La Milla Bella Princepessa: A Breakdown
La Mia Bella Princepessa - Mike Rooney
Role: Producer, Mixer, Guitarist
Mike had sent me these stems in Logic to mix for him. The song was very well arranged on it’s own, but I felt it was missing something to bring it’s chorus to the next level. Enter the 80’s Fender Stratocaster! The chords in the chorus are split into two voicings, the higher one in the right ear and the lower one in the left. This spread the chord around the stereo spectrum and allowed it to sit better in the mix. Since the rhythm section of the song is composed strictly of MIDI instruments, many of the timbres were changed in each section of the song. Blending different drum sounds made each section of the song have its own unique vibe. Another trick utilized in this production was triggering drum sounds on particular beats, to replicate the dynamics of a real drummer.
This video demonstrates the use of layering three different snare samples on top of each other to create a giant, full sounding snare drum. The two orange MIDI tracks are different stock samples found in Logic Pro. The blue cut up audio track is a snare drum I took from a previous project and pitch shifted with a plugin called Little Alter Boy.
This video highlights the use of two guitars playing different voicings of the same chord. The guitar playing the higher voicing is panned to the right of the stereo spectrum, while the lower voicing is panned to the left. The delay and chorus effects on the two guitars help the frequencies bounce around the spectrum, creating an interesting effect in the song.