Remixing A Radio Hit - Rihanna's Umbrella
- Author: Teft
- Filed under: Engineering, Music, Producing, Production, Remixing
Jan 21,2008
So you're a DJ and you love a radio hit that's currently topping the charts. But you don't have a club'ish remix .... Why not make one! I remixed Rihanna's Umbrella track (sorry, it's rough ... I spent about 2 hours on it) to give it a more housey 4 to the floor flavor. I YouTubed it .. check it out:
So let's take a look at the process of remixing from a radio master .... First, a checklist of some must haves:
- An application like Live or Acid
- Some loops or drum sounds
- A synth a two
The very first step is to get the song into Live ... import it off your CD and load it up. Live will start analyzing it and hopefully detects the correct BPM. Umbrella came up as 87bpm .. I pushed it to 100bpm. After it's locked in, you'll typically need to roll off the bass and potentially some highs of the master track. Why? Because we're converting the core rythm to a 4 to the floor house rythm.
Next, pick a FAT bass and start picking out the key and chord structure of the song. Once you've got it, try switching up the harmony and see what happens to the verse and/or chorus of the song. You never know what happens! So, figure out a cool bass rythm and lay it down.
Now, you need to work out those drums ... try different loops ... make it crazy ... make it cool ... whatever works. Just make sure it's beefy for a club.
Supporting synths are very important. Try experimenting with new synth lines and see how the song feels. Again, you never know what happens! Dial in those synths so they really help move the song in a club sense.
Finishing touches are usually effects ... meaning eq and phasey effects, and some cool synth effects. I added swooshishes all over the place on the Rihanna remix.
Oh yeah, one last tip ... strap a compressor to the bass and master track and trigger it with the 4 to the floor kicks to make the song PUMP! Check out my Umbrella remix to hear what I mean by the pumping of the compressor.
Have Fun
Photo Credits in the Video:
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=114311823&size=l
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielleblue/177773556/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/solo_munechika/192847585/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sookie/96601739/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gabyu/199919513/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/icanteachyouhowtodoit/1008652758/
11 Responses for "Remixing A Radio Hit - Rihanna's Umbrella"
this is brilliant.
Thanks!
Great!
i love rihanna an justin timberlake rehab rihanna is like my fav singer go rihanna we love you
I love Rihanna. her song entitled Umbrella is my favorite song. she is also a very beautiful singer, it is bad to know that she got an abusive boyfriend.
i love the voice of Rihanna and her style of music. she is also a very sexy and beautiful singer just like Mariah Carey.
Rihanna is a great singer, she is pretty and sexy too. I felt sad that he got an abusive boyfriend.
Rihanna and Britney are two of my favorite popstars. the voice of Rihanna is much better than Britney though.
Rihanna is the pop star that i idolized most. she got the voice and the body to be the number 1 pop star.
Nice! I like the Bass... Don't you want to make a high quality version of this? Would be neat!
Rihanna is the best singer in my opinion, she has a very good voice, a beautiful face and a very sexy body.
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