MASSIVE ATTACK - Teardrop - How Was It Made? Ep 8

i don't know how many times i've listened  to this track i'm getting goosebumps to   listen to it right now so of course it  is the amazing teardrop by massive attack   come with me on a journey let's dive deep  into it let's look at the samples the synths   the secrets that went into making  this amazing track so it starts off so we've got this classic heartbeat it really does act like a heartbeat it's  very steady it doesn't really change they   add a few bits and bobs on top of it  there are no big drum fills or anything   it's just there like a beating heart just  propelling everything along nicely so what   are the drums so on who sampled  there's just one sample for this track   which is this drum break it's by les mccann it's  called sometimes i cry so this is what i've got so basically we've just got  one bar looped and we've got   a nice bit of compression going on  so if i take off all the processing so i added a bit of eq i wanted to  boost the kick and then compress it bring up the sound of the hats glue it  together but you'll notice that the original   there's a lot of crackle let's  just listen to it from about here which is really quite an integral part of the  tune and i believe they just sampled it from the   vinyl this case i wasn't old school enough i just  got it from itunes so i had to add in a bit of   artificial vinyl so i used this uh retro color by  rc20 retro color just to add a bit of vinyl noise   and i use my classic my trusty decimate   it's quite subtle but i'm just trying to  get closer to the sound of a classic sampler but that does have a difference if you're  listening on decent speakers or headphones   you'll hear the difference subtle but it's  noticeable and then the one will crackle so that's that then we have some  more drums backing these up and   you'll notice that there's a drum missing  there's a kick drum missing in in this it's just so how do we get this i just sampled  the tune so i just took the sample i   just literally took the first kick put  it in a simpler and just added it in   i think i also yeah i low pass filtered  it because it had a high hat in it i think that's more or less it  if we listen back to the original   i think this other drum's reinforcing it so i just added this kick and i  backed up the rim with another rim shot   so let's just hear it with this kick  without the rim shot let's compare i did try a little bit with the with the  pitch like i could pitch that down a bit but it doesn't sound quite the same does it i'm  not quite sure but what i thought they did is   probably reinforce that with another rim shot so i  just got this rim shot these extra drums we've got   this beefier kick drum backing up the main  drums so all together sounding like this   i'm fairly happy with that we do have these  effective sounds and this is somewhere i kind   of drew a blank uh if you have any idea where  these come from like i'd be very happy to know   now that's up it's almost like a horn it's almost  like a drum but it's got like a definite note   like a pitch to it so that's the drums in the  beginning we do get a few more layers later so   then the next big sound is of course the beautiful  harpsichord sound with a nice volume fade up and the crackle is such a nice element  actually it's weird like you would never   think it really but the harpsichord coming  up in volume gradually it's coming through   this crackle so it's almost like it's almost  like the harpsichord is sampled like i think   i used to think it probably was sampled like  it's not clear where the crackle's coming from so we've got this fairly simple pattern i think  it's called an ostinato this kind of thing   and i've just got a utility  automating the pitch coming up   it's just this simple pattern so we've  got an octave a but the main melodies   very simple but sublime i absolutely love it i  think it works so well and i love this i probably   mentioned this before when there's a repeating  element like that and then the chords change   around it the context of the changing chords  changes the thing that isn't changing if you see   what i mean i absolutely love that kind of thing  so we've just got this slow volume rise until the   piano kicks in and the basic pattern does change  a bit so this the the original pattern it goes then we have a pattern where it's just  the first half looped and then we get   the end at the end of 12 i think from right and i love massive attack for this not just  being i'm like a slave when i make music i   tend to be a slave to 16 bars four bars it has  to be a multiple of four and they don't they're   not that and we'll see it in a minute with the  piano so they've just got 12 bars because they   actually drop in the vocal at four by 41 so with  me it would always be like at 33 or maybe 49 or   17. we don't have a lot of changes we've  got basically this pattern and then we have   pattern where it goes back to alternating  but it's just sublime it works so well   and it's so lovely with the with the piano so  as we listen just keep an ear out for how the   harpsichord and the piano are working together  so then we have the beautiful piano chords   so i want to give a big shout out to ixy music  it was from her video that she learned the proper   chords it's a really nice video she's much more  delving into the theory side of things definitely   