After nearly a month of painstaking work, I present my take / recreation of "It's My Life." (Link to Soundcloud, Reddit doesn't support WAV.)
Differences Between My Version and the Original Version
- The sound that Ian Curnow describes as being a mix between an organ and strings with a modified envelope release ends on a square wave instead of a saw wave in my version.
- The snare, crash, and tambourine are modified to sound more like the version heard on The Saturday Show. Also, said drums and most of the percussion were recorded using a LinnDrum VST as opposed to emulations of acoustic drums. I also added some EQ to the main drum bus to simulate overhead microphones like in the original recording.
- The bongos are not accompanied with claves, as is the case in some of the live versions of the song.
- The click track, like in much of the life versions, is heard throughout the entire song. The sound, which also replaces the woodblock heard in the original recording, is of a Roland TR-808.
- Most of the sounds heard in my version were near 1:1 recreations of the sounds from the original multitracks. The only samples ripped directly from the original are of the acoustic guitar, fretless bass, synth bass, and the two distinctive “wails” played on electric guitar by Robbie Mcintosh.
- The second of said “wails” has a flanger effect added to it, inspired by how it sounds in The Saturday Show performance.
- My version is two semitones lower, matching the key of The Saturday Show performance.
- I used Studio One 7 Pro as my DAW, using the Presence plugin for the soprano saxophone solo, Hammond, and TR-808, as well as Aly James Lab’s VSDSX, Arturia’s Jup-8V, CMI V, OP-Xa V, and SQ 80 V plugins.
u/ProgramBeautiful5136 — 8 hours ago