Have you seen the Wonder Woman 1984 trailer? No? It’s been out for a couple months now! Sheesh. Well, here it is. Watch it. I’ll wait.
Okay, so now you’ve seen it and if you’re like me, the first thing you notice is the epic Blue Monday cover by Sebastian Böhm. I love the bombast, the orchestral hits, the bassline. It’s just a brilliant cover of one of my favorite songs.
Fast forward to a couple days ago. Because we’re in the middle of a pandemic, I’m practicing social distancing by being bored at home and surfing YouTube. The WW1984 trailer pops into my feed at some point and I watch it again. And then, because I’m at my desk, an idea forms. An obvious idea, but a challenging one.
New Order vs Sebastian Böhm – “Blue Monday²” (Download)
This took the better part of a couple days. The Böhm cover is just over 3:30 long, while the original is nearly 7:30. I wanted to keep the structure of the original and lay the Böhm instruments on top to flesh out the arrangement. So I let the original guide the structure until the very end where the New Order track instrumentals itself into a gradual fade out. At that point, I brought in the Böhm version and let it shine.
Well, when I say shine, I need to be clear. The mastering on the Böhm cover is a turd. It’s an over-heated turd, set alight and left on the porch of your ears (okay, pushing this metaphor too far… I digress). It’s waaay too hot, with no dynamic range. And it’s only available as an mp3, which doesn’t help. That means there’s nowhere for the New Order instruments and voice to go. It’s just a big wall of sound.
Here’s where I struggle most when I’m finishing a mix. I lack a good understanding of filtering and mastering. Multiply that by terrible source material, and it’s a recipe for sonic fatigue before you’re halfway through the track.
I did the best I could without losing the will to continue. It’s still too hot and there’s nothing I can do to control it without losing the character of the Böhm cover entirely. My apologies. I’ll probably revisit it at some point when my ears are fresh. Maybe if work closes down I will have some more time to devote to it.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy. It’s not sonically perfect, but I’m pretty proud of the structure of it. Maybe they’ll release an HD version of the Böhm cover so I can remaster this and make it sound how it deserves to sound. For now, enjoy.
