Have you ever made your own remix?

[TOCMFIC]

After the Frankie thread I started, I was hunting around for the uncut "Youngs Persons Guide to the 12"" version of "Rage Hard" with no success.

So this afternoon, I thought "Fuck it!" and made my own.

Did two of them actually. The first one, I took the "Young Persons Guide" mix, then cut the actual song at the end, and replaced it with the "Broad Mix", which is 8 minutes long. So around a 13 minutes in all. Saved that one as the "Extended Mix". Then I did some tweaking, put the "Stamped" version (which seems to be the 7" mix) on the end of that, creating a 19 minute long "Really Extended Mix":)

In the past I've done a couple of Nine Inch Nails remixes, one of which actually turned up on a widely circulated bootleg. (Which someone who had a ton of NIN stuff found out about, and promptly showered me with gifts of more bootlegs, which was nice:))

The NIN remixes were done on a P166 with 32 megs of ram, using a Protracker type program, then processed in Sound Forge. The Frankie stuff this afternoon was purely a cut and paste in Sound Forge.

So, am I alone in remixing songs for the fun of it? Or have you done it?

[LeboviciAB84]

Your name wracks the fuck out of me! I'm currently doing a bootleg of a few other people's records, called How Soon Is Cowboy?, on Cubase SX. It's at a rather early stage, but it should be alright in a month or two.

Um, bootlegs. They were fashionable about five years ago. Yes, bootlegs.

[waste of chops]

Something I knocked up last year:

Bionic_Commando_Remix.mp3 (6.76 MB)

I had a flash of inspiration and got the first 4 minutes done in an evening but then farted around for ages trying to think of more stuff to add, and by that time the prime moment to upload it had passed. I've sort-of finished it off and uploaded it in case anyone fancies a listen.

It's not particularly well-named by the way; Bionic Commando is the nom de plume I do remixes and stuff under, rather than it being a remix of the music off Bionic Commando the game.

I knocked up a John B-inspired electro drum & bass remix of Beyonce's Crazy In Love a few years ago; unfortunately it got ignored when I uploaded it to Get Your Bootleg On so I've no idea whether it's as awesome as I like to think it is:

Beyonce - Crazy in Love (Bionic Commando Remix).mp3 (5.86MB)

I also did a beefed-up house remix of Longsy D and Bad Manners "This is Ska", a reggae-techno remix of Snoop Dogg "Drop It Like It's Hot" and a breaks remix of Stardust "Music Sounds Better With You" , all of which I rather like.

As for the "putting two records together" style of remixing, these are the ones I've done that I'm most proud of:

Freakin' Flash (Graham Coxon vs Grandmaster Flash)
Gouged Jeans (Pixies vs Michael Jackson)
I Need Some Therapy (Therapy? vs Coco)
One Minute Kiss (Missy Elliott vs Holly Valance)
One Phat Killswitch (Killswitch Engage vs ATFC)
Poisonize the Kaiser (Prodigy vs Chemical Brothers vs Kaiser Chiefs)
Slow-Diving Genie (Ulrich Schnauss vs Christina Aguilera)

I also did one years ago (under the Bruise Brothers alias -- which is where I get my forum name from, fact fans) of Pour Homme "Born This Way" vs Kosheen "Find You" which has apparently been played on MTV's Party Zone at some time or other. Hooray for me!

[LeboviciAB84]

Ahh . . . would you be the same Stu who posted the video of Shirley Ghostman's Friday Night With Jonathan Ross appearance on YouTube? Thhanks for that.

I Need Some Therapy (Therapy? vs Coco)

I must be in a wracking frame of mind tonight. I vaguely remember the words, "I need some" occurring a lot in Stellastarr*'s My Coco. Is that the monkey? Also, the synth line that comes in at the end of your, um, 'signature piece' sounds really very familiar. In matters more certain, the Crazy In Love remix was possibly ignored for only consisting of one song; it certainly wouldn't be for reasons of quality. It sounds like Die Mensch-Maschine taking a bubble-bath.

*the apostrophe was integral to their name, Alzheimer-fans.

[yak]

i do gabba, breakcore and ragga jungle remixes of eighties and nineties cheese

its the only way students and stripey tshirt types will listen to something above 200bpm

there are some examples in this mix

its pretty easy to do them really, ableton just seems built for it.

I've been known to do nes covers as well (as in popular tunes done sounding like a nes, not a rock ballad version of the duck hunt theme... though it is a thought)

[TOCMFIC]

Your name wracks the fuck out of me! I'm currently doing a bootleg of a few other people's records, called How Soon Is Cowboy?, on Cubase SX. It's at a rather early stage, but it should be alright in a month or two.

Um, bootlegs. They were fashionable about five years ago. Yes, bootlegs.

I meant bootlegs in the traditional sense. Illicit recordings, studio outtakes etc... Not what the word has come to mean now.

As for your first comment... HUh?! It stands for "The Only Chris Morris Fan in Canada". That was my name a few years ago on here, but then Neil changed/broke the old board to this, and the name was too long, so I went with the acronym. Alas it seems most people have actually forgotten that fact now:)

I've debated doing video game tunes. The NIN ones I did were back in the late 90's. Today was the first time I've done anything like that this century!

