Pretty done with remix competitions. Why the hell do I want to spend a shit ton of time on music that in the end I basically forfeit all my rights to and ultimately no one on earth will really care about? In this case I figured if I'm Mr. Remedial M-Theory I almost have to remix a song called Dust in the Universe even though there is nothing science-y about it.
Then again, that might be flawed logic since M-Theory is all about explaining the universe and the universe encompasses everything we know therefore I should be remixing everything in the universe but that just makes me tired thinking about it.
But then again everything makes me tired. I'm almost out of breath just typing this post.
Back to where it all started...
This is my Dust in the Universe (Have you seen my cat? mix) a remix of a track by a band called Army of the Universe.
Showing posts with label Remix. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Remix. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Brought an Oboe to a Gun Fight
None of the music I write for myself has a deadline and I'm not one of those people who can fool themselves into thinking they have a deadline when they really don't. Whats the point? For the most part I'm under no pressure to get anything done at all. To counter this from time to time I enter a music competition just to put some heat on.
Every now and again I do get the pseudo-composer version of writers block and have found that if I enter a remix contest, the deadline gets me motivated. I get something done which comes with the obligatory sense of accomplishing something but as a byproduct, most of the time I get several ideas for projects of my own.
Sometimes I enter a contest because I have nothing else to do. Case in point, the Bleed Electric contest at Acid Planet. They offered the song Birds as High as Planes for remixing. The original was described as "An interesting track; think Electroclash meets Public Enemy via Kanye..." You get the idea. Bottom line, I didn't care for it. This was back in spring 2009 and I was way past auto tuned vocals besides all the other things I didn't really like about the track.
I wasn't going to enter but I started to listening to the other mixes and heard 20 different offerings that included sounds of breaking glass and sirens. The song is about a hold up gone bad, the cops are coming, they don't want to go to jail, blah blah blah. I got a little worked up because all those other mixes pissed me off.
I brought out my big guns for this wannabe gangsta sorta rap - xylophone, cello, orchestral strings, and of course... an oboe. O hell yes. Just to be as different from everyone else as I could. And I did it all because at the time I literally had nothing better to do.
Not that it matters. In the end, no one really cares but me. Of course I didn't win but I do like how it all turned out, and it gave me a ton of ideas. And for the record, no I don't like how everything I do turns out.
With nothing else to blah about this one, here's my Birds as High as Planes (Caged Mix) from June 2009.
Every now and again I do get the pseudo-composer version of writers block and have found that if I enter a remix contest, the deadline gets me motivated. I get something done which comes with the obligatory sense of accomplishing something but as a byproduct, most of the time I get several ideas for projects of my own.
Sometimes I enter a contest because I have nothing else to do. Case in point, the Bleed Electric contest at Acid Planet. They offered the song Birds as High as Planes for remixing. The original was described as "An interesting track; think Electroclash meets Public Enemy via Kanye..." You get the idea. Bottom line, I didn't care for it. This was back in spring 2009 and I was way past auto tuned vocals besides all the other things I didn't really like about the track.
I wasn't going to enter but I started to listening to the other mixes and heard 20 different offerings that included sounds of breaking glass and sirens. The song is about a hold up gone bad, the cops are coming, they don't want to go to jail, blah blah blah. I got a little worked up because all those other mixes pissed me off.
I brought out my big guns for this wannabe gangsta sorta rap - xylophone, cello, orchestral strings, and of course... an oboe. O hell yes. Just to be as different from everyone else as I could. And I did it all because at the time I literally had nothing better to do.
Not that it matters. In the end, no one really cares but me. Of course I didn't win but I do like how it all turned out, and it gave me a ton of ideas. And for the record, no I don't like how everything I do turns out.
With nothing else to blah about this one, here's my Birds as High as Planes (Caged Mix) from June 2009.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
More Remixing
Just posted an early draft of a remix of a song called Yellow by Sarah Fimm. Switched out all the instrumentals, sped it up a little, added some reverb and other mild effects to the vocals... It's a departure from what I normally do, I tend to avoid the down tempo electronic sound but there is something about this song that wouldn't let me ignore the possibilities of going even more sparse and minimal than the original.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Gone Kaput
Today I have another short subject that first saw the light of day as a full length track back in September of 2009. Yes, more old crap. That's how it is. I really am working on some new music and I'll try to get some of it up as soon as it isn't completely offensive to the eardrums. It will also help if it ever stops raining. I can't even believe there's any rain left... It's as if it's all part of some sort of continuous cycle...
