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New track Vibes – Shadows feat. Ivan M. & Taini

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New track Vibes – Shadows feat. Ivan M. & Taini

424 Production

Vibes - Shadows

 

These are the initial lyrics of the new track from Vibes – Shadows. I have cooperated with the singer Taini more than seven years and I am always kicked on by her creativity. I have had quite few singers in my studio but none of them fitted to Vibes idea so naturally but Eva. Every time I have a new musical idea I play it to her. She gets so excited and I have the microphone ready. She is eager to improvise, I record takes and through talkback I am leading her to my vocal idea. „Super, repeat this part and then go up with your voice. Try more pausing and cutting. Do not make the vocal too long.“ And Taini is singing.

First time in a „swahilienglish“ but as she has very good English, everytime we find a meaning in the first improvising. When the rehearsal is finished, I usually get into it back and I mix and work with the vocal line. I look for interesting moments and I copy them, cut them and connect them again to put it in the final version. Sometimes I also use pitch shifter.

Vibes - Shadows, práce s vokální stopou

I often ask who or what is leading me? You have so many possibilities, don ´t you? When I finish I have the rough version of chorus and ….Also dominating idea of the meaning is arising. I change the track building and I fit it to the agreed vocal. I send this version to Taini so she could work on the final lyrics version.

Vibes - Shadows - ukázka celé skladby v Cubase 8

Víbes – More Than Just Music, is not only about music. It has its reach out to other human life parts. That is why we also spend a lot of time on lyrics and we give them high attention. We want to talk and capture human soul.

We want to support questions, evoke deeper thinking. We don ´ t only mean to speak our minds, its not a kind of self therapy. We are trying to make our lyrics to exceed timing and we want to make them accessible to everyone.

We have been working on the Shadows track over two years. We both liked the idea but at first we were not sure where do we want to lead the meaning of it. I ´m sure you know this situation too. Some tracks are finished in one evening and some you store several years in your drawers waiting for the right impulse to bring them on. And sometimes it does not come at once.

 

Vibes cooperates with Ivanem M.

I ´ve came back from a business trip one February afternoon and I have been thinking to drop at K- Audio to order the Virus TI2 Polar. A man with a breath controller EWI, with rack with Oberheim Matrix 1000 was standing at the cash desk. I heard him to speak with the shop assistant. „Please I need to connect this through to be able to use sounds from both of these devices. What options do I have?“ I knew this shop assistant quite a while and „want it or not I started to listen to them. The first thing that came to m mind was: „ This guy is really good. He knows what he is doing.“ When he left I asked the shop assistant (Peter) who the man was. „You don ´t know Ivan Myslikovjan? He is one of the best saxophone players, the best one in dance electronics scene.“ I have got the answer. I did not know him but I took his contact and the very next day I wrote him. The word gave another and in less than a week Ivan was at my studio and he said. „Ondrej, can I ask you three questions? What does the word cooperation mean to you? Who are you? And how much you will pay me for this track? I am pretty expensive.“ I was quite surprised by these questions but actually I was glad he had asked. It was obvious I had a real professional in my studio. We started talking more and in a while we have found out that we have similar view on things. I was thinking about a track I could use saxophone but Ivan sorted it out for me. When I played Shadows to him, it was pretty much decided. I set microphone and preamp and prepared the Cubase track line and we started to record. To tell the truth Ivan did the saxophone part perfectly on the first recording. I knew I could tell him there’s nothing more to record, all has been done. But anyway to be sure I decided to record three more takes.

Post-Ivan5

Mixing live and studio instruments

The next step on working on Shadows track was to find perfect connection of electronic world with the live Taini vocal and saxophone part. I really put a lot of effort in this. I do not know many tracks where the saxophone does not sound cheap or as from the 80´s hits Vibes does not tend to copy latest music trends, I use different methods and they work. Moreover the track was 7 minutes long and I needed to shorten it a bit.

One of the most expressive motives on Shadows is the sound of virtual analogue Nord G2X, which for me is a disputable instrument. I always stand for this instrument.

It’s sounds are really old-school like but its controlling with multiple knobs with their placement indication, the opened architecture as it is a modular synthesizer make sure that if you take your time and really work on it, you will produce unique sound you can never hear anywhere else.

 

Post-Shadows3

In my case it is the clean rectangle that you can hear at the beginning as well as at the end of the track. Together with the saxophone Virus B areas from Radias and FM8 create sound collage that I wanted all the time. Listen to this part of a drum track:

At the final mixing I played with the bass line and used two base lines. Then added few hit-hats to drums and ride at the end of the track. Final version of the Shadows track was as usually sent to be mastered by Ecson Waldes with whom I also have been working on a long term basis.

The result is here. Enjoy the new track. Listen. To the vocals from Taini in Vibes music and relax. You can be in the middle of the night, wanting just sit, not move and watch the days go by…. Shadows…