How I Did It
It's You I'll Missby Quarkstar
Uses samples from:
Tools I Used
Ableton 9
Bass1: Ableton, Darkness by Hecq
Bass2: RayBlaster synth, Climber
Sub-Bass: Ableton Analog by Quarkstar
Lead synth (Bowed Saw): Ableton Tension, by Quarkstar (inspired by Hecq)
Rhythm: RayBlaster, Shaman
Piano: Ableton Tension by Quarkstar
Piano2: Ableton by Hecq, SingingPiano.
Percussion, noises and Snare: Ableton, by Hecq
Samples I Used
Ableton Live Pack "The Forge by Hecq"
I can't uplaod these 'naked', I believe they are available online.
Process
My tune is double time to the lyrics, first I split the lyrics into 16 bar section (originally 8 bar, but now 16 with double time). Then found the key, timing and notes. The arangement is: Intro, 4 sections of verse, break, verse, intrumental and end.
After adding a percussion guide I wrote short piano parts for each section and marked out the chords. I keep one track in my DAW spare and use it for notating the chords.
I worked from start to end, slowly transfered the piano parts to the final instruments then expanded the parts. I kept going back, making adjustments as new parts were added. For example a Bass bar might lack 'drive' so I would go back and add short notes an octave higher. Also adjusting the tune to what had happened before.
Loads of distortion, comb filters, reverb. A lot of automation on the solo instruments.
Piano: (The distorted piano under the first two verses and at the end of the mix) The distortion is a frequency shifter tuned to the root note C=65.41Hz in the first section and C#=69.3 in the second section.
Lead synth (Bowed Saw): (halfway through the first section and under each vocal, then solo at the end) This is a Tension instrument with a Saturator distortion, downsampling, variable Band Pass filter, comb filter, compressor and reverb. The amount of distortion and the frequency of the bandpass are automated throughout.
Some sound effects are brought in and out using a low-pass filter and varying the frequency.
A few instruments interfered with the vocals as they had colliding frequencies. I equalised those that played under the voice and this left me with one instrument that played throughout but contained the same frequencies as the vocals. I created a variable "notch" filter that matched the vocals, added it to the instrument and applied the notch filter whenever Ciggi was singing.
Other Notes
I try not to hear remixes of Vocals I am interested in, but this time I heard AudioTechnicas remix first, which I love and admire. The remix is smokey and bluesy and I heard it as a resigned world-weary version of CiggiBurns lyrics. Reading the lyrics, I thought there was another side, affirmative, motivating and taking control. I wanted to explore that side of the song.
I have been listening to artists like Andy Stott, Hecq, Steve Reich, BeatPort and a four CD guide to Indian Raga. I have been wanting to create a tune that explores those influences.
This took me about seven hours start to finish. To my ears the last section is still pretty rough, but I learnt a lot in doing this song.
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