Listening to my extended mix now... Should have left the seven inch version off the end. Doesn't really work. Whatever:)

[Ray Le Otter]

I once did a megamix of three versions of Simple Minds "Theme For Great Cities", using the original version, the Fila Brazilia Mix & the Fluke mix. It was the dog's bollocks. Honest.

If only I knew something about posting MP3 links and webspace I could let you hear it.

[waste of chops]

Ahh . . . would you be the same Stu who posted the video of Shirley Ghostman's Friday Night With Jonathan Ross appearance on YouTube? Thhanks for that.

Yep, that's me. It's horribly out of sync but at least it's there!

I Need Some Therapy (Therapy? vs Coco)

I must be in a wracking frame of mind tonight. I vaguely remember the words, "I need some" occurring a lot in Stellastarr*'s My Coco. Is that the monkey?

No, it's that "I Need A Miracle" track by Coco from a few years back. Here's the remix in question so you can see what you think:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/bionic-commando-i-need-some-therapy-mp3.html

Also, the synth line that comes in at the end of your, um, 'signature piece' sounds really very familiar. In matters more certain, the Crazy In Love remix was possibly ignored for only consisting of one song; it certainly wouldn't be for reasons of quality. It sounds like Die Mensch-Maschine taking a bubble-bath.

Heh, thanks! I think it's the best thing I've done, musically -- I'm insanely chuffed with it. The synth line in the Amarillo remix (there, the cat's out of the bag now) is from Yazoo's "Situation"; if I'd been arsed to finish the track there would've been a load of other bits nicked from various songs (in the same way that the Beyonce remix has snippets of Funky Town and Take On Me).

I thought I'd offer up a couple more bootlegs I've done; the first is "Slow-Diving Genie", which welds Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle" vocal to Ulrich Schnauss's cover of Slowdive's "Crazy For Love":

http://www.zshare.net/audio/bionic-commando-slow-diving-genie-mp3-mz1.html

The second is called, for want of a better name, "Soup Beasties", and it's the Beastie Boys' "Body Movin'" vocal on top of the Soup Dragons' "I'm Free":

http://www.zshare.net/audio/bionic-commando-soup-beasties-mp3.html

I cobbled it together last weekend and it sounds okay to my ears; I couldn't come up with a better ending than a fade-out though, which is annoying. Never mind.

[Steve Lampkins]

StuBruise, mind reuploading this: Beyonce - Crazy in Love (Bionic Commando Remix).mp3 (5.86MB) ? The Megaupload link has expired.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

how do you rip the vocals from songs?  I've always been curious about this.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I've done remixes of Four Tet's My Angel Rocks Back And Forth and Milkman by Aphex Twin. They're both shite though. They're my only two attempts so far so I'm hoping I'll improve from there. Maybe I should start by using something that's not essentially perfect anyway.

[Morrisfan82]

how do you rip the vocals from songs?  I've always been curious about this.

Basic methods:

- Find an acappella of the track if there is one (you're laughing if there is)
OR - Use EQ and careful editing to try and cut out as much of the musical backing of the original track
OR - If you have an instrumental version of the same track you can use noise reduction software to try and extract the vocals (it won't sound all that great though)

The success of the second and third methods are obviously dependent on which track you're molesting.

It's always worth switching between the left and right channels on a stereo recording to see if the vocals are more prominent in one channel than another as well.

The last remix I did was of Funky Shit by The Prodigy, back in Summer. I would post it but I don't have a copy of the final version on this machine at the moment.

[waste of chops]

StuBruise, mind reuploading this: Beyonce - Crazy in Love (Bionic Commando Remix).mp3 (5.86MB) ? The Megaupload link has expired.

Sure:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/beyonce-crazy-in-love-bionic-commando-remix-mp3.html

[Beep Cleep Chimney]

Here's a mash-up thing I tried last year, after being inspired by hearing some of the top work done by Mark Vidler on his GoHomeProductions website.

I'm a complete novice at this sort of stuff and only have limited software to experiment with (this was done on an old version of AcidPro) , but really enjoy fiddlin' about with this sort of stuff.

It's basically a mash-up of "1 Thing" by Amerie and "Walk Like An Egyptian" by The Bangles.  It's rather lamely entitled "Walk Like 1 Thing" cos it's all I could think of.  The Bangles vocals were taken from the acapella version on the 12", as I'm another one who doesn't know how to take vocals out of a normal version of a song.

As I say, very basic stuff, but it was a first attempt.  Curious to know what the more professional mashers among you think.

Enjoy/endure!

http://download.yousendit.com/6326E1504D4A7EE5

[Brutus Beefcake]

how do you rip the vocals from songs?  I've always been curious about this.

Basic methods:

- Find an acappella of the track if there is one (you're laughing if there is)
OR - Use EQ and careful editing to try and cut out as much of the musical backing of the original track
OR - If you have an instrumental version of the same track you can use noise reduction software to try and extract the vocals (it won't sound all that great though)

I think you've confused a cappella and instrumental.

