Lilywhite Lilith: September 2008

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Lilywhite Lilith Updated

I have put up a new version of Lilywhite Lilith that has some minor corrections in both the music and the mix. Not a vast improvement but just more accurate now.

Thanks and ENJOY!

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Lilywhite Lilith

Welcome to the Lilywhite Lilith tribute page of The Lamb Laid Down on MIDI website. This powerful song features Phil's drumming and Tony's layered keyboards backed by Mike's famous FUZZ bass sound with color added by Steve's guitar parts. Of course, Peter and Phil do some outstanding vocals on the tune as well.

I might delve into how the different keyboard parts (and there are alot of them for this simple song) are played and voiced with what instrument. We have Mellotron (flutes and strings), RMI piano (organ mode and piano mode), Steinway Grand, Hammond Organ and of course, the Arp Pro Soloist.

There is also a POLICE whistle part added by Phil and see if you can hear it on the MP3 of the MIDI file (and then go and listen to the original track and see if you can hear it there as well). Let me know if you can't because maybe I was hearing things.

Well, enjoy the tune and remember to help me improve the quality of the songs on this project by rating the song on the top right of this page. To skip the rantings, scroll down the page a bit until you see the audio players for the music.

Thanks and enjoy,

Jim

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The MIDI File

To start off, this MIDI file was another new file created just for this project (not an older one that I revamped). Just a quick description on how I put these MIDI files together. The first thing I do is create a tempo/measure map inside Sonar wherein I can then begin to lay in the tracks.

I created this song in steps:

First, learned and performed the Hammond Organ parts and layed down the track in Sonar (I insert a quick sample set just to hear what I am playing and worry about mixing everything later).

Then, I worked on adding the Grand Piano parts by listening to the original and learning how to play the different parts and laid them down in Sonar.

Then, I worked on all the mellotron parts and added them to the song. I also added the RMI piano at this point.

All the keyboard parts were now roughly laid into the song.

I then took up Mike's Bass Part, learned it and laid it down in Sonar. I actually use a MIDI GUITAR to play the bass and guitar parts which I hope you can tell (listen to the bass in the middle section on how the high notes slides at the end, you can't do this playing notes on a keyboard).

Then I did the same with learning and laying down Steve's guitar tracks again using the MIDI guitar to actually perform the tracks.

Well, for the guide track the last thing missing is Phil's drums. I am not a drummer but I do have fun trying to learn Phil's drum parts (I am getting better at it but not being a drummer really makes this part tedious for me). I play the kick and snare in one pass, then I add the cymbals (hihats and rides first, crashes next), then I add the tom tom/snare fills.

At this point, the entire song is basically complete and I then start to tweak and tighted up the parts in context to each other. Sometimes I replay a part and sometimes I edit the MIDI data in piano roll mode so I can see what is happening.

Once this is quite close, I then go and sample just the vocals from the original recording. I used the PAN/EXPAND tool in Soundforge (this allows me to create a MONO file of everything that is panned center in the original stereo mix - which is where the vocals sit 90% of the time). I create little clips of each phrase as audio clips and lay these down in the MIDI file in Sonar and move them/nudge them until they sit exactly where they need to relative to my tracks.

The rest of the job is mixing and that story will be for another time.

I hope you enjoy reading my ramblings and babblings and get some entertainment from the final product.

Lilywhite Lilith - The Music

Below you will find two examples of this great tune from The Lamb. The first version is the MIDI file without the original vocal tracks added to the music. The second example, is the MIDI file MP3 with the original vocals laid down with the MIDI music.

This first example is what I call KAROAKE Genesis, that is, the MIDI without any vocals.

Mp3 File of MIDI - Lilywhite Lilith with NO Vocals KAROAKE

The next version is the same MIDI file, this time with the original vocals laid down on top of the MIDI file. This audio file of the original is the only audio file used on the song. The entire song is recreated on my DAW by playing back the MIDI file and triggering the correct instrument samples and using real time effects to mix the song.

Mp3 File of MIDI - Lilywhite Lilith with Vocals

Mike Rutherford's Bass Line

Mike uses his famous fuzz bass sound in Lilywhite Lilith. To recreate this sound, I used a Rickenbacker bass sample (clean) loaded into Gigastudio. On the gigastudio track I added the amp simulator (Amplitube). I set up an amp/speaker combination and then added an ENGLISH FUZZ box. After tweaking the amp and mike placement on the speaker cabinet, I finally added a parametric EQ in the amp rack. I used this EQ to accentuate the high FUZZ sound while at the same time, brought out some nice clean low end to round out the sound. I then sent this track to the Creamware hardware/software mixing environment to be later mixed with the other tracks.

Steve's Guitar Tracks

Steve actually has three different tracks in this song. One mainly follows the fuzz bass line through out the tune. I basically set this sound up using LPC Les Paul guitar sample (clean) in Kontakt as a plugin to SONAR (sequencing software). In Sonar, I added an instance of AMPLITUBE where I picked an amp/speaker combo (used a transistor modeled amp head and 2-12 cabinet). I then adjusted the gain and volume and created the distortion sound which I then EQ'ed and moved the MIC on the speaker until I got a sound that I felt worked real well. One thing to note with the LPC sample set. I picked the single note program and if there are any overlapping notes, the sample set creates a realtime slide (either up or down) from the first note to the second note dynamically keeping the pitches correct which really helped to create the push feel on this guitar part. I then sent this to Creamware for final mixdown on the track.