after you watch this head on over if you  want to get more into the theory so ixy   music what chords are we dealing with so  we've got a major then we have a d a g sus2 and then a d just the fifth fifths in d i think  this is in protection as well they don't just   play it straight so we've actually got a kind of  threes pattern to start with it comes in at bar 29   why not wait till 33 and then it just has this  threes pattern because in the verse we have a more   standard 16 bar pattern where it goes like this i mean i just love it it just gives such a cool  feeling like you don't know where you are like the   music if it's completely predictable is completely  boring isn't it and with this it's like you don't   really know where you are quite this is the  main chord sequence then we have this one so we have f major so we're going f f major g to  a and then we have a bit of   extra business here i mean these piano chords  it's just like amazing let's say the original and actually yeah there's like an extra pad sound  which i i got something vaguely similar to here this is such a magic in the mix even  though it wasn't that difficult to recreate   most of the elements still there's  something in the mix which i can't   get there's something magical  in there with how it's been made   before we talk about the vocal we've just got  this little base which is quite understated and i just recreated that  using diva this is the volta   skin sometimes people don't  recognize it quite cool skin so that comes in here so let's listen  to the original so before it comes in say it without the piano maybe i'm not sure if these those are quite right  before i kind of just had it going like this maybe it changes don't think it's a massive  deal but i just got this quite savvy base   and i saturated a bit give it a bit of drive  with decapitator so without it it's like this it's not doing a whole lot so before  we talk about the vocal let's just   look at the background i remember when this  album came out i bought mezzanine and i was   really into it i remember reading in the  music press about tensions in the band   and they kind of alluded to it but they didn't  say exactly what what happened but now i've found   from this website that basically mushroom kind of  created the track yeah so it started with their   engineer and collaborator neil david and mushroom  heard it one of the members of the band and worked   on it added the piano and the beats so basically  he kind of made the tune and he really wanted   to have madonna singing on it because they'd  actually worked together previously but then when   the other two members of the band heard it they  really wanted liz fraser i can imagine how hard   that must have been like it's your tune it's your  vision and it kind of gets taken over but it gets   taken over but actually turns out to be one of the  most amazing tunes ever in my opinion so yeah i   can see why that would have been very difficult  i mean the lyrics are kind of incomprehensible   i never knew what they were so apparently  the lyrics are love love is a verb love is   a doing word fearless on my breath i always  thought it was flower flower face so fair   love is a doom word so i'd be interested to know  like what you thought the lyrics were did you hear   them clearly i mean it's such an incredible vocal  performance i just think it's genius actually   but it's not the most intelligible lyrically  but but it's all the better for that i'm not   saying that's a bad thing and apparently  i found out that elizabeth fraser had been   going out with jeff buckley who tragically  died i think he drowned and this was written   shortly after that so there's speculation  as to whether that's maybe it's about that   and it would make sense to me also the people  making american beauty wanted to use this track   and i think the band basically said no  i think they they maybe thought that   it was going to be a bit rubbish or something yeah  and then afterwards 3d said that was actually a   mistake i have to say i loved american beauty when  it came out and i absolutely adore the soundtrack   and there's some quite cool dance chins that  sampled the soundtrack i don't know i like   american beauty with the thomas newman soundtrack  maybe it would have been cool with teardrop in it   i don't know what do you think so let's have a  listen to the vocal i got the vocal from youtube   some clever person used some trickery to actually  basically isolate the vocal so i sampled it from   this youtube video i'll put the link in the  description so i've got the vocal like this i mean a amazing timbre like the  sound of the voice is just so ethereal   b the lyrics are very interesting and  cool they're not like boy meets girl   like average i love you baby like vocals are  they and also just the melody of them is so   unexpected and it's going from  like major to minor it's kind of so we've got the c major there   the c natural i think you should say but then  when it comes back to it we have the c sharp so we start in minor and then we go to major so that's c sharp indicates we're going to the  major and we're doing these massive octave loops   i'm just in awe of this track i just turned  in all of it so let's have a listen um   to my version and then i'll i'll  flick back and forth to the original and again beautiful arrangement by massive  attack so we have the