Imitation tracks

Jules

We have a thread for posting your tunes here, but I wanted to start something slightly different.

I've always been inspired by classic tracks of yesteryear, and when I'm listening I like to pick out individual parts and figure out what is going on.  Few of us have access to the same instruments and resources of the big boys, but I'm fascinated by how close some people seam to be able to get to the original with their own reproduction of it.

One track in particular I've always wanted to do, is an instrumental version of Michael Jackson's Thriller.   I've tried and failed myself, but Ive heard some very decent attempts at it.

Another track I always fancied having a go at is Cher's 'Believe'.. both for its 90's cheesy dance feel and (at the time) revolutionary vocal effect.  I think this is probably easier with modern kit, and it's musically not too challenging.

I'd love to hear your imitation tracks.  It doesn't matter how bad you think it might sound, your approach will give others inspiration and it probably sounds waay better than you think.

I'm going to try and do the instrumental track for 'Believe', but I'm very slow.  I know Alan on here seams to churn out quality tracks on an almost daily basis, but I'm not in that league.  lol.

So let's hear yours.  )

Jules

How slow am I ? ... lol.  3 hours work and I've only just figured out the right chord progression for the main chorus.

I stuck a few mastering plugins on the output chain to give it some welly before I uploaded the short sample below.

Work in progress sample of Believe.

KungFuPro

Your link for the cher track doesn't seem to be working. Only track I've tried reproducing was the Eric Prydz Call on Me, something to do with chainlinking or fencing, I can't remember now, I didn't make a good job of it and didn't keep it.

Recently started to get back into computer music again and have been working on a couple of tracks.

They're not commercial songs I'm trying to imitate but my own tracks I made 20 odd years ago. I originally made them for my GSCE music compositions using an Amiga 500 /600 and step sequencer OctaMed. Just happened to find them on an old ide hard drive, thought I had lost them for good! Sound quality is poor as I had only backed them up as mp3-192kbps.

There are some parts like the drumbeats I find difficult to work out, so I'm going with new beats, also I'm having trouble with choir/harmonising pad/synth type sounds. Just can't work out what chord shape some of the synth pads originally were (plus, the way OctaMed worked was to stretch a single note to change pitch causing all sorts of unique sounds). I'm quite happy with how the single note melodies are starting to sound though.

Only got the basic melodies down for now, I plan on tweaking the sounds/mix once I've got all the parts worked out.

Although OctaMed and FLSTudio are very much 'looped based', none of these tracks contain loops, everything is single note/ one beat samples, I manually wrote all the melodies/drumbeats using the piano roll (spread sheet in OctaMed).

Track 1 - Most Uplifting (need to finish the piano solo at the end and find a better pad/harmony sound)
MostUpLifting GCSE Composition (OctaMed 94 - 95) by badchopsuey on SoundCloud - Hear the world’s sounds
MostUpLifting Remastered Clip (FLStudio 2014) by badchopsuey on SoundCloud - Hear the world’s sounds

Track 2 - Dead (got stuck half way trying to find a similar horn sound on this one)
Dead GCSE Composition (Octamed 94 - 95) by badchopsuey on SoundCloud - Hear the world’s sounds
Dead Remastered Clip (FLStudio 2014 ) by badchopsuey on SoundCloud - Hear the world’s sounds


It's good fun trying to replicate the tracks, I'm usually doing the opposite, making a track sound as different as possible to the original, like this.
Lily Allen LDN (Thrash Clip) by badchopsuey on SoundCloud - Hear the world’s sounds

Jules

Yeah sorry.. the above link got binned as I decided it was rubbish. I binned the project too so this own't be going any further.

However, I just scanned my hard drive and found an early mix down of the chorus here.

KungFuPro

Sounds well made, better than a lot of backing tracks and royalty dodging jingles (looking at you, Talksport), with the vocal acapella I doubt I could tell the difference.

Philly112

Jules, you might have seen me linking this on the musicians thread. It's Rachel Flowers playing a Zappa track, (Inca Roads) using keyboards and guitar. This was done in one day. Yep, one day.
You might want to check out the original Zappa version for reference. I realise that it's probably not radio material, and you might not know it, but it's one of Zappa's best known pieces. This version is actually better than the original in my opinion. Note that the drum parts are all Rachel banging away at her keyboard. There are no sequenced parts in this recording.
I'm not posting this as a musician who can help you chaps! Just as a friend of Rachel who wants to show people what can be achieved in a home studio. With an unnatural talent of course!

Inca Roads (Frank Zappa cover) by RachelFlowers on SoundCloud - Hear the world’s sounds

Phil