Steve's tremelo guitar was a bit trickier to recreate. I think Mr. Hackett used one of the first guitar synth effect boards for this sound called the Synthi Hi-Fli. I needed to get both the distortion and tremelo sound from this effects synth simulated using Amplitube. This time I used a clean Les Paul sample set in Gigastudio and loaded in another instance of Amplitube to pull off the sound. The key to making this work was to use the CHORUS stomp box (I believe it is modeled after a ROLAND chorus pedal) which has a tremelo mode with rate control. I used the same transistor amp without too much gain to keep the sound clean.

The final guitar track is the short lead sound between the first and second verses. This was another tricky part. I loaded another track of stock Les Paul clean sample into Gigastudio and added another instance of Amplitube to create the sound. This time, I used a MARSHALL Amp and Cabinet to get the bitey sound. I added both a English FUZZ stomp box and an OCTAVE divider to fill out the sound. I did add quite a bit of reverb on the amp for the guitar sound. Then, in the AMP FX rack, I added a pitch divider (set in stereo) and slightly detuned the guitar and split the signal a bit to widen out the sound in the mix. This too was then sent to Creamware for final mixdown.

Tonys Keyboards

Wow, for such a seemingly simple song, Mr. Banks sured laid it down thick on this song. Just to list the keyboard tracks in this tune:

2 Mellotron Flute Tracks

2 Mellotron String Tracks

1 RMI Track (switching between organ and piano mode)

1 Steinway Grand Piano Track

1 Hammond Organ Track

2 Arp Pro Soloist Tracks

Where do I begin. Well, the Mellotron Flutes were done using Sampletron as a VSTI in Sonar. I used the reverb in Sampletron and sent the track to Creamware where I added a parametric EQ to try and get the accentuated MIDS to come out before sending this to the mixer. I had to use half speed mode (low notes) to create some of the low end mellotron parts in the song (second verse and during the end vocal section).

The Mellotron Strings were from Mike Pinder's Mellotron Samples and I used a GIGASTUDIO version I created years ago. I did use the lush reverb in GIGASTUDIO to sweeten up these Mellotron Tracks. The Strings are only used in the middle section of the tune.

The grand piano part (during the choruses and overlayed on the second version) was created using the Black Grand Close sample from Sampletekk in Gigastudio. Gigastudio's mixer has a real cool feature in that you can control the spread of the panning from wide down to MONO. I used this to take the stereo sample and make it sound almost in direct center of the mix. The EQ'ing was done in Creamware during the final mix.

The RMI part is playing organ chords throughout the entire song. I used my homemade RMI samples in GIGASTUDIO and used the Harpsi-Piano sound in both organ mode and piano mode. I loaded another instance of Amplitube into Gigastudio and sent the RMI through the amp and speaker to create the same sound used on the album. I could swear Mr. Banks sent the RMI through Mike's acoustic amp but who knows? The RMI piano mode part is during the choruses which basically mimic the acoustic grand piano chords, only with different fingering (voicings).

The hammond part was recreated using a Hammond B3 sample set (clean) sampled through a leslie speaker inside of Gigastudio so I didn't have to use any leslie simulators (which I don't like by the way). There are backing hammond chords on the entire song except during the choruses. The organ stays panned left throughout the song. I sent this track to Creamware for final mixdown and eq'ing.

The ARP PRO-SOLOIST part is just during the middle section of the song. I used the STEEL GUITAR custom made instrument sample set in KONTAKT as another instance of KONTAKT plugin (VSTI) in Sonar. Kontakt allows me to set up PORTAMENTO on this virtual PRO SOLOIST and it is turned on so that there is a slight glide from note to note. The main part is panned hard right (EQ'ed with alot of mids) and if you listen carefully, you can hear a second ARP track panned hard LEFT that is playing a harmony to the main track that pretty much follows the notes in Steve's guitar track during this section.

Now, this sounds like a lot of work and it was but the harder part of all of these keyboard parts was learning the voicings of all of the chords being played on these different instruments. Not so much what chord is being played but in what register and what fingerings were being used and it does make a difference in creating the proper feel for the keyboard tracks on this song. If you hear any that you think are wrong, please drop me a line and tell me where and what you think the chord voicings should be (I truly would appreciate the feedback).

Phils Drumming

What can I say. Phil has to be one of the most creative, tasteful and talented drummer in all of rock music. He truly integrated his drumming in this tune as part of the music and not just drums.

I used the Oceanway Drums again on this song (they are truly marvelous). I have so much control on the panning of the drums and the close mic's and room mic's that I spent a lot of time just setting up the drums in their virtual room.

I used Oceanway Drums as another Kontakt instance inside of Sonar. After the drums were set up, it was just a matter of learning and playing the drum tracks. They came out pretty good on this song. I will say that these drum samples are so good, that there is absolutely NO EQ, NO REVERB, no nothing added to the samples other than the mixing of the multiple mic samples on each drum. To give you an idea of how many mics you have to create your mix, the snare drum alone has 4 close stereo mics (2 sets of stereo) above and close to the snare (each mic has a panning a volume control), a set of stereo close mics under the snare, a snare overhead mic sample and three sets (6 mics) of stereo room mics, each placed further back and up in the OCEANWAY studio room B. I just love the sound of these drums on these tracks and they truly do recreate the air of this great studio drum room.