Name: We Are All Astronauts - 'Keep It Together' by Produce Like A Pro Academy
Duration: 3 min 22 s
Description: Want to mix this track? Download all Multitracks at Produce Like A Pro Academy and learn how this song was mixed by platinum selling producer Warren Huart: https://www.producelikeapro.com/join-plap-academy

Catchy uplifting song, liking the harmonies and production, kinda reminds us of Blue Oyster Cult a little.

01 Treat Me Right

Want to mix this track? Download all Multitracks at Produce Like A Pro Academy and learn how this song was mixed by platinum selling producer Warren Huart: https://www.producelikeapro.com/join-plap-academy

We Are All Astronauts - 'Keep It Together'

Kaedyn Kashmir - The Sweetest Goodbye

Credits:

Original Song @theworkdayrelease
Production @tobisonics
Mix @Toilettunes
Master @masteredbytobi

Enough of this pop malarky, back to my usual dark cinematic oddity.  And a welcome return to remixing the ever-excellent, The Workday Release, and his somber, haunting song, 'The Ghost Here is Me'.  Catch the official release:

https://open.spotify.com/track/5glrjL47A0bjCw1Ku8fhWB?si=TPAp6zIHThWl8V1xTl1Krg

Kept the vocal and built the production from the ground up.  Only the 1st verse and chorus was tracked, so I added additional pre-chorus, bridge, and breakdown before finally repeating the chorus.  Discovered the bassline by accident playing around on the keyboard.  From there, the 'Get Carter' inspired tablas arrived.  These three elements formed the core of the production; with bass and talba timed off the vocal, and all the other instrumentation timed off those three core elements.

Getting the re-structure and fundamental timing between the three elements took the most time.  The additional instrumentation was inspired by the acid jazz soundtracks of the 70s - such as 'Get Carter' and 'Dirty Harry'.  The challenge was not allowing the production to become 'too groovy'.  The lyrics have a dark, fatalism to them; the production needed to reflect that.   A selection of reference tracks can be found on this handy playlist I created to work from:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4GU0MBT0zHSSizSVUoo1Se?si=VdXo2wG8QmqX0g7V4cJFBQ

Once the production was done, I handed the mix off to my good friend and mix engineer, Kip (it was his idea to use the Jim Croce songs as a reference for the vocal processing).  He very kindly agreed to work to my stereo design.  Not all mixers would have been willing or indeed able.  Kip gave the mix a size and drama that I couldn't, particularly in the chorus.  Check his work @toilettunes.

I then mastered the mix to a fairly competitive -11.6 LUFS; making sure to strike a balance with dynamics, between driving the production without squeezing the air out of it.

The Workday Release 'The Ghost Here Is Me (Unofficial Tobisonic Remix)'

Credits:
Vocals, Lyrics, & Music by London Lawhon (@ondonawhonusic)
Music & Original Production by Warren Huart (@warrenhuart)
Remix Production by Tobi (@tobisonics)
Mixed by Chris Sweet (@confectionarysound)
Mastered by Tobi (@masteredbyTobi)

A blast from the past!  My unofficial remix of London Lawhon's astonishing song of heartbreak and moving on, 'Locked Up'.  The official release was produced by Warren Huart and you can hear it here:

https://soundcloud.com/spitfiremusicgroup/london-locked-up

I re-visited my remix of 2 years ago and re-did the production from the ground up.  Enlisted my good friend and stellar mix engineer Chris Sweet to give that 'radio-ready mix' and I mastered.

Remix Production Break Down:
The production came all too easily (which never usually happens to me).  Playing around with chords, I stumbled upon a change of chord pattern.  London's voice is so incredible it sounded translated fantastically well to the new chords.  With the basic chords played out on Steinberg's Neo-Soul, I dropped the pulsating, sub and bassline in (added additional weight and sub with Waves Submarine).  Then the awesomely grungy/lofi 2bit Choir (EastWest) was added in the choruses.

With those elements in the place, the track already moved and felt like it was alive and driving.  The drums, strings, and tambourine are taken from Warren Huart's original production.  I trashed the drum samples up some and added some weight to the kick.  Introduced variations with reverb automation.

Next, I added additional percussive elements and 'ear candy' through the verses and choruses.  In the re-visited production, I added extra synthpop elements in the 2nd verse and choruses.  I also added extra brass hits in the choruses.  Every element was re-processed with attention paid to tone + timbre.  I also worked to increase depth and contrast with the instrumentation itself and in terms of the arrangement as a whole,

Handing the mix off to Chris was a no-brainer.  His 'radio-ready' mixing puts him right up there with some of the very top mix engineers and the remix needed to really 'pop'.  His first pass was a touch too much on the side of synth-pop; but like the professional he is, he had a re-listen to the reference tracks and came back with a mix that got us 90% of the way there.  

The advantage of working with a top mix engineer is you know when a production element is falling short,  I rejigged some of the production elements and Chris took the mix the rest of the way there.

Mastering comes with two kinds of pressure - typically, the pressure is to make up for the shortcomings of the production/mix without compromising the final master.  In this case, there was nothing to 'make-up' and, instead, I could simply get on with the job of mastering.  This is the second type of pressure.  Don't mess it up.

I worked to lift the track to a competitive loudness without being aggressive and while ensuring I preserved the dynamics and the hard work that Chris had put into the mix and I had put into the production.  Balanced used of Ozone 7 Dynamics model, DMG Limitless, and Fabfilter Pro L2 resulted in a loud, dynamic track rich in detail and contrasts in tone with a heavy, full sub and low end.  Additional EQ, parallel compressions and saturation enhanced the details, depth, and width.  

I processed the master at 64 Floating Point/192 kHz with additional oversampling to produce a clean harmonic response and reduce aliasing.  PSP X-Dither gave it that extra polish.  And I used the Nugen Mastercheck and Sonnox Pro-Codec to maximize the quality and loudness of the track across the various formats.

I lot of hard work and passion went into creating the various elements that make up this remix.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I am proud of it.    

Useful Links:
Have a go at mixing/remixing 'Locked Up' by joining the Produce Like a Pro Academy.  www.producelikeapro.com

We Are All Astronauts - 'Keep It Together'

Produce Like A Pro Academy

Recent comments

Wud Records

Related tracks