This remix was challenging yet fun as I have had to learn how to use synthesis and sampling along with other techniques to accomplish a certain style of electronic music. The song ‘Only Music Here’ by Nectar fit great with the genre I was perusing. Drawing influence from artists such as Flume, I tried to recreate the space and texture he builds throughout his music by using long reverbs and delays and using samples of unusual percussive sounds and adding some grooves onto them (1:54).
Using some of the vocal and changing the pitch gave some variety but trying to fit other vocal part front the original track proved difficult as they were in a different time signature. Putting them through a reverb and delay, it completely changed the feel of how the vocal sat in the mix and helped gain the space and room I was looking for. My second sample from the original is an arpeggiated guitar part. It required some warping to fit the 4/4 time signature of the remix an ultimately found its place after the first chorus section (1:06). In terms of if synthesisers, I played around with the ones that come stock with ableton and found some that would take the place of some chords and others that would hold the melodies. I also used the Massive synth for the stuttered chord in the chorus (0:43) and also the arpeggio of the Em chord just before (0:40) to create variety from the rather clean and mainly sine wave based synthesis I had been using for the rest of the remix.
Drums were easy to find as ableton has a wide selection of samples, I was looking to find something that wasn’t necessarily clean and would add a little bit of toughness to the mix, so I started with a stock drum rack and removed the samples that weren’t needed and replaced the Kick with something more suitable. Using the sends writhing the drum rack I sent everything other than the kick to my reverb and delay to further push the width and space. Once I reached the point where I felt I was happy with the remix I reached out to one of the producers of the original asking for some feedback.
“I really enjoyed Nathan's remix of There's Only Music Here. His use and warping of the relevant stems (vox, guitar) really added character to the track. He was able to withhold elements of the original, while totally making it his own. He achieved his goal of an atmospheric track. The mix itself is of a high quality, perhaps some more drums could've been added to avoid repetitiveness, but overall a great remix.” - Tom
I am satisfied with the final product of this remix and learned new ways to implement samples and synths into my own music and will definitely continue to exercise these skill in the future.
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