Gone Kaput by Remedial M-Theory
This was originally from a remix I did for a contest a while back, a mix I was ultimately very unsatisfied with. I was fighting with all sorts of issues with distortion... some that I was purposely adding to vocals and guitars vs some compression, EQ, and software issues that made the whole thing sound much shittier than I would have liked.
I've cleaned this up a little bit, slowed it down some, switched out the guitar cabs and adjusted all of the levels. The reason I don't post the full track is that without the lyrics (which I don't really care for) it gets a little repetitive... yeah sorry, it doesn't get any better than this.
One thing I tried to do when I made this originally was fuse my rock influences with some of the musical styles and techniques I've been introduced to in the last few years. On that level I'm happy with how this one turned out.
I'd like to say thanks to all the folks who've checked out my site thanks to Tell Em Steve Dave. I appreciate you taking the time to look and listen. Feel free to stop by and give me shit any time.
Gone Kaput by Remedial M-Theory
This was originally from a remix I did for a contest a while back, a mix I was ultimately very unsatisfied with. I was fighting with all sorts of issues with distortion... some that I was purposely adding to vocals and guitars vs some compression, EQ, and software issues that made the whole thing sound much shittier than I would have liked.
I've cleaned this up a little bit, slowed it down some, switched out the guitar cabs and adjusted all of the levels. The reason I don't post the full track is that without the lyrics (which I don't really care for) it gets a little repetitive... yeah sorry, it doesn't get any better than this.
One thing I tried to do when I made this originally was fuse my rock influences with some of the musical styles and techniques I've been introduced to in the last few years. On that level I'm happy with how this one turned out.
I'd like to say thanks to all the folks who've checked out my site thanks to Tell Em Steve Dave. I appreciate you taking the time to look and listen. Feel free to stop by and give me shit any time.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
End of the Line (C ResMix)
Indaba Music is running a remix "opportunity" with Daft Punk tracks from Tron Legacy. Remixing opens that door to rework a track in your own image. It can be a blast or it can be soul crushing. Since the track I chose to remix already felt stark and minimal, I had a hard time feeling good about anything that added too much weight if that makes any sense.
What I did was attempt to fashion a track that could exist in the same world as the original, only with a small piece of me in it. The result is my Contextual Resolution Mix of Daft Punk's End of the Line.
This one almost didn't happen. I got confused on what day it was so I thought I had run out of time. When it finally dawned on me that I did have time to finish a mix and submit I immediately threw out everything I had put together so far, which was actually for a completely different selection from the score, and started on something different. Then I went to work, pacing around all night with the synth bass from EOL stuck in my head grinding away before coming back home and deciding all my ideas were crap and I wasn't going to waste my time.
Two hours of sleep later it was clear I was going to take another crack at this bad boy. I have days when my brain won't rest until I exercise the demons of lingering music. Despite being completely exhausted I basically had no choice but spend the next several hours working through this mix,and that is exactly what I did. I dig it. Maybe not what anyone else wants to hear but at least I can finally get some sleep.
What I did was attempt to fashion a track that could exist in the same world as the original, only with a small piece of me in it. The result is my Contextual Resolution Mix of Daft Punk's End of the Line.
This one almost didn't happen. I got confused on what day it was so I thought I had run out of time. When it finally dawned on me that I did have time to finish a mix and submit I immediately threw out everything I had put together so far, which was actually for a completely different selection from the score, and started on something different. Then I went to work, pacing around all night with the synth bass from EOL stuck in my head grinding away before coming back home and deciding all my ideas were crap and I wasn't going to waste my time.
Two hours of sleep later it was clear I was going to take another crack at this bad boy. I have days when my brain won't rest until I exercise the demons of lingering music. Despite being completely exhausted I basically had no choice but spend the next several hours working through this mix,and that is exactly what I did. I dig it. Maybe not what anyone else wants to hear but at least I can finally get some sleep.
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