Remix Advice

Music Production Music Tech Discussion
1

To be honest remixing is a bit of a grey area to me, one that scares me a little if i’m honest.


  • How do you plan your remixes?
  • What would be your best advice towards tackling remixes?
  • Do’s / Don’ts?
  • Tips / Tricks?
  • Best way of working with a vocal that may be too slow?



    ALL advice, thoughts, etc would be much appreciated on this. Even a Bite Size would be nice!



    I’d love to become a great remixer.



    Thanks guys.
2

what i do is just get an idea from the samples and then go for it. I plan as far as if its gona be driving or wobbly and then as from that i just go with the flow

if the vocals are to slow  i time stretch them or chop them up so they work dif

always be yourself if your asked to do a remix dont do it to their spec unless of course thats the kidna remixes u want to do … but if they want ur style … give them ur style … they asked for it so they like it

3

Agree with wonk. Try and pick out what the key parts of the tune are and incorporate them but always put your own spin on it rather than what you think they might want.

I done a remix of a techno tune a while back for Advanced recordings, it was quite a dark sounding techno track with a synthy bassline which was the focal part of the tune. It wasn’t inspiring me at all because I couldnt think of anything that would make it sound different to the original. I decided to make the bass sequence into a high lead line and ended up with quite an electroy version of the tune which was really different from the original and any of the other remixes but still had the main elements of the original in some way or form.

Check it out here and see what you think. Its the Le Doc remix

https://www.beatport.com/en-US/html/content/release/detail/69226/For%20Love%20Nor%20Money%20EP

4

do use the main part of the track

don’t make the track unrecognizable



so of the best remixes are very simple and quite often only have slight differences from the original.



i usually would start off by re arranging the original track and then change/remove/add parts that i don’t like from the original.



i find sometimes not knowing the original track to well helps, and would really hate to remix my own tracks.

5

good remix artist is something good to want to be, and great remix artists are few and far between

6

I just delved into this very question this weekend and I listened to an interview with Francis Preve. This is what I got out of the interview.


  1. Listen to the track over and over and find what you might want to change.
  2. If there is a vocal, use it
  3. Try to find the defining hook within a track and use that as well.
  4. Adjust the track to your style.



    Hope this helps.
7

any one got the dirty south remix parts i really wanna do the remix but you have to buy the album to get the remix parts

8

So retarded that they make you buy the whole album. Mark Knight is doing that too and it really pisses me off. Imagine this… You are an unknown producer and because of your remixing abilities, they sign you to a deal to make music for them. They are gonna make money off of you then too! Crazy I tell you!!!

9

it is the Mark Knight toolroom knights one that i am talking about, you have to pay £9.99 for an album that i don’t want just to get hold of the samples to remix a track by an artist i do like



http://www.djdownload.com/mp3-detail/Dirty+South/Toolroom+Knights/Toolroom+Records/481756

10

its just another way to boost sales and profits, unfortunately its one of very few chances people like myself get to remix artist we like with out doing some dodgy bootleg mashup.





sorry for the hijack roben

11

Yeah…sorry Roben. You know we got nuttin but love for ya brotha!

12

If anyone wants to hear a remix i was commisioned to do last year then fire away -



I’ll happily answer any questions if it helps anyone. :slight_smile:



The track is called - “KEEP LOVE SAFE”



the remix can be found here -



Mr.TWIST | Listen and Stream Free Music, Albums, New Releases, Photos, Videos or



TEL Remixed | Listen and Stream Free Music, Albums, New Releases, Photos, Videos



and the original found here -



THESE ELECTRIC LIVES | Listen and Stream Free Music, Albums, New Releases, Photos, Videos



I wouldn’t say i’m really experienced but lets just say that i’ve had a reasonable amount of work over the last couple of years but if anyone wants to know anything then i’d be glad to help anyone out. :slight_smile:



McG


13

With my limited remix work that I’ve done (nothing offical or remotly aproaching releasable), I’ve always taken either the vocal or main riff (whichever is more prominent) and built whatever I please around that. It’s always ended up funky, but that’s just how most of my tracks end up.



When it comes to official remixes, aparently you get the record company/artist really sticking their beak in to make it sound a specific way, unless, I suppose, you’re someone like Deadmau5 who everyone wants to marry and probably gets away with anything!

14

True to a certain extent, when i got the Stoney Broke Weirdo’s to remix one of my tracks it turned out completely nothing like the original which was annoying. But, at the end of the day you have to cut the remixer some slack when remixing your track becasue at the end of the day its them thats puting in the work so you have to cut them some slack and let them do what they feel is there best work.





There needs to be a little come and go :cool: