i've been listening to the writing sessions versions of the album tracks, and have been making notes of the differences in them.

most of them dont have vocals.

anyways, looking through the tracks

No. Title Length

1. "Age of Consent" 5:16
2. "We All Stand" 5:14
3. "The Village" 4:37
4. "5 8 6" 7:31 -> instrumental parts

Side two No. Title Length

1. "Your Silent Face" 6:00
2. "Ultraviolence" 4:52
3. "Ecstasy" 4:25 -> mostly instrumental
4. "Leave Me Alone" 4:40

there is no session or take on 'ultraviolence' though.

there is quite a difference in many of the tracks in instruments, tempo and key.

Definitive Edition bonus tracks No. Title Length

1. "Age of Consent" (Writing Session Recordings) 4:40

2. "The Village" (Writing Session Recordings) 3:14

3. "5 8 6" (Writing Session Recordings) 3:25

4. "Your Silent Face" (Writing Session Recordings) 5:02

5. "Ecstasy" (Writing Session Recordings) 4:25

6. "Leave Me Alone" (Writing Session Recordings) 4:09

7. "We All Stand" (John Peel Session) 5:25

8. "5 8 6" (John Peel Session) 6:08

9. "Thieves Like Us" (New York Demo #1, 1983) 6:42

10. "Thieves Like Us" (1983 Writing Session Recordings) 2:00

11. "Murder" (Writing Session Recordings) 3:41

12. "Blue Monday" (Writing Session Recordings) 2:10

13. "Blue Monday" (1982 Writing Session Recordings) 5:50

14. "Blue Monday" (Instrumental Outtake; Album Session Recording) 7:19

1 age of consent

this is a shorter more basic version of the track

Age of Consent (Writing Session Recordings) 4:40 146.7 bpm album version "Age of Consent" 5:16 162.0 bpm

there is a HUGE difference in tempo, the final version is one of the fastest tracks for new order.

the writing session is much slower.

for comparison, we don't have any other takes on the album version, but here is a recreated album instrumental version (some vocal artifacts in there), and not cleaned up:

01 new order - age of consent (album instrumental)

youtube (might be blocked):

alternate: https://sowndhaus.audio/track/19293/01-new-order-age-of-consentalbum-instrumental

================================== you can hear the synth segments, and the guitars more prominently

i thought about comparing the album version to the session, but its too hard with the tempo difference, and vocals.

so i tried to match the vocals to the slower session version, and it sounds very rough, the vocals don't line up properly, and needed adjustment for the phrases.

i also tried to see what the song would be like if they were just trying out the bass and drum parts.

01 new order - age of consent (drum bass album dub)

this is kind of a minimal dub, with mostly bass and drums, pre guitars,synth

youtube (might be blocked):

alternate: https://sowndhaus.audio/track/19294/01-new-order-age-of-consentdrum-bass-dub

here's what a rough demo version with vocals could have sounded like, now since we're using the album vocals, they are much cleaner sounding than a rough take, and i'm guessing wildly where they would have come in.

here's a rough picture of the adjustments made to all the vocal phrasing, as it had to be slowed down, and adjusted for the different phrases.

01 new order - age of consent (rough demo with vocals approximation)

youtube (might be blocked):

alternate: https://sowndhaus.audio/track/19295/01-new-order-age-of-consentvocal-demo

anyways, i think it sounds interesting with it might have sounded like if they had added some vocals too it.

obviously they had to retool the song, and completely revamp the instruments and pace. and bernard had to sing much faster.

i plan on looking at the other songs too.

later -1

Very neat stuff. What software did you use?

Fractured wrote: Very neat stuff. What software did you use?

lots of different ones: sound forge 6.0 izotope rx8 mixmeister 3.0 audacity 2.x

later -1

negative1 wrote:

Fractured wrote: Very neat stuff. What software did you use?

lots of different ones: sound forge 6.0 izotope rx8 mixmeister 3.0 audacity 2.x

later -1

Wow! Which is best at isolating individual instruments/voices?

Fractured wrote:

negative1 wrote:

Fractured wrote: Very neat stuff. What software did you use?

lots of different ones: sound forge 6.0 izotope rx8 mixmeister 3.0 audacity 2.x

later -1

Wow! Which is best at isolating individual instruments/voices?

izotope rx8, but you will have to use a lot of other software too.

there are lots of plugins and online libraries, open-source programs, stems splitters, and then you have to go in manually to clean up the artifacts, etc. there's lots of tutorials on youtube.

later -1

negative1 wrote:

izotope rx8, but you will have to use a lot of other software too.

there are lots of plugins and online libraries, open-source programs, stems splitters, and then you have to go in manually to clean up the artifacts, etc. there's lots of tutorials on youtube.

later -1

Thanks, found it: https://www.izotope.com/en/shop/rx-8-standard.html

I'd be particularly interested in programs that can create stems (Izotope looks like it has many additional bells and whistles). I'll see what comes well-recommended!

next up is we all stand,

a rather slower paced song.

again, made an album instrumental verison of it.. removed most of the vocals, except in a few parts:

(might be blocked)

here's a more drum, bass, dub of the stripped down song, with more of bernards singing highlighted.