[JesusAndYourBush]

It's easy to make an instrumental version.  You invert the wave of one channel then mix the left and right channels together (or with soundforge process->channel converter->vocal cut).  The result is mono, but often results in the voicals more-or-less disappearing.

I'd love to know how to make a vocal-only version.  In theory you could make an instrumental version (as above) then subtract that from the untouched version, but I've tried and can't seem to get it to work.

In the 80's I sometimes made extended versions of songs by copying tape-to-tape and careful use of the pause button!

[waste of chops]

I think the theory is that you get an official instrumental version (rather than a home-made channel inversion one), invert it and mix it with the original to get the vocal. I saw a site ages ago with instructions and examples but I've forgotten where it is.

PS. Beep Cleep Chimney: You've posted your Parkie cut-up by mistake!

[samadriel]

Stub:  Love the Beasties/Soup Dragons 'mashup', as the cunts say; perhaps slightly rough with the timing, but it still sounds great.  You could call it "Movin' Freely", oho.

[Morrisfan82]

I think you've confused a cappella and instrumental.

I haven't confused anything. I was working under the assumption that SB was asking about getting the vocals from a track and using them in something else. Is that what you meant SB? Or did you mean removing the vocals, leaving an instrumental?

In the 80's I sometimes made extended versions of songs by copying tape-to-tape and careful use of the pause button!

Heh, I remember doing that with the beat from Paid In Full by Eric B & Rakim, cos I loved it so much. I've also got a tape somewhere of cut & paste mixes I did when I was about 11, just editing my favourite parts of tunes together tape-to-tape. I may have to destroy that. :)

[Beep Cleep Chimney]

Here's a mash-up thing I tried last year, after being inspired by hearing some of the top work done by Mark Vidler on his GoHomeProductions website.

I'm a complete novice at this sort of stuff and only have limited software to experiment with (this was done on an old version of AcidPro) , but really enjoy fiddlin' about with this sort of stuff.

It's basically a mash-up of "1 Thing" by Amerie and "Walk Like An Egyptian" by The Bangles.  It's rather lamely entitled "Walk Like 1 Thing" cos it's all I could think of.  The Bangles vocals were taken from the acapella version on the 12", as I'm another one who doesn't know how to take vocals out of a normal version of a song.

As I say, very basic stuff, but it was a first attempt.  Curious to know what the more professional mashers among you think.

Enjoy/endure!

Thanks to StuBruise for letting me know I posted the wrong thing up previously.

Here's the actual thing I was on about.

http://download.yousendit.com/DF1E424E2CB9818F

[boki]

When I first got a PC and a bit of basic music software, I tried doing a remix of Fear Factory's version of 'Dog Day Sunrise', which started as 150 bpm techno, did a big-beat style buildup and then broke down into half-speed dnb.  Then I hit a brick wall and never went back to it.  The only instrumental vs acapella remix I tried was a mashup of MC Hammer and Nine Inch Nails - this was as far as I got before getting fed up.

[purlieu]

Mega-bump, was looking for a thread like this.
I tried it many times years ago when I was pretty terrible at making music, so I thought I'd give it a go again now... The Future Sound of London - Papua New Guinea (Second Thought Remix)
It starts quite like some of my other stuff, sort of weird dark ambient, but I somehow turned it into a dubstep-ish piece by the end.  I'm quite proud of it, anyway, particularly the final section.

[thugler]

I did a remix of that popcorn song, the four candles sketch and machine head's 'davidian' a few years ago using one of those simple mixing programs got out of a box of cereal. It was rather silly. I might still have it somewhere.

[Ambient Sheep]

Back in the 80s I did a megamix of Two Tribes, consisting of all the unique bits from each different mix all run together - a bit like the version on the cassette single, but even longer and more comprehensive...and thus probably rather more boring.  The tour de force (IMHO) was my handling of the breakdown near the end - it's subtly different on every mix (the only bit that is guaranteed unique amongst them) - and I put in every single one, one after another, starting with the quietest and ending with the maddest to build up to a big climax.

And all on a Tascam 144 (or was it a 244?) Portastudio.  I still have the master tape somewhere - the normal speed cassette master got eaten by an errant Walkman some years back.  Obviously this was actually just a cut-up rather than a true remix, but it's the closest I've come using famous track(s).

Mind you, when I produced a demo cassette for a friend's band, I did so-called (since they were issued on cassette only) 12" remixes of two of the tracks which weren't half bad.  A couple of bits of them I was inordinately proud of - for one bit I dropped in a dramatic guitar chord backwards just before it happened (if you see what I mean, a bit like the pre-reverb on drums that Pink Floyd got quite fond of in the 70s), and it sounded So Fucking Good.

Done nuffing in over 20 years now though - I sometimes wish I'd stuck with the music side of my life, rather than getting into the computers.  I was scared of turning my hobby into my job though and thus sucking all the joy out of it.

[purlieu]

Re: tag.  I was wondering how long it'd take.  :D