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Hey all,

Turn It Up - Island Swing Remix in D - Don Roudebush

I'm not really sure if PG encourages uploads of remix contest entries, however, seeing as this one was created entirely with RB (excepting the vocal stems) I'm hoping to get some feedback by RB friends here before the contest ends.

Deadline is Sunday, June 15, so not much time if I need to make changes.

Specific to RB, here's what I used...

RealDrums-BossaBrushesSwingFull^1-Brsh,stk
RT929:Bass, Acoustic, Jazz Waltz Sw 110
RT1414:Guitar, Acoustic, Rhythm CelticSlipjig Sw 110
RT763:Clarinet, Soloist Older Swing Sw 140
RT2292:Horn Section, Rhythm Pop Ev 130
RT441:Trumpet, Older Sw 140
RT439:Trombone, Older Sw 140
RT437:Sax, Alto, Older Sw 140
RealDrums-SalsaAfroCuban68Modern

There's also a sample of the PG Tambourine Shake and a cymbal crash from RealDrums-SalsaChaChaLatinJazz.

Hope you enjoy... If you want to enter too here's the links.

Contest Rules are available at remixcomps.com/contest/planetshakers-remix-contest (link no longer valid)

Original Tracks are available at http://www.multitracks.com/songs/Planetshakers/Endless-Praise/Turn-it-Up/

I think the song and the vocals are amazing!! I absolutely love it!! But, from my perspective the horns kind of get in the way. There are some soft chords which accent the song nicely but the solo horns IMO clutter things. Maybe if they were one at a time, lower volume and more reverb they would fit. But, LOVE THE SONG!! Take care, your neighbor (Davis, CA) Greg

Hi Don,

I pretty much agree with Greg. The background horns are a tad loud and distract from that fabulous vocal track. if it were me, I'd leave out most of the background horns. Besides being a bit loud, they seem to have more of a Dixieland feel to them. In the lead sections, I would substitute the horns with steel drums if you have access to any.

If you keep the background horns, I'd drop the volume by about a third and add reverb to make them set back a little in the mix and to give them some warmth.

That's my take on the technical stuff. But, holy smokes, that melody and those vocals are super!!!!!! Don't let anything get in the wayt of that. Great song!!!

Alan & Di

The song, the vocals, the percussion, the guitars, top notch and work well together. The intro clarinet is neat, but it's the guitar you hear first, so the clarinet is always secondary...if that makes sense?

But the horns later on don't seem to fit with the song and they overshadow the vocals. I'm not sure what to suggest. The clarinet could work here and there...but some acoustic guitar arpeggios or syncopated strums might help and you might consider some bass solo riffs...I'm not sure if RT's are there for that.

Good luck.

Hi Don
Well to my untrained ear it all sounds pretty good! I liked the horns.

Thanks for the quick feedback. I tend to agree that the horns are way too far out front, but as a remix contest entry I wanted them to be prominent. Let's just call it contest strategy... They're giving away a Line6 Amplifi among other things I'd love to have.

I've listened to a few of the other entries and honestly like what I've done given the original material (which is a very up-tempo Top40 type arrangement - kind of a Mandisa meets Lincoln Brewster or Hillsong vibe.) You can here that at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaOV-TH8G20&feature=player_embedded

I, too, really LOVED their vocals - whole reason I entered.

Again, thanks all.

My take on this: considering that it's a remix CONTEST. There's going to be some heavy competition. Thinking that putting the horns upfront is a winning strategy I don't think will get you anywhere near the top of the pile.

The vocal stems are excellent and the vocals should be the focus. Playing with the vocals by cutting, splitting, pasting and making a newer cooler arrangement I think would likely be a better strategy to placing higher in the finals. They need to be higher in the mix. Right now they are buried by the instruments throughout the song. I was having to listen carefully to hear the words over the music.

When was the last time I heard a clarinet in "Island Music"????? Hummmmmm...... like.... almost never. As someone else said that places it into the dixieland jazz category not the island music category. Speaking of mismatches.... do you realize you have EVEN, SWING, and WALTZ style tracks mixed together? Before I look at the details, I always listen first. I was hearing some stylistic conflicts and went back to look at the tracks list and those 3 things stood out immediately. You may want to look for tracks that will work in the song and that are ALL in the same style. Since the majority are swing, simply delete the waltz and even style tracks and replace them with swing.

Horns, could be argued, that they do fit into the whole Island music thing..... but you have to be careful to have the music as a whole fit into the proper genre. Salsa for example would use horns. Kinda fits really well into that genre.... but is Salsa really "island music"? I think of Reggae as island music predominately, and don't recall hearing a lot of horns. (Of course, that isn't the kind of music I listen to very much so I may be wrong)

Cool drums, some steel drums, guitars, bass, and vocals...... That's the basis of the island style.

In this contest... did they provide you anything besides the vocal stems? Did they include any instrument stems? If they did....(I looked at the site and it looks like that did unless I'm looking at the wrong thing) there's your clue and your guide as to what this should sound like. If you were provided with instrument stems and opt to NOT use them, understand that what you provide on your own had better be freaking amazing and totally blow their socks off if you hope to be in the top 50%. It may be better to use some of their stems (if they provided any) and add some of your own to that mix.

I've been in several mix contests. One, we were simply provided vocal stems and told to go from there. Finish the mix so to speak. In another, we were provided with ALL the tracks and told to "stick to the tracks we provide, but if you insist on using your own, be sure they are good tracks"..... the winner of that second contest didn't use a single homemade track.

So, not knowing what they provided, I can't say too much about it. But as a listener, and looking at the tracks you used,,,, There's some work to do on the mix to get it ready to be competitive. Sunday is still far enough away that you could start again from scratch and still be ready. Have a serious look at the styles in the Reggae section in BB. If you throw in a jazz track, that's going to throw you out of the island music genre you should be working in.

OK... so, that's my take on it. Ultimately, it's your mix and your call. Let us know how it turns out. I'd like to know.

Oh yeah... best of luck in the contest. That's some cool prizes they're offering.

Hi Don. You have created an excellent technical mix for the contest but my opinion is that by your choice to drastically alter the mood and energy of your mix from the original mix, which will certainly catch the ears of the judges, you must be very careful that your total musical package is spot on and holds their attention. I recommend choosing a style and staying with it throughout the song. I found the mixture of styles created an uncertainty about where the song was going and never tightly came together with you mixing jazz, dixieland,and island styles. I agree with some of the others who have suggested stylistically making some changes in instrumentation and levels being sure to feature the overall focus on the vocals because I think from the contest baseline aspect, the judges will make some type of comparison between your mix and the original mix and they must be able to make that connection. You've done some excellent work so far. Good luck with the contest.

Now y'all know why I LOVE THIS FORUM. Honest, candid feedback from safe sources.

The amount of time and thought many of you put into your comments just blows me away every time I visit.

Again, thanks for the feedback and critique - spot on as always.