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I came across an instrumental version of davisamerica's "Emma" recently and noticed that it was listed as an Open Collab. It is such a beautiful melody and arrangement, that I asked for a copy of the Garageband files, partly to see how it was done and partly because I dared hope I might be able to re-arrange her in an equally beautiful way. You be the judge.
Jack says: "Emma was completed on a sunday afternoon whilst I had the house to myself. Fastest song i have ever done. Emma was her name from the beginning... she told me so." Maybe so, but there are 9 tracks including the vocal, and it took me more time to tweak and obsess over the remix than it took him to write it. Which is as it should be.
The main "blow me away" factor about Emma is that she is complex, mysterious, and beautiful. But there is more than mysteriousness about Emma: there is ambiguousness (both from the music and from Jack) and, I feel, a touch of the otherworldly, a fey or phantom quality. It was this slightly supernatural feel that I tried to emphasize, while respecting every note of Jack's original. If you listen carefully, you will hear Jack's amazingly rich and yet subtle piece in a quite different dress.
Mainly, I changed instrumentation and effects: instead of the guitar lead it's now an Alchemy synth with CoolVibes preset; the Cathedral Organ is now a Circus Organ; etc. The two major changes I made were to split Jack's Orchestral Strings track in two so that all the short notes are handed off to a Harp and the long ones are played by a bassoon; and I eliminated most of his original vocal track, except for a few words here and there ;-)
My thanks to both Jack and Eduard for early listens and valuable advice.
And so, without further ado, my version of Emma, Reincarnate.
(Don't pay any attention to the photo above, which is by Twigstock at DeviantArt.com)
Jack says: "Emma was completed on a sunday afternoon whilst I had the house to myself. Fastest song i have ever done. Emma was her name from the beginning... she told me so." Maybe so, but there are 9 tracks including the vocal, and it took me more time to tweak and obsess over the remix than it took him to write it. Which is as it should be.
The main "blow me away" factor about Emma is that she is complex, mysterious, and beautiful. But there is more than mysteriousness about Emma: there is ambiguousness (both from the music and from Jack) and, I feel, a touch of the otherworldly, a fey or phantom quality. It was this slightly supernatural feel that I tried to emphasize, while respecting every note of Jack's original. If you listen carefully, you will hear Jack's amazingly rich and yet subtle piece in a quite different dress.
Mainly, I changed instrumentation and effects: instead of the guitar lead it's now an Alchemy synth with CoolVibes preset; the Cathedral Organ is now a Circus Organ; etc. The two major changes I made were to split Jack's Orchestral Strings track in two so that all the short notes are handed off to a Harp and the long ones are played by a bassoon; and I eliminated most of his original vocal track, except for a few words here and there ;-)
My thanks to both Jack and Eduard for early listens and valuable advice.
And so, without further ado, my version of Emma, Reincarnate.
(Don't pay any attention to the photo above, which is by Twigstock at DeviantArt.com)
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alackbass
Hats off to Jack for writing one of the best melodies I've heard at MJ. Excellent remix and rearrange.