Analysis of S5E08: InsideInfo – "Gambino" Remix

This month’s tutorial was a special episode, with InsideInfo (S2) providing a walk through of his remix of DC Breaks “Gambino”, which has not been released yet (as of 09-FEB-2018). The video is an interesting glimpse at InsideInfo’s remix process, especially when he has a short timeframe to meet a deadline.

Part 1 – The Sketch Project
00:30 – Explains the stems/parts he got from DC Breaks
– Likes to have an initial listen to the parts, think about the direction he wants to take the remix, and then sketches a rough idea

02:00 – Starts sound design & processing of original parts
– Making variations of those sounds

04:30 – Explains his preference for using UVI Falcon vs. something comparable, like NI’s Kontakt
– Makes sounds using various sources, but then uses Falcon as a sampler to play these back, further process, and manipulate

05:30 – Explains how the particular sound at this point changed the direction of the remix
– Placeholder sounds for sketching, then replacing with resampled & processed sounds

06:30 – Using a bounce of all the track elements, except bass, and then sketching a bass idea on top

10:00 – Going over insert chain on the main bass
– Melda Mharmonizer -> FabFilter Pro Q-2 -> iZotope Trash2 -> NI Driver -> FabFilter Pro Q-2 -> FabFilter Saturn -> Syntorus
– I think he does different combinations to create variations

11:30 – Insert chain for the second bass, which he uses as a contrast to the first
– Melda Mharmonizer -> Melda Munison -> iZotope Trash2 -> Image Line Vocodex -> FabFilter Pro-Q 2
– Mentions how much he likes the Melda plug-ins

12:45 – Referencing Dillinja Tracks for vibe ideas & structure ideas
– Basement Jaxx – “Lucky Star (Dillinja Remix)” [XL Recordings] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ps-D8Z3EOQ)

Part 2 – The “Getting There” Project
15:00 – Looking at the next stage of the project, starting with the intro and all of its elements
– Most things played through Falcon, although Avenger and Omnisphere both get used for particular sounds
– Bass stab, vocal, basic string, ambience & atmosphere, a couple FX hits, lead, and then a build up

18:00 – Moving on to the drop and how he tested different ideas, and what did not stay in the final version of the track

21:30 – Gets in to bouncing stems to commit to ideas

Part 3 – The Final Project
22:20 – Opens the final project

25:00 – Extra accent on the bass
– A layer from another synth/sample

28:00 – More on working on bass layers
– He shows audio he ultimately did not sue

31:00 – A look at group channels

31:30 – Touches on how he uses Magic AB to reference other tracks

—
THOUGHTS & QUESTIONS
– Thinking I should try making rough sketches with basic sounds, then once the idea is down that’s when to go in on the heavily processed & resampled sounds.

– The idea at 06:30, I actually just started doing something similar a couple weeks ago, as my computer is starting to struggle when I have too many VSTs active. Basically, I do a bounce of the drum bus, the bass bus, and the sum bus (all other parts), and then I work on a section, say drums. When I do that, I’ll have all the tracks for drums active, the drum stem I had made turned off, and then instead of having all the bass and sum tracks active, I just use the two stems. Seems to be working, and it’s making me focus on the particular section I am working on.

– The material at 10:00, 25:00, and 28:00 I need to focus a bit on. My own tracks’ basses can get a bit boring and repetitive, so these are good ideas to build up variation that makes sense.

– I like how he explains how he references old tracks, and also how he touches on Magic AB a little bit. I have it, just not good about referencing other music in general.

– InsideInfo has a few older Sample Genie videos, and a recent video for Computer Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDUV0Gr_B6c (this is just 1/2 of the full video, link for the full video is in Computer Music magazine). The CM video is interesting because it looks at his workflow, some more about UVI Falcon, and echoes some information from other recent tutorials (i.e. recording the whole time you’re working, building variations through resampling).
Curious about how he keeps cohesion between the two different sounding sections of drums, how the first four bars work with the second four bars.