Remixing Contest....Thoughts, input?

[bricameron]

Pretty fussy bunch here.Just gimme the stems.I can't wait.

[blint]

Very keen to have a go at this and impressed with the impassioned posters! Some good ideas. Agree impartial judges are essential (TMDR as final arbiter would be ideal!). Now, perhaps being a bit negative, I'd add: don't want to work with mp3s as someone suggested - that's a bad start regardless of the end delivery (24bit 96kHz would be nice but impractical); probably won't bother if there is the option to include "original material" as suggested - mess with the original sounds as much as you like, but new instrumentation, that's something else. Similarly, stick to the elements of the song - chucking in bits of other tracks is naff. Sorry, showpony. Finally, to echo bricameron - dry, mixed, whatever - let's get into it!

[Micistm]

Hm, that would mean creating stems for all the songs, and that might be too much to hope for. Most of the time I have seen just one song available, has anyone experienced anything else?

Showing my lack of knowledge! Let's have a remix album of Dolby stuff through all the albums if I'm being unrealistic, or make a megamix of Dolby stuff! Or a megamix made from each album...
Hey, I'm just the ideas guy, it's up to someone else to make it happen. I just want the end result for the ipod

[smash]

Don't care what format they come in as long as they sound good tbh.

Just one thought though - once you give stems out you can't take them back - you've lost control at that point and I get the impression TMDR likes to keep a bit of control.

I initially thought definitely not Spice Train as it's a pretty key rooted piece but then I thought actually, it'd probably be the biggest challenge of the lot for exactly that reason.

Remixes should be "anything goes" in terms of additional instrumentation - the wider the vista the more surprising and creative the results.

PS Can I please have the pella for Beauty of a Dream? nothing to do with the contest I just want it, lol!

[blint]

"Remixes should be "anything goes" in terms of additional instrumentation - the wider the vista the more surprising and creative the results." Why not write a completely new song and say you've got a sampled drum beat from a stem in there?

Ah well, seemed liked a fun idea, but if that's the way it goes I'll leave it to you "composers". Unless there are separate categories for Creative Remixing of Existing Material, and Completely New Material Inspired by the Works of TMDR.

[jeff_elbel]

"Spice Train" and "Evil Twin Brother" are obvious remix candidates - there are countless ways to take either tune. I'll look forward to taking a crack at whatever is offered. I'd prefer dry stems, but including an effect buss or two bounced down. I also agree that TMDR should choose winners if he's so inclined, and not go with a popular vote.

Love to all.

[smash]

Why not write a completely new song and say you've got a sampled drum beat from a stem in there?

Ah well, seemed liked a fun idea, but if that's the way it goes I'll leave it to you "composers". Unless there are separate categories for Creative Remixing of Existing Material, and Completely New Material Inspired by the Works of TMDR.

OK, I see what you're saying - bit extreme but yes point taken. Personally my only criteria would be must use vocal track. If you have no additional material allowed whatsoever it comes down to solo/mute/volume riding of channels plus "out there" FX usage - wouldn't want to be the one having to listen to piles of essentially the same trax to pick a winner.

Guess I'm at one end of the spectrum and you're at the other - not that it matters because it all comes down to the big guy and, unless he's going to go all hypocritical, he already set a precedent for adding own material in his Radiohead remix...

Would you really not go for it if it was anything goes?

[blint]

If you have no additional material allowed whatsoever it comes down to solo/mute/volume riding of channels plus "out there" FX usage

I think there's a bit more to to it than that, if you utilise the supplied elements as your pallete for re-arrangement. But like you say, opposing views - different approaches. Thomas himself added sfx to his Radiohead remix, so who's to say what comprises a "re-mix"/ As a sound engineer, I would say a remix is mixing the existing elements in a different way and allowing for re-arrangement and repositioning those elements (which qualifies as editing). Adding other elements and you get into the area of composition (or what passes for composition these days where anyone can chuck a bunch of loops and samples together and call themselves a songwriter....) But all those things fall under the broad umbrella of "remixing" these days. I'm just being pedantic.

