44 FUSION EP
GET FRESH
1
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Meaning
Get Fresh is a transformation anthem. Anyone familiar with the notion of needing to change to either escape or arrive at a destination will recognise the need for energy & sheer will to achieve said goal(s). Especially when done independantly, the required level of focus is tremedous to stay the course. So much so that most fall short due to any number of variables. Money, time, responsibilities, fear, anger, the list is endless. I tried to convey the resilience & energy we need to persist throughout this track. Hopefully it helps someone else too. In terms of the vocal message about 'Computer Love', this is an ode to the online creative community. Both those who create and go through the physical & mental torment of committing to grueling schedules of production across whatever platform & to the communities that subscribe and encourage us to keep going. It's also part social statement encouraging positive racial equality across the online community.
Making Of
Loads of fun making this track. It was actually totally different after the 1st draft & stayed that way for over a year before being re-worked thanks to the advice of a DJ friend who advised the intro was too long to mix and too tame for an EDM track. Anyone familiar with Streets of Rage 2 may recall the 1st boss behind the bar in the rain. That beat was one of my favourite among the many other classics from that awesome moment in gaming history & Get Fresh started as a salute to Yuzo Koshiro & Motohiro Kawashima who've heavily influence my production style. The intro is designed to creep up on the listener, like a warm-up or psyche-up. A low pass filter across the synth lets you know whats coming but keeps the tarp over the bonnet while the compressed vocals shouting 'Get Fresh' & 'Hoah' hit front & center. I used the typical EDM arsenal of risers, sweeps & sound efx to set the stage and sequenced subtle rhythm overheards to keep the momentum and give DJs that all important timing reference. The synth gets chunkier after 16 bars via the use of the Reason unison effect. Rather than add another element to build the energy I thought it better to just re-emphasie the message with more power after the Hoah! The main snare and secondary sub-snare heard every other bar both have small amounts of reverb with very short tails for dramatic effect whilst all other percussive elements are completely dry to maintain clarity. Althought my favourite part of beat is definitely the throwback sped-up 'new jack-swing' secondary beat you hear every 15th bar. The main vocal is me put through a vocoder twice over. I'm not a fan of autotune to be honest & a vocoder just sounds softer and smoother when eq'd & compressed tastefully. Plus i'm a huge Roger Troutman fan (hence the 'computer love'). The guitar solo was hella fun to write too. Loads of sweeps across the fred board, some Hendix inspired finger trem & light phaser pedal effects best heard during the single high notes at the end of the solo. I added some glitch effects and synth rewinds for the 2nd drop and mashed up the synth melody to keep things interesting as a kinda 'go nuts' bit i'd typically fetaure in drum & bass tracks.
Tech Stuff
Produced on Reason, re-wired through Pro-Tools. Mixed in Pro-Tools. Weapon of choice: Reason Unison
Mastered at Metropolis Studios London by Stuart Hawkes
2
DON'T GET TOO COMFORTABLE
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Meaning
Don't Get Too Comfortable is a 'pick-me-up' track for those moments of self-doubt you may find yourself in from time to time. By no means to be taken literally as advising you to never ask for help, That would be madness! But by & large internalisation of ones problems is typically better than externalisation i.e. blaming others for your failure or lack of opportunity. A sure-fire receipe for prolonged frustration & stagnation. Alternatively, looking inward & finding ways to circumnavigate or solve life's obstacles by thinking & working smarter & harder typically results in a better outcome for you and those you care for.
