Separate – Jandía Mix
I guess it was the sun, sea and sand of a beautiful Spanish island which inspired me to try and turn a fabulous IDM track from Alka into a clubby groove, but that was my intention with this treatment of “Separate”.
With that in mind, I decided to name it the Jandía Mix after the small resort at the southern tip of Fuerte Ventura, where I was staying 10 days ago when this was put together.
Update: 7th October 2009
The shrill flute towards the end of this track and its incongruity with the rest of the piece has been niggling me since August. I love what Tone had done with the mastering and apart from that, was pretty happy with the track. Last week I could take no more so I opened up Cubase and played around with some different instruments. The flute has now gone and been replaced with a filter-tweaked lead synth patch from Ohm Force’s Symptohm, run through Audio Damage BigSeq2 with a little DaTube FX. Once done, I handed it back to Tone and he’s re-mastered compressing the track slightly to highlight some of the detail.
Separate (Jandía Mix) by kieronjames
And here’s a link to the original track by Alka on Last.fm.
Note re first three comments below:
I did have an earlier problem with the lead synth at 3:28. There was pretty heavy modulation on the original track which (to my ears at least) bent it out of tune – not on the original, but on the remix – so I sought comments from a few trusted Twitter folks. Responses from @digitaldoyle, @digitube and @UBLF are shown below.
I tried tweaking the EQ at 3:28 as suggested but was convinced that the part was still out of tune, rather than just a harmonics issue so I ran the audio file through Cubase Pitch Correct to see how far it was “drifting”. After adjusting and readjusting for about an hour, I ended up deleting that part and writing three new lead synth lines. I’ve also done more work on the arrangement and mix and as ever, I’d love your feedback.
Heya Kieron! Thanks for the advance listen.
I can hear what’s being perceived as the bells seeming out of tune in just a couple of places in the lower registers near the end of the bell riff where it sounds low and almost breathy and flute-like starting around 3:42 and heard again at 3:46.
But the first part, from 3:28 to just before 3:42 sounds great. There’s something in the background squashing or making those lower bells sound slightly out of tune. After listening several times, I think it could be the instrument you can hear clearly playing the 2 bar accompaniment riff from 4:16 to around 4:50. That instrument is subtle earlier on and may be stepping on just those couple of bell notes or having a frequency conflict that’s making the bells seem a bit out of sorts.
Just my opinion, though. Another nice sounding track overall!
Hi Kieron!
Thanks for the request, be glad to put my 2 cents in.
For starters, I think it sounds great!
Full spectrum of sound, Great field of depth. Timing is tight.
I can picture motion graphics with this. I listened with some Mackie MR5s and a
pair of Sony MDR V500 phones. What your hearing around 3:28 – 3:46 sounds
like a low resonance and harmonics problem. In the perfect listening environment
you may not notice it but with my setup and maybe yours the room is not perfect or
even close. The sub bass frequencies play havoc on the upper and mid bass regions.
Try using a good EQ and notch out the offending harmonics with a low Q and -3 to -6dB cut
starting at 170 Hz.
With flat headphones, I don’t hear any problem.
cheers,
Scott (DigiTube)
I like the progressive build up to the song and the mix of original with remixed parts.
I do not have the trained ear as our esteemed colleague DigitalDoyle (man, spelling is not a strong point), but I do see the point you guys make about the bell/flute sounds. In my mind the flute should be distorted a bit more – but I think that may take away from your contribution to the track.
I see where your “brighter sounds” are trying to use a contrast to bring out the sounds of alka’s original. At least to me, there’s a undertone of hope mixed in with alka’s tunes. (sometimes outright) – This mix seems to make this quality “pop.”
The nonsensical part of my mind when I first heard the voice track “breaths” sounded like the person was out of breath and trying to recatch it.
Like I said, this is the nonsensical part of my mind.
The new flute keys, with the more… uh… more “hollow” sound (?), does sound better! Very unifying (at least to me)
Done a little more work on this today. Will upload later on this evening.
Yes, this mix does sound better with the new part. Like DD said the “hollow” part has created a smoother mix. Maybe the “hollow” sound has less lower resonance? Still a great mix.
Sorry it was UBLF who described the “hollow” sound.
Quite accurately, I might add.
Much better!
One of the things I like most about the tune (and most of Kieron’s tunes) is the way he uses dynamics for the various instruments. Really gives it a great feel. Makes the head bop along involuntarily. That’s when you know you’ve got it right. ;o)
Great stuff, Kieron! Keep it up!
I think it’s a great tune. Composition is great, it keeps moving, keeps your interest.
The production, whilst well balanced, is a little early 90s sounding (not un-reminiscent of early Orbital stuff). If it were me, I’d try and grunge it up a little, get some saturation going on in each channel. Cubase’s Soft Clipper and DaTube plugins are good for this. Just make it very subtle as it’ll soon add up over multiple channels.
Another way to achieve the same thing is to use parallel compression. If you feel a part is lacking a little ‘body’, create an FX channel, insert a compressor (you could also add some distortion or saturation plugins) and send from the original channel to taste. Again, be subtle
Feel free to completely disregard any of this, as I haven’t written a half decent tune all year, and Separate is alot more than a half decent tune, nice work
Doyle, Scott, UBLF and Rozzer:
Thanks •so• much for stopping by and taking the time to feedback.
As you’ll note from the main post, I removed the part I was having a problem with and re-wrote it. I’ve also tried to tackle some low end frequency mush with EQ tweaks.
Rozzer: That’s what I was fearing. I •really• want to avoid sounding dated, felt it did and wasn’t sure which elements were making it sound that way. I’m familiar with DaTube and Soft Clipper and I’ll definitely give your idea a whirl. Thanks again.