Mild Minds creates a melancholic vocal house track

Melbournite Benjamin David, aka Mild Minds, has recently released his debut LP, Moods via Odesza’s Foreign Family Collective. He builds his track around a “risky” vocal sample, adding melancholic chords and his own vocals on top.

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“I opted for something different,” Benjamin explains. “I’m not used to over-processing things. This was a nice challenge to turn something I didn’t necessarily like into something I did. I went for a deep house feeling, adding my own vocal for atmosphere but also using a vocal hook from the pack.”

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For his drums, he resamples the kick from the Drum Loop, EQs it to cut the high end and uses Ableton

Drum Buss for sub boom. He layers a pitched-down version below. The 909 Clap sample sits over beats 2 and 4, with an Agogo on offbeats. The Cabassa becomes a hat, removing the attack in Ableton Simpler.

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The bass comes from the same resampled kick. Benjamin bounces out the version boosted via Live’s Drum Buss and throws it into a new instance of Simpler to create a sub riff. To accompany this he loads the Synth Ping one-shot into Simpler too, and filters it down so that only the sub frequencies remain.

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Over the top, Benjamin lays a heavily processed version of the Drum Loop sample. He uses heavy bandpass EQing, saturation from Fabfilter Saturn and a compressor sidechained to the main kick. He also adds some swing to the loop using Ableton’s Groove Pool.

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The hook uses the You Give Me Everything I Need loop. “I made the whole song around pitching this down four semitones to where it felt ‘cooler’.” Benjamin also uses UAD Auto-Tune to tighten the pitch and then

Live’s Clip transposition feature to alter the melody a little. iZotope Nectar adds harmony. ValhallaRoom and Soundtoys Echo Boy add some automated spacial effects.

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For his one softsynth part, Benjamin uses Omnisphere to add Kalimba. He records his own vocal over the top using UAD’s Console and 1176 emulation, Neve channel strip and an analogue-style EQ to capture the sound he’s after. A touch of SoundToys EchoBoy and UAD AMS reverb adds to the atmosphere.