Homework #2 is in the books. Fairly challenging, but filled with trying new things and learning new skills. Here’s what I did.
I wanted to start with Biggie’s verse from ‘The Benjamins’. Since his vocals are so close to Lil’ Kim’s, I had to turn of snap and quantize to set a cue point between beats. When he’s done, the beat goes back to the normal one. So, I flipped flopped between 16 bars at the end of the song and 8 at the beginning. Finally, I stuck with a loop of those 1st 8 bars of the track.
That set, I mixed in ‘Flava In Ya Ear Remix’. Continuing our Biggie appreciation, I only play his verse. The lead in use the Benjamins’ loop for a beat. Once The Notorious B.I.G. starts rhyming, I pan in and out the Benjamins’ beat for a little while before slow panning to ‘Flava In Ya Ear Remix’. I need to be all on that track for my next trick 🙂
To cut out of this track, I use a delay effect. It starts for a couple of beats, but on the 1 beat I start playing the original ‘Flava In Ya Ear’ in time with its remix. I let the remix play one beat from the new bar so I have Craig Mack’s ‘Word up’ covering the transition. At this point, I’m sitting on a loop of the original track.
The first time I tried to mix from the ‘Flava In Ya Ear’ loop to ‘So Sick Remix’, I accidentally hit the cue button instead of the play button. The effect was that I got a cool scratch sound. So I kept that as part of my mix. I do it twice then blend in the new track. This didn’t turn out perfectly. Once I blend in the track, I turn its volume down a little to make the blend a little smoother. Only problem is it sounds soft compared to the first two scratches. The rest of the transition is pretty smooth. I use grater as effect at the end to get out of the track at the end of the chorus. It feels a little rushed, but I didn’t know to make it sounds good longer with the effect in place. I think I’ll get better with practice.
Enjoy!
Homework #2