Soooo… What sound is in your head?
“Kashmir” by Charb Zeppelin
A reimagined Kashmir presents with instrument substitutions from the original. There are world instruments from this disputed region, a sitar and a pipa make an appearance. The vocals are replaced by an airy flute, and the drums are re-imagined and interleaved with chimes. The interplay between the piano and violins towards the end offer a nice closing to the re-imagined arrangement. Think of this as music you would hear waiting for a performance to start that is approachable to all, but those who know the original may smile as if understanding a clever joke.
“Comfortably Numb” by Charb Floyd
In this rendition of the iconic Pink Floyd arrangement the tempo was slowed down, and the instrumental arrangement was set to provide a drifting dreamlike ambiance. The choral arrangement and the scream guitar hint at the struggle between unconscious and awake. The added high-hat drumming throughout symbolizes the pulsing life of the brain stem keeping things going. Towards the end of the arrangement the sweeping dream sequences give way to symbolize an alert consciousness.
“Crazy Vangelis Train” by Ozzy Charbsborne
You may ask, “How could you do this to such an iconic song?” It’s actually quite simple once you have the midi file… The tempo was slowed down to let the elements breathe and the easy-to-follow vocals are voiced by a drifty keyboard in the similarity of a Vangelis arrangement (the Chariots of Fire theme guy.) Instrument substitutions were made to convey the melody in a relaxed form. My brother really digs the original, so just had to re-imagine this.
“Learning to Fly” by Charb Floyd
A unique rendition of Learning to Fly slowed down a bit but the hallmarks of the original song are still present. Some instrument substitutions were made to make it original. Again, the telltale elements of the original are still present.
“For Those About to Rock We Salute You” by MC/CharbC
Alright you headbangers you… you’re getting older now so not so much head banging, OK? In my twisted sense of humor, I imagined the rough and tumble band AC/DC somehow judged to spend eternity in the netherworld but in order to get there the band has to step into an elevator, moments into their descent the elevator gets stuck with Muzak playing all their music in constant rotation. Satan dressed in a repairman’s uniform is seen through the crack of the doors ajar, Angus Young pipes up asking what the bloody hell is going on… Satan dusting off his hands, picks up his tools, states “It’s broke guys you will be here awhile. Not as horrible as Muzak my rendition is based on this.
“Africa” by Charbo
Ah, the 80’s, as you wipe away the tears recalling a time of MTV, and when they actually played music videos, Africa by Toto seemed to be iconic. This was my first midi makeover, and the lesson for this to be done well is to ensure that landmarks of the original song remain, such as the horn, drums and marimba. Here the piano replaces the vocal track, and the violins round out the arrangement. There is an added drum tempo to give it a new atmosphere.
Soooo… again, what sound is in your head?
Huh?!?
No seriously, what sounds do you hear in your head? Do you think in sound like what would happen if you took Kashmir from Led Zeppelin, and tuned the arrangement to have a Native American vibe? Imagine some guy sitting in the cliffs somewhere blowing into a Zanfier wooden pan flute. Oh of course you have to have a matching mystic drum, and also perhaps some tinkly chimes. Now the song has to be recognizable so you have to keep some elements that define the piece like the strings, but they can be tuned. You could replace some instruments like a Pipa for guitar, also don’t forget to muck with the keyboards and piano. Add some reverb.
That of course sounds well and good but what if you have zero musical skill, like none, like clap with supervision talent. Since the late 90’s Apple has been committed to empowering people with great software that makes things like this approachable. In this case GarageBand. GarageBand is a DAW or Digital Audio Workstation. It is to sound like Lightroom is to photos. If you have no musical talent how can you proceed? Enter the wonderful world of MIDI. Musical Instrument Digital Interface, Kind souls around the world play songs and record the instrument output digitally. MIDI captures the force of the keys, the volume of the instruments and the notes, because they are containers if you will, you can define what goes in and comes out of these containers just like an adult coloring book with all the details. If you were to get a MIDI file off the web it would sound like a bunch of hyperactive kids jacked up on Cap’tn Crunch riding around on tricycles, with a plastic slide whistle, a tambourine, and xylophone all going at once. This is because when you play them raw, the default instruments are being used. Once you load them into a DAW such as GarageBand then you can start to take them apart. Isolate each instrument to its track and then mess with them til your hearts content. They will tirelessly work as long as you, no need to pay union scale, or put up with attitude. You can do stuff like swap out instrument voices, change the tempo so you could make Pink Floyd’s Run Like Hell into a lullaby. Want to make Debussy’s Clare De Lune into a 20-minute guitar solo? Only God judges. Some automation allows you to drop in some sick beats like Blue Man Group or use a synthetic drummer which can be edited.
What song do you think should get the Charb treatment? Let me know!
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