[Hyper Child]

I remember the 1999 Beatnik site.

It had Britney Spears; and Thomas's Science up to be remixed.

I can't recall who won, but I entered, think I called mine 'The Nervous Static Mix'.

I thought the way the remix site was set up was very nifty, and fun.

http://www.portraitofdecay.com/www.beatnik.com/emix/

Unfortunately, now, we have all the copyright bullshit - so they'd only be problems!

[Sam Coupe]

I don't think Voting is needed and let Thomas decide. A band like Radiohead would have millions of fans an potentially thousands of submissions and impossibe for the band to Judge but the input for Thomas's contest would surely be more manageable (and higher quality seeing FES members previous efforts)

P.S I think Radioheads music is a pretentious load of bollocks. Sorry, wanted to say that in public for years.

[demona dragon]

I think that remixing one song would probably be better than several songs but the one thing that has not been covered would be that the contest rules should be only one submission per entrant (how you would control that, I'm not sure, since I guess I could make an alternate account and put in more suibmissions)

[3rev]

ArmyDrummer hit all the important points (though I've only done remix contests in indaba.com never heard of the others. Sometimes they give you a few (They did 3 songs from Daft Punk's Tron:Legacy soundtrack) and sometimes one (from "Divided by night" by The Crystal Method. Though I think for this one limiting it to one maybe two songs at most is best. (Yes Dry Stems please). If you want to have fun- have a small Private panel judge the "Winner" but also pick the top 10 and have a "peoples choice" award just for fun. That way if someone does try to Muck it up it won't count but your fans will get a chance to hear what you thought were the best of the best).

Rellay looking forward to it (revving up Ableton live in anticipation)

[98/1000]

I wouldn't know what to do with a stem if it hit me in the head, or which end I'd been hit by.

However, my suggestion for a track would be one that's the least precious to most people. Stay away from 17 Hills, Spice Train or Road to Reno and go for one of the least talked about tracks - how about Nothing New Under The Sun?

[Kiyoshi]

Yes, please.

[John Henke]

Hello everyone,
I am new to the forum so if I suggest things that have all ready been mentioned forgive me.. I have done remixes on a few sites,,,so I will mention a few things good and bad, technical and not so technical..perhaps best over a few posts rather than one long one. I am SO looking forward to having a chance to remix one these song...does'nt matter which one...anyway I will post some thoughts

[John Henke]

I am sure some here may have mentioned some of the remix sites out there and the way they do things...Peter Gabriel's Real World Remixed,Trent Reznor's remix site,you also have Acid Planet for those who use Sony Acid(now Sony Music Studio)all work pretty much the same...a fairly new site is Indaba Music which gives member a chance for cash prizes and at times an official release in conjunction with the artists that are featured..the winner over that prize is picked by the artist..runner up are given signed merch and are usually picked by onsite voting of the top ten faves..unfortunately that can cause alot of "spoofing" and spamming ( the site favors self promotion thru face book and twitter etc.)

[John Henke]

There is a site called The Public Record where stems are given by the artists and you upload parts which are used in a collaborative effort.. the artist then takes the parts they like and produces the song from there..Tommy Lee did his last album that way...perhaps in conjunction to a the song remix, Thomas might want to do one song remix he engineers from various contributors..just a thought

[John Henke]

Sorry Lunesse,
I should have read some of the other posts first disregard any info I posted that has already been covered..juityst really excited about this.. Look before you leap as they say ,,it wont happen again
~jh~

[John Henke]

It matters to me not what format as long as they are un-compressed files,... some sites offer different formats.. MP3, Wave, and sometimes Protool session files,
Just so it's the best quality possible..."Garbage in Garbage out" as they say

[fettdog]

Not much more to add to the discussion so far, but would vehemently agree with Thomas choosing the winner, as voting is far too easy to rig/spoof/manipulate.

