How to "remix" premade songs

V

Videolife

New member
Hi everyone. New to the forum. I think I must have read the main section for 5 minutes straight trying to figure out where to post this and still have no clue. So to the mods, apologies in advance if this isn't the right place and please move the thread as you see fit.

I was hoping to get some guidance from you guys on two things:

1) What is it called technically when someone takes a premade track and just adds a beat to it? Is that still called a remix? Re-edit? Something else, perhaps?

2) Are there any online articles/video tutorials that can guide me on how to properly do that? A perfect example to use, for me, is Mr. Todd Terje. I think his re-edits (or whatever you call them) are so, so clean and so good. Anyone know what he uses? Or his remix routine?

I've used Cubase for a few years and have "remixed" a few songs and I did it manually, by doing the following:

- Adding the premade song as a new audio track.

- Setting both the musical track and the premade beat to the same BPM.

- Placing both tracks on top of one another.

- And finally moving the track containing the music a little forward or backward when I notice it starts to go off beat.

At times, when I wanted to turn a slower song into a dance track, I've even used an option in Virtual DJ called "keylock" to speed up a track, but keep the track in the same key and also prevent the voice from getting high-pitched and sounding like a chipmunk.

So I wonder: is there's a less labor-intensive and "professional" way to go about achieving everything mentioned? I remember trying to use Ableton back in the day, but didn't quite get the hang of it. Is that "the" program to cleanly remix songs? Or is there a better way?

Thanks.
 
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What you're doing is basically how most anyone would approach an "unauthorized" re-mix. When someone is asked to do a re-mix or a dub version, they will generally have access to the multi-tracks or at least stems. So it depends on whether you have that access or not, whether you are in the analog realm or the digital domain, but for just attempting to do it with a stereo mix in a in-the-box/DAW environment, I think you're taking the right steps.


GJ
 
Thanks! And yea', I'm all in-the-box here. I guess I was hoping that there would be some kind of something that would put everything on beat for me (or at least have a tool that can achieve the same effect in less time), but maybe we need to wait a few more years for that. Anyway, thanks for the help.
 
Does this software keep two tracks on beat for you? Or do they simply detect the BPM? If the latter, I have VirtualDJ for that. It detects the BPM of both tracks and then I just record the track I want to remix using that new BPM.
 
Yeah, lots of programs with features like that now. Maybe you really want a DJ program like Traktor that you can bring your new track elements into and then sync-up by bpm, and use hot cues like a sampler.

GJ
 
The best way is 'stems', lots of beatport releases now have stems files which means you can access the drums, synths etc separately and can edit with the most detail. These have the BPM listed too.
 
I personally use rekordbox and serato for my mix! And a dj controller with some pads on it which allow me to save 64 different samples/loops. Sometime i create drum loops, synth loops ect. with fl studio and then load them onto the pads!
that's how i remix song!!!
I think is the easiest way and definitely more fun to do!!!
 
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