Sorry about this one.
Media used:
- Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit (studio multitrack)
- Ellie Goulding – Lights
- Ellie Goulding – Lights (Instrumental)
Production notes:
- Total production time: About 7 hours. Yeah. I probably could have spent longer on it.
- The fun part of working with vocals from rock-based music is that, generally, the BPM is slightly variable as you progress through the song. Which is a great way for the artist to manage the energy of the song, but plays hell when trying to line those vocals up with the steady BPM of a modern pop song. That process took a LOT of time to get right. The first time. I had to do it again after I discovered some corruption in the vocal file I was using and had to replace it with a new one. Fun.
- The first version I mocked up used only the Nirvana vocals, but I thought I should try to bring them both into the mix. I mocked that up and auditioned it for Jade, who agreed I should go with the dual vocal approach. I think it was the right call.
- I added reverb to Kurt’s vocals, and the pitch shift was .11 semitones. The dynamics of his vocals were very different than Goulding’s, and I probably could have spent a little more time getting them similar, but I worried about making Kurt’s vocals too “hot”. I left them reasonably untouched aside from some additional minor compression.