Fab Dupont explains his creative decision making process as he transforms the Home Cookin’ song ‘Open Eyed’ from the demo to the version heard at the Universal Audio Apollo launch event.
Compare the two versions of the song along with the band and hear singer Liza Colby and producer John Burgos tell the story of how the original track came to fruition and their feelings on the new version.
Get inside the head of an award-winning producer and learn Fab’s decision making process when producing records. You’ll gain valuable new insights that you can use as inspiration in your own work as Fab explains changes of arrangement, tempo, key, performance, and feel of the song.
Click here to learn with Fab as he mixes this song from scratch using only UA plugins.
00:00:07 Good morning children!
Today we're going to run you
through the genesis of a song.
00:00:11 Not a song about Genesis...
The genesis of a song!
The song is called 'Open Eyed',
by Task Home Cookin...
00:00:18 Real name! Not really... Maybe...
00:00:20 Their real names is John Burgos
and Liza Colby. Here we go!
A little before NAMM 2012,
Universal Audio called me and said:
"We have this new box
we'd like you to try."
I said: "OK, that sounds good!"
The way I try out boxes
is I make music with them.
00:00:35 I called my friends
at Task Home Cookin, and I said:
"Do you have a song we could use
to run the box through its paces?"
And they said: "Yes!"
This is always one of those songs
for me that John was like...
00:00:43 "It's a really great song, everybody
likes it," and I'm like... Really?
They sent me a few, and I picked
this one, called 'Open Eyed'.
00:00:50 We've had this song
for about two years now.
00:00:52 The way that we always write is that
John would play me a bunch of beats
and I would say:
"No, no, no, no, no!... Yes!"
And then...
An hour later, we have a song!
Since the results of our experiment
were slated to be
the first demo of the Apollo at NAMM,
I had to achieve a few things
from a production standpoint.
00:01:13 #1...
I had to achieve a very universal sound
that would appeal
to a broad range of people.
00:01:18 #2...
I had to have a very raw sound.
00:01:21 I wanted to sound very unproduced,
because I wanted people to be able
to appreciate the sound of the box.
00:01:26 #3...
I had to let the singers sing.
00:01:28 I wanted to have a good show,
so I wanted to put it in a place
where she could show off
and have fun on stage.
00:01:33 Recording is one thing,
and performing is another,
and those are just
two completely different animals...
00:01:39 in my world, and in my head.
00:01:41 When I perform,
I really want to show my voice off.
00:01:44 Then, I had to do it
within the constraints of just one box.
00:01:48 In the end, we had to cheat.
The Apollo has four preamps,
and I needed a little more than that,
so I added a 4710.
00:01:54 We had 8 preamps.
So there you have it!
We needed to have a good sound,
for the great singer,
good flow, cross-style,
that we could do with 8 microphones,
all-in-one, with a laptop.
00:02:05 That feel is just, you know...
almost like a performance,
so it's straight through, you want
to keep the energy going,
and... you know,
no real unexpected changes,
and give people what they expect,
the song... a good song!
I'm going to play you the original
version of the song that the band sent me.
00:02:20 I liked it right away when I got it,
but I also identified some things
that would be in the way of our purpose.
00:02:26 I'll just play the song
and point out a few things
that I felt could be improved upon
for our purpose.
00:02:31 Here we go.
00:02:41 The original samples for that...
00:02:44 come from this really, really old...
00:02:47 RCA Victor record that I found
in the garbage, literally,
like the day I sampled it.
00:03:16 I couldn't even tell
what the artist was,
the label was ripped off, and...
00:03:21 It actually played funky,
it was nice and warped and...
00:03:24 That was a French record.
00:03:26 And it was just...
I heard it and I was like... Holly shit!
We do have like a 50/50 split.
00:03:41 John would come with the instrumental,
whatever it may be.
00:03:44 He samples it, he makes the beat,
he does the whole thing.
00:03:47 I hear it,
and then I just write to it...
00:03:49 wherever...
I don't know where it comes from.
00:04:07 A lot of things to say.
First, I love the vibe.
00:04:10 The guitar samples are awesome, I've
never heard anything quite like it before.