(might be blocked)

and the we all stand peel session already has vocals, so lets try to remove those from them.

(might be blocked)

and finally, here's a very stripped down peel sessions versions, focusing on mostly the vocals with basic instruments. mostly acoustic.

(might be blocked)

a lot of emotion in the song.

NOTE : Will also be updating blog posts here: https://surfaceremix.wordpress.com/2021/01/14/new-order-power-corruption-and-lies-instrumentals-and-vocals/

later -1

the 3rd track on the album is the village,

here we have an instrumental session version.

village (album version) 131.5 bpm 4:37 village (session version) 128.8 bpm 3:14

so here, they are a little closer in tempo.

however, its much shorter, by about 1 minute and a half.

there's a long instrumental section in the final version which makes up the difference.

here's a picture showing the differences, and all the vocal edits:

i've attempted to add the vocals back into the session version.

the last verse is crammed in pretty close to the end because there's not a break there.

the session vocal ends cold though.

unlike the album version which gets cut off, and goes straight into 586

village (session vocal)

for comparison, here's the instrumental album version:

and album dub:

later -1

586 is a breakthrough song for new order,

its the precursor to blue monday, and although prime 568 was the true source and experiment, we also have ecstasy with more vocoder work on it too.

there's the writing session instrumental version, which is short and rough, but matches up with the album bpm. 3min:20sec

then we have the album version, and an awesome kraftwerkian peel session version, which to me is a good as a remix as you will get of it.

there are modern remixes of it to, but anyways.

here some interesting versions.

the album instrumental:

the album dub:

and here's taking the writing session version, and adding the vocals to that.

===================================

for the peel session version, heres the instrumental:

and the dub:

here are the edit for this new vocals:

and what it would have sounded like with the studio vocals overlaid:

later -1

your silent face is a lot rougher, and a minute shorter, but is the same tempo. so the vocals match.

the album version has a lot of majestic synths in it that stand out.

its a very slow paced song, almost a ballad, that gets thrown off by the vocals (especially at the end).

funny bernard.

first : album instrumental:

album dub:

its missing a lot of the synth layers.

here's a look at adding the main two vocal sections back to the song.

heres the writing session with album vocals added:

later -1

ecstasy is the other instrumental track, this one is heavy on the vocoder, and is a nice upbeat instrumental.

so taking ecstasy+586 = blue monday, or the beach

so i took some of the samples of out, and made some dubs:

a more minimal sound with bass ecstasy (dub1):

a more synth sound ecstasy (dub2):

the writing session version is slightly slower than the album one, so i sped it up a little bit and added the vocoder parts back into it.

its more guitar oriented too.

they're off in timing, but who knows where they would have ended up.

ecstasy (recording session vocoder)

later -1

the final track is leave me alone, which is fitting for the album.

here's an instrumental:

and a minimal version of it:

here's a picture of the adjustments made to the vocals, and pitch change.

and for the recording session version with vocals:

later -1

Really enjoyed all of these - a fascinating project, and must have been a lot of work for you.

Thanks!

GotBlueEyes wrote: Really enjoyed all of these - a fascinating project, and must have been a lot of work for you.

Thanks!

no problem, been meaning to dive into these tracks.

have a couple more to go. blue monday and thieves like us.

later -1

the blue monday writing session is interesting, because of the different synths used in it,

it's basically the same structure, and the vocals fit into it pretty well:

new order - writing session vocal:

and the instrumental outtake is basically the beach, with some minor differences, but i incorporated the vocals into it also.

the bpm and tempo matched up pretty well.

the writing session is much shorter, and the outtake is almost exactly as long as the beach.

here are some comparison pictures:

later -1

thieves like us,

theres a really short snippet, and a longer new york session.

this version is slower than the normal single version. so it had to be sped up for the vocals to match.

there is a dub version:

and a very similar but short instrumental derived from it, which matches the official version up to the 2 minute mark, and then is slightly editted until the 5 minute mark:

and finally a synth version:

so the new york session with vocals edits: here's the vocals added into:

sounds like this approximately:

hope you enjoyed all the comparisons.

might work on some more in the future.

later -1

SUPERB work Negative ONE....😎

ROCKET MICK wrote: SUPERB work Negative ONE....😎

sure, no problem.

it was a good way for me to go over the recording sessions tracks.

most people don't care, and skip over them, but i find them fascinating.

i know people will never comment about them, but that's how things go with these in depth looks.

maybe 1 person besides me might care.

later -1

negative1 wrote:

and the instrumental outtake is basically the beach, with some minor differences, but i incorporated the vocals into it also.

later -1

Great stuff -1, thanks!