An ABBA stick in the head song - with Spectral Layer vocal

R

rob aylestone

Moderator
I thought I'd have a go at an ABBA track in my on/off fiddles with spectral layers - although to be honest it was going to be an instrument with a guitar melody first. I pretty much got it finished then the guitar just annoyed me - so I put the ABBA track into cubase and the work started. My tempo that I'd picked was too high - 118BPM but the original was slower, so I started building a tempo map. I don't use the Cubase auto tempo track, but do it myself - the tempo actually varies between 107 and 108BPM - I wonder if it was intentional, or maybe what they played to just drifted? I followed it, and although there was no real point I also added the 2/4 bars which give the track the slight awkwardness, and it impacts on the snare drum really, and bass maybe a bit. It's also the first song that uses the old 80s Ocarina sound - I've never used it before, even though it was on every keyboard and sound module for years - and still features in Halion Sonic! The original features mainly the synth sounds of the time, but I did replace some with real strings and found the Kontact Factory choir (the altos, sopranos and ensemble) quite handy. I think her voice really works.

Various people on the net have deconstructed this song because of the melody, and looking at it on the screen with the drums and bass it's crazily wrong, timing wise, but sounds really right. The word 'came' hits the beat every time, but everything else is ahead or behind the pulse of the song. It's a really clever bit of song writing. It fades on the original, so this one doesn't - the end's a bit lame to be fair, the tom flam on the end is a bit cabaret? I guess ABBA purists will hate it. PS - I know the title on screen is wonky, but I just wanted to get it done.
 
On a side issue. A friend has been PM'ing me because he can't hear the 2/4 bars. I thought they were pretty obvious, I had to give him the times in the video where they happen and he's still struggling! As most of my music is for shows - so sing to tracks, like karaoke and then click track versions with stems, Spectral Layers really helps you mix for a vocal - so doing it this way, then muting the vocal and keeping the rest makes the process easier. It's difficult to set levels for some of the quieter tracks, like in this example, the short string twiddles without the vocal. It's also interesting that it's identified as an ABBA recording by youtube - so the song and her voice must tick the auto boxes.
 
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