Here's the YouTube version ...

I found the accapella online and was thrilled because of how clean the track was ... perfect for a remix. It took a bit to figure out the bpm. Live didn't lock it in correctly. I originally intended to speed it up to 132 bpm and make it even more housey, but I abandoned that idea right away! I also threw out Live and did it all in Logic Pro (7 not 8).

What did I use? NI Battery 3, RMX Stylus (supporting drums in the chorus), ohm-Force Minimonsta, and 8 reFX Vanguard instances. Yep, good ol' Vanguard!

For the mastering section, I used the PSP Neon HR into Logic's native compressor and then used iZotope's Ozone as the limiter. All in all, about 8 hours of production.

Until next time!!!!!!!!!!

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/

Let's jump into a theoretical upgrade see what happens for a moment:

• 1: I spend a bunch of money on a new machine. Bank account feels the burn.
• 2: I get it home, unbox it, and then realize that I have to pull apart my current studio.
• 3: I rip out my old box and then setup my brand new shiny computer.
• 4: I spend 2 weeks solid of reinstalling my production software.
• 5: I spend another 2 weeks figuring out why half my plugins don't want to run on the new machine.
• 6: I finally get the new machine up to a "usable" state for music production and try loading an older song.
• 7: I experience a large dose of terror as I realize that my previous productions won't load!
• 8: I ask myself "why WHY!" did I have to upgrade my computer.
• 9: I moan and groan to all my music friends about the woes of running a production studio.
• 10: I blog about it.

Or, I could save the $4,000 - $5,000 on the new box and spend the 4 weeks of downtime on writing new music. Hmmmm. So why would I even upgrade?

It all depends on productivity. Shiny new toys are always appealing in the beginning. But in the end, it comes down to producing a song. Making a record! I don't think I've heard anybody say "sweet song ... I can really hear the quad-cores enhancing the song!"

I'm sorry if I'm sounding pissy about computer upgrades. There is always a time and place for upgrading. But I think it's very important analyze the reasons for upgrading. When should somebody upgrade? When you're computer cannot produce the music you are trying to create. That's a definite reason to upgrade. Otherwise, I always ask myself if I'm really ok with going through that 10 step list up above in this post. If I'm cool with it, then off to the Apple store!

The song's called Badlands and we've got two video versions: A 4:20 length quicky overview, and the full length version (1:27:35) for those that want to see how the hour/half shook down.

Listen to the mp3: (download mp3)
And check out the Video:

Want to see the full 1 hour and 27 minutes? Click Here.

I used Stylus RMX as the backbone of the beat. It's a great tool. Fast beats. Lots of control. In the chorus I used another instance of Stylus RMX in "kit" mode to lay in a thicker and kick and snare .. just for audio BEEF.

The bassline is from "Predator!!!" (not the movie), which is one of my newest favorites of soft-synths. I like Papen's "Blue", too, but Predator captures that analog synthy stuff.

I also doubled the bassline in the chorus with a patch from reFX's Vanguard. Past readers of my blog will know of my "undying love" for the Vanguard synth.

The chorus also got a leadish patch from Vanguard that helped the high transients move in the chorus. It helps give it that big "gush" that you generally want in pop choruses.

Towards the end of the hour we had lyric drama as Jesse was still putting together the second verse ... We already had the first verse cut. But, that's the fun of doing a song in an hour. It's also interesting looking at the video afterwards .. you get to hear the ideas that you forgot in the middle of the writing process!

Until next time ...

Video is copyright Teft Inc.

Badlands mp3 is licensed under:

I decided to put the Pro-C up against my two favorite software compressors ... Logic's Compressor and the Sonalksis SV-315. Both have distinctive sounds, and both are heavily used in my productions. When I first test out new goodies I start out with a drum beat and then add the sugar (plugins!)

I used battery 3 to make a quick beat and then applied the Pro-C ... first impression: Very versatile.

