Temptations reincarnated in 2008

[phibeck]

Been away for a while, so will have to get up to date with the forums ....

My DJ partner gave me some Motown acapellas and asked me to make some 2008 backing-tracks for them so he could play them at his club. Well, I wasn't sure if this was going to be sacrelege to some of music histories finest - but I liked the challenge. So here is "Get Ready" with vocals by the Temptations, but with a new "club" backing track that I made.

Whats the verdict - blasphemy or new fresh approach ??

* edited to link to new file *
http://www.box.net/shared/vzxge3l348

Have a great day guys!

Philip

[phibeck]

Shameless bump to get back onto the first page.

Would really appreciate a comment or two .....

Philip.

[bluelife]

Hi, not bad at all, I'm only listening on phones because I can't be bothered to put the speakers on, so I can't really say anything about the mix.
One thing I can say though, the groove seems to go slightly out where he sings "If you wanna play hide and seek", after that something is slightly wrong to my ears, a kind of rushing feeling that makes it seem uncomfortable,

cu

blue

[phibeck]

Thanks Blue Life - I had problems with the synchronisation, so I broke the vocal track up into small bits, and aligned each bit. I thought I had got everything in place, but it seems not. I will go back and make sure that the bit you mention is fully aligned.

Philip.

[bluelife]

Hi, I was thinking the groove as such, can you post a version without vocals perhaps?

blue

[phibeck]

Ah I see - it's the groove itself that is not quite right, rather than the alignement. Thanks again - I'll go back and check that and put it right - then I can post it again with/without vocals. Might take a day or too though - thanks for the tip!

Have a great weekend!

Philip.

[rsadasiv]

Interesting take. It does sound like the tempo synched effects are not perfectly aligned with the vocals. Not sure how the DJ wants to mix this - the rhythm track sounds pretty compressed by itself with the vocals just laid on top - you might want to sidechain the rhythm track with a key from the vocal track.

Here's my take on remixing the Temptations.

I Can Resist Anything (But Temptation)

[phibeck]

Interesting take. It does sound like the tempo synched effects are not perfectly aligned with the vocals. Not sure how the DJ wants to mix this - the rhythm track sounds pretty compressed by itself with the vocals just laid on top - you might want to sidechain the rhythm track with a key from the vocal track.

Here's my take on remixing the Temptations.

I Can Resist Anything (But Temptation)

I loved your track - some nice guitar playing (amongst other things)! As an old "rocker" it pleased my heart to hear guitar in there. Do you have anything else you can share?

I didn't compress much - it just sounds that way - I'm remixing the whole thing - it's getting better !

[Baxter]

I was a teenager when this track was new, so this question is right up my alley. One of the problems with being my age and having listened to pop music for as long as I have is that you get SICK AND TIRED OF HAVING ALL OF THE SAME OLDIES RAMMED DOWNED YOUR THROAT OVER AND OVER AGAIN!! If I hear Hotel California by the Eagles one more time I START TAKING HOSTAGES!!! So, on a calmer note, it is nice when I hear a different take on some of the old tunes, such as you have done here. This is definitely not blasphemy, but more like a public service to old geezers like myself! Sounds great. Keep up the good work!

Baxter

[bluelife]

Ah I see - it's the groove itself that is not quite right, rather than the alignement. Thanks again - I'll go back and check that and put it right - then I can post it again with/without vocals. Might take a day or too though - thanks for the tip!

Have a great weekend!

Philip.

Hi

I suggested the version w/o vocals just to see if it is the vocals or not, but I think it is the groove itself.
The reason you're having problems with the vocal generally though is probably because it is variable tempo, being likely a live take. It is also normal to speed up 1-2 bpms on the chorus. Might be tricky to get it down 100%, sure you'll manage though,

blue

[phibeck]

New file uploaded now:

http://www.box.net/shared/6d5vrzvkk4

I hear where you're coming from Baxter - my personal song I hate is "The Streets of London" - give a guy an acoustic guitar, and he plays that one. After he's played the intro to "Stairway to Heaven" that is!

Bluelife: You are quite right - the vocals do vary in BPM - I've chopped them up into smaller clips, so hopefully they work better!

Thanks for all the feedback guys!

[rsadasiv]

Bluelife: You are quite right - the vocals do vary in BPM - I've chopped them up into smaller clips, so hopefully they work better!

I haven't tried slicing "Get Ready", but by and large the Funk Brothers kept accurate time (Fl Studio reports the whole track as 135 BPM - I haven't checked it in shorter intervals).

The chorus needs more legato elements. One of the key features of the original is that the verse is very staccato (basically just the snare, piano stabs, and lead vocal, which maps well onto your stuttered/tempo synched filter arrangement) but the chorus is very legato (horns, backing vocals and crash cymbal, which doesn't map well onto your stuttered/tempo synched filter arrangement), and that staccato/legato contrast is really the hook for the whole song. Also, the drums move from accenting the 2 on the verse to accenting the 1 on the chorus, which again, really supports the transition hook.

You're losing the groove on the bomp-BOOM piano/horn fill at the end of the line on the verses. Your track seems to play it perfectly aligned with the grid, but the Funk Brothers hit the BOOM a little bit early, and the snare on the straight 4 comes in right after it, producing a kind of triplet feel. I don't know - this part sounds fine during the breakdown, but under the vocals it doesn't seem right.

The panning LFO is too much. Right now I can barely keep both my ears in the same groove - heaven help the dancers at opposite ends of the club.

Hope I didn't get too nit-picky here - I just finished doing a bunch of R&B remixes this fall, so I got kind of deep into the details.

Stevie Wonder

James Brown

Booker T. and the MG's

[phibeck]

rsadasiv: Very good points - I've decided to do it all over again! Mix Meister reported 134,85 as BPM - but that was an average. On the whole - this has been good experience and a lot of fun - but I had no idea when I started that it would be difficult to get right!

I was worried that there was too much difference between the verse and chorus - but you've put my mind at rest when you say that there is not enough difference! I will try and incorporate your points - especially the shift in beat.

They knew what they were doing back then - you must have seen the Funk Brothers film a couple of years ago - great tribute to those guys.

Have a great day,

Philip

[phibeck]

Thanks once again for all the excellent advice, now here it is (yet again) in it's third, and I hope final, incarnation (I am much happier with it, thanks to the feedback you have given me, it's much better now)

http://www.box.net/shared/vzxge3l348

Have a great day!

Philip.

[bluelife]

Thanks once again for all the excellent advice, now here it is (yet again) in it's third, and I hope final, incarnation (I am much happier with it, thanks to the feedback you have given me, it's much better now)

http://www.box.net/shared/vzxge3l348

Have a great day!

Philip.

Hi Philip,

this is much better, IMO, but you are still losing the beat a bit near the middle of the song... maybe take a break and listen in a couple of days, sometimes it's hard to hear anything after a while.

Another thing which is important, it is extremely quiet, it seems compressed, but the volume is way too low for playing in a club. Also, the voice has to be handled - compression, eq, perhaps doubling to get it to sit properly, it's too far back and pretty thin. - I listened on the studio monitors this time,

cu

blue