Music Technology Reggae Production

[Crosby]

So for my music technology course i need to produce a version of Guns.N.Roses-Sweet Child O'Mine in a reggae style,
Left it a bit late and i have until Monday to hand it in, I'm also not allowed to record anything (e.g bass guitar) it all needs to be vst and one shot drum samples kinda thing.
Any tips quick tips on -
Making electronic sounds have a more analog and acoustic feel
The production of reggae as a genre

[vertx]

Sounds fun.

Maybe have a play with flutter on your tape delays, spring reverbs, short delays on the snare drum, tape distortion, layering analogue drums samples and un-quantized rythms.

[k_k]

i did this man, its just a case of bumming what the exam board tells you reggae should be.
ie. slow tempo, repeated 2 bar bass pattern, cheeky little intro so you can talk about structure in your documentation, using a sax for the melody, reverb on your snares etc. etc.
basically whatever you got told reggae is by your teacher,even if its bullshit, jsut do it and e'ryones happy

[Crosby]

Thanks for the tips on effects,
Yeah im trying to make it so the defining parts stand out so its easy to mark kinda thing, but the only thing my teacher gave me is a sheet they give to 14 years olds on the genre that just says stuff like 70bpm - happy melody etc. quite hard to try and get a decent grade when that's all were given

[GRAYSKALE]

I remember this one - I did hotel california reggae style - I'd defo think about getting on some sort of MOOg Emulator thing for the synths and effects - as for emulating a guitar?? I don't think I've ever heard a good vst guitar - Maybe just grab a reggae sample pack and use guitar samples from them?? Just put them in the key you want like.

[mmjdw]

Offbeat guitar/organ SKANK

[vertx]

Offbeat guitar/organ SKANK

They somehow never get old! Love them

[mekha]

You want a filtered square for your bass, guitar skanks with tape delay, some neat clavinet sounds if you are really into getting that root-ish reggae feeling (bob marley for example), organs to do some bassy bubbling.. Horns are a plus, but difficult to recreate with software.

[Filthzilla]

Yeah I'd see if you can get hold of the marking criteria and find out what they think makes a good 'reggae' tune.

You could make the best reggae tune in the world but if you don't tick their boxes then your hard work will go to waste. :/

Can't wait to here what you come up with though mate, be sure to post it here. :} [If the exam board allow that haha]

[lysergene]

I teach music technology. The chances are the teachers have told you which instrumentation to use because that makes it easier for them to grade, it might not be part of their grading criteria that you have to use a saxophone.

I do know of a saxophone/flute vsti which is really good though. It's called Saxlab. There is a free one at the end of this link, although I haven't used this one: http://freemusicsoftware.org/category/f ... /saxophone

Some tips:

Put a tape delay (or the 'echo' algorithm on the RV7000 set to 3/16 if using Reason) on a send and return and send the snare to this every 16 or 32 bars. Put an equaliser on the delay/echo and roll off a load of the top end and bottom end, this depends on the snare sound though. I usually use a distortion plugin on the send/return echo too and set it to tape or tube emulation, increasing the gain until it just begins to distort and then turn the gain down just a little after this point has been found.

Put a reverb in as send and return, turn the decay right up until you get a massive reverb. Again, roll off a load of the top end and some of the bass so it doesn't ruin the bottom end. Send a snare to this just once or twice and be careful how loud it is. I usually have it loud enough so it's quite obvious but I always do it when there isn't much else going on in the track.

Spring reverb (send and return again) on the snare, same on the kick but not quite as loud on the kick - I usually have it so it's just audible. Use this throughout the song and don't usually roll off any top end, just the bass end of the reverb. You could set up another one for long effects as mentioned above but using the spring reverb.

Hope this helps

G

[Kochari]

I posted a similar thread ages ago, some really helpful stuff in there:

http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.p ... lit=reggae

[Medik]

I handed this in the other day . Although I did the Reggae remix of Hallelujah, I found the chord progressions a little easier for Reggae.
Like a lot of people have already said just get the main elements of Reggae in there and your sorted.
Off-beat skank (I used a Rhode plugin), Simple chord progression, make sure it is noticeably still a remix, More complex bassline ranging over 2 or 3 octaves (I made the sound with a low-passed saw and a filter envelope to give the attack of the string being plucked), quick intro, reverb, delay, just looping most of the instruments with a changing melody over the top to act like vocals would.

Left it a bit late and i have until Monday to hand it in

Woops that's today. My efforts wasted??

[Crosby]

Thanks everyone
I did read and use everyone suggestions i just didn't have much time to reply at the time. I was just finding it hard to produce such a analogue genre purely in digital but as some of the comments said as long as i used the techniques and processes they are looking for i cant really go wrong.
I've pretty much finished it now, I'm happy with it anyway. Just have to write a logbook now on what techniques i used and why, should be easy enough.