by djnarrative | 2 Dec, 2013 | The Reckorder Project
Another track i worked on on a glitchy tip, but this time i wanted something more dancefloor. As always the acapella came after, but seems to fit really well, and i love the original. As you can hear i've used the 2001 space odyssey theme a bit at the start, which was as a result of some pads i used which were vaguely similar, but i think its a works well with the build of the vocal. The kick and snare were very glitch hop influenced and i cant remember much about the drums other than i started with them and wanted to get a basic glitch hop style with a little swing on the groove. The ride cymbal hats are from a really cool loop, which works nicely with the programmed hats when it kicks in i think. The bass and glitchyness was my main practice aim, and im quite pleased with the sounds created for the bass and how it moves around. It's probably a little busy, and i cant even start to imagine how it was all made as it was a week of late night sessions, but it has the neurofunk sound i was hoping for, and with some work on the arrangement and mixing and mastering, i reckon it could be a good one. Anyway another one for early next year as got a few big projects coming up for other people that need have deadlines for Jan 2014. I'll still post the useful tutorials i find, but will have to take a break from making music till their...
by djnarrative | 2 Nov, 2013 | The Reckorder Project
This isn't technically a remix, but i used a bit of Bobby Mcferrins circle song so its become one. 🙂 Again im writing this retrospectively as i didnt log my progress, but my original intention was to create a soundtrack to a moonlit walk, inspired, unsurprisingly by walking under a full moon with overhanging trees on either side. I started playing some halo drum (vst) and strings, and wanted to create something glitchy but not glitchy hop, beautiful, but not cheesy, and i was listening to Tippers amazing broken soul jamboree a lot at the time. I was trying out a lot of resampling with this and manually chopping up the bounces. I also wanted to incorporate more of stutter edit, but using my own patches, and then editing the recorded audio. I think stutter edit is amazing, but i find it requires a strict workflow to be useful in a studio / composing environment. I've been learning after effects and video editing recently so im very visually motivated at the mo, and it does fit my vision of the moonlit walk idea, and something i could practice making the visuals too. I do like it as a track too, but think it needs a bit more work and hasn't been mixed down or arranged properly. I might pick it up again in the new year as think its got potential so will update the post if i finish it, and get recording the process while im doing to make these posts a bit more insightful...
by djnarrative | 14 Sep, 2013 | The Reckorder Project
Inspired by the Ozomatli Remix i started a new track, which has turned into more of a breaks affair and ended being a remix of Outkast's wicked Whole World track. My goal with this one was to try using more of my sample and loop library and within an hour or two i'd got the hook and idea down. I then recreated the parts with my own synths, so then followed a load of muddying up the bass with more and more layers until the track got a bit swamped, as did my head for a while 🙂 Left it for a week or so and came back and after a lot of eq chiselling i manage to retain the idea and improve the parts. To be fair i think aside from nailing an arrangement this was the main part of the it. I didnt want to let the idea go, but i knew id gone too far with the layers. Think it turned out ok in the end, and did some alloy and ozone production on it. Not a very insightful post here, but im writing it retrospectively and can't remember too much. 🙂 I'll post the download of the track as it gets...
by djnarrative | 8 Aug, 2013 | The Reckorder Project
I'm writing this post retrospectively, so unfortunately didn't record the process like i did the test tracks 🙁 Its the same for the other few i've written, but i wanted to post them anyway and share what i can remember. This track had a specific release in mind, and came together really quickly. I wanted to try and simplify the process and concentrate on getting a phat funky glitch hop breaks type track going. As always the acapella came last, and turned the track into a remix of the mighty Ozomatli's hip hop track Saturday Night I started with the kick and snare, dialling them in at 80 and 200 ish hz, to make sure they cut through and making sure that they compliment each other. I probably added some layering and all the normal equing to phatten it up, and i definitely used a swing groove to add a little funkiness to the beat and hats. Next up was the bass which was made by combining a couple of instances of massive with a seperate channel for the sub, which was basically a sine wav cut with a 60-80hz low pass turned up as loud as it can. The notes came to mind after putting in the drum groove and i literally sang the notes in, and then used the ableton 9 audio to midi function to help determine the notes. First time id used it, and it worked really well. The bridge and chorus synths and stuff all came after that and gradually got reduced as the arrangement was worked on. I tend to find i generally...
by djnarrative | 20 Jul, 2013 | The Reckorder Project
Aside from a few post dated tutorial posts i've had no contact with any of my websites after all the hassle with the hosting. I think they're running well no, but after the month spent i needed some time off the reckorder project and got busy finishing the painting and getting some sun. Yesterday however i received a really cool email from my favourite birmingham based label beta birmingham asking if i had any tracks for their next compilation of remixes. Harley liked a couple on my soundcloud and asked for anything more recent. Pointed him to the reckorder project site and he wants the superstition remix! I'm too critical of everything i make at the best of times, but hearing such positive feedback from someone i'd such respect for as a producer really made me reconsider the approach. I do think the track needed work as it was only intended to be a practice track, but listening back to it with fresh ears i'm hearing it in a whole new light. Anyway suffice to say im going to work on it and update this post with the finished version. I'm really pleased as you can probably tell, and even though it's a free release, it's given me confidence to play people my tracks instead of waiting until i've reached the level i want to as a produce and musician, as that will always be a continuous and ever evolving process. Update : I recorded some scratches, and new parts to phatten it up, and posted the track above, However i also got working on a few others, and...
