I made a remix...

Well I started this remix with the thought that Ableton was really not a friend of mine - I have previously found the program difficult to work with, and have usually ended up not being hugely pleased with what I have created through it. The remix began quite tiresomely; getting used to the program WHILST aiming to create a cool-sounding product was not easy. 

As I progressed through this remix, however, I started to find the program quite satisfying to create music in! I greatly enjoyed making this remix! Ableton enabled me to be creative and experimental, so it’s a good DAW I conclude.. I think I’ll even continue using it of my own accord.

Anyway,To begin with, I worked with the stems I received from Honey Buckets’ original song (Let Me Down); editing the parts and warping them. I made short sequences that I liked and looped them. Once this was done I thought I’d better throw in some music around it… I started by creating my own synthesiser sounds; using Operator and Analog to build simple MIDI loops along to the Vox and Bass parts. This gave me a grasp of where the sound was heading, so it was easier to continue with the additional features. 

As I was playing the MIDI parts, I thought the track started sounding like Fame by David Bowie, so naturally thought it would be groovy to add a bit of that brilliant track in there!
I had way too much fun and spent too much time literally messing about with Bowie’s vocals; making strange sounds to add an oddity to the song.

Throughout making this track, I took ear-and-brain-breaks, and also re-centralised by listening to electronically-produced music that I enjoy - especially Alt-J. On an occasion listening to Taro, I thought I’d love to add the very beginning of the track (an absolutely beautiful sound) somewhere in my remix! It flowed well as a bridge between two parts, and a random divergence from the song thus far.

By the end of my arrangement, I realised there were quite a lot of parts and random sounds I had made that I didn’t end up using in the final edit, but it was good to have a selection of musical phrases to choose from - I like arranging music so it made that process more complex and interesting.

Before my final edit, I showed Nick (the friend who gave me the stems from the Honey Bucket recordings) a draft of the song - he 'approved' it, and said how he likes the style of it and how it differs from the original (which is something I wanted, so that's cool).
I'm looking forward to showing the band!

And after all those words, here is the track -