Awesome Recording

The final song to feature all four Beatles was five decades in the making. Now and Then combines sessions recorded by Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr in 1995 with vocals recorded by John Lennon in the 1970s. Thanks to modern audio tech, Lennon’s voice was decoupled from a piano track and enhanced to fit into the track. (Thanks, Rob!)

Just about anything can make a sound if you hit, rub, or touch it just right. Songs by Spencer recorded a bunch of random objects around his house, loaded them into a sampler, and layered them together to perform an original song about overcoming his insecurities.

Musician Hainbach got his hands on a 1930s recording device called a Kosmograph. This vintage dictation machine translates spoken vibrations through a tube directly onto a spinning celluloid disc. Its scratchy, low-fidelity recordings add an ethereal texture to music.

Daft Punk is re-releasing its final album, Random Access Memories to celebrate its 10th anniversary. The new edition includes 35 minutes of previously unreleased recordings, including this 8-minute segment that takes us inside the creative process of the song Fragments of Time with vocalist and co-producer Todd Edwards.

While it’s obvious that Daft Punk’s music relies on sampling, some other songs on David Bennett’s list are surprising music recyclers. Songs like Gotye’s Somebody I Used to Know and Coldplay’s Talk feature samples or re-recorded musical passages. We also suggest checking out Tracklib’s Sample Breakdowns series.

The Beatles’ A Day in the Life was one of the most ambitious songs they ever recorded. Musician David Bennett explains how the track was created, then endeavored to replicate it as closely as possible by recording the individual parts and layering them together. That’s Chris Vince on vocals and Zal Jones on drums.

Want to produce your own music or perform live electronic concerts? Ableton Live is the production tool of choice of the pros. This series of six courses will help you learn everything you need to know, from basic recording, to controlling MIDI devices, to editing, to DJ-ing. Another bargain from The Awesomer Shop.

iZotope’s compact cylinder is perfect for solo musicians, providing a complete recording studio in a portable package. It’s got a studio quality microphone, two XLR/TS inputs, built-in effects, and can mix and position up to 8 tracks with its iOS app. More here and here.