00:04:13 I love the horn samples...
I love...
00:04:16 Just the overall tone of it is great!
But... I feel that it's super linear
on the melody.
00:04:21 For example, I can't really tell
what's the chorus and what's the verse.
00:04:24 Especially since the verses
are arranged like the choruses.
00:04:28 Which is cool for this vibe,
but it's not gonna work
for what I'm trying to do, which is
make a pop song out of it.
00:04:33 Second, the melody is the same
on the verse and the chorus.
00:04:38 I decided that I wanted to really feel
that the chorus is hitting,
and when the verse is hitting,
know that it's the verse.
00:04:44 So that was part of the task.
00:04:46 I felt that the tempo was...
00:04:49 a little slow.
00:04:51 Especially
considering the subject matter.
00:04:53 It felt a little languid, a little sexy.
And this is not a sexy song, lyrically.
00:04:58 So I felt that maybe it would be
interesting to speed it up a little bit,
and make sure that the speed is in sync
with what she's singing about.
00:05:06 I felt the intro was too long,
that's classic,
and then also I felt like... right there
in the middle, there's a double verse.
00:05:13 She's gonna hit a verse,
and then she's gonna hit another verse
before she hits another chorus.
00:05:18 And that contributes to the confusion
about what's the verse
and what's the chorus.
Check it out.
00:05:31 Notice that the first note,
the first melody of the verse
is the same as the first melody
of the chorus.
00:05:37 Which confuses me,
because I'm not that smart!
Then here, what do you expect?
A chorus, right?
Turnaround...
00:05:50 Here's another verse. Now...
Where's the chorus? I don't know!
So I felt I had to simplify that
and maybe dumb it down a little bit
so we could really feel peaceful
and get the parts that we expect,
at the moment we expect them.
00:06:03 Here's another turnaround,
we're gonna hit the chorus again.
00:06:06 1, and 2, and 3, and... and chorus.
00:06:13 If you noticed,
the horns are playing the same parts
in verses and choruses,
because it's kind of like a linear vibe,
it's more of a jam.
00:06:21 I like that for a lot of music,
but it's not gonna work for me
because I want people to be excited
when she comes on stage and sings it.
00:06:31 This part is crucial. Check this out.
00:06:34 So she just sang a chorus,
and then she hits this.
00:06:43 This is the first time
the melody really changes.
00:06:49 I thought
that would make a great bridge.
00:06:58 And then she hits a chorus again.
00:07:02 But I don't feel a lift coming out of
what could be a bridge,
back into the chorus,
so I don't get the payoff,
I don't get the emotion
that I'm looking for.
00:07:12 And then
there's this great rap coming on...
00:07:15 By John...
00:07:23 Nice.
00:07:37 Pretty cool.
00:07:39 Unfortunately, I didn't see how I could
fit this in our new structure
I'll show you in a second.
00:07:43 Plus, I feel it's a little...
It's a little long for what we're doing.
00:07:49 It's good though. Funky.
00:08:00 We're gonna hit a chorus again...
00:08:05 So this is like the 4th time
I'm hearing the chorus, or 3rd time,
and she's still singing it the same.
I wanted her to be able to soar
and show off that
she's a really amazing singer.
00:08:15 And I felt that
the key was wrong for her to do that.
00:08:21 She's trying on the next chorus I think.
Here we go.
00:08:32 Here we go.
00:08:34 Nice.
00:08:48 In summary, and without the music
playing underneath,
I felt that the song was too long
for my purpose.
00:08:54 So I felt I needed
to cut some parts out.
00:08:57 And that was difficult,
because I kind of liked everything,
but I had to pick what was
less convenient, or less of a payoff.
00:09:05 Unfortunately, the rap had to go.
I love the rap.
00:09:08 But no matter where we put it
in the structure
while we were
rehearsing the new version,
it just didn't fit the same, it always
felt like an added piece,
as opposed to be part of
the core of the song.
00:09:18 Initially, when I heard that
there wasn't gonna be a rap on it,
it was a little jarring.
- Of course, I wasn't thrilled.
00:09:23 It's my rap, we are like
kind of partners in crime, but...
