One thing that strikes anyone who dives deep into the tracking scene is the immediate contrast between what one hears on the radio and what passes as a standard song here. For instance, try removing these channels from patterns 19-25 and notice how the key change and the organ lead really take off.īut, all in all, this is an awesome and very inventive arrangement, a testament to Elwood's talent as a sound engineer, and his ability to take the little of what he has and turn it into a commercial-grade arrangement.īut, of course, the piece is primarily known for its melodies. Speaking of the bass, I think channels 12-14 don't contribute a lot in some places, and their removal might add more transparency to the mix. But in general, I think most of it could go. The only thing it might be doing is adding a bit of a bass hit in the beginning of the pattern, since the bass in channel 1 is played on the offbeat. I was not able to spot any desired ghost notes that its presence produces either: you can see for yourself, by muting channels 12 and 14. I feel that the bass guitar in channel 13 is largely inaudible and could be removed.
Now, this doesn't mean that better decisions could not have been made. He offers very rich percussion, using the bass drum, the snare, a congas loop, claps and a couple of hihats, which together create this busy percussion feel.Īnd then you have the solos on top, to which he adds panned delays.Īnd he does all that while managing to keep the overall spectrum even and pleasant: the bass sounds are all different and don't overlap each other's frequencies, the backing instruments occupy mid ranges, the leads occupy higher ranges, and the drums, apart from the kick, lack strong low frequencies (although the open hat sample is actually quite bad and has a lot of mud in the lows). He has instrument 18 playing the chords, which he either combines or switches with the choir (instrument 4). He refuses to be frugal and throws in four separate instruments for the bassline, in channels 1, 12-14.
It is this sequence, by the way, that reflects the mainstream music of the 90s: notice how similar it is to, say, organ stabs in Haddaway's "What is love?" This kind of arrangement was pretty common at the time.Īnd it is this ability, to take samples that are unimpressive on their own and construct a convincing arrangement, that makes Elwood' work stand out.Īnother part of Elwood's secret is the sheer amount of things going on. The real jaw-dropping talent that Elwood demonstrates is his unique ability to know the potential of a given instrument.īrowsing through the samples used, I can't imagine a less inspiring bunch: poorly looped, bland and seemingly difficult to make sense of.Īnd yet, Elwood takes something like instrument 18 - a cheap voice sound - and turns it into a fantastic backing organ that he uses throughout the piece.
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"Sweet Dreams" sounds very much like the mainstream music at the time.īut many of us know how to wield a tracker. If you look through his modules and also watch them played in a tracker, you'll realize how comfortable Elwood is with all aspects of tracking: from variable tempo, to portamento effects, offsets and all sorts of nifty tricks.Īnd, apart from the signature leads, that one is more likely to spot in a tracked tune, the rest of his music doesn't give away its tracking origins. I think Elwood is one of those tracker composers where we focus so much on the brilliance of the end result and on his melodic genius, that we forget that his technical proficiency is actually incredibly high. Technique, Arrangement, Composition (10/10) It's been a staple in my own musical upbringing, so I am honored to come back to it many years later and share my thoughts on it. Upbeat, epic and inspiring, referring to it as a masterpiece might be one of the few cases when it's not an exaggeration. Elwood's "Sweet Dreams" is easily one of the most popular and recognizable tunes to come out of the tracking era.
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