Crystal Waters 'Gypsy Woman' - How to make with DRC

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Crystal Waters Gypsy Woman tutorial

“La da dee, la da da” - even without music or any pitch assigned to any of those words, if you are a house music aficionado, chances are you are already singing that truly iconic vocal hook in your head. Equally iconic and inseparable is the accompanying soulful organ stabs of this track’s unforgettable 90’s riff.

The track in question, Crystal Waters ‘Gypsy Woman’ is an undeniable house anthem, released all the way back in 1991, it has been sampled and remixed countless times over the course of the last 29 years!

As the track’s full title ‘Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless)’ hints at, the song’s lyrics are about a homeless woman, a specific one in fact, that Waters encountered on a weekly basis in front of the Washington DC hotel her sister worked at. The addition of the “(She’s homeless)” text to the title was actually a direct request from Waters, to highlight the serious nature of the song’s lyrics, an expression of the change in her perception of homelessness in general, a lasting effect the chance encounters had on her.

The track written by Waters alongside Neal Conway and Nathaniel S. Hardy Jr., was originally for American singer Ultra Naté, but after recording a demo version with Waters performing the vocal, the record company liked it so much that they made a deal to keep it, and abandoned plans to pass it on to the intended artist.

In this week’s DRC Sound Design Tutorial, Lucas defies the sound design gods, and takes an unconventional subtractive approach to recreate the track’s organ and bass sounds with DRC.

Click here to download the Ableton project file.

La da dee, la da da,
Team Imaginando

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