00:09:27 I actually agreed with it, though I didn't
want it to not be a part of the song.
00:09:32 I agreed with it because it lent more
to her beautiful voice showcasing it.
00:09:37 If it was there,
it would still work really, really well
and I think that if we... right now,
we could be like:
we're gonna put the rap
and then we're gonna do it live,
and what that would do is just
open it up to another audience,
that's why this song is very cool.
00:09:50 I felt that the tempo was too slow
and not in sync with the sentiment
that she was singing:
"I've been trying
to find my way back home".
00:09:59 Pretty gritty and a little dark.
00:10:01 And then you get this really sexy,
really kind of like languid vibe.
00:10:06 I didn't think that worked.
So I felt I wanted to speed it up
and also, so we could get
all those lyrics delivered to us faster,
and get more of it, faster,
and get a bigger payoff emotionally.
00:10:17 Structure wise, I felt that a little
rearrangement was needed in the parts
because I felt that the choruses
were very underutilized.
00:10:26 It's a great chorus,
it's a really catchy chorus,
but it didn't feel that way
in the original version,
because it was kind of like linear
in nature,
and not very differentiated
from the verse.
00:10:36 Changing the structure helped the song
flow better.
00:10:38 The structure we had actually was a little
unconventional on the original one anyway.
00:10:42 There are certain things that we get
away with that works really well
while we're in the studio
and doing Home Cookin stuff
and me singing with John. That works
really, really well, but then...
00:10:52 you want to fit it to a live performance
and you want to fit it to the project.
00:10:55 So I felt by making it
a little sluttier,
by making a little emptier verses
and a little fuller choruses,
and by bringing in the chorus
in a more regular manner,
that we would get a natural payoff
that our brains are educated
to learn that after a verse
tends to come a chorus.
00:11:14 I think that the structure
now lends itself to a performance
and to being played live.
00:11:19 For Liza,
I felt that she was a little throttled
in the way she sang the version here.
00:11:24 She has a lot of range,
and she's got a lot of riffs
and a lot of emotion to share,
and I didn't feel that in this version.
It was more kind of a hang and a jam.
00:11:33 So I felt, especially for our purpose,
since it was gonna be a live show,
that she should have room
to soar and show off.
00:11:39 The first thing we did when we started
recording is try different keys,
a half step at a time.
00:11:43 The premise was this:
Liza, try it!
Maybe it's gonna give you new ideas,
maybe it's gonna help you get
to a different place,
give you more space to show off,
and just sing.
00:11:55 I think we settled for a whole step above
or maybe a step and a half above.
00:11:58 And it works great,
as you'll see in the new version.
00:12:01 The key that I was in
when we initially did it
allowed me to do
certain things with my voice,
but when we took it up,
it just made it...
00:12:08 it just opened it up,
and it was really, really nice,
and then you've got to like show off
a little bit, once it's up.
00:12:14 Because I wanted to do everything
with the Apollo, as much as possible,
both recording and playback,
I wanted to keep it super simple.
00:12:20 I wanted to basically have
a 3-hour recording session
and make a record out of it.
So I changed the production style a bit,
from these produced beat stuff
to all acoustic players.
00:12:30 So we got a drummer,
a bass player,
John played percussion,
because he's a great percussion player,
and then I added a Wurly.
I only added the Wurly
so that I could be part of the band
and help find tempos and keys
and be part of the energy, so we have
as much energy as possible on the track.
00:12:45 At first, dry, the Wurly was not like...
It wasn't really working for me.
00:12:50 I hadn't even said anything yet,
I only wanted to give a chance to it,
and Fab was like: "I'm not digging that,"
and I was like: Thank God!
My original intention...
00:12:58 especially after the first few bars
of playing the Wurly, was to mute it,
to just use it as a guide,
as a energy driver,
but not use it in the song. But then
after playing with it for a while,
we kind of fell in love
with the sound of it.
00:13:11 As he added, you know, what he did,
things like a little phaser
and some other effects...
00:13:16 It was good enough for my liking,
and I think Fab ended up
tucking them in places anyway,
and bringing it out more
where it kind of...
00:13:27 acted for that,
or complemented a little more,
but overall, I mean, I'm digging it,
I was digging the sound.
