you should probably read the info on this first and adjust your expectations accordingly.
also - please don't take my slagging of fleetwood mac too seriously - they're just not my thing (too 'nice' and clean, 'perfect' production for me), and yes i know that on top of all the actual production work needed for it, there was personal relationships problems & drugs & everything else going on which may have extended the recording time of the album - i know all that, it's just that i don't care
and oh yeah - this is obviously not my own work - FM wrote the tunes, random internet people made the midis, propellerheads made the software, other people made the drum beats that were turned into the dr.rex loops i used and apple made the laptop - i just did the last bit of the work in squashing all those bits together - so yeah, take whatever copyright/fair use/theft view on that you like
in 1976, fleetwood mac went into 'record plant studios' in california. a year later they emerged with 'rumours', which spent thirty-one weeks at the top of the billboard charts and went on to be a diamond selling album, and everyone says it's great and blah blah blah...
but c'mon - aside from being AOR bollix in the era of punk - they took A YEAR to record it (!) - ONE album (!!) - ELEVEN tracks (!!!)
even allowing for coffee breaks, cigarette breaks, booze breaks, hang over days, days spent playing lux instead - i still think i would be hard pressed to take a full year to make one measely album. and like - i'm not even that great a musician - those guys are supposed to be talented, professional and competent.
...so i'm not so sure if that's really true.
to test this hypothesis, i'm pitting myself (a lowly amateur armed only with an iBook & Reason) against this supposedly great band - i shall attempt to produce a better version of their 'classic' album in under 24 hours - and prove just how crap they really are.
so right - assuming that they had some idea of what songs they were gonna record beforehand (ie: that they weren't all written in the studio) and that they were talented musicians, we can take that as the equivalent as me having the midi files i downloaded and letting the computer play them.
i feel this much makes it a fair and accurate scientific comparrison
so let the games begin...
wednesday, 17 may, 2006
12:00 - well that's a good start - the midi file i have for this doesn't seem to open... - back to google i go...
pah! no luck there - the only place i could find a a possible file was where i got this one - and it isn't even there any more.
ah well - i'll come back to this later if i still can't grab a midi anywhere, i'll just slice up the mp3 into a rex loop and try that (although, that would be cheating on my experiment...)
12:30 - anyways, onto track 2 - this one seems to be popular, i had no problem in finding midis for it - listening to one now...
ok, this sounds familiar alright...
[note: oh yes, i should probably mention that i've never actually listened to this album before - i'm pretty sure i have heard a few of the tracks before, but the only one i could put my finger on is the one from the forumla 1 - and i don't think i know the rest of the song - just that bass riff bit...]
anyways - back to 'dreams' - ok, that's sounds workable, i'm thinking mid-paced, hip-hopish beat - so here we go...
ok that was easy - the file had the instrument names on the channels, so i kept some of them as they were and the basic track came together in about 10 minutes, the rest was just tweeking little bits and selecting the right rex loops.
13:20 - track 3 - oh jebus, this midi sounds awful - don't recognise the track at all at all... - ok, i think it's time to grab a can of redbull and go all hardcore on this one...
that was a tough one - there were just 2 acoustic guitar tracks, and one or two 'notes' for some vocals & fret noises - so eh, some copy & pasting and 6 dr.rexes involved - this wont be the best track of the album, but i think i can say with confidence that this how fleetwood mac would have done it themselves if they knew how...
14:05 - ah feck, listening to the midi now and this one is all upbeat and happy & bouncey - this will definitely need to be transposed a notch or two. no idea what to do with this one, so eh - i guess i'll just import and see what happens...
14:35 - wah! this track is far too bouncey happy for the likes of me - i think it's time to scrap that effort and try again...
ah feckit, it'll do... - that one was a bit crap - but that's FM's fault for writing such an inanely bouncey song - it took me an hour, and i guess that's as good as it'll get.
15:35 - now it's time for a food-break and to actually listen to the originals of the few tracks i've done so - just to see how well i'm doing
'dreams' isn't such a bad song actually (and yeah, i'm pretty sure i have heard it before) - my version isn't a million miles away from it either, so that's kinda good.
'never going back again' - jebus, that is awful - all picky acoustic guitar crap - so yeah, quite happy that my version is completely different (and way better)
'dont stop' - yeah - shite - don't feel so bad about my effort now.
16:15 - i think i might know this one (it's the one that goes 'you can go your won way' right?) - midi file sounds mank - tis more rockin' tho, which is good
that was a bit bollix as well - it ended up sounding a bit eighties and cheesey, and again it took an hour to do it, this sucks - i gotta get quicker at these.
17:20 - ah feckin'hell, not another one of these - it's just piano (and a trumpet or something for what i guess is the vocal line)
ah - there was something quite satisfying about that - it's about time FM had an industrial noise edge to 'em.