by djnarrative | 12 Apr, 2013 | The Reckorder Project
After a week of sorting 25, 000 records and 20, 000 samples into playlists i hopped back onto Ableton to knock together a deep dubsteppy track. It started with some Taiko drums, and ended with some samples from a documentary about how the criminal justice bill and thatcherism affected the unity of the rave scene. There's so much about on the social networks at the mo on Magaret Thatcher's recent death for obvious reason. The track started with just wanted to explore making a deep dubstep style track, but then i thought it would be interesting to juxta pose a few of the samples that id saved a while back from a documentary called the summer of love about raves in 88. The raves were a great step forward for unity in my book, and even addressed the growing violence in football so were initially welcomed by the police. After the cjb everything changed for the worse, and in an ideal world an evolved government would have in my opinion looked to enable the raves to grow into safe spaces, and build on the many positives they held before the criminals started to scavenge. When the violent gangs started taking over the festivals for their own monetary gain the whole scene changed, and the cjb shut down any attempt to revive the positive side. In my view there is a parallel between the capitalist rich conservative & the bully boy type gang, with both opting out of personal gain, with little to no awareness or thought to the whole. Ironically, one seems to be born out of the other,...
by djnarrative | 25 Jan, 2013 | The Reckorder Project
A few days after starting the iko iko track, i had an idea for a bassline for Stevie Wonder's classic track Superstition. Its one of my favourites ands so i thought it would be a good way of putting some of what ive learnt into practice, and in particular use the live bass and brass instruments. Superstition is one of the surefire tracks when i play the bham opera afterparties. To be fair every track is well received as its such a great crowd to play to, but even with such a great opportunity to play a load of funk and soul classics to a really up for it crowd of people, this track is one of the big tracks in the bag for obvious reason. For all my other gigs though, it doesn't quite have the pace (or bass) to keep up the energy in the mix, so i've always thought it would be a good one to have a go at remixing. As its such a classic i'm more going for a reedit than a remix, but it seems to be turning out pretty well so far, and im thinking maybe a cool start to a collaboration with brummy legend Mylz Hedz, (who got in touch after checking out my prequel album of remixes to ask about doing a track together), as he plays very much on the funky end of the spectrum. I normally make a remix out of laying an acapella over an existing track when i dont know where to go with it, so this was a first in using the vocal first and building...
by djnarrative | 5 Nov, 2010 | Reckorder Tutorials
Once you've got a killer track how do you get it heard. The game is constantly changing in the social media world and i'm going to write a specific post on the topic, but i just wanted to share this email that i recently received from a local up and coming singer. She's just had a track remixed by a local dubstep producer and got in touch to ask if i had any advice on how to get some gigs. Im no expert but i offered a few ideas she may not have tried and thought it might be worth sharing on here. ------------ I just wondered if you could give me some advice on where to start really please. My dubstep remix is nearly finished and my aim is to see if any djs will play it in the local clubs and if I can get any performances. Do you know any links to djs promoters etc?------- Hey Sarah If you want it played by djs then id say a good place to start to find all the dubstep events and radio shows in brum. Scour the flyers, search on facebook and google for any contact nights and contact info you can find. Then get in touch with the djs, send them a copy and see if they'd be interested in dropping it at a gig or on their show. On rhubarb radio obviously boogie and ross have a purely dubstep show, and you could also try skeleton and dolhasz who do the beat suite as they play dubstep, and also possibly brumcast as he only plays brum...
by djnarrative | 5 Sep, 2010 | Reckorder Tutorials
This is a very old tip i wrote down and is probably outdated now. Nevertheless i'll post it just in case anyone is using an older version of cubase. You never know. 🙂 One of the things i used to have trouble with was wanting to get my midi controllers controlling the virtual instruments on my computer. The ones in question were the cme uf6 keyboard (knobs and sliders), and a uc-16 controller (knobs) I'd heard about remote control, but my previous tests had no luck..This time though i stuck with it and worked it all out, so here's what i did. First open cubase sx 3. Go to device manager, remote devices. generic remote, and delete everything (just to tidy it up). Then add a controller in the top panel of the two. NOW click Learn whilst moving the first controller (on the cme). I found it took a bit of wiggling before cubase picked it up, but once it did, it displayed the controller number. THen i went to the uf editor for my cme keyboard, and clicked on send. This bought up the rotarys and faders for when the light is on (on the keyboard for the rotary's) And for the faders when the 2nd / bottom led is on. NOTE When the light is not on the rotarys and the first light is lit for the faders these appear to be the default settings so therefore not need to be changed, as they are mapped to 74, 71, 73, 72, 10, 91, 93 (and whatever midi message tempo is). The faders are all set to...