00:13:34 After we settled
the new structure, and key,
and some of the basic arrangement,
we recorded the song as a band,
with none of
the original sampled ear-candy.
00:13:43 The idea was to be flexible
and be able to move fast,
and not be endangered to the machines
and also be able
to push and pull the time
and have that vibe and that feel
that felt really good.
00:13:53 Once we were done, and I think
I remember it was take #12,
we took the Atlantis from the overheads
and put it on a stand
in the middle of the room,
plugged it straight into the Apollo,
and had Liza do one more pass.
00:14:05 Because the original sound
with the dynamic microphone
was so dirty, full of drums and percussion,
that I could not really use it
for a hi-fi recording, and I like hi-fi!
Initially, we were just playing,
and they weren't recording me,
I was just singing, really so that
they could find what their place was.
00:14:21 I always feel like if you got the singer
going and everybody's playing together,
then there is chemistry going on
and you're just invoking more emotion
rather than if you just get the band
to play the track
and then I come down later
and sing on top of it.
00:14:33 Then we took the Atlantis mic
from overhead over
and I sang into it and it ended up
being a really good take.
00:14:39 The last step, at the end of the day,
probably hour 3.5,
was to take the original samples,
slice them up to match the new tempo
and then pitch them up
to match the new key,
which we did in Pro Tools
with the Elastic Audio.
00:14:52 And I just put them in place
and started playing with them.
00:14:55 Then I realized that I really liked
the samples only on the choruses.
00:14:58 And that was my contrast.
00:15:00 So I had the original vibe
of the original version on the choruses,
and then on the verse, I had a really
empty verse with just us playing
and I thought it worked.
And the A/B vibe felt good.
00:15:09 Then for the bridge,
we just left it as is
just what we were playing,
and no samples.
00:15:15 Let me play you
the rough mix of that session.
00:15:17 So... Live band.
00:15:19 A few samples added
and one overdub of vocal.
00:15:22 It looks like this,
no plug-ins, no nothing.
00:15:25 Let's listen to that.
00:15:29 I like the little hook:
"Ding Dong, Ding Dong."
Much shorter intro.
00:15:44 Better key for her.
00:15:47 Established in the chorus
with the samples.
00:15:57 Showcasing the main sample here.
00:16:08 This is great as is,
no need for the Wurly.
00:16:11 Actually, it would be in the way.
00:16:13 It's good for this,
to bring the chorus back.
00:16:25 The contrast between no sample
and sample helps with the chorus.
00:16:43 Here we cut the sample
and put the Wurly instead.
00:16:46 I dig it, I think it's a nice contrast.
00:16:49 Also you noticed that
the double verse is gone.
00:16:52 It's now
verse - chorus - verse - chorus.
00:16:54 Here we go for the chorus.
00:17:03 She's starting to soar a little bit,
she's got room to grow.
00:17:14 And here...
00:17:19 We recycled the fourth verse
into a bridge.
00:17:23 Which feels good,
it's a good breathing spot.
00:17:32 And then it comes back strong.
00:17:57 Nice.
00:18:00 Now she's got room to show off,
it's a good key for her...
00:18:11 Now it feels more determined,
which is more in sync
with what she's singing,
and I always like when the lyrics
and the music give off the same vibe.
00:18:22 Oh we brought the little
"Ding Dong, Ding Dong" at the end
like to bookend the whole song.
00:18:30 I think that this is a good song.
00:18:32 You know,
it's a good song in the sense of...
00:18:35 If it's a good song then you can take it
away from... whatever the beat,
and you could apply it to a live band.
00:18:43 You could apply it to, I don't know,
a classical accompaniment,
and it will work across genres,
or the barriers of...
00:18:52 of like what the project is needed for,
that the song will lend itself
to doing that.
00:18:57 So, I'm happy that this is something
that we can say that we did.
00:19:01 You know, this is a good song.
00:19:03 I'm going to play the rough mix
of this song one more time
so you can enjoy the music
without me babbling over it,
and you should, after that, consider
watching the Mixing video of this song.
00:19:52 The fact that we changed the song,
pretty much from what I was married to
for 2 years,
it was a little intimidating.
