Bloggin 4 Beats: Remixing T.I.

For this next installment of Bloggin 4 Beats I had my man J.H. talk about how he remixed T.I.’s “Whatever You Like…”

I picked T.I’s ‘Whatever You Like’ because I thought the original was sort of predictable and a little boring. I usually like to pick a song that I like a little and try and take it to another place and make it a favorite.

I started by cutting an 8 bar loop from the original, right at the start of the first verse. I used this to match my drums to the correct tempo and also used it to match the acapella up. Once I got the acapella laid over the original version perfectly, i deleted the original from my mix and startted building my own music around it.

I used FM8 for the amotsphere like synths. Ultra Analog Synth for the Bass. All the guitars are played on the Keystation 49e using a VST from EWQL. I layered up the drums as usual, I think I used somewhere between 5-6 different kick’s and around 7 or 8 snares. The hihat programming is somewhat typical, but I always like to have a few elements that are expected, tends to draw people in. I found that if you go outside the box on a beat 100%, most people will just look at you funny. By using something thats a constant in the genre along with some unexpected sounds and instruments, it draws them in and makes them more open to listen.