Making Of
DGTC was a track with no lyrics at all before it took its current form. It started as a tripped back tribal house beat with the light echoed soft stabs you hear as a constant behind all the other elements of the track. The sound/melody i'm referring to can be heard most prominantly when the track drops or during the breakdown at 2min 18secs. I recall being hypnotised by this and just looping it on its own for ages and just listening to it. This happens quite a lot during production my long production stints when I have no deadline. The main bass sound is a warm staple synth sound heard across almost all electronic genres. For production is an 80's sound marker that remains timeless & perfect without processing. I recently heard an awesome example in Don Toliver's track 'Cardigan'. Such a sexy sound :-P! The guitar was a quick win. I just played by ear to find the right notes as i'm not classically trained. I then used an octavia fuzz pedal to create a subtle multi-chorus effect heard at 2mins 48secs and again 3mins 33secs. This is far quicker and sounds more precise than recording and adding another layer. The vocals are two layers of my voice smoothed out with eq & compression, a dab of 4/4 delay & tasteful expansion & de-essing. Although I much prefer the heavily reverberated female vocal 'Bah!' towards the end of the track. Makes me think of Jessie Ware. I've always loved hearing piano note slides, so I jumped at the chance to finally throw one into my own track. I opted for 8 bit computer notes as they just sounded magical & in the context of the track, symbolised the magic moment of success when your plan finally works. The last phase of the track is made to be symbolic. It represents the platueu phase or distraction we all reach or face at some point throughout our journey. Or the moment when things start to go awry. The solo is the temptation or distraction, the sharp stabs are the jabs of common-sense reminding you of what you should be doing. But, the plateu period/distration fizzels out, as does the solo, leading into a renewed more reinforced focus/conscience that finishes the track by returning to the original formula that started on the righteous path to begin with.
Tech Stuff
Produced on Reason, re-wired through Pro-Tools. Mixed in Pro-Tools. Weapon of choice: Pro-Tools Expand 2
Mastered at Metropolis Studios London by Stuart Hawkes
3
NO ONE ELSE
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Meaning
No One Else is about the frustration of job interviews. One of, in my opinion the most degrading experiences of modern life. It's essentially begging Urgh!! What makes it worst is the fact that job interviews aren't based on meritocracy at all. Once you obtain a management position or become the recruiter you understand you rarely employ the best candidate. It's usually down to who you like (for any number of reasons & bias) & who works best politically & socially. Both factors are beyond the control & scope of the interviewee. Anyway, No One Else does have an abstract scenario set within the premise of a job application, but to reveal it here would ruin the music video. So watch this space.
Making Of
NOE was written around the same time as the 1st draft of Don't Get Too Comfortable. It was one of the stripped back electro-house tracks I was experimenting with at that time & like DGTC it's undergone a makeover since the first draft. The original snares were nothing like the big-beat style of the current version. The whole beat was originally comprised of 808 samples but they just couldn't deliver the weight I was looking for. The 808 hi hats managed to survive though, along with the classic 808 claps you'll hear every 16 bars . They compliment the variety of synths used throughout the track and the eventual vocoded vocals in ways acoustic percussion can't. The synth stabs heard from the beginning have a sweeping filter that gives it that melodic movement. It may sound like more than one note but it's actually the same note repeated just in an off-tempo rhythm. However the secondary synth stab you hear after 8 bars is played on different notes. No audio trickery there. Reading/learning producers should try this effect. Rather than complicate a mix with multiple melodies you can use phase, flange or filter sweeps across a couple of channels to create sweeping sounds that fool the listener into thinking they're hearing notes that aren't there. Like DGTC I threw some heavily delayed light background notes from 31secs onwards. I loved how 'wet' they sounded, like little raindrops. The Waves Morphoder came in handy for the verses. It sounds great right out the box, especially after adding some reverb & delay, followed by heavy compression to bring it the front of the mix. With so much digital sound I new the right acoustic element would provide a little counter balance. What better than the unanimously loved piano? A reversed unanimously loved piano, 1st heard 2mins & 46secs in. In keeping with most pojects I had to feature Rosewood at some point, & the end of the 1st first chorus felt like the best way to emphasise the sentiment & emotion of the lyrics with a reinforcing guitar statement. This solo's opening extended note with tremlo seemed a logical fit. The rest kind of wrote itself. I let the track dictate the direction of the solo ending it with the notes from the chorus & a little power slide. Note, there's an actual bassline during the 2nd half of the guitar used to drive the track and add weight. It would have featured earlier but during the solo seemed like a logical progression for the track. To match the new low-end input I added a hi-mid stab sequence with rapid wide panning. Listen carefully & you'll hear it popping between your ears after 3mins 47 secs. Lastly the 'choose me' vocal has a synchronised low frequency oscillator (LFO) with a square shaped wave pattern. That's what makes it skip the way it does, added a little reverb and voilà. All done.
Tech Stuff
Produced on Reason, re-wired through Pro-Tools. Mixed in Pro-Tools. Weapon of choice: Waves Morphoder
Mastered at Metropolis Studios London by Stuart Hawkes
4
DON'T
GO
HOME
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Meaning
Don't Go Home is exactly what it says on the tin. I wouldn't claim to call it a party anthem, but the obvious setting is a party with a clear message. New years eve, birthdays, dorm parties, or fri/sat nights. The feeling's always been the same, no-one ever really wants good times to end.
Making Of
This current version of Don't Go Home is pretty close to the original. The only major additions were the vocals & the guitar solo. Incorporating both meant the entire arrangement had to be re-worked. The lead melody is a favourite of mine. I love how it cycles endlessly. I recall it put me in a similar trance state to that of DGTC once a delay was added to it. The 2nd layer beneath it is the bass lead & like the aforementioned lead melody it features a high pass filter until around 15secs in, where the veil is lifted and all elements are freed alongside the gradually unfiltered main drum beat. The 2nd Lead or bass lead if you prefer, is another example of that 80's bass synth used in DGTC, only this time the listener gets to hear how this bass sound behaves when the notes have no decay & become endless until the note/key is released. In terms of vocals, once again I was having so much fun with the morphoder I had to bring it back. This time as a real-voice duet. The premise behind the two styles is designed with a music video in mind. I won't spoil it, but just so you know, it's supposed to be two people.
I deliberately beat sync'd the pre-drop speech so DJ's can use it as an acapella provided they line it up correctly during the intro. Then there's the main drop bass-lead, which sounds more like a prolonged melodic fart on it's own, but pretty rugged when combined with the beat, overheads & a decent set of speakers. The overheads are a processed & sequenced cow-bells similar to those heard is Beyonce's 'crazy right now' & are accompanied by a subtle background alarm sound that sounds like the word 'eye' pitched-up. Music production is so strange, of all the main elements of a track, I find it's always the little things you end up liking the most. These little things may not be the focal point or the element you spent the most time working on, but like the songs you make that people like the most, it's always completely unpredictable & unexpected. The feint alarm sound, that 'eye' background vocal, alongwith the intro lead are the bits I pay most atttention to whenever I re-listen to this track.
To emulate a party aesthetic I chose the Big-Beat genre for it's clown-ish, brash & playful character & spliced it with 'funk' using outbursts of Saxophones, bluring guitars and a James brownish vocal 'Pomp' to maintain high energy.
For the guitar solo I decided once again to plug Rosewood directly into the 56 Saffire. Although in hindsight I should have just mic'd up my Fender tone master deluxe to get a more authentic real world sound. Ask any guitarist, the sound of a live standing amp & head, like outboard gear, can never be 100% authentically recreated in-the-box. Try both as an experiment. The direct plug gives you a very clean & pure signal to build on, but a properly mic'd rig delivers epic real-world character.
Approaching the end of the track I'd thought of two possible endings. An abrupt stop, or a wind down reminiscent of an actual house party. I was so tempted to opt for the lazy option, but in the end decided i'd be selling the work short. Also, knowing the song would be sent to a rather expensive mastering house made it all the more important not to cut corners. If you know you'll regret not putting in the extra effort down the line, might as well crack-on and get it done 1st time round.
Tech Stuff
Produced on Reason, re-wired through Pro-Tools. Mixed in Pro-Tools. Weapon of choice: Pro-Tools Expand 2
Mastered at Metropolis Studios London by Stuart Hawkes
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