REMIX: Bane's "Broken World"

Melodramatic remix:
https://soundcloud.com/black-sands-music/broken-world-by-blake

Warning… it’s now a full-on production! :smiling_imp: It starts off as a gentle piano ballad as per Blake’s original… but… I kinda got carried away :smiley: Sorry Blake :blush:

Quite a bit longer than the original… I changed the structure quite a bit, and well, as you will hear… the arrangement is now quite… BIG. :astonished:

Final chorus’s could probably do with a re-sing…

:sunglasses:

wow thats amazing .Well done for writing this tune Bane ,it stands up well in it`s new sunday best,great re mix.

Well, glad you liked it :slight_smile: I suspect I deviated from Bane’s original vision quite substantially and there’s always that risk of completely ‘losing the plot’ ! Anyway… I’m now re-mixing the remix…

Kevin needs to redo do the vocal :wink:

Well Mr sherz, this is a great job…and so damn quick…you’ve really made this song work, I reckon Blake should be chuffed…what’s happened to my vox…sounds like sh&t, ( maybe it was already sh&t) I can send the original if you like, not really into re singing it…don’t even like doing that with my own songs.

really well done Ian…Kevin

Well well well, look what we have here. I suppose you should have won a Grammy last night mate instead of those others. It’s incredible what a fresh take on a song will do, especially when you have access to such a different skill set than the original writer. I do agree with Kevin tho, re-singing anything is a drag.

I’m going to listen to this several times and see what I can gleam from it for the future. Your work definitely flatters the song, I wish I had that vision in the first place, but going rock without guitar skills is more than I would take on. Kevin and Fluff here both know how bad my sick mosquito HALion guitars sound. :wink:

this is true…i`m reaching for the fly swatter every time.

There’s always the risk that when you take on someone’s tune they’re gonna respond with shock and horror! :astonished: It has happened in the past. :blush:

So… in this case, PHEW! :laughing:


There were a number of issues which I tried to tackle. The recording has symptoms which I’d associate with being too close to the mic: very pronounced ‘esses’ and sibs. Also the attack on ‘k’ sounds pronounced and trailing consanants which normally I have to boost… in this case I had to do the opposite. I tried to attend to most of these issues manually, but there’s some significant ‘de-essing’ still at work. Also signs of proximity effect… which I may have been over-zealous in trying to tackle with some heafty EQ.

Tube preamp perhaps? I personally never really liked what valves applied up front did to a vocal to be honest so I ended up selling my tube pre-amp last year. People say valves impart a nice appealing warmth, but all I heard was noise and fizz. I like my vocals to go in crystal clear, the sort of pristine clarity you get form solid-state analog. Add the fizz later if you want it. There’s an element in your vocal recording that reminds me of that ‘warm fizz’ you often get from valves (tubes).

And also … did you use variaudio? I use this all the time but one thing it does is turn ‘esses’ into ‘zzeds’ if you’re not careful. I just wondered because some of the ‘esses’ sound a bit ‘zzedy’ ! :smiley:

Anyway… I’ve now tweaked the vocal EQ and replaced the mix.

Bane wanted to know what was used in the track. Here’s a quick summary:

As guessed, piano is Alicia Keys Yamaha. The original MIDI was modified… it was a bit flat dynamically and a bit over quantised I thought. I’ve tweaked velocities manually, and also randomised timing (MIDI Modifiers - velocity and timing) - just to help loosen it up a bit. Also messed with some notes… in places moving things up an octave.

Drums are Jamstix 3.x driving Steve Slate 4. Jamstix player is “Phil” which based on the fill’s style is probably modeled on Phil Collins. Tamborine is live! :smiley:

Guitars - 2 x acoustics recorded live. Lead guitar is my strat run through VST Amp Rack. Bass is HALion Sonic sample (Fingered Bassman) also run through VST Amp Rack.

Strings are Garritan Personal Orchestra. A lightweight amongst the libraries, but VERY affordable and well-suited as a backdrop to pop/rock productions where the orchestra is not the main event. Even U2 use it in their live shows! http://www.garritan.com/u2-in-concert/

Vocal harmonies were created from duplicates of Kevin’s lead vox and re-tuned to suit. Artifacts are very apparent solo’d but in the mix… seems ok?

I’ve created some sample sub-mixes, to help Blake mostly hear the various different parts making up the final mix.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5ki4ri5rkiyks3f/ziPWvkAVPi


:sunglasses:

Hi sherz…my vox goes through a Shure KSM 32 and an SPL track one pre amp ( so no tubes) did’nt us e variaudio so the problems are solely due to my ineptitude as a producer/engineer.
could be the proximity effect you mention so I will experiment with distance from mic on the song I am doing now.
this is a good learning experiance and it usually is when the “sherz” is involved.
BTW…like the guitar break.
Kevin

Well, yeah… in that case… try step back a bit. I set my pop shield about 12cm (ish) away from the mic… and then I’m standing a further 10cm away at least, more or less. It’s hard to say what an optimal distance is because there’s a number of variables involved but generally 20 - 25cm seems to work for me. Though, I have got up much closer on occasion for a more whispered delivery, but in contrast for a more energetic vocal stepping back even further may be required.

Great job Ian!
Tasteful guitar playing. :sunglasses:

Cheers,
Wim

Thanks Wim! :sunglasses: