Spookytown Reimagined
This video premiered on October 28, 2021 as part of a Halloween showcase for Spotify employees. With only 14 days between signup and the deadline, writing a song from scratch seemed too risky. Instead, I opted to perform Spookytown, a song I originally released in 2016.
Using Spookytown saved the time of writing, memorizing, and rehearsing a new song. That saved time was invested in my performance and production, both of which attained levels I have previously not achieved.
Pleased with the outcome of the video, I decide to also release an audio version of the same performance. After an additional 5 days of cleaning up and polishing the audio mix, and publicly release it alongside the video on October 28th. The track is titled Spookytown (2021), since the difference between it and the original Spookytown is large enough to merit a unique name.
Putting together Spookytown (2021) was a lot of fun. Doing something yourself is always a great learning opportunity. This article captures a handful of learnings as well as some technical details which may be handy to have documented. The sections are in no particular order, feel free to jump around.
-Rich
The White Zombie Sample
A distinctive element of Spookytown (2021) is the inclusion of the sample from Victor Haleprin's 1932 film White Zombie. The sample begins at 30:45 of the film, and can be seen playing in the background of Spookytown (2021) video.
In the Spookytown (2021) video, the sample is unaltered except for a slight volume reduction during the vocals of the second verse. The audio version is more liberal with muting sections, and does shift the audio in one place to bring an piece of dialogue into the end of the second verse.
Finding the Sample
I brought several old horror films into my creative space for this project. They played constantly in the background of my work. My primary source was this list of public domain horror movies because I wanted to find samples I did not have to clear, as this can be complicated. Luckily, that list included White Zombie, which is a compliment to Spookytown.
Some other contenders included:
- Night of the Living Dead (1968)
- Little Shop of Horrors (1960)
- Isle of the Snake People (1971)
- Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959)
- Teenage Zombies (1960)
- Giant Gilla Monster (1959)
The Korg Electribe
I picked up a used Korg electribe sampler in 2019 at the Union Square Guitar Center in New York City. Finding this instrument was like discovering a lost appendage. It's a link back to my days as a percussionist, and also a bridge to my technical side.
I love this instrument so much that sometimes I just jam to the factory patterns.
For Spookytown (2021), the electribe is used for two parts:
- The Crickets in the Background
- The Drum Beat
The Heartbeat Road Crickets
My 2016 album Heartbeat Road has a sample of crickets chirping in the background of the entire album. The album is named after a haunted dirt road in the woods near my childhood home. The artwork was taken on that road, and I recorded the sample of crickets chirping near there too.
I resurrected that original Heartbeat Road sample, chopped it, and weaved in a new sample that I found on Splice. I loaded that frankensample onto my electribe, and used it in Spookytown (2021).
The Drums
The samples are from a free kit made by reddit user Lunch77.
- Kick: GVDG_k (4)
- Snare: GVD_snr (31)
- Hi Hat: DVNNYBEATS_Wu Tang Hi Hat
The Guitar Rig
The guitar rig for this recording session was Epiphone Zenith > Fender Smolder Acoustic OD > Boss VE-8.
Epiphone Zenith Masterbilt Settings
- Tone: 50%
- Volume: 50%
Fender Smolder Acoustic OD Settings
- Tone: 10 o'clock
- Treble: 2 o'clock
- Bass: 3 o'clock
- Pickup Comp: 3 o'clock
- Level: 11 o'clock
- Blend: 10 o'clock
- Drive: 3 o'clock
Boss VE-8 Settings
- Acoustic Resonance: 9 o'clock
- Shape: Red
- Reverb: Off
- Reverb Type: Green
- Notch: 3 o'clock
- Chorus: 10 o'clock
The Vocal Rig
The vocal rig for this recording session was *Sure Beta 58 > TC Helicon Voicetone C1 > Boss VE-8
TC Helicon Voicetone C1 Settings
- Key: G
- Correction: Off
- Gender: 11 o'clock
Boss VE-8 Settings
- Enhance: Off
- Correct: Green
- Reverb: 12 o'clock
- Reverb Type: Yellow
- Harmony Type: Double
- Harmony Level: 10 o'clock
- Auto: Red
An iPhone as The Room Mic
My iPhone 12 Mini shot the video. The audio from this video is combined with multitrack audio recordings from a Tascam Model 12 to create the final mixes. A major difference between the video and the audio versions being the level of this iPhone mic in the mix.
The Video Sonic Space
The video features more room mic as an aesthetic choice. When you see a space on video you make certain sonic assumptions about it. If the video shows someone speaking in a cavern, the brain expects it to sound wet with echoes and reverb. If instead it sounds like it was recorded in a padded music studio, the illusion is broken. The audio needs to a convincing sonic space to match the video, and the room mic is the fastest and most reliable tool for capturing that space.
The Audio Sonic Space
In contrast to the video, in audio-only mixes the sonic expectations shift. Instead of anchoring to the visual of the video, the listener must create the sonic space with their imagination. Since audio-only mixes tend to be exaggerations of reality, the room mic gets in the way of creating sonic spaces. For these mixes, the audio effects play a larger role in creating the sonic space.
See Creating Sonic Space, an article by Dan Heck, to learn more about this subject.
Project Timeline
Total time: 20 Days (10/08/2021-10/28/2021)
Tracking: 8 Days (10/08/2021-10/15/2021)
- 10/08/2021: Sign up for Showcase
- 10/10/2021: Order TC Helion Vocal Pedal??
- 10/10/2021: Order Smolder Acoustic Pedal
- 10/11/2021_1:00: Preview Movies rapidly
- 10/11/2021_22:00: Sync Mixer to Electribe
- 10/13/2021_12:58: Little Shop of Horrors
- 10/13/2021_12:58: Little Shop of Horrors
- 10/13/2021_21:22: Night of the Living Dead
- 10/13/2021_21:44: Most Dangerous Game
- 10/13/2021_21:46: White Zombie
- 10/14/2021_01:21: Download White Zombie
- 10/14/2021: Download White Zombie
- 10/14/2021: Record great take, but there is audio drift against video
- 10/15/2021: Record final take
Video Post Production: 6 days (10/16/2021-10/22/2021)
- 10/16/2021: Begin Audio Mix
- 10/21/2021: Video Mix Complete
- 10/22/2021: Video FX
- 10/22/2021: Upload video
Audio Mix: 5 days (10/23/2021-10/28/2021)
- 10/23/2021: Begin Audio Mix
- 10/28/2021: Upload Audio Mix