Sometimes, I like to take songs from my favorite artists and make something different with my sound. "Englishman" is a great example.
I spent a couple of hours trying to re-create the original "Englishman in New York" by Sting. I was satisfied with everything except that saxophone! (Sax is always a hard one to deal with in the digital realm.) After I got a decent re-creation, I slowed the track down from 104 bpm to 96 bpm and created the beat.
When I "re-create" parts of existing songs, I actually go through and manually re-create each part that I can hear, as close to the original as I can. It takes awhile, especially since my "musicianship" is not the best and I only know how to re-create "by ear" (what I hear). In all, it is a great exercise in listening and focusing on specific instruments, sounds and parts within a song when so much is going on within it.
This is another one of my "for fun" tracks. I can only hope that Sting wouldn't be angry if he heard it. :->
Members Only