You have three distinctive compressor algorithms to choose from: Clean, Classic, and Opto. Each one acts exactly as they should. The clean setting is a standard digital compressor, classic simulates tube compression, and opto provides that transparent opto sound (like an Avalon AD2044 ).

As usual, the Pro-C comes with all the cool FabFilter GUI effects and has some really nice midi controls. How likely am I to bust out the midi controls on a single compressor? Not very likely, but options are always nice to have.

So how did the Pro-C compare to similar settings on Logic's Compressor and the SV-315? (note: I bounced each compressor within 1 decibel of each other). Have a listen:

Beat with FabFilter Pro-C:

Beat with Logic's Compressor:

Beat with Sonalksis SV-315:

Overall, the Pro-C is a strong competitor. Logic's Compressor was the weakest out of the three, and the SV-315 brought out more bass. I preferred the Pro-C's sound because it was more balanced and still retained a nice fat sound wtih sharp transients. But, the real test is actually using it in a production and seeing how it performs during battle! Or maybe a 1 hour song?

I'll give my 30 day evaluation a good workout and then decide if $200 (actually $129 since I own the other toys) is worth it. (Maybe FabFilter is planning a Pro-EQ?)

First off, we need to make sure some fundamentals are understood when sending signals out to guitar amps. What do you plug into a guitar amp? A guitar signal. What kind of signal is a guitar? Hi-z. Your audio interface is likely sending out a "line level" signal, which means that we need to convert that signal to Hi-z. (Drum roll) Radial X-Amp does the trick!

The X-Amp takes a line level signal (via XLR female input) and outputs two Hi-z signals. Ba-boom! You could drive two guitar amps at one time, mic 'em both and have some serious creative sound processing!

The next piece of required information is micing a guitar amp. Generally speaking you need two mics: 1 mic really close to the speaker cone and 1 mic about 3 - 5 feet away catching the room sound. Your first mic catches the signal directly, kind of like a vocalist, and the second mic captures the reverb tale giving the sound air and life. There is no rule book to audio engineering, but you'll generally get reliable results with this setup (and then build from there).

One more detail ... guitar amps like volume! Amps true tone and character don't really come out until you start pushing the tubes in the circuitry. A good rule of thumb is if I can be in the room with the amp(s) without ear plugs, then it's not loud enough. You need to push the air molecules!

What next? Load up your favorite beat machine and send the signal to the amp! I made two beats .. 1 with MicroTonic and the other with UltraBeat from Logic. When mixing the signals, I usually lower the room mic down and blend the original signal with the recorded signals. It creates a larger than life sound. Have a listen:

Slow beat (83 bpm) Dry:

Slow beat (83 bpm) With Guitar Amp:

Mid beat (100 bpm) Dry:

Mid beat (100 bpm) With Guitar Amp:

Mid beat modified Dry:

Mid beat modified With Guitar Amp:

Here's all the samples in 16-bit AIFF format (17.5 megs):
Download All Samples/Loops Here.

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Make Beats,
Teft

 
More Production Posts:

• Producing Reusable Loops With Logic Pro and Various Plugins
• Building Electro/Dance loops from scratch using Logic Pro

Have a listen to Electric Core: (download mp3)

Our first 1 hour song was a success. So much of a success that we've decided to put a remastered version of "Delicious" on Mimi & Teft's upcoming EP (due out in September). The great thing about the process is that it challenges your decision making and you make choices VERY fast. You pretty much grab a melody within minutes and roll with it.

We usually start out by crafting a beat. I used two "4 to the floor" kick loops from Stylus RMX, and a kit from NI's Battery. Mimi starts building a melody within moments of hearing the kick drum. Anything that comes to mind that sounds remotely usable we cut to disk for reference (and memory!) I start establishing synths from her melodic structure and we set the key.

One of the hardest things to do is to build a chorus/hook right after building a verse. It gets risky sounding too similar to the verse if we're not careful. Production plays a huge role in "lifting" the chorus/hook. If the energy doesn't build, neither does your emotional reaction to the chorus/hook.

