Like the Missy Elliott remix I posted last week, I didn't start this track with a remix in mind. I was in the process of preparing for a show when I happened upon the acappella and thought it fit with one of my unfinished songs. You can hear the result below.
Blackalicious - Feel That Way (Nonagon remix) by nonagon
I ended up spending quite a bit of time on this one, working and re-working the vibe to try to get something that felt true to both my initial instrumental ideas and the spirit of the Blackalicious lyrics. I decided pretty early on that I liked the lyrics too much to manipulate (and thus obscure) them, so apart from a few timing changes and adjustments to the length of some of the "choruses" the acappella is basically straight out of the original track. Check it out:
The biggest struggle for me in developing this remix was figuring out how to work all my musical ideas in without overpowering the vocal. I think I was at least marginally successfully on that front, but my instrumental-leanings are still pretty apparent in the second half of the track.
From a technical perspective I worked a lot with panning to keep musical elements from fighting for space with the dead-center vocal parts, and used EQ on most of the higher-register instruments to "scoop out" frequencies in the ranges dominated by the acappella to give it a little more breathing room. The original acappella has a pretty tinny sound, so I EQ'd it as well to try to restore as much life as possible. Overall I'm happy with the rough mix presented here, but I might actually prefer the instrumental version, which you can download free right here.
Blackalicious - Feel That Way (Nonagon remix) Instrumental
More projects wrapping up soon (I hope)- watch this space.
No comments:
Post a Comment