One of the challenges of doing this using Live Loops in Logic Pro to resequence lines of dialogue from The Message is that the relationship between the start of each vocal line and the beat varies frequently. This is reflected in the vocals starting a different number of 32nd notes before the main beat in many lines, with some verses tending to start earlier than in others:
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Having extracted Mr Flash’s vocals from The Message with iZotope RX 8, my next step was to import them into Logic Pro X and convert them into Live Loops. I’d never used Live Loops before, but it turned out to be pretty simple.
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iZotope Rx 8 has a mind-blowing feature called Music Rebalance that allows you to change the balance between Vocals, Bass, Percussion and Other instruments in an already-mixed track. Here’s a visual of my starting point, The Message by Grand Masterflash and The Furious Five:
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My favourite rap song of all time is The Message by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five. It came out in 1982 when I was in high school, and I learned all the words by heart. It inspired me to imagine that I was a rapper too, and I joked around with my friends about how we we’re always bugging out (doing something else when you should be rap dancing); because we couldn’t actually rap. Or dance.
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I learned a lot from doing this assignment, particularly the practicalities of how to implement what I’d studied in the Introduction to Digital Music Techniques lectures. As helpful as the lecture material was, this is definitely something that can only really be learned by doing it.
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Today I added to my wall of sound, threw in another sample, improved the drum part, and completed the final mix of Didn’t Feel Safe.
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Today’s big addition to Didn’t Feel Safe is some dramatic sound effects to recreate a typical argument between my parents and the sounds of muffled yelling in their bedroom. I also recorded and comped the final vocals in a studio at Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
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Today I upped the tempo of my new track, incorporated the opening motif into the bridge, fixed the final bridge modulation, recorded scratch vocals for Verse 3 and added a distorted electric guitar. Good dirt!
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I planned to start today by working on the melody for the verses of Didn’t Feel Safe, but immediately heard a motif I liked which I recorded on my MIDI keyboard and ended up putting in the introduction. Then I got inspired to improve the bass line; so I’ll get to that melody later.
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Putting the verses of Didn’t Feel Safe in G major was a bit of a dick move because I want the chorus to lift by stepping around the circle of fifths, and G is a perfect 5th above C, not below. I tried to make it work by rising a perfect 4th instead, but it just sounded wrong. F major would have been a better choice for the verses, since it’s a 5th below C. One of the purposes of these blog posts is to salvage marks when we screw up and make mistakes… so all I’ll say is: Hi Damian!
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