Roland Users Group
Josh Harris
Remixing the Backstreet Boys
By Greg Rule
After a five-year reprieve, the Backstreet Boys made a strong return to the charts in 2005 with the hit single “Incomplete.” Anchored by a catchy ambient piano motif, the ballad found favor with die-hard Backstreet fans as well as newer “Coldplayers.”
Enter Josh Harris — master remixer with dozens of major-label remixes to his credit, including The Killers, Britney Spears, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Madonna, Kelly Clarkson, and Utada (see “Remixography” below). When Josh got called to create a pumped-up radio version of the Backstreet Boys single for radio, he unwrapped his new Roland V-Synth XT and went to work.
Josh kindly supplied Roland with a few blog notes and audio clips from the project.
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Blueprint
“Lately, I’ve been working on remixes that are solely for mainstream radio, with no plans for a commercial CD or 12-inch release. This mix was one of those. With the original song being a ballad, I figured that the remix should be a literal doubling of the tempo. So, there was no vocal time-stretching necessary for this one.”
V-SYNTH XT
“I recently picked up a V-Synth XT after seeing it at NAMM, and was very anxious to use it on a high profile remix like this one. Roland keyboards have always played a huge role in my production and remix work over the last few years, so the XT was definitely a welcome addition to the arsenal!
“I knew that this mix was going to end up very guitar-heavy, but I would also need some texture and depth, to make the mix ‘three dimensional.’ Since the XT is loaded up with some moving pads and LFO-synced patches, I knew that I would find something within the factory presets. I usually like to tweak the sounds, but I was really under the gun to turn something into the label. So, factory sounds were going to have to suffice.”
Patchwork
“Even though this mix is very guitar-driven, I actually started with the keyboards and bass. One piece of advice that I can offer to aspiring remixers is to make sure that your track works in a ‘vocal, bass, and drums’ setting. If those three elements aren’t working together, then you will most likely run into problems as you build your track.
“That being the case, I needed to find some sounds that would work with guitars, and I arrived at two sounds on the V-Synth XT: patches 197 (used on the choruses) and 224 (used on the verses). I synced the XT to beat clock from my DAW so that all effects would be in time. I’ve become very comfortable with printing synth sounds with their effects, which adds a different color than using the plug-in reverbs and delays.”
Guitar Tracks
“After adding these two key XT sounds, I had guitarist Roger Alan Nichols lay his parts down, and then the whole mix came together.”
• • • • •
The included MP3s, below, will give you an example of Josh’s final mix, along with the soloed XT parts. These could very well be the first V-Synth XT tracks to hit the pop airwaves. Many more XT creations will be airing soon, including a stream of remixes from Mr. Harris, whose remix mill continues to crank out the hit tracks.
For more on Josh, visit his site at www.seirenproductions.com.
Audio Examples!
BACKSTREET BOYS REMIX
Click here for a clip of Josh Harris’s Backstreet Boys remix.
[The original, pre-remixed version of “Incomplete” can be auditioned at BackstreetBoys.com.]