Finishing Touches

Just adding the finishing touches to the remix along with sorting out muy arrangement/mix. when iv finished mixing down and i go to export i intend to put a limiter on the stereo bus just to boost the volume a sligh notch. if i was to get the remix mastered i would have to take the limiter off.

The next post will be my evaluation and a download link with my final mix.

Joker interview

Iv just found this interview of Joker & his mc Nomad talking about 'the purple sound' found this quiet funny and interesting

Further research on Joker production techniques

As i am progressing with the remix i felt that it would be useful to look at more joker tracks (mainly remixes) for inspiration on varrying the sound of my mix. iv been looking at the following tracks:

Sub Focus - Could This Be Real (Joker Remix)
Adam Freeland - Do You (Joker remix)
The Heavy - How You Like Me Now (Joker Remix)

This has helped because i plan to make a breadown with a different style of bass/notation.

MP3 of track so far

DOWNLOAD LINK:- http://www.sendspace.com/file/awmfuo

above is a download link of a 320 MP3 of the track so far. As i am more than half way through the next audio i will post will be my final mixdown.

Arrangement

Last night i spent the majority of the evening working on my remix. Id say that im 75% finished and have added the main elements of the song. i intend to make the track around five minutes long this incorporating breakdowns and an outro. sticking to the joker them im going to try and find smaples that i can put through the whole track for transitional purposes (getting from 16-16 bars). so i can keep tabs on what part of the song is what i plan to colour code the blocks im working with.

Drums

Just mapped my drums into the project via the Redrum. Iv mainly used heavy sounding drums to give that 'joker' feel to the track i also added some swing to give the drums a more natural sound.i plan to vary the drum pattern throughout the track to give variation to the arrangement.

Progression Of Remix

Iv been adding transition fx to my remix to build up teh intensity when the song drops into the first verse. iv recently been studying joker tracks for tips on arrangement. iv been listening to the following songs for ideas:

Joker - My Trance Girl
Turboweekend - Trouble is (Joker Remix)

whilst building the intro i started to make a synth main bassline using the malstrom and starting from an initializes patch. To almost mimic the 'typical' joker bassline i mainly stuck creating square and saw tooth sounds to get that gritty/grainy sound also incorperating pitch bends into my melodies. im happy with the way it sounding so far and dont think it will be very long until iv finished.

Starting the remix

I acquired the audio from confetti on Friday which gave me the weekend to check it out and see what I could do with it. As I am using Reason to create my remix I imported the selected audio files into Recycle so i cud import them through the 'Dr octorex player' as of now i have created the intro to my track along with a build up to the drop.

Producer Profile: Joker

Liam Mclean aka ‘Joker’ is a 22 year old Dubstep producer from Bristol. He is the owner of the label ‘Kapsize Records’ which includes releases from artists such as L-wiz, Rustie and Ginz. At the age of 18, Joker released ‘The Kapsize EP’ which came out on ‘Earwax’, a label run by one of Dubsteps pioneers ‘Pinch’. This clearly signifies that at a young age Joker was making records which were of a high standard. Throughout the years Joker has had releases on a range of labels from ‘Terrorrythm records’ to ‘Hyper dub’ but mainly through Bristol based labels such as: ‘H.E.N.C.H’, ‘Soul Motive’ & ‘Tectonic’.

Being known as an extremely versatile producer, Joker has covered remixes from Mainstream artists such as: Professor Green, Simian Mobile Disco and Turbo weekend (Danish rock band). Although Joker is considered to be a Dubstep producer, his sound tends to contrast from the typical dark and moody side of Dubstep and swings towards the high end almost uplifting aspect. Joker’s musical interests include Jungle, RnB, Hip Hop, Funk and soul which are demonstrated in his own songs.

Purple? “Purple is a colour,” states Joker mock seriously. “Purple is blue and red, so I mix blue and red to make purple. But really, my music is like Sega Mega Drive meets R&B meets grime with a little bit of Dubstep thrown in and a funk twist.”
Source: (http://www.thestoolpigeon.co.uk/news/joker-is-quite-a-card.html)

Outlined by this quote Joker refers to his own music as ‘Purple sound’ as it is said that this is the colour he sees when listening or creating his music. This perception of ‘Purple sound’ is also practiced by other Bristol-based producers such as ‘Gemmy’ & ‘Guido’. Though ‘Purple sound’ is not an actual genre; the main basis of the meaning comes down to the synthesizers and sounds produced. Every Joker song has a signature bassline or sound whilst the rest of the components run freely throughout the record. Production techniques include: 808/909 like drum kits, Legato basslines which are usually pitch bent, RnB/ Soulful melodies, heavy sub sections,1/16 arpeggio sections and syncopated drums usually with shuffle applied. Joker uses a range of methods to produce music, mainly using a combination of Reason & Logic to sequence his work; he also relies on hardware (outboard fx/proccesors + synths) to give it that studio sound which a lot of producers aspire to achieve.

Joker is iconic to the Dubstep genre because of his original and unique approach to creating music. Whilst a lot of producers within the genre were looking upon big names for inspiration, Joker took what his musical interests were and crafted a truly unique sound greatly valued by Dubstep fans around the world.