chords we've got this   like threes pattern of chords 12 bars then  we drop in with a vocal we have like a verse   and kind of like not really a chorus  maybe like a middle eight or just like a b   section then we just drop out just have beats  and some effects noises and we add a bit more   percussion we've got some shakers coming  in here but there's some shakers as well so we just have a nice little chill out  and then we come back into the verse again   and you can hear like how my tune's  lacking like i've got the piano i've   got the hup score the drums are pretty  good the bass is okay i got the vocal   but a the mix isn't the same and b  they've got these really nice sound   effects which it's just really hard to  work out how to recreate that for me   a lot of it is in the mix and the master i think  and then we have like a different b section so yeah we've got an extra chord here i think  it's a d minor again 12 bar pattern so this is   three three and again just chill out  with the drums in the bass a little beep sound which  follows this the bass this my paper's exactly the same that's pretty good i mean it's not a difficult sound  to recreate but i'm quite happy   then we've got some interesting kind of paddy  sound hard to recreate i i found this patch so this is a in diva and it's by the unfinished  it's a preset pack i bought called diva oxide   so it's this one antelope and i increased  the attack i might decrease it a little bit but again it's not like massively close the  other thing we do have though coming in is a   nice bit of reversed piano this is a nice  trick to take a sound with decay or maybe   you put a load of reverb on something then  you reverse it and you have it reversing in   so let's listen to the original and  listen out for that reverse piano i think at some point we've  added a little open hat so if you listen you can  hear it in the background and   there's more subtle percussion and stuff coming in   water is my eye most faithful mirror i like  it and it's just gradually builds and builds   okay so coming to end just want to do a little  plug for a track i made a while ago and it's   it's one of the ones where i actually lost  the project file so i couldn't work on it   but it's got a really nice vocal from  someone i know called cali it's on this   album and it's basically my my backing track  isn't all that and callie just improvised this or   you know it wasn't like a proper vocal session she  just did this vocal pretty much off the cuff i do   have a bit of a soft spot it it's very much uh how  can i say it it's a bit of a rip-off of teardrop   um i was definitely going for that kind of vibe so  it's a homage so let's have a little quick listen to your eyes i see freedom and surprise i mean that vocal  was just mad i just she's kelly's actually   my friend's daughter and she came around our  house and just started singing and i was like   whoa there that's amazing uh  so kyle if you're watching this   big at yourself maybe we should do another tune  so it just kind of builds it's quite basic the   mix and stuff i wish i could go back to it i wish  i could polish it up and change it but i can't now everything's   anyway little plug check it out  on my spotify also available on   everywhere else so going back to  teardrop so then we have this lovely   choirish sound i feel like it's some kind of  thought it was a selena string instrument but   i settled on my in my recreation it's not that  close but what i use is a melotron choir patch their sound is pretty cool but i think it's just following the notes of  the piano just illustrate it here's my version and i put some chorus on it i think it's  got a lot of chorus in the original sound hey so we've reached basically the end of the vocal   there's a couple of little bits left but  we've just got such a beautiful triumphant   section and it's it's always subtly changing you  know it's not it's just it's just a masterpiece   i'm just in all of it yeah so we build  up to this crescendo so let's let's just is it's just genius isn't it what is she saying   i had to look what is what other lyrics you're  stumbling a little you're stumbling a little i   mean what do you think is i mean it's amazing  i just don't know what the words are but yeah so just beautifully dropping out again that's  in my version with a piano reverse piano again pad doesn't sound too bad actually and this nice thing with the piano where  we're going and you're waiting for this a   because that's the root no that's the root  chord but they're not giving it to you so   it's just creating this sense of anticipation  that leaves you like literally wanting more   brilliant songwriting and then they leave you  wanting even more they just have the first chord so if you like this please give me a like  and a subscribe i don't get my ad revenue   from these videos so if you want to support me  think about joining my patreon if you join the   middle tier you'll actually get the samples from  that i create when i do these tracks all right   thanks very much for watching hope you have a  great day and i'll catch you in the next one

Channel: Gyu Beats

Views: 85,385

Keywords: Gyu, gyu, dubstep, relax, Music, ambient, chill, bass, experimental, atmospheric, Deep, electronic, electronica, sound, techno

Id: 0U1rLD70Da8

Length: 25min 38sec (1538 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 01 2022