Tim Forsyth - Katapillar Eliminator (Ice Age mix)

15 other remixes of Katakis

10 other remixes of subtune 1

This is my entry from the Back In Time Live 2022 remix compo.

I don't think I've listened to Katakis since my teens, but playing it back a few times, I noticed the chord progression similarities with Ice Age and Noisy Pillars, both of which I'm a big fan; the former being a track I used in a demo back in the 80s to showcase my brothers art work.

I tend to get bored pretty quickly with my arrangements, which was when, after the first key change of the katakis lead, I thought I'd break out into a JT style lead solo for fun, just to keep myself amused. I think it worked out OK, that's where the eliminator part comes in, I'm sure there's a bit of savage in there too. I also kept thinking about splash wave from outrun although this doesn't feature. I really enjoyed closing out the solo, thinking to myself, I have no idea what I'm remixing anymore, where am I?

I was planning on releasing an extended mix but I kept going back to it, adding more and more of Ice Age and it just kind of lost its focus as well as being a bit self indulgent.

Sunday night after the compo I went back and corrected a few niggles with note lengths, eq'd the low mid boominess of the katakis lead and added a bit of acoustic guitar to the end section.

Tech specs? I guess the lead at the end is worth a mention, a rare moment where i knew exactly the kind of sound I wanted (I'm generally a preset surfer) - it's just a smooth saw with a bit of unison, the magic is aurora dsp's mammoth bass amp, it's a great plug-in for distorting and adding harmonics to all kinds of sounds. It's built for bass, but it can do awesome things to leads and drums. This is fed through a phaser, Volcano for the filter and Fab Filter's awesome Timeless 3 delay.

I switched limiting duties to Pro-L, it's a lot more transparent than my previous waves plug-in, with a much cleaner, less digital sound and seems to do a great job of keeping the punch intact.

Some nice things were said about this mix during the live stream, so I hope you enjoyed it.

edit

I'm so happy the tracker / Amiga comparisons have been pointed out, that was my intention. Whenever I think of Chris Huelsbeck's music I think of the Amiga and the sounds I picked were me reminiscing of that time, the brass stabs, the Katakis lead sound (using the arp odyssey). This remix really doesn't deserve to be as highly rated as it is but I'm glad you like it.

1 c64 charts October 2022