I recently got Arturia’s brilliant CS-80v and decided that it was time
to do a new remix. I decided to do a small mix so I could get used to
it, and the ideal subject was the Who theme. I crafted a bassline, but
due to a computer crash (Bimmin’ Windows) I lost it. I remade the
bassline and then moved on to the melody sections. The first phrase is
a sine wave (what else?) with some added portamento and delay-effects.
The answering phrase is a saw wave-based lead with some flange added.
The bridge is made up of three parts; a glissando build up on synth
strings, some more strings following the melody and a steel-drum like
sound with sustain to emphasise the melody. I used the famed
ring-modulator to re-create the introductory sweep and sampled the
whooshing brown noise from the start of Peter Howell’s theme to
accompany it. I used a muddier string synth for the solo around 3/4 of
the way through and played the intro sweep backwards to lead into the
closing boom (with one of my signature FM twiddles – I coudn’t
resist!). The idea of the mix was to create a mix which was just a
little different, and to show off Arturia’s brillian soft-synth. I
must admit there was some midi involved but I assembled all the
sections by hand and played the – albeit short – solo myself.