Another cover song I recorded to learn about music production. This song choice was inspired by @anthonymarinellimusic and Greg Phillinganes who designed the synth sounds and performed the instruments on the actual Thriller back in 1982. A couple of months ago, they released an excellent breakdown and re-creation of the song on Anthony Marinelli's channel. I highly recommend checking that out! I tried to follow Anthony Marinelli's sound design tips the best I could using my Yamaha Reface CS. Reface DX was my "Synclavier" for this song. The organ at the end was a patch I made with the DX layered with a Reface YC. The intro lead keyboard and the "Froggy" bass (or more like "Piggy" in my version) were also from the DX. The Rhodes electric piano was from a Reface CP. The LinnDrum and the 808 clap samples were from NI Battery. The acoustic drums in the intro were from NI Abbey Road 70s Drummer. The horns were from NI Session Horns Pro. The guitar is a Squier Classic Vibe Stratocaster played with the middle pickup, and later with a humbucker bridge pickup during the outro. The guitar sound is a DI signal processed with EQ, compression, and chorus (TAL-Chorus-LX). I tried to record the way studio musicians did back in the day: Everything (except the drums & percussion) was played by hand, long takes, no copy-and-pasting. The bass for example is mostly from one take with punched-in fills. The first verse and chorus, and the middle-section are from other takes too. I certainly could not perform with time restrictions like real studio musicians can. I had to practice and try many many times. I learned a lot from this intense process, and I think my time-feel got better towards the end. Still, there is a huge difference between my groove and a groove by a true master like Greg Phillinganes. Mixing the song was really educational and (mostly) fun. I followed the same process I did with the Stranger Things Theme -- sort of like a paint-by-numbers approach. I had the original track as a reference in my DAW synced with my own production. One by one, I added an instrument, matched its volume and panning with the instrument in the original, and tried to match the EQ too. No need to think or second guess much with this approach! I learned so much about balancing low end, and using mids to push instruments forward.
Another cover song I recorded to learn about music production. This song choice was inspired by @anthonymarinellimusic and Greg Phillinganes who designed the synth sounds and performed the instruments on the actual Thriller back in 1982. A couple of months ago, they released an excellent breakdown and re-creation of the song on Anthony Marinelli's channel. I highly recommend checking that out!
I tried to follow Anthony Marinelli's sound design tips the best I could using my Yamaha Reface CS. Reface DX was my "Synclavier" for this song. The organ at the end was a patch I made with the DX layered with a Reface YC. The intro lead keyboard and the "Froggy" bass (or more like "Piggy" in my version) were also from the DX. The Rhodes electric piano was from a Reface CP. The LinnDrum and the 808 clap samples were from NI Battery. The acoustic drums in the intro were from NI Abbey Road 70s Drummer. The horns were from NI Session Horns Pro. The guitar is a Squier Classic Vibe Stratocaster played with the middle pickup, and later with a humbucker bridge pickup during the outro. The guitar sound is a DI signal processed with EQ, compression, and chorus (TAL-Chorus-LX).
I tried to record the way studio musicians did back in the day: Everything (except the drums & percussion) was played by hand, long takes, no copy-and-pasting. The bass for example is mostly from one take with punched-in fills. The first verse and chorus, and the middle-section are from other takes too. I certainly could not perform with time restrictions like real studio musicians can. I had to practice and try many many times. I learned a lot from this intense process, and I think my time-feel got better towards the end. Still, there is a huge difference between my groove and a groove by a true master like Greg Phillinganes.
Mixing the song was really educational and (mostly) fun. I followed the same process I did with the Stranger Things Theme -- sort of like a paint-by-numbers approach. I had the original track as a reference in my DAW synced with my own production. One by one, I added an instrument, matched its volume and panning with the instrument in the original, and tried to match the EQ too. No need to think or second guess much with this approach! I learned so much about balancing low end, and using mids to push instruments forward.