Tuesday, January 22, 2008

That You Would Not Believe: The Mixing Process




I haven't spent this much time on one song in a long time. Really. This whole year I've been cranking out at least a song a month (ok, a few of those "songs" were little more than weak instrumental jams, but still, I was trying). But I digress.

I have the evolution of this song in these mixes.

This demo was the first inspiration. You can hear many of the elements are in the latest mix, but it's definitely evolved since the demo.
First full demo.

The things that I wanted to keep:

-the "gang vocal" of "Just get, get me out of here". I liked that.
-the funky bass line

What I wanted to do after listening to my demo version a few times:
-a tighter bass line (more consistent).
-a big noisy guitar section

Here's the first updated version (SupaMix2)


What I did:
-I had to break down exactly what I was singing that made the gang vocal sound good to me. I sat down and wrote out the notes as best I could for each part, and then tried to recreate what I had done randomly in the demo version. That took a long time.
-added percussion to add some elements to the

What Joy wanted to hear:
-some handclaps for the end chorus

What Joy got:
-handclaps for the chorus


That You Would Not Believe SupaMix 5 with handclaps and enhanced bridge.

-I attempted to make the vocals as "up front" as possible while maintaining the power of the instruments.
-I cut the intro section and made it all shorter with no "gang vocal" until after the first verse
-I added some sound effects into the first verse (restaurant noises and champagne cork pop)
-I upped the acoustic guitar in the second verse
-the bridge was a big problem for me (1:26)...it never seemed to have enough power, so I added some instrumentation, played with the tambourine panning and volume, added some guitars and keyboards to give it a little more "thickness".
-I made the last chord hit of the song more solid and loud


You've come a long way, baby.

Here's the original post with the lyrics.

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