Recreating Groovejet by Spiller

Groovejet by Spiller
This will describe how to make up Groovejet by Spiller; the building blocks that you'll have are small sampled sections taken from the original song, Love is You, by Carol Williams. No audio anywhere is taken from the Spiller version. You should create a new project in Cubase, and then create 5 new audio tracks (all of them stereo), and also create a Marker track this makes it much easier to navigate through the song, and is good practice generally. Go to the bar for the beginning of each section shown in the table on page 2, and drop a marker for each one, making navigation easier and also help keep you in sync if you miss something out. Name your 5 audio tracks I chose whoosh, Sample, Kick, Maracas, Timbales, although you can call them whatever you like. Now import the files from their current location using Pool > Open Pool Window and clicking Import. The audio files provided are: intro 2.aif kick.aif maracas.aif string bit e-g.aif stringy bit 2.aif timbales.aif verse 1.aif stringy bit 1.aif harpy 1.aif woosh.aif verse 2.aif

Set the session tempo to 122.80 by de-selecting TEMPO on the transport bar, and then doubleclicking and typing the new tempo on the transport bar. The table on the next page shows where to place the samples on the Sample track. This can be done by going to the Pool (Pool > Open Pool Window or CTRL+P), and then clicking and dragging the required file from this window to the Project Window. It is good practice when doing this kind of work to colour-code the samples as you add them this makes spotting different sections or samples quick and easy from almost any zoom level. For the initial placement of most samples, the grid should be set to Bar, but for some of the editing it will be necessary to change to , 1/8th and even 1/16th notes (the table shows when this is the case). To start off, place the samples where there are no comments these are just straightforward repeats; once you are comfortable with doing that you can then place and edit the samples on the following pages; its a good idea to leave Bar 16 until last as it is the most complex edit in the entire piece. The song plan given starts at bar 5 to give room to use the woosh sample to imitate the initial sound on the original version; this will need fade in/outs, reverb and EQ applied to make it sound more authentic.

Recreating Groovejet by Spiller

Main Loop table

Section Intro Bar 5 9 16 17 20 20.5 21 25 28 29 33 36 37 40 41 49 52 53 57 60 61 65 68 69.5 70 72 72.5 73 77 80 81 83 86 87 91 95 99 101 104 105.5 106 109 113 116 File Intro 2 Verse 1 Verse 1 Verse 1 Verse 1 String e-g Verse 1 Verse 2 Stringy Bit 2 Verse 1 Verse2 Stringy Bit 2 Verse 1 String e-g Verse 1 Verse 2 Stringy Bit 2 Verse 1 Verse 2 Stringy Bit 2 Verse 1 Harpy Stringy Bit 1 Verse 1 Verse 1 Verse 1 String e-g Verse 1 Verse 2 Verse 2 Verse 1 Stringy Bit 2 String e-g Stringy Bit 2 Verse 1 Verse 2 Verse 1 Harpy 1 Stringy Bit 1 Verse 1 Verse 1 Verse 2 Intro 2 Verse 1 No 4 7 1 3 0.5 1 4 3 1 4 3 1 3 1 8 3 1 4 3 1 4 3 1 0.5 2 0.5 1 4 3 1 2 3 1 4 4 4 2 3 1 0.5 3 4 3 13 Snap 1 1 8 1 8 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 16 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 8 1 8 8 8 Comments See page 3 for editing of bar 6 See page 3 for editing details See page 4 for how to do this Mix: EQ cuts out bass on 20.5 to 21

Verse

Verse 2

Bridge

Trim to be six beats long Last two beats of verse 1 to fill to next bar See page 4 for how to do this

Verse 3

Second half of verse 2 sample repeated

Chorus

Mix: EQ cuts out bass here (86.5 91)

Chorus 2

Mix: EQ cut on last 2 beats of 4 time(bar 98.5)

th

Trim to be six beats long Last two beats to fill to next bar, as bar 69.5 See pages 4-5 Replace 1st 8th with 1st 8th of verse 1 sample 1 beats repeated see page 5

Ending

Recreating Groovejet by Spiller

Bars with editing

Bar 6 Bar 6 is mostly made up of the original sample, but beat 4 is deleted and then replaced with two copies of the second half of beat 3 (beat 3.5 as shown in the diagram). These are then trimmed to be only a 16th long to give a staccato feel.

Bar 16 Bar 16 is one of the most complex sections of the song, in terms of the editing that has been done some of the original is unchanged, but several parts are moved around. One way to do this is to cut the original into 16th sections (ALT + scissors), and then to number each one in the description part of the info line. You can then place them in their new locations on another track, and finally move the new version back to the samples track.
Original New

1 1

2 2

3 3

4 4

5 13

6 14

7 15

8 16

9 9

10 10

11 13

12 14

13 13

14 14

15 15

16 13

This may look confusing at first, but it can be explained thus: Beat 1 is unchanged Beat 2 is beat 4 The first half of beat 3 is unchanged The second half of beat 3 is the first half of beat 4 The first three quarters of beat 4 is unchanged The last of beat 4 is the first of beat 4. The picture below shows the finished article (with numbers for each of the original beats)

Recreating Groovejet by Spiller

Bar 20 and 72 Bars 20 and 72 are made up of two samples. The first two beats are the first two beats of verse 1 and the second two are made up of a 3/16 ths long sample from the beginning of string bit e-g. This is then repeated again, and then finally once more but with it being trimmed down to only be 2/16ths long.

The next few bars are created by taking the original sample (verse 2), and with the grid set to 8ths, cutting it into 8 slices. Each bar is then created by repeating/moving/copying the original pieces as shown in each table Bar 109
Original New 1 1 2 1 3 3 4 3 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 8

Bar 110
Original New 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 6 8 6

This will sound better if once the slices are placed as above, to set the grid to 32nd, and then trim the last 32nd from each of the 6 slices, so there is a short silence at the end of each.

Recreating Groovejet by Spiller

Bar 111 as bar 109

Original New 1 1 2 1 3 3 4 3 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 8

Bar 112
Original New 1 1 2 5 3 1 4 5 5 1 6 6 7 7 8 8

Bars 113-115
These bars are made up of two samples most of the bar is intro 2 but the first 1/8th of the bar is replaced using the first 1/8th of verse 1

116 to 121
This odd time section is quite simple its just 1 beats from the verse 1 sample repeated, as seen below.

Recreating Groovejet by Spiller

Kick drum and Maracas:

These samples are longer; they need to be placed at bar 9, and then zoom into the end of each and trim their ends to fit accurately at bar 13 (hint: use grid mode for this, and zoom setting 5). Then they can be repeated 26 times, and trimmed to suit the end (where the repeated section that will fade out is, at bar 116). Finally there are a few sections that need to be cut out; bars 41 to 45, 72.5 to 73 and 86.5 to 91.

Automation
There are some edits that can make the song sound more authentic; the first one is to apply volume automation to the master output to make a smooth fade-out from bars 116-119; just two points will take care of that (one at 0db at bar 116, one at -infinity at bar 119) Secondly, on the original song there are a few points where EQ is applied to cut most of the bass and midrange from the song; this is a common technique, so to imitate it, set the EQ in the master fader channel to cut most of the bass turn on band 1 on the master EQ, change it to High Pass and then set it accordingly (see left) You can use automation on the master output to turn the EQ off for most of the track, but turn it on at the appropriate points (the EQ should be on from bars 20.5 to 21, 86.5 to 91, and then from 98.5 to 99). Adding overall compression on the master channel and subtle multi-band compression can make this version sound more like the original too.

Finished article
The complete song, with bass drum, maracas, timbales and automation should look something like this