A new track released in collaboration with SaBBo (Free download)

Take Dat! is a new track ( Free download), made at Musicland Studios in a collaboration between myself and Sabbo, who is a well known DJ and music producer from Tel Aviv. SaBBo visited the studio in January (2012) on his way to a gig in Amsterdam, and we basically had one afternoon to work on a totally new track. Since Musicland studios is known for it’s analogue warm sounding gear, we decided to go for a pure analogue mix that would not be possible to recreate but would give us a great sounding track in roughly four hours.

SaBBo

SaBBo

We made the track in Ableton live, which both SaBBo are quite comfortable using, and then we put everything out through the SSL-4000 desk, in separate channels. Then we used the Moog voyager to create the lead melody and used a Ableton’s own Autopan to create a gate for that melody, which we quite liked. The kick drum went through a channel on the SSL and also through a Pultec style outboard EQ, which gave it a lot of ooomph (!). After about two hours of building the track we had a rough idea of how it would sound. Then we concentrated on mixing it on the desk and making everything sound punchy but not distorted. Except for the second lead part, which comes in around 2:42 and was past through the lovely culture vulture, which gave it some much needed grit.

mini-moog voyager

mini-moog voyager - used to create the leads and the bass of Take Dat!

After four hours of work, we mixed down three versions of the mix and recorded it back to Ableton. I must admit I pushed for us to commit to the mix and not leave it for later, as so many producers do nowadays. It’s so easy to go back and change anything you do, go back to it again and again and never commit to a mix, or at least take weeks and month until you do. I think the advantage of the analogue world is that it forces you to commit to your mixes because going back and changing a mix is in most cases painstakingly difficult, or simply impossible, not to mention the superior sound quality the analogue world offers when it comes to mixing.

At Musicland studios

Sabbo at Musicland studios

It was a fun afternoon and I was happy to collaborate with one of the best Djs in Israel. feel free to download the track and share it with the world.

 

 

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