We Came As Strangers Mixing Competition

[LievenDV]

Yeah I was a bit harsh, I agree. I used to be a ( mediocre) DJ a while back and The sound of double asynchronous beats make me cringe. The radical piano is usable, if used right.

But pleeeease drop The adagio for strings intro. THAT really yanked my chains ( and made me say The troll stuff.
I thought you were mocking The competition really )

 Do what TB said; you'll need to move some things around a bit.

My advice would be to let it "breathe" some more. Pull a track or 2 out of it or only use parts.

[TB-AV]

I was gonna try and mess with it some, but I suppose I'll just keep it to myself now.

That's the spirit!!

Seriously,,, he said "no offense" twice, and said maybe he is missing something here. What you may not realize is that people sit mixing and get so involved that they do indeed "focus in" on one aspect and loose sight of what they are doing..... then someone totally detached hears it, most likely on a different system too, and they are bombarded with "WTF" and react to it....

That's what music does, it creates an emotion in the listener. If you can't deal with the emotion you create in others and accept that not everyone is going see it your way, then you should probably just stick to time tested covers.

I've certainly heard worse remixes done by professional DJs.

So have I, and those DJ's mixes suck too. Which goes to show you, if you can take a professional musicians work and remix to something else great or even better, you have really done something special. Doing it over and over is even more so... I'm pretty sure with some of of these DJs, they did one really awesome mix, then someone told them they were great..... and that's the last they heard... the fact is, some of them are doing stuff that is really not the least bit interesting but it goes boom boom boom boom and he has a cool looking logo.

If you would quit worrying about getting your feelings hurt and listen to what -everyone- is telling you you will be 1000 miles further down the road. There is always a reason people hear what they hear. The more of these reasons you know about the better. Sometimes it's on your end and sometimes it's on their end... at the end of the day though, the more of those things you understand the better off you will be. Good luck figuring them out without presenting your work and having others tell you.

ETA: Posting at same time as Lieven's reply

[Endureth]

You are not going to go from 'can't mix' to 'pro mix' in two steps....... or if you do, you better quit your job and go to London or Nashville or something.....

Chantal should move to Nashville then, according to her it's her first mix and it's my favorite so far.

[TB-AV]

You are not going to go from 'can't mix' to 'pro mix' in two steps....... or if you do, you better quit your job and go to London or Nashville or something.....

Chantal should move to Nashville then, according to her it's her first mix and it's my favorite so far.

I once went into a lady's home and told her how impressed I was with the design. That I had never seen it before. She answered phones at an architectural firm. They promoted her to designer after seeing what she did. She had never done it before. She is still not an Architect.

Sit someone down in front of 50 raw tracks from a bar band and get back to me. The typical person that can't mix is not going to come up with a professional mix. These are professional stems. The typical person that can't mix will not even be able to render these stems. the whole point of giving out the stems is so that more people can indeed come up with cool sounding stuff.

I look forward to hearing her mix though... and all the others as well. I hope someone comes up with something really cool. All I need to do is figure out where they are. I don't really follow the Twitter and FB stuff so not sure where's all located.... I haven't even had time to read the pdfs that came with files.

[Endureth]

All I need to do is figure out where they are. I don't really follow the Twitter and FB stuff so not sure where's all located....

https://www.facebook.com/WeCameAsStrangers

On the right hand side there will be a little box that says "Recent Posts by others on We Came as Strangers".  Each one that has a paper clip next to it is an entry.  Click the paper clips.

There's a metal mix up there that's not too bad either.

[TheCasual]

Cheers for the advice.

Because I have no experience of this kind of thing I tried to just replace each instrument exactly.

Adagio was for a slow build up.

I'm currently pratting around with it now 

[LievenDV]

btw the casual; in addition; I found the record back that made the intro a bit cheezy;
the remix by William Orbit of that Adagio for strings song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIbIHxKh9bk

It wasn't only a sample; it was also hugely "been done"

I relistened to your song. there is just a bit too much happening at once;
You could, while taking that apart; make 2 soungs out of that I'm sure

At least I can't argue with the fact that you are productive, far more than I am


and people; I refered to Diggers version but I think it's only on his Facebook; my bad!

[TB-AV]

All I need to do is figure out where they are. I don't really follow the Twitter and FB stuff so not sure where's all located....

https://www.facebook.com/WeCameAsStrangers

On the right hand side there will be a little box that says "Recent Posts by others on We Came as Strangers".  Each one that has a paper clip next to it is an entry.  Click the paper clips.

There's a metal mix up there that's not too bad either.

10-4, I'lll check it...... I found some on Youtube... there was one kinda rocking or metal ... some good ideas bu the sound quality of the mix was not quite there.... although I don;t necessarily trust SoundCloud or Youtube in that regard because I have heard them both screw up sounds.

I actually like most ever one I've heard and Chantal's is nice.... she's banned for life from winning anything else though unless she gives me that SG.

I think I may have actually formed some sort of idea as to what direction mine is going... now if I can pull something together. Here is a next idea from the last.

 

[Endureth]

I think I may have actually formed some sort of idea as to what direction mine is going... now if I can pull something together. Here is a next idea from the last.

I think you're on to something with the horns.  That was an unexpectedly nice touch.

[TB-AV]

I think I may have actually formed some sort of idea as to what direction mine is going... now if I can pull something together. Here is a next idea from the last.

I think you're on to something with the horns.  That was an unexpectedly nice touch.

Thanks, at first I thought well, that idea is ok but not what I was hoping for, at least it's a place holder, but now I feel like they are integral to whatever happens next. I was within a mouse click of trashing the whole thing and trying an upbeat techno thing but I think I'll try to keep going.

[TheCasual]

Do some thinning out on the track.

It sounds very 80's though haha.

 

[TB-AV]

You probably need to bring that bass drum up. It's hard to hear and definitely can't feel it  If you are going for the dance beat it needs to thump. ... and the one included is a thumper on it's own. So you should be able to get it working.

Your new bass line sounds about right for that style but you lost the kick. The dancers need that kick.

[Cue Zephyr]

With all these mixes cropping up I'm starting to wonder if I should actually enter. I've been out of producing/mixing for a while now and the last track I did sounded extremely outdated.

[TB-AV]

Well everybody seems to have their own idea of what a remix is.

The song is a good song on it's own, you could do the banjo mix where the only real difference is that it has a banjo track. that's a new mix.

I'm not sure what they want or expect, I think it's anything goes, but I expect they want it recognized as the same song. IOW, not a new song with samples from their song placed in. and not a mashup of two songs.

I've heard remixes that a lot of them don't sound a whole lot different. One might be bass heavy, one might have strong bass and drum line for dancing, one might be instrumental, one might have a guest artist.

If nothing else everyone could play a guest track and then just mix it into their track using their finished mix as a guide. That's a new mix.


Go for it!  You gotta take a banjo chorus.

[Cue Zephyr]

I've always had the same idea of a remix - keeping the essential elements of the song, often including the chord progression but with a new and refreshing approach. Not saying that this is refreshing, but this is a lot like what I've done a few times in the past: http://youtu.be/_-aTlvncUsw