Competing priorities

So this remix competition popped up and it's proving too hard to resist.  Not that I'm vying for a prize, but I want to check out the stems, and put my spin on things.  I own this album and the song could be good one to remix, as it's very sparse in instrumentation.  Similar to much of my Bon Iver Project in nature, the track has an approximate tempo with no "click".  I'll post up a link once I have something to submit.  Sadly, anyone reading this may be used to my delayed posting at this point, so it might not seem out of the ordinary at all.  ;)

Re-org

So I spent some time cleaning up and streamlining the studio today.  I've been playing out lately a good bit with my band and I always seem to come back to a mess as I'm always borrowing equipment from one place or another.  If either project ever cash flows positive, I'm fairly certain that I would just buy a duplicate of everything I already own and nothing amazing and new, at least right away.  For me, a messy environment is a detriment to focus and productivity, period.

Towers intro

So yeah, a little different.  Funky though, I think??  Hmm...

Stealing ideas

Sometimes I wonder if I buy so much NI stuff partly because they have such well produced product videos.  Very possibly.  Below is one of their latest Maschine promos/tutorials.  I like it because Mark Kinchen (who I admittedly hadn't heard of until now),  walks through his workflow and process.  For him, remixing involves:

Mute all the instrument tracks
Play drums with the acapella track
Find a key that sounds good
Chop up acapella vocals
Create a new melody

I'm going to let this be my guide for Towers.  By following this method, I'll inevitably stray much further away from the original than I did on the first three tracks.  I'm going to give this a shot and hope that the limb I'm on doesn't crap out.

Holocene final draft

Couldn't help myself

I have 8. I upgraded for their new monosynth. Buttery basslines coming soon. I may even have to try it out on some of the finished tunes.

Layering sounds

This is a new instrument to me, and as I'm not used to 8 strings and foreign tunings, one with a real learning curve.  However, picking basic rhythms seems to work well in this context.  I ran this direct into my mixer.  The amp was not mic'ed.  I also added just a touch of compression from my previously mentioned software purchase.  Someone obviously doesn't share my enthusiasm.

Soloed:



A portion of this same solo within the song:

Track count

I'm not ready to wrap this up yet, and I've got 19 tracks open in this song.  Usually, I rarely have to switch track banks in my hardware.  I have kind of a haunted vibe happening in this song right now.  We'll see where it goes.

At first I was excited

... about having reached 1,000 views on this blog.  Then I realized that half of those are probably me.  Wait, not the 4 people that visited this week from Brazil, though!!  Viva los Brasileños.  For the overall non-US visitor leader, Russia holds that title with 48 total views.  

Holocene ideas

Here is something I may use to branch off from...  It seems like a good starting point for the intro to verse transition.  Still playing with the bass line. Cut, chop, paste, repeat.  I added some original pad movement by combining my Alesis Ion hardware synth with some modulation and sidechaining.

Something about this song..

...begs the use of sidechaining.  Working hard on the project on this long weekend.

Snare roll ducks drums in the beginning, bass ducks kick toward the middle.  I've only used a little LFO Tool so far, so no true sidechaining using compression until now.  Sample of my initial remix idea to come soon.

Holocene progress

I'm making slow steps toward a main groove for this song.  So far, I'm assembling this one using existing stems, with some synths and bell sounds added in the Maschine software.  I'm really looking for the one main section to be able to carry the tune on a standalone basis, so it has to be strong.  Although YouTube is full of great remixes from this album, there's really not a lot of Holocene remix attempts that I find really great and original.


Here's the one Justin chose, which really is a creative and well produced take on the song:
Bon Iver Holocene (Kyson Remix) http://awe.sm/aDH4F

And at once I knew....

...that this next song will be incredibly difficult to do justice. To listen to Holocene with headphones on is like a gift. It's a strong contender for my favorite song on the album, and an example of a hit single being a great representation of the rest of the album. It's tempting to grab a sample and run with it, but I'm afraid that I'm going to have to deconstruct this entirely before I build it back into something different.

Minnesota, WI final draft

Happy New Year

You've already heard one of my resolutions for this year.  Stay on task with this project and keep making music.  I rolled out of bed and walked the dog this morning as my New Year's eve was pretty low key.  Everyone must have been recovering because it was quiet out there.  Cold, too.  I actually listened through the album again.  The mood really matches a winter walk.  Just perfect.  I took a few photos.

Long road

Pretty sure I've mentioned it before, but this is a relatively unorthodox style of music to remix.  I'm finding it difficult to tastefully re-imagine these songs.  I feel that if this were a for-on-the-floor type album, this would be far easier.  For lack of a better term, things would "blend" better.  It also doesn't help that these songs are so intricately composed and arranged.  Instruments come in and out, and not necessarily when you'd expect.  This makes things a challenge, as you can't go by the grid.  Still enjoying the process, though it's tougher than I would have thought.  Minnesota, WI is developing with painstaking effort.