Teft’s Blog

I recently found a blogger talking about doing a “Tuneback“, which is basically a song conceived, written, and knocked out in 1 hour. SO, we decided “what the hell!” and give it a shot. It was really enlightening, because it forced us to make decisions that we usually end up spending a few hours on (instead of several minutes!)

The song is called “Delicious” and has a very sexy Electronic/Dance vibe. All done in one hour, in Logic Pro, take a listen …


Download Delicious Mp3
We started out by crafting a beat first. I used Stylus RMX for the core kit sound; programmed the drums; and then added a second RMX instance with a 4 to the floor loop to thicken the kick. Next, I used BLUE for the gushy bass sound. It mixed in really well in the beginning because the drums had a sharp defined cut, and the bass blended over the kicks. This helped create the effect of the instruments blending as one.

To the left is a screen shot of the final song in Logic. I’m a HUGE Logic fan … been using it since 4.6. SIDENOTE: I hated the fact that Apple bought Logic, until I finally brokedown and bought a Mac, WOW am I glad I fully switched to Apple
I LOVE Vanguard from reFX. It’s warm and analogish. I used it twice for synth stab sounds. 1 mild, and 1 dirty. Controlling the synth stabs can always be an issue … this song led itself to be sparse stabs, whiched really complemented Mimi’s vox.

Mimi is a great vocalist to work with (and that’s not because she’s my girl friend) … she pours emotion into her vox. We worked directly on the melody with the beat and bass line to get something that jived quickly. Cutting vocals and writing lyrics and melody at the same time is an interesting process. Minute by minute the clock is ticking, so the faster we can cut vox that work, is obviously better. I used ArtsAcoustic Reverb on her voice. Mimi’s great at coming up with melodic material on the spot, no matter what harmony or production you throw at her.

The biggest challenge tonight was assembling a melody and lyric together that worked in less than an hour. Mom (to the left), has been song writing with us for over 5 years. We’ve pretty muched gelled the process, so she knows what generaly works and doesn’t work in the lyric world, so she can make quick decisions as the clock ticks. Her tool of choice is a MacBook Pro and Masterwriter. Lyrical prosody is always a challenge … it can be astonishing to hear the difference between using “that” or “that’s” in a lyric and hearing the vox dynamics shift. It can truly make or break a song.

Finally, I capped off the song with Ozone’s limiter, which I prefer over most of the limiters available in the digital world (including Waves). Leave a reply and let us know what you think and/or if you give the 1 hour challenge a shot and post it on your blog! We’ll probably make a habit of doing this every week

Tool List:

• Logic Pro
• BLUE
• Vanguard
• Stylus RMX
• ArtsAcoustic Reverb
• Ozone
• Mic and PreAmp

QUICK NOTE: Merlin was with us the whole time … he’s the muse. All photos copyright of Teft Inc. and were taken during the 1 hour song challenge.

Delicious mp3 is licensed under: