As I was recovering from a very bad cold, I saw a few facebook posts for the Kebu Remix Competition which is ending on 31 Dec 2021.

I have been a fan of Kebu for some years – mainly because of his early videos which demonstrated the many synthesizers he has and because his style and musical interests are not too dissimilar to my own.

Biting the bullet I decided to add my own entry.

The process

When I do a remix/reworking of a piece of music, I am very aware of the original music and try to be as sensitive as possible – but take it somewhere different. The original track – Super Troopers – from Kebu’s excellent album Urban Dreams is slower than my remixed version.

I decided to make the track more upbeat – so when I received the stems (the individual recorded elements of the original song) I stripped out the drums. I then added my own initial pattern.

Dynamics are very important and sounds. I have invested in some soft synths recently and these came in handy when selecting sounds. I also used my Moog Rogue for some sound effects throughout and a touch of my Crumar Seven at the beginning.

Here is a breakdown of some of the sounds used:

• Percussion/drums : A mix of TR808, TR909 and Symmond sounds
• Effects : wind, blips and blos – Moog Rogue
• Hi bell sound : Cherry Audio MemoryMode soft synth (based on MemoryMoog)
• Arpeggiation :  Classic Analogue Arp soft synth and AMG Synthpack custom sound
• Chords and High Energy Lead : AMG Synthpack custom sound sounds

I wanted to leave space for the original arrangement and accent the main hook – adding my own to create a middle 8 line before the main hook comes back in to fade out.

There are many entries in the competition and they canbe found on SoundCloud along with mine here: Soundcloud Page

You can listen to the full version of my submission here: