Hai friends. Following up with the three Chiptune covers I posted earlier today is something I spent my whole weekend on: A chiptune remix of Skrillex’s new song, Voltage. Using production techniques similar to my hit Daft Punk – Something About Us remix, including a heavily filtered vocal sample for the original song. I spent a lot of time EQing to get the chiptune sounds to feel “full”, without combatting the vocals or bass instrument I created. As an homage to Skrillex, I have one instance of the synth Massive running in this remix. See if you can pick it out!

I feel like I summed up my feelings pretty well in the Soundcloud description, so here’s a little copy/pasta:

A lot of people rag on Skrillex now that he’s super popular grammy award winning gothic looking twenty something, but something always stuck with me about his songs. Even after the initial “wow-factor” of his trademark dubstep monster sounds wore off, I found myself remembering his melodies. Could it be that they’re actually well-written pieces of music? I took the Skrillex song Voltage and re-created it with Magic 8bit, basic processing in ableton, and a heavy dose of EQ, to create this piece. The harsh and crazy nature of the original dubstep tune is replaced with the light-hearted, optimistic chiptune arpeggios and square lead. An intensely sculpted vocal sample gives the piece context, although I feel it works without.

And the original piece by Sonny Moore, aka Skrillex:

And finally, the piano arrangement I used as a basis for my Chiptune remix was composed by Evan Duffy. Here he is playing his arrangement, which is beautiful.

Finally, the MIDI from Evan Duffy’s cover was programmed by someone who goes by “Tilt”. If you have a passion for rock solid MIDI arrangements ( I mean, who doesn’t?! right guyyz? ; ) check out Tilt’s website.

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Stumbled Upon this website over the weekend. It’s put together by a fellow who calls himself HelpTheWretched. It’s a collection of Sound Effects, Samples and rips from a big collection of Zelda games. I recently grabbed some Link To The Past sounds for a beat I was working on. The sounds are all high-quality WAV files, kick ass. http://noproblo.dayjo.org/ZeldaSounds/

Discovered this post on Ableton Live Tutorial and just had to share it. iZotope Ozone is popular mastering software that I’ve used in the studio, and it’s always great to see someone’s method to improve one’s own skills. Check out the videos and be sure to head over to Ableton-Live-Tutorial.com for more great information.

These tutorials were created by DJ Vesper.

David Foster, honored as an Icon at the 59th Annual BMI Pop Awards, offered aspiring hitmakers a list of 10 items that he views as the keys to success and longevity as a songwriter/producer. The three-time BMI Pop Songwriter of Year offered his sage advice before an audience of BMI Award winners and top industry executives.

Foster has written and produced hits for international superstars including CelineDion, Barbra Streisand, Whitney Houston, Chicago, Madonna, Michael Jackson,Josh Groban, Earth, Wind & Fire, Natalie Cole, Kenny Loggins, Chicago, Chaka Khan, Boz Scaggs, Michael Bolton, Brandy, and many more. He has taken home a total of 15 Grammys, including three Producer of the Year trophies, and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010.

Originally posted on BMI

Just released a new remix I’ve been working on for the past few days. An 8-bit re-imagined version of “Something About Us” from Daft Punk’s album “Discovery,” possibly one of my favorite electronic albums of all time. Something about the way Daft Punk incorporated vocals into this album really stuck with me, and when a friend of mine did a hip-hop remix of this tune I knew I had to follow suit, taking it in a different direction.

The mix is available on Bandcamp.

I slowed the track down from the original, and utalized a very fun plug-in called The Magical 8-bit PlugIn, engineered by Japanese band YMCK. It’s simple controls allowed me to explore the most basic of the chiptune sounds (square, triangle, pulse and noise waves) while giving me freedom to focus on the mix and arrangement of the piece.

The total song is 16 tracks, 8 Chiptune tracks, 6 Sample tracks (for drums and vocals) and 2 sends for compression (to thicken the drums) and delay. I used Waves L1 and The Glue to master. A simpler mastering chain than I normally use, because I was going for a more authentic chiptune sound. Those true chip enthusiasts out there would criticize that this isn’t a “Chiptune” because this mix could never have come out of a single sound chip. But if you know me, I’m a production junkie. Screw the rules, man, I’m making music!

Something About Us [8-Bit Daft Punk Remix] by Dj CUTMAN

The track is also available from Bandcamp, for those who wish to support or just download it in a high quality format. The FLAC version sounds awesome (if I do say so myself :) You can also follow Dj CUTMAN on Facebook, Twitter, and Soundcloud.

The art was created by Sudario from Brazil.

Turn your Guitar Hero controller into a synth instrument! It’s not as hard as you might think. And your old friend Powerglove will show you how!

You’ll need the following:

Guitar Hero Controller

Ps2 to Usb Converter:
http://www.netpcdirect.co.uk/joypadconverters_ps.php

Nostromo Gamepad or other game controller with buttons
Here’s the newer version:
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=157024

Joy To Key:
http://www.electracode.com/4/joy2key/JoyToKey%20English%20Version.htm

A computer with Direct X

Visual Studio (or SharpDevelop):
http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/

Some programming knowledge

Guitar Pro (or another midi program, or just a sample set of notes):
http://www.guitar-pro.com/en/index.php

effects and an amp (optional)

Have fun, and check out Powerglove while you’re at it:
http://www.vgmetal.com