00:20:00 Not that I didn't trust him,
I was just like...
00:20:02 a little reluctant cause I wasn't sure
what he had...
00:20:05 you know, had in his mind.
00:20:40 Changing it
and having live musicians play on it...
00:20:43 it refreshes it a little bit,
and because it stayed with
the same feel, it felt really good.
00:21:16 I really enjoy watching the song grow
and now we have a relationship
with it over two years.
00:22:09 For what it's become,
it was definitely worth it.
00:22:12 Now it's like a cool pop song,
but it still has
a lot of the elements of the original.
00:22:26 Et voilà!
Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.
Equipment & Software
Universal Audio UAD Plugins used:
1176 LN
Cambridge EQ
EP-34 Tape Echo
EMT 250
Harrison 32C EQ
LA2A
Moog Filter
MXR Flanger Doubler
Neve 88RS
Precision Enhancer Hz
Precision Maximizer
Precision Limiter
Precision Bus Compressor
Pultec Pro
RS-1 Reflection Engine
SPL Transient Designer
Featured Music
If you like the song, here is a link to buy it on itunes.
Fab Dupont is a Grammy winning NYC based record producer, mixing/mastering engineer and co-founder of pureMix.net.
Fab has been playing, writing, producing and mixing music both live and in studios all over the world. He's worked in cities like Paris, Boston, Brussels, Stockholm, London and New York just to name a few.
He has his own studio called FLUX Studios in the East Village of New York City.
Fab has been nominated for Grammys 6 times, including two Latin Grammys and has received many other accolades around the world, including Victoires de la Musique, South African Music awards, Pan African Music Awards and US independent music awards.
Oh man! This production videos are priceless. I enjoy them more than mixing tutorials to be honest. Because good production equals good mix.
Guitar5986
2017 Mar 14
Good video. Gotta say that I preferred the original version though.
djbrimlo
2016 Dec 16
Good Video. Enjoyed watchign the transformation of the demo. Making changes to appeal to a broader market made a lot of sense.
viccieleaks
2016 Nov 29
The new production really helped, agree with Fab that it needed a more poppy structure and more dynamics.
Gotta feel for the rapper ;DD
- Viccie
rmoreno
2016 Jul 13
Yeah Man Less Boring. Good Production.
VadimEnsoniq
2016 Jan 27
I like the original one so much more
Arichlsss
2013 Mar 15
Great video!!!
Loved the whurly. I would have left out the percussion on the drum break and had heavy back ground vocals on the chorus ..... Oooooos and ahhhhhs .... Bass line was sick!! And structure improved immensely !!! Way to go Fab
cristianr.mendezm
2013 Mar 05
Great video, it was worthwhile to renew my subscription =D.
I would like to know what is the little red box that you use for headphone monitoring.
jaisatriani
2013 Mar 03
Awesome that's why i love premix, take my money Fab, take it and don't say anything else
curt
2013 Mar 02
This is excellent, absolutely rich in content and fresh. Seeing the inside workings of not only recording, but seeing the development of new ideas between you and the artist was a privilege. Song is awesome and the training invaluable! Thanks Fab!
Shazzam
2013 Feb 28
Excellent to be able to be in the flow as the performers were in "real time". Great stuff Fab.
Time and time again, it's to know when to give/ease up control of your song to allow someone else a go at it.
Big props to John and Liza!
This song has grown with us as well so to see the inner workings and polish is refreshing in a varied and many ways!!
Kudos to all....and next on to the mixing....Wow. ; r )
Tin0
2013 Feb 28
Great video. Really helpful. This is why I pay for this stuff. I’m lovin’ it (guess my weight hehe)
MZ1387
2013 Feb 27
Amazing! I've wanted a video like this to learn those subtle concepts that really help take a song to the next level. I'm working on a project right now so I'm definitely going back a listening back with those ideas. Thanks Fab. More videos like these please :)
juancopro-flow
2013 Feb 27
I love this song since the first time I heard it. What i didn't know was all the history behind in, mad props for johnny and Liza for coming up with the original and even bigger props for Fab, for turning silver into gold. Nice work!