17:50 - right this is the one from the formula 1 - actually, the first part of the song doesn't seem too bad either judging by this midi - awful long tho - ah well i had idea for what to do with this one, so i might take my time with it.
mwuahahaha - not exactly my original idea - but close enough i guess
review:
'go your own way' - yeah i know this one - it's a bit on the wanky guitar side, but still, not the worst song in the world
'songbird' - yeah, it's just piano and vocals *yawn* - but yeah, considering i'm not doing any vocals in these, i think i did alright with such light raw material
'the chain' - aw man - the close harmony vocals are all a bit crappy - but aside from that, it's quite good (just in need of filthier production)
but yeah, just noticed that it's slowly getting heavier as the album goes on - maybe i should take it down a notch for at least one of the next few.
19:00 - but now it's time for a break...
20:20 - food, shower & coffee later and it's back to track 8 - ah feck - it's a bit upbeat and major key, not as bad as that other one tho - i could try make it really sleazy ... somehow
ok - that comepletely changed as it went along - another hour long one there - but there was plenty of changing stuff around and 'you computer is a slow piece of shit' errors, so i guess that's ok
i think this will be one that i'll grow to love or hate - can't quite tell yet, and there's no time to dwell on it now...
21:20 - this sounds a bit shit - but that may just be the midi
meh - it must be the song itself, because my mix is a bit shit too - why didn't i pick a good album to remix..?
22:15 - this sounds a bit more promising - sleazy grindiness ahoy...
strings always seem to make things that bit more dramatic - kinda happy with that
22:50 - right, last track (sort of) - hrm - potential, but it seems like it cound be building up, but just isn't - i'll see if i can do something about that...
aw man - i think i'm getting a little tired of this now - 20 minutes short of the 12 hour mark and it's really time for another break.
i'm not so sure about that last one - maybe i'll come back to it later.
thursday, 18 may, 2006
00:30 - remember way up at the top of the page i couldn't get the first midi to work? well cliph has just stepped in and sent me one he had - just had a listen - it works - and as for the song - well i'm feckin sick of GM midi at this stage, so i'll just get on with it...
01:00 - ahahaha - after all my complaining about their upbeat & happy songs, i go and make that into an irritatingly bright & boppy track - and that's the first one on album... - ah well, it starts like 'my lovely horse', so what could i do?
review:
'you make loving fun' - that's shockin' cheesey that is - ha - it almost sounds like it could've been done in GM midi - as for the words, i'm just glad i didn't have to include those.
'i don't wanna know' - oh dear, that's just country-pop crap.
'oh daddy' - oh right - so it's just the same as my mix then? :) that one's actually alright (except the multi-vocal shit again).
'gold dust woman' - this sounds like it could be the start of a throwing muses song - oh wait - until their stupid group vocals come in - if they just had more distortion & pace and less group vocal shit, they could be a alright band - and yeah, the song doesn't really go anywhere.
and last but ..'first': 'second hand news' - *yawn* - tis a bit bright and bobby anyway - so i guess my annoying mix is ok.
03:15 - i've just run the exported audio through cubase (the mastering suite in reason is good, but it's nice so the see waveform and run it through some overall EQ & the sonic maximiser plugin)
and the end of gold dust woman still wasn't working for me, so i tried to do something cool with the fade out - doubled the track, put on on infinite delay & big reverb the slowly brought the level up from zero towards the end - the delay seems to be working on inaudible frequencies, because the output level is right up, but you can't hear anything at the end of the track - but yeah, with the second delayed track coming up in the mix, the compressor/limiter is squeezing everything lowerer and lower as the silent feedback is coming up so it gives this nice and dirty fade effect - which i quite like - but enough of the nerding!
what i really wanna do now is blast them out at volume 11 on the regular stereo - but it's 3am (eternal) and my flat mates probably wouldn't appreciate that (they got jobs to go to in the morning - losers) - so i guess i'll call it a night, give my ears a rest and give the tracks a last going over in the morning (before noon obviously).
11:00 - ah bollix, i knew i shouldn't have gone to sleep - but y'know FM probably slept for a portion of that year so i guess it's only fair that i do so too.
i've got time now to listen to the tracks on a regular stereo and make maybe only two mods to the tracks - so i'll have to choose carefully...
12:10 - and we're done (just shortened two of the tracks that just seemed to go on and on) - i'm slightly over the deadline time - but feck it, i'll just discount the first half hour of midi file searching yesterday.
so yeah - there you go, 'rumour' in 24 hours.
now it's time to have some breakfast, encode the mp3s and stick all this online.
so yeah, some of the tracks (yeah 'some') are a bit crap and some are just plain sloppy - but there's a few in there that i quite like - 'dreams', 'the chain' & 'oh daddy' - which just happen to be the 3 best on the original album
without the constraint of 24 hours would i go back and fix some of them up properly? - no, the main point (and fun bit) was doing this is such a short time frame - trying to make them work 'properly' would defeat all that - so yeah, they're staying as is.
overall - i'd have to say it was great craic and i'd definitely recommend you try something similar yourself - whether it's making a short film or fucking up a classic album or whatever in just 24 hours - go do it's only one day out of thousands you'll have to waste. (in fact, here you go - this'll may get you started if you wanna do the Reason thing)