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.

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

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