SwingDJs

Just wondering, has anybody ever done a took the melody from one song, and laid a different beat on top of it, let's say the a capella Asylum Street Spankers "Rotten C***s*cker's Ball" with some other rhythm track.

How did it turn out?

GarageBand is a wonderful tool.

I haven't been able to take something and lay it over something else. . . but

I have been able to clean up a lot of tracks for more concise vibe flow. Long intros out, fade away endings made shorter, even clipped out long bass solos, or anything difficult to discern.

I have made a few remakes of some things, like the RSL Anita O'Day Sing Sing Sing blended right into Fletcher Hendersons "Sing. . ."

Another one I like is going from Duke Ellington's "Ebony Silhouette" straight into Amy Winehouse's "You Know I'm No Good"

The one I'm most proud of at this point is taking a Bobby Darin Live recording, and punching out all the banter, putting together this little snippets he sings, and created a very danceable 2 minute intro before he finally breaks into "Beyond the Sea". People start dancing but they don't know what their dancing to, and then one of our scenes "standards" rolls out, and everyone is happy.

What about mixing tracks of songs with the same chord changes?

I think "I've Found a New Baby" and "I Hope Gabriel Likes My Music" have the same changes. I wonder what they would sound like mixed together. Not sure what recordings to use, or if there are any two that would match very well.

Upon discovery of this, my friends and I decided that if they were mixed we would call the resulting song "I Hope Gabriel Likes My New Baby".

I've played around with it a little. I used a Basie recording (I know - the sacrilege) of "Sent for You Yesterday," added a kick and a snare, and chopped it up a little bit. My goal wasn't to make something clean, but rather, to make something funky. I only played with the first minute, or so, and I never got into it very heavily.

Adding the drums turned out to be a pain. Because the song had a live drummer, I couldn't just lay a rhythm track at the same BPM. I had to adjust every hit to match the timing of the original. Keep that in mind, if you want to use an old recording.

I wasn't crazy about the result, but I didn't play it in public, so I don't know what dancers would think. I think the concept has a lot of potential, but it's not easy to find a song that gives me all sorts of cool ideas.

Thanks for recommending GarageBand. I have yet to find an easy to use editor that can clip out the middle of a song and allow you to re-mix it back into the ending. I will give it a try.

I have used Nero and ITunes to edit songs, but they only allow you to sever the beginning or end of a song off, with Nero providing different fade in-or-out options to smooth the transition and an oscilloscope-like graphic to allow you to pinpoint the exact moment in the file in which a beat or other sound hits.

Lawrence wrote:Thanks for recommending GarageBand.

Not so fast there Apple hater.

Mr Awesomer wrote:

Lawrence wrote:Thanks for recommending GarageBand.

Not so fast there Apple hater.

Well that sucks. But it did give me a way to find these:

http://www.jakeludington.com/ask_jake/2 ... ws_xp.html
http://garagebandforwindows.wordpress.com/

I am not an Apple hater, I just do not respect those who self-righteously claim that PCs suck, as if it is a personal victory of their own and as if anyone who uses a PC is an idiot simply for wanting to use the platform that allows them to be compatible with 90% of the systems out there. But it is good to have both Apples and PCs out there; they keep each other in check.

Lawrence wrote: ...anyone who uses a PC is an idiot simply for wanting to use the platform that allows them to be compatible with 90% of the systems out there.

now you're just gratuitously flaming and showing a poor understanding of the term "compatible" to boot. quit it.

anyway: audacity may serve your needs, too. i find it more intuitive than garageband, though perhaps that's due to a lack of time spent with the latter. it's not tailored to club-remix-like things, but it's excellent for fade-outs, cleaning out pops, etc.

I too dig Audacity for the casual user. Easy to use, full of features, and free to boot.