices blended together. They didn't blend well. Luke's voice always stands out above everything even when it is low down in the mix. I improved the result by processing Marita's voice making it sound a bit masculine using a plugin called XT-VC, which allows control of individual harmonics. Maybe I should have applied the same technique to make Luke's voice more feminine too, but that didn't occur to me at the time.
Recording EnvironmentRecording conditions were challenging. Most of the recordings took place in a noisy room with people sitting at computers taking no interest in what us musicians in the corner were trying to do. I politely ask everybody to keep quiet at the start of each take but they tend to forget to stay quiet or even ignore me completely. The lead vocals were recorded elsewhere in a quieter room. I used my old laptop for that session and I was getting a lot of unexpained random clicks on the recoding. Fortunately we did a lot of takes, so I was able to piece together a reasonably convincing vocal performance. (There is an annoying resonance on some notes of the lead vocal that I failed to notice until after mixing the song, but I'm not sure whether it it originated in the room or later during the processing.) I added my bass at home. Unfortunately, while recording with headphones on, I failed to notice a rattle that kept occurring on some notes, due to a bodhran that had been perched on top of the bass amp. The ratting doesn't conflict with the rhythm or anything, so I didn't bother to try to fix it.
Software - DAWsSonar was used for all of the recording stages. Eventually each instrument was exported separately and imported into MixBus32C. (MixBus32C was new to me at the time, so this was a big learning experience.) Most instruments were also bounced through some analog equipment at some stage too. I mixed the various sections (i.e. verses, choruses, etc.) separately in MixBus32C and sequenced them back together in Sonar. This method of working has made it very difficult to go back and change anything. I regret that I bounced the drums to a single stereo track before transfering it to MixBus. I should at least have separated out the kick drum and snare.
SoftsynthsSoftsynths used include: GSI MyRay22, GSI VB3, Combo F1 Farfisa, NI Battery3, DimPro, Rapture, TTS-1 ("Shanai" setting), IK Philharmonik, IK SampleTron, IK SonikSynth2, IK SampleMoog.