How I Did It
by sounddevisor
Uses samples from:
Tools I Used
Created in ProTools, with some help from Reason
Samples I Used
Except for the drums, bass, and mangled horns, all the samples came from the Copyright Criminals source material
Original Samples
I played all the bass parts on two basses - a standard Fender Jazz bass with DR strings, and a Kay with tape-wrapped strings. All the drums were programmed in Reason, mostly using stock Reason factory samples.
Process
I started by going through the source samples and picking a pool of likely vocal phrases. Then I started putting different snippets together, trying to get a sense of what the piece would be about. I also tried some different tempos, trying to find one where I wouldn't have to cut up the vocal phrases too much to get them to flow over the beat.
Once I had the tempo and a basic beat, I played some bass lines, and then started layering different sounds, chopping and stretching ambient samples, and just kind of pushing things against each other until things started to gel. As I was doing this, I was also getting a clearer idea of what the themes of the piece would be and how they would work together.
Finally, once I had the overall structure, it was just a matter of shaping the sections and either carving out material or adding in sounds to support what was going on.
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