Imani Republic Instrumental

The Imani Republic Band for their second song recorded an instrumental that gives the vibe of the band. Phil was inspired by Oliver Mtukudzi, a famous African musician. Oliver was a family friend and Phil grew up with Oliver's daughter and was influenced by Oliver's music. This instrumental has a personal connection to Phil's musical roots.

Phil named the instrumental Wabaraka (meaning Increase) to celebrate his musical journey which is even today celebrating his own cultural roots and the influences of world genres.

Imani Republic musician swop instruments to give a different vibe to the band.

The genre is Afro soca fusion.

The artist and song reference is Oliver Mtukudzi - Ndima Ndapedza.

Afro soca fusion is a genre made up of African music and Caribbean dance music being fused together.

Guidelines

Oliver Mtukudzi - Ndima Ndapedza instrumental song sounds very clean and natural with a rhythmic dance feel to it. The instruments in the instrumental seem to have a jammy loose feel, but it sounds like it has a structured form on theme variations within the melody.

Record Live

We recorded the instruments live so that we could capture the energy of the band.

This instrumental was recorded on the same day as they recorded Phil's song Give.

Instrument Aesthetics

The Drums - We wanted an uplifting vibe about the drums, not too modern, just enough equalization to give the classic vibrant sound, we were after a modern feel about the tonalities of the drum kit. A bright to mid-low sound with a little bit of compression to take control of parts that pop up.

The Bass Guitar - The bass guitar needed some EQ to give it that classic mid to high sound but still has a depth about the low end of the bass guitar scale. We also added compression on the bass guitar to give us more control and at the same time trying to get the same feel as the reference song.

Guitars - The rhythm guitar, we were after a single coil sound, similar to the reference song that has that classic soca - reggae stylistic sound. To achieve this we used an equalizer and light compression.

The lead guitar, we were aiming for a sound that was similar to the rhythm guitar but sounded a little thicker in the mix. We equalized the guitar sound to give it a more mid-range but still maintained the single-coil vibe. We added reverb and delay to create some warmth to the tonality.

The Keyboards - We used the inbuilt sound of the electric keyboard for the dance feel which afro soca fusion has. The keyboard organ has the sound of a Hammond organ vibration quality to it, which gives it a sound that is reminiscent of this genre. The band's keyboard piano sound has a classic electric piano vibe about it and this helps to lift the instrumental as well as creating some ambiance feel. The inbuilt brass sound also gives the instrumental some textured highlights in the dynamic featured areas. Overall the inbuilt keyboard gave the instrument a vibrate dance energetic stylistic sound.

We used automation to give the instrumental a sense of lift and dynamics between the instruments which will keep the listener's ear from getting bored.

Conclusion

As this instrumental was recorded on the same day as Imani Republic song 'Give' we still had the overtones of the previous problems (being a live sound mix). I did fix the DI Box problem and that opened up the option of re-amping if we needed too. Since the instrumental was in a genre style that uses clean guitar tones, we decided not to do any re-amping and instead, we equalized the desired tones for the instrumental through used equalizer plug-ins.

This instrument was the second song recorded on the day. Once again, preparation at the beginning of the recording and knowing how the genre is recorded and played would have helped get the right tones recorded from the instruments and amplifiers.

Miking the bottom of the snare would have created a better overall sound. (I need to do some research into drum software and triggering techniques).

Overall, It was a great experience and l learned some valuable lessons in pre-production and the research I need to do for up and coming projects. I also learned how important it is to communicate when you are part of a collaboration team mixing a project.

Imani Republic Band below playing the instrumental Wabaraka.