Bringing New Life to Old Sessions
Have old electronic music songs that you’ve never finished and are now a little dated sounding? Producer pro Chris Herrera delivers a video series designed to help you take stock of your old songs and productions, and discover ways to make them up to date and relevant again.
Videos
• Introduction (01:28) - Chris welcomes you and gives you a brief overview of the direction of the series.
• Before & After Playthrough (04:58) - Chris walks you through the original demo from 2008 and then compares it to the updated final mix.
• Original Logic Demo (05:42) - Have a look at the underwhelming original logic session and get a feel for its poor sounds, but also its cool compositional elements.
• Preparation of Old Parts (04:03) - Zero in on the musical elements that have potential and see how to prepare them to be updated and reborn.
• Build a Custom Kick Pt. 1 (08:18) - Begin building your own custom kick drum for the track. Look at defining and importing different kick tonalities to be edited and layered.
• Build a Custom Kick Pt. 2 (04:06) - Getting further into building a new kick you'll now audition samples against each other and begin processing them.
• Build a Custom Kick Pt. 3 (05:13) - Finally, see how to render down your new kick and look at some additional processes to ensure what was created will function for the new mix.
• Kick Sub Relationship Pt. 1 (07:39) - Begin finding that all important kick/sub relationship, and import your new kick and treat it inside the DAW to ensure maximum potential before adding a sub bass.
• Kick Sub Relationship Pt. 2 (03:44) - Now we'll look at options for building a sub bass sound with a synth, as well as its programming and processing.
• Kick Sub Relationship Pt. 3 (08:09) - Discover how to render down an audio file and begin getting it to work with our kick drum using sidechain compression.
• Kick Sub Relationship Pt. 4 (02:47) - Now experiment with some master channel effects to hear what the kick/sub combo might sound like after mastering.
• Testing Master FX (04:14) - In this video, take a more detailed look at different master channel plug-in combos to get a feel for what a simple kick/sub/percussion combo might sound like after a mastering pass.
• New Elements: Acid Synth (01:48) - With much of the rhythmic backbone in place, we now look at new elements to start adding a harmonic and textural element to the track via an acid synth.
• New Elements: Simple Percussion (05:53) - Now let's bring in some simple percussion loops and begin placing them to build up our drum mix.
• New Elements: Funk Bass (03:33) - Much like the acid mid range synth, we're going to create a new bass for added texture and drive.
• A Quick Note on Workflow (02:52) - Here, Chris suggests tips for maintaining your direction, establishing your objectivity of the work, and keeping a relaxed sense of your project.
• Taking Stock Pt. 1 (03:59) - With the kick/sub, some percussion elements, and some harmonic elements in place, now reflect on what we've done so far. Also, we try out a different approach for the bass line before moving forward.
• Taking Stock Pt. 2 (04:06) - Still analyzing where we are with our current parts before getting to the arrangement or compositional elements, the emphasis now, is dialing in the percussion parts.
• Taking Stock Pt. 3 (03:23) - Now we'll take one last pass at the kick and bass elements and audition them against each other, making final tweaks to ensure all the current elements are working, and won't need to be revised again.
• Arrangement Via Template Track Pt. 1 (05:56) - Now let's look at approaches to getting the basic arrangement in place by referencing final tracks from other artists to compare the structures they have been successful with.
• Arrangement Via Template Track Pt. 2 (02:30) - Now that we have a template tack in our session, let's analyze its arrangement and create a marker track as a quick overview we can easily follow.
• Arrangement Via Template Track Pt. 3 (05:25) - Here we'll begin a basic arrangement of the track using the markers we created from the template track, including fills and transitions.
• New Life: Filter Automation (06:16) - With our core elements working well, let's maximize the acid synth's role using filter automation.
• New Life: Mid Synth Dilemma (04:01) - Since this mid synth line was in the original, we were trying to bring it new life, however, it turns out the synth just might no longer work.
• New Life: Summing Percussion (06:13) - Our percussion elements have taken shape and are mixed well, but let's now sum them and further process them to bring out a little more texture, shine, and drive.
• New Life: Clap Treatments (05:36) - To finalize our drum groove we're going to add a clap sound on the backbeat and look at some processing options.
• Before the Final Pass (06:10) - With our mix, arrangement, and new elements in place, we listen to the whole track and take notes. Ideally, if we address all of these notes we should feel confident our track is done.
• Final Play Through Pt. 1 (07:49) - With our final track in place, Chris talks us through it from the beginning, up to the breakdown section.
• Final Play Through Pt. 2 (04:56) - Now we analyze the breakdown section from the new final track.
• Final Play Through Pt. 3 (08:11) - Lastly, we look at ways to get out of the breakdown and to the very end of the track.