Judy (Mom) and Jesse had a great competition to see who could come up with the winning lyric lines. It was definitely a challenge for Jesse because he's use to thinking through the entire set of lyrics and then writing them down. Can't do that in an hour! He did a great job in collaborating on this tune.

Another interesting fact about the 1 hour song challenge is that you can't have an ego. Anytime spent arguing is time wasted, so your forced to see all options for what they really are (good or bad or almost rockin').

Here's the final set of lyrics:

Electric Core

youre moving closer makin pressure like you wanna play
You tell me secrets in your movement and we start the game
yea I can hear you - everything you tell me on the floor
it's elemental, it's essential - our electric core

Chorus
And ohhhh
You got me spinnin like a disco
go round and round into the vinyl
And every time you turn me more you turn me more ohohohoh
And ohhhh
I'll be your puppet- let's put on a show
just get behind and start to move it slow
And when you do I want you more I want you more ohohohoh

we're sinkin lower like a tower under gravity
we're moving closer to the center of our energy
You rock my body til it's shakin and I beg for more
it's elemental, it's essential - our electric core

Chorus

At the 1 hour mark, we had the song put together and some vocals cut. But, we felt the lyrics needed strengthening, so we extended it to 1 hour and 37 minutes and cut the current vocals on the mp3. I slapped an Ozone mastering plugin at the end and raised the volume with it's limiter. We could possibly re-open the song in a few weeks and do some polishing. But, we'll see what happens ...

A few of my favorite things:

• reFX Vanguard
• BLUE
• Albino 3
• NI Battery 3
• Stylus RMX
• Logic Pro

All photos copyright Teft Inc. and were taken during the 1 hour song challenge.

Electric Core mp3 is licensed under:

A common mistake is when somebody drops $3,000 - $4,000 on a microphone and only spends $400 on a sound card (audio converters). Big mistake! Lots of records have been cut with cheap microphones, but the difference is they were cut using analog tape. With digital recording, you inherently lose definition because the sound waves become steps (16bit has about 65,000 steps. 24bit has a few million). Analog tape is not restricted by steps (or bit depth).

I always advice people on getting the best possible audio converters there budget can afford. Emphasis on the "afford"! High-end mastering converters can out price Honda Civics! So stop lusting over that Nuemann U87 and get yourself the Apogee Rosetta 200.

The second question I get, after I tell people about buying the best audio converters they can afford, "is there anything I can do for my existing sound card/converters?" YES! If your sound card has a word clock input. Apogee makes a digital clock, Big Ben, and all it does is keep digital time. That's it! But man does it keep great time!

Digital clocks help reduce something that plagues digital signals (adat, spdif, cd players, etc) - jitter. It's your enemy. It's responsible for smearing your audio signals and blurring your mix when you can't get that bass to sit right (the room helps, too ). Clocks, like the Big Ben, do wonders for existing audio converters. The difference is almost night and day. Blurry undefined audio -vs- clear crystalline audio! The reason is cheaper sound cards use cheaper digital clocks.

The #1 thing I recommend for people when starting a studio is to invest as much money as possible into awesome audio converters. When your converters rock, you can record anything and it comes out sounding the way it should! Dry guitar direct input signals are rich and full of life, Shure SM57's cut through the mix, radio shack mics sound canned in a good way, and your monitors render your mix the way it should sound!

The great thing about creating loops for the purpose of loop production, is you can start from ANYWHERE! I had produced a set of loops about 3 years ago that were alright, but not spectacular. I decided to load up a loop from that collection into Native Instruments Kontakt 2 and slice the loop for individual hits. Kontakt makes this relatively simple. I always start by sequencing a click track with the hihat-like sound. Then I play the beats with M-Audio's Trigger Finger. Here's the result:

It sounds a bit dull (which can be a good thing), but let's make the snare SNAP. I added Logic Pro's LinearPhase EQ on top of Kontakt and boosted highs and bumped the low around 150hz. Much more snappy. Again, depending on the song, this may or may not work for your taste. Samples are all about personal taste in what you choose to use. I used the LinearPhase EQ because it's very transparent and maintains the audio fidelity, but it uses more CPU power and you can't use it live. Here's the result with the EQ:

Now let's get away from that sound, but still build on it. I loaded up Sonic Charge's MicroTonic onto another track and played a 4-to-the-floor beat with an accompanying snare. I loaded up a preset first, then adjusted the kick to my liking. Then, I ran my Kontakt sounds through Reaktor 5. For Reaktor, I used an older ensemble, FusionReflections, and used a preset. Here's the result:

Next, I removed Reaktor and loaded up AudioDamage's BigSeq onto my Kontakt beat. These guys are great ... small audio software company producing awesome bite sized plugins at a very affordable price (I can't wait to get my hands on Replicant ). Again, I just loaded up a preset for speed. Here's the result:

It's great just building on top of things. Building loops/samples is all about personal taste, and speed! The more varieties you have, the quicker you can get to what you want. Try to keep your loop production fast. You don't want to split hairs over the eq curve, because it's likely to be altered when used in a production. All these loops built here took about 30 minutes to produce.

Here's all the samples in 24-bit AIFF format (10.4 megs):

Download All Samples/Loops Here.

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

QUICK NOTE: When exporting loops, it's best to bounce them in 24-bit format without any dither. This gives you the fullest dynamic range to work with in your productions. Also, all these samples had an iZotope Ozone limiter applied at the end, just enough to raise the volume within 5db of 0dbfs (just enought to not clip or distort the peaks).

Happy loop building!

Download Mp3 Here

In Judy's own words ...

The lyric on this song was inspired by a group of Shamanic Practitioners who gather together in circles to drum and meditate together.  Shamans have been around for thousands of years and are part of all indiginous peoples. They are the persons who act as healers for their tribe or group.  They were driven underground during the worst of the Religious persecutions, but have resurfaced in recent decades. Modern day shamanic practice does the same thing as it's ancient counterpart, working on spiritual causes of illness and societal problems.  The shaman will enter a meditative state and journey to discover the needs of the person, tribe, or land where they live. 
This lyric was a message from Mother Earth about returning to these sacred practices which honor the land, air and water around us.

As “Mimi & Teft” we don't plan on officially releasing this track, but we wanted to share it because it has a very powerful message behind it. Here's the lyrics ...

This old heart of mine is aching ,
for the children waking
in forgotten truth
For the ones who have forsaken
all the ways we taught them
Wind and earth and pool
they still know you
I'm cold now down inside my soul
find the symbols that you value
bring them to me
warm me
offer what is true

Tribal clan, I listen to you
When you dance I open my heart
give to you the songs that you once knew
i'm your guardian
don't think your song is silent
to the high

And this old heart of mine is speaking
to the children listening,
who hear me in the cool
listen to them when they tell you
what the hills are saying
How much we love you
still loving you
we're cold but we are loving you

find the pieces of your home land
take them with you
hold them till you know I'm true

Chief and priest, healer and sage
Ancient words new for this age
falling like the leaves into my hand
i'm your guardian
don't think your cry is silent
to the high

Production Notes

Production wise, the song is drenched in reverb using ArtsAcoustic Reverb. All of the instruments came from digital sources (the drums were sampled), yet it has a predominant acoustic feel. Multiple synth pads were used (Logic's ES2, Native Instruments' Massive, Rob Papen's Albino 3) to create an organic sense of the pad sound shifting timbre, much like dampening on guitar strings.

The kick and snare is a patch from Fxpansion's BFD, and the percussion loops are from Stylus RMX. Native Instruments' FM8, reFX Vanguard, and Rob Papen's Blue software synthesizers were used to round off sections with texture. BTW, NI's Massive is extremely cool, sounds amazing, and DRAINS my dual G5! Freezing tracks is an absolute must when using this software synthesizer.

Lately, my mastering chain has consisted of PSP's Master Compressor, PSP Neon HR, and iZotope Ozone's limiter. I kept the limiter light on this track, because it's not meant to be loud.

This Old Heart mp3 is licensed under: