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Other music and off-topic => Studios, Sounds, Vocals and Tech-Talk => Topic started by: chramos2007 on August 21, 2021, 09:25:27 AM

Title: Attempting to convert another song to something close to the Cheiron style
Post by: chramos2007 on August 21, 2021, 09:25:27 AM
I decided to try and make another song fit the Cheiron style. I tried to do a full-on cover of "Call Me, Beep Me" the last time I attempted something like this but I decided to just give up on it since I not only couldn't open the project file (I still only have the FL studio demo), but also I feel like I tried too hard with it and it ended up not sounding great.

This time, I tried to just adapt another song into the Cheiron style using things that were already out there such as multitracks and stems (also to be a bit specific, I'm specifically referring to the style of something like Britney Spears and Robyn's albums - to me, the specific style of both NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys are a different beast entirely since the drums are quite a bit more complex and that's a bit too much for me ). I thought about it a lot first and I had a few requirements for it -

- Had to be a song I already knew rather well
- Had to have multitracks available
- Had to have one thing in common with a song produced at Cheiron

I ended up going with a song from a video game - "Still Alive" from Portal, written by Jonathan Coulton. The song is acoustic rock with a lot of guitars - acoustic and electronic, a simple but nice bass line and a VERY nice melody. The songs' multitracks ended up getting released via Rock Band, and I had already known about it for ages since I've replayed Portal several times (amazing game). The song also had a pattern similar to NSYNC's "I Want You Back" - every chorus is 7 measures which is then followed up by a 4 measure break and then something else.

https://soundcloud.com/chris-338945149/sa_8-21-21_tr1 (https://soundcloud.com/chris-338945149/sa_8-21-21_tr1)

This took about 3 days to make. I used samples from the "...Baby One More Time" multitrack but also some other places to try and make the beat feel a little more full to try and substitute for the fact I own next to none of the original hardware used at Cheiron for music - those being the intro percussion to "Why Can't we Live Together" and the weirdest sample I've used so far in any of my music - the Wii Diskcheck tool music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4OVrdzD6uo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4OVrdzD6uo) (isn't it obvious I'm a nerd yet?)  I also sampled the snare from the "Genie In a Bottle" multitrack since it's the closest I could find that has that breathy sound. There's some parts that sound off, namely the part where the last verse would be. I tried to make it a little laid back like in the original song but no matter what I tried, nothing sound right so I just said "screw it" and made the hihats less loud.


For that bridge part that I got inspiration from "I Want You Back", I just used the same hit pattern as "Lucky" by Britney down to that one sine wave that goes up since it's a nice little detail.

The demo's more of a proof of concept than anything though. I saw someone say somewhere on this forum something along the line of "strong melodies don't change, only the style of it does" (HEAVY paraphrasing) and I knew it worked somewhat okay for other songs since I tried it before. I wanted to see if it'd work with the Cheiron style though and if I could do it myself as a challenge (I don't have a lot of experience with music and while the pandemic's given me a lot of time to try and experiment with it, I'm still nowhere near I want to be).


Also, since I only have the FL studio demo, and I live near Long Island in the US, even if I save my progress on it now I won't be able to work on it since it isn't possible to open demo projects in the FL studio demo, and I can't leave my PC on longer since I'm about to get hit by Hurricane Henri so that's """""fun""""". I do have multitracks saved incase I want to come back to it though.
Title: Re: Attempting to convert another song to something close to the Cheiron style
Post by: nznexus on August 22, 2021, 10:34:19 PM
it sounds good but i think you need more reverb on the snare and clap.

the guitars sounds good.. but the mix needs more stereo