I’ve added Logic’s Echo to add a pseudo tape delay, like a Roland RE-201 which was released that year and likely to feature on recordings from the time.
#Kool gang. summertime madness Patch#
The string patch is a tweaked version of the EXS24 String Ensemble, reducing the attack and decay (as our MIDI volume is controlling amplitude) and bringing down a 12dB/oct lowpass filter. I’ve two sets of stacked fourths (B, C#, E and F#) with the swell coming from the MIDI volume parameter. It’s hard to tell if it is in-fact a real string section or a Mellotron. The last part of the track to get in place is the strings swell. Once the Drummer region was rendered to MIDI I spent time messing with the ride and hi-hat pattern and tweaking the velocities so as to not over cook this. The laid-back drums are courtesy of Logic’s Drummer plugin – a handy tool for quickly generating convincing(ish) acoustic drum loops and being able to tweak the drum kit used. Without a bass guitar available to me I’ve used Native Instruments’ free Kontakt Player, rolling off the Tone and turning the Noise up, also disabling the internal reverb. The bass almost dictates the groove of this track, so it’s key to get the swing and feel of it right. Here’s someone much better than myself playing it, with the notes included: I’ve used a Fender Strat (not sure what year, sorry!) using a tweaked version of the Clean Country Reverb patch in Logic’s Amp Simulator. The guitar part is a simple repeating two chord figure that slots nicely over the Rhodes. The sound is finished off with some Channel EQ to attenuate the higher frequencies and roll off the bottom end and some Stereo Delay, just delaying the right channel. The filter’s cutoff is being modulated by keyboard tracking and envelope 2 – using a short attack, medium decay and the rise function in the sustain section. The modulation for the sound comes from LFOs 1 and 2 further detuning the oscillators, LFO1 is a triangle wave with a delay of 8200 ms running at 4.4 Hz and LFO2 is a smooth random running at a much slower rate of 0.13 Hz. I’ve used ES2’s Analog and CBD ( Constant Beat Detuning – giving yet more natural detune to the sound) and Glide, or Portamento. There’s a little chorus and distortion on the output too. The patch is built using a saw tooth and two detuned pulse waves running into a resonant low-pass filter with some drive enabled. We can get close to it using near any subtractive synth and I’m going to use Logic’s ES2 playing an F# note rising over five octaves. It’s not perfect but it gets close enough: One of the most memorable aspects of this song is the rich analog lead the sears over the groove. Here’s PlaySmoothPiano showing you how it’s done:
#Kool gang. summertime madness free#
Finally ensure you use your ring finger for the top F# so your little finger is free to hit the G# in bar two. The dotted eighth note at the end of each bar is heavily swung. The key to this loop is getting the staccato chord just right in your left hand. The second chord’s nomenclature is more debatable but I’ve settled on C#m11. You can think of the first chord as a Dmaj7 2nd inversion in your right hand with a B in the left, giving you an overall tonality of Bm9. I’m not using any amp simulation as this sounds like DI’d to me.
I’ve enabled the tremolo and set to it to 2 Hz with an intensity of 93%. I’m using Logic’s built in Electric Piano with the Suitcase Mark 1 model, the Mark II wasn’t released until 1978, and sounds a bit brighter, containing more upper harmonics. It’s a classic sound that it’s almost entered the music preset vernacular the tremolo’d Fender Rhodes. Let’s have a look at recreating something similar in Logic X. Summer Madness is a cool, late night jazz funk slow number based around a criminally simple two chord rhodes vamp accompanied by guitar, bass, synth and drums. Wikipedia describes Light of Worlds as Kool’s “most spiritual and sophisticated work ” choosing “nine songs for the album to represent the nine planets in the solar system”, containing “rock-inspired funk set to jazz-informed playing with afrobeat influences and a tinge of analogue synthesizing”, which all sounds fantastic.
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