In celebration of Vybz Kartel’s possible release from prison, I felt like putting together some dancehall tunes. Well, riddims really, but then lazily pasting some AI separated vocals overtop.
For the record, Vybz totally killed that guy but, what you going to do?
The first one is a remix of Spice “Under Fire” and it’s probably the most successful of the bunch. Modern, poppy, dancehall beats. Lots of fake drum rolls and gun cocking samples. Bassline is a Behringer Model D (I love this thing man, go buy one!), drums are… I can’t quite remember. I know the kick is a Jomox MBase01 processed through a Waldorf 2-pole filter. Other than that I can’t remember Lots of Eventide H9 in the background which makes a basic mix sound quite big. I should have compressed the bass on this a little more, it’s a bit ‘big’ sounding for my tastes now but there’s worse things to have in a mix than a big wobbly analogue bass.
Second tune is Irah “Program”. More of a classic riddim this one. Draws heavily from the classic Cough & Spit riddim by Rythm Tracks. Heavily filtered Korg Polysix bassline and chunk box guitar sample processed with a few guitar pedals and bit of spring reverb from the Vermona DSR-3. I think the vocal is amazing, but it’s doesn’t quite sit right for me. The riddim is good and solid though. Lots of folly percussion for atmosphere – gotta get my money out of that spring box.
Last tune is the weakest. It’s the first one I made, but I guess I didn’t quite have my ear in. Too busy and messy. Initially I was riding the effects on the snare and tweaking as we went, but it was just too big so I gated the tail quite aggressively and it’s removed a lot of the effect. Some nice harmonising in the chorus on the outro though. riddim works well on it’s own, although you can hear there’s too much going on in the background.
Anyway, there they are. If nothing else, it may interest some people to go checkout the originals.
Peace to Vybz Kartel (don’t shoot me!)