Looking for some advice and tips on remixing

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Looking for some advice and tips on remixing

Postby BronyMetalMix » 18 Apr 2015 16:29

Hey guys, I've been wanting to remix a few songs from the show for quite some time. I just don't know where to begin is all! I have a project of wanting to remix "Hush Now, Quiet Now" into chill/releaxed song. I found the key, and the melody, but I'm not sure where to actually begin when it comes to working with vocals and remixes. Do any of you have any advice or tips you can pass down?
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Re: Looking for some advice and tips on remixing

Postby Captain Ironhelm » 19 Apr 2015 10:41

ehm, when remixing I just take the midis/samples, and use them to make the track as if it was my own.

in other words, normally I'll write the midis out, and then pick sounds and arrange a full track out of it. When remixing, I simply don't have to write out the midis, I can get straight to producing and arranging.

slap down those vocals wherever you would if you had written them. if you like to vocode or glitch em' up, do it. it's your song now.
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Re: Looking for some advice and tips on remixing

Postby Thunder Dash » 05 May 2015 13:26

Okay, so I see you already have a basic foundation of what you would like to do. So...for me, I have this knack of hearing the final result of the remix in my head. I then go about jotting down the things I need to make that remix, distinguishing every instrument.

For your purposes, try studying a bit of the genre. So, chill/relax, is gonna be leaning close to the electronic realm. However, the big difference is that there will not be much of a percussive drive. There will be mainly smooth synth pads, flutes, soft or slow/rising strings and other mellow instruments. For you percussion, be sure not to have too much of a drive. Like I said before, a chill song is one that does not have a hard hitting percussion. It's instruments are smooth and mellow. They are usually around 70-80bpm.
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Re: Looking for some advice and tips on remixing

Postby Freewave » 07 May 2015 15:23

One of the keys is look at what the original track has (bpm and key). Then figure out what you would do to change that....What kind of a genre switch would you do? Tempo change? Change key? Do you have a midi to work with or are you starting from scratch? Do you have an acapella or a fan made vocal to use?

Those are generally the first questions I ask when remixing anything.
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Re: Looking for some advice and tips on remixing

Postby GCKrastin » 08 May 2015 22:52

I don't really do chill music very often; I spend 90% of my time making very loud heavy angry stuff. So, I don't know how much I can help you with this instance specifically. But when I start a remix I generally leave most things as-is, maybe change the tempo to something I'm more comfortable with, and then restructure the drop with some of my own sounds and some of the original sounds. Once I've got that sounding decent, I change bits and pieces of the rest of the track to fit the new drop.
There's tons of different ways to go about doing it, though. It's really up to you to figure out your own workflow and style.
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Re: Looking for some advice and tips on remixing

Postby NightmareRare » 27 Jun 2015 18:18

Best thing is to treat it like an original composition. I think hush now would work well with chill out, if you wanna change the key though the trick I use is set a loop playing a trichord on the key you want, then play the vocals over it. Nudge the vocals up and down by semi tones till it sounds consonant with the chord. Hope that helps :)
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Re: Looking for some advice and tips on remixing

Postby Totalspark » 02 Jul 2015 00:04

I did a minor key remix of Hush Now that at least started off more chill sounding. Generally when I do remixes, I think about how I want it to sound, as well as what instruments would go nicely with that sound. As Rare said, treat it as an original piece, it'll keep you from trying to emulate the original track too much.

This is my remix for reference: https://totalspark.bandcamp.com/track/totalspark-psychosis
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