Also, would like to see all of the parts available as stems, and while I'mnot against additional 'original' elements being added, I like the idea of having to be ultra creative with the original parts. (I too entered the recent Numan contest and have been confirmed as a finalist - not sure when the winner is/was announced - and I restricted myself to these parameters and produced something very different to the original tune).

/twocents

[3rev]

Echoing John Henke's file quality comment , nothing compressed or Proprietary (like Protools- Yuck).I prefer .WAVs as they are universally readable on both PC and Mac audio editing suites.
Also someone commented that they didn't know what "stems" are.
Simply put they are the individual parts of the song laid out as separate tracks (Files). As you know songs are composed of different parts (drums, vocal, synths, etc) mixed together. So you would have stems (individual files) of a song's Drums, another for the Bass line, another for Blippy beepy synth parts, another for the Vocals and so on. This way whomever is remixing can decide which parts they want to keep and or chop up, and which parts to lose (or chop up and replace later) These Stems are then combined in whatever Audio Processing software you like, you can go go fancy and spend a lot of Money/time learning software like Ableton Live (love it), Propellerhead's Reason (esp v6) or Avid's Pro-tools or you could go free/cheap with Audacity or Reaper. There really is no wrong way to go it's all a matter of your budget/time/patience to learn how the software works.
As for Original vs Source material I myself am fond of letting the Remixers add their own elements as long as a minimum number of the original stems are used. Some Remix contest specify that only the source stems may be used and NO extraneous element be used (except for FX processing)usually the Artist/sponsor decides how they want their track used. I hope this helps.

[98/1000]

Thanks 3Rev that explains it very well to a complete techno-tit like me. Alas, I have neither time, patience or budget to get into that game but hope to hear some great remixes from Flat Earthers soon.

[Merujo]

Hyper Child just made me so happy by posting the link that took us back to yesteryear and the Beatnik Mixman emix page. I have no technical skills and won't be doing any remixing. (Stem, to me is either what a flower sits on or Science Technology Engineering Math). But I had hours and hours of fun remixing Britney Spears out there. I was just discussing this a couple of weeks ago with a friend, what a total blast that was!

Roll on, actual remixery peeps! Hope to hear what cool things people create.

Merujo

[bricameron]

Dangling a carrot like this makes one impatient.Are we a go Mr Robertson?

For the record,I'd Like to have a stab at 'To the lifeboats'

A decision soon please.

[bricameron]

In advance of the remix contest I've just done a quick compare and contrast on headphones between Thomas's previously recorded works and the map of the floating city recordings.The difference is quite marked.I'm not entirely sure if it's an analogue/digital thing, but my ears...

[bricameron]

Just sayin'. If you were to play a song to me,I wouldn't have my ear right up against your mouth, or right against your guitar strings now would you?

[Stu_Art]

This is a great idea and would love to have a go at any ....although 17 Hills, Oceanea, Pistol and Lifeboats would be my favourites

Alternatively, pick an older, classic track, for potential refresh?? Airwaves, Cloudburst, or The Flat Earth ( community remix )

Dry stems are helpful, also quote BPM and to be allowed to enter more than one track would be good too.

Having a time limit on length of remix may be helpful for those listening and judging ... Like no longer than original track, or the challenging 3 min radio edit ....

Look forward to the fun!

Many thanks, Stu

[blint]

I recant. I've been listening to Elton John Vs Pnau and I'm inspired. Let the sonic embellishment begin.

[bricameron]

This idea is taking too long.

[heretic]

My money is on Evil Twin Brother as the song he'll choose with WAV files as wet stems. Thomas will probably make them available in Vocal, Keys, Guitars, Bass, Drums, FX and then some other lead instrumental stem to allow everyone to truly get inside the track. I've been fortunate enough to work on Spice Train and of course the Oceanea remix EP and I'm sure once you guys get to pull the tracks apart you'll have lots and lots of fun. I can't wait!!

Cheers,
Andrew