Have You Tried Remixing Software?

[QUINNY]

For those guys who have some knowledge of different editing software:

How effective is the beat mapping/matching capability? Does it allow mixes to be done quickly, either fully auto or semi auto?
I've just done the mix below and its taken ages using Audacity. I had to get at individual beats and rearrange their timing, even though the two records are fairly closely matched tempo-wise. Live, with two record decks (or two CD decks) I could have probably done it in a tenth of the time, even allowing for several dry runs to sort out all the ins and outs of it.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/future-galaxy-mix-mp3.html

[Naso]

Any audio recording and editing software will be of use. Suggests to use FlexiMusic Wave Editor for recordings and FlexiMusic Composer, a multi-track program for composing, editing and mixing of music using sampled instrument sounds..

[K-Bee]

KBee: I think you need to come out of the closet and tell us more about NJS4E. So when you used to post your love for Disco music.....you were just usin' us, teasin' us, what?

Well Quinny, I like quite a few genres of music actually - if you've pressed the NJS4E link, you'll know already :icon_mrgreen:
Obvously I'll be a disco follower to the day I die, but I'm also interested in other aspects of dance music. I grew up on a diet of 80s soul/funk and the stuff covered at NJS4E is a logical extension for me, and it's been the site I've dedicated the largest amount of time to lately. Unfortunately my presence at discomusic.com has suffered in the process. I'm probably more of a lurker here now than it was the case a few years ago. That could easily change though

OK back to the topic then.
As for Quinny's question about beatmapping, I must admit I never really use the option in Acid Pro, as it somewhat screws up the track for me (probably due to my lack of knowledge about certain aspects of the program). I usually go by my ears only, and just move things around manually. If it sounds right, it is right!
Lately I've only been mixing together new jack swing tracks though. The syncopated rhythms and huge amounts of breaks in that music style poses a bigger challenge to me (technically speaking) than four on the floor disco.

[kaliffen]

Is there a resouce to determine what key a song is recorded in,

Use the this program, just one of many

I use many different program, but worling with pre sequencer made music requires beat mapping for best (easy) result. My favorit is Abletons live, it is incredible for messing around with samples, however i your dream of just removing the vocals is not something i have had any luck with. However removing the cetered parts is quite easy in Live, you just turn a knob and get to listen to all the panned parts in realtime. Best track sofar to do this on is "Angel in my Pocket" by Change.

Im working on remixing a few classic danish disco tracks from the original masters that were put in a oven heated and prepared, then transfered to pro tools for "real remixing" Graham_Start style.

However i would prefer to manipulate the separate tracks in Live, then port it back tp pro tools. Ah well cant have everything.

[normvork]

Hi again everyone. Well, I got a copy Acid Music 3.0. Still using a very obsolete computer but could not stand to keep waiting until I got a new model so went ahead a few days ago and tried using the program. This computer does not meet minimum software requirements as stated by Sonic Foundry but it is working anyway.

Anyhow, for my first project I tried to "remix" (sorry Graham) I've Had It by Fanny (1974) into a Disco NRG tune. The beatmapper did not work very well....very off beat.
Giving up on that for now, I tried to see if Popcorn by Hot Butter (1972) could get beatmapped okay. I figured it's done with synthesizers and all so it must have a steady rhythm. WRONG! It varies from 134 to 136+ bpm and the beatmapper failed again. Not to be stopped from my quest to create my own disco version of Popcorn, I got out my book on the subject of computer music software and found out how to manually set the downbeat of each measure (there are about 89 measures to this tune) and spent about 2 hours marking the beats and tempo markers. Being able to zoom in on the sound waves made it pretty easy to spot the beats but there are a lot of steps to setting and adjusting the markers.
WOW! It worked!
I was able to add a disco beat and other percussion affects anywhere I wanted and it automatically meshed perfectly to the original (variable) BPM. There are supposed to be ways to get the whole thing reset to one consistant BPM but that did not work for me.
So, in response to Quinny's question, I am not impressed so far with the Acid Beatmapper as an automatic tool, But if you do not mind spending lots of time to get accurate results, you will be rewarded. I am very happy to finally have a full length disco version of Popcorn. The Patti Brooks snippet in her Pop Collage Medley just did not satisfy me.
Next on my "disco remake" project list is the Pinups LP cut City Life from 1981. It is pretty much electronic but lacks a good bass and drum line. I think it would make a great dance tune with a little help. Maybe by 1981 they got the BPM's to be consistant enough for the beatmapper software.

[BrunoRepublic]

Giving up on that for now, I tried to see if Popcorn by Hot Butter (1972) could get beatmapped okay. I figured it's done with synthesizers and all so it must have a steady rhythm. WRONG!

It was done with synths, but not sequencers, so the tempo is only as steady as the person playing it.

[canadiantire]

I sadly admit that I've wasted a lot of time, and polluted my hard drive with trying a lot of the available editing/mixing software.

Here is my verdict:

For beat mapping / matching, the aces are:
- Ableton Live and Acid (from SONY)

For Multi-Track Recording:
- The pricey Sound Forge 8 does a good job. I also like CoolEdit (now Audition)...and the surprisingly efficient Wave Editor/Track Editor (from the NERO 7 ultra edition package)!
This version of NERO has everything to achieve most of the tasks that the expensive packages do.

Unfortunately, if someone is looking into doing a montage or remix, none of the above can be used as "one-fits-all" tool.

I mean by this that more than one product may usually be required, as they each have their strengths.


- Marcus

[canadiantire]

I sadly admit that I've wasted a lot of time, and polluted my hard drive with trying a lot of the available editing/mixing software.

Here is my verdict:

For beat mapping / matching, the aces are:
- Ableton Live and Acid (from SONY)

For Multi-Track Recording:
- The pricey Sound Forge 8 does a good job. I also like CoolEdit (now Audition)...and the surprisingly efficient Wave Editor/Track Editor (from the NERO 7 ultra edition package)!
This version of NERO has everything to achieve most of the tasks that the expensive packages do.

Unfortunately, if someone is looking into doing a montage or remix, none of the above can be used as "one-fits-all" tool.

I mean by this that more than one product may usually be required, as they each have their strengths.


- Marcus

Here is a rather simplistic example of what can be done with the above products:


---->> Putfile - Clip from Mix



.

[normvork]

I just wanted to give a little update to this thread to make a few comments. I managed to get a newer computer and have been getting more experienced using Audacity and Acid.
My first comment is that taking your time and being patient is the most important thing about working with these programs. Experimenting is very rewarding but is not as often successful as after you work with a few projects.

I tried adding percussion to the Pinup's song "City Life" (1980) and found it frustrating and never got it to work. The problem for me as a rookie was that the original had so little visible beat in the sound wave that I could not chart the beats either with the Acid beatmapper tool or by using a manual beat marking process. I spent at least 10 hours on the project before giving up.
Then I tried to beatmap "I've Had It" (1974) by Fanny with equally horrible results, never getting the Acid beats to line up with the drummer. Same exact trouble with Samantha Fox "Touch Me" (1986). I pretty much gave up for a long while after these failures.
Thanks to pure luck, I was downloading some of my vinyl one day and opened Vivien Vee's "Heartbeat" in Acid, and out of curiousity just let the beatmapper tool do its job. For the first time, it worked nearly perfectly through the whole song.
Then I tried Taka Boom's "Ride Like The Wind" and the beatmapper worked again. I actually had a great time reworking the Taka Boom song into something way better IMO than the original! I beefed up the bass beat by adding another drum loop, added a synthy bassline loop, sampled a spacy sound effect and reused it repeatedly to make the song much more 1979-ish. I'm thinking of posting it on youtube as an example of what a beginner can do with this software.
I'm looking forward to winter so I can spend more time playing with this stuff!
Another comment I want to make is that the warnings about vocal removal software is all completely true. The best result I could ever get was to have the song sound like it was being played in a gymnasium down the hall: vocals weakened but still there, only a little echo-like. Big waste.

Another fun project I just started to dabble in is mining my own loops and samples. Sound effects records can have some really cool and useful material for embellishing songs. Rhythm breaks and intros from classic disco songs are often fantasticly easy to turn into loops.

So at this point my advice to anyone reading this who is thinking about getting started in this hobby is to start with their early projects with a good solid disco song with a steady beat, rather than to start with a project of turning a non-disco song into a disco song. I'm still determined to achive the latter, but will wait until I get more practice at the former.

Hope this helps somebody out there.

[originalbigm]

Here is a free program that seems to work reasonably well

Mixxx | Free Digital DJ Software

